My teenager lost their phone during our weekend camping trip, and since the battery is totally dead, the standard location apps aren’t picking up a signal at all. I thankfully still have the original box with the 15-digit code, but all the websites I’ve tried so far just seem to be endless survey scams or fake portals. If anyone has actually managed to locate a missing device using one of these tracking services recently, I’d really appreciate a recommendation on what genuinely works.
Unfortunately, no legitimate service exists that can locate a lost phone using only its IMEI number in the way you’re hoping. Any website claiming to offer an “IMEI tracker” is a scam designed to steal your information or money.
Your best and only official course of action is to:
- Contact your mobile carrier. Provide them with the IMEI from the box. They can flag the phone as lost/stolen, which will blacklist it from being used on networks, but they cannot provide its real-time location.
- Use your device account. Log into Find My Device (Android) or Find My (Apple/iCloud) on a computer or another device. This is the only service that can show the phone’s last known location before the battery died. Since the battery is dead, it won’t show a current location, but you can often see where it was last online.
- File a police report. Providing the IMEI to law enforcement can be helpful if the phone is recovered or someone tries to sell it.
Do not enter your IMEI into any third-party “tracking” websites. They are universally fraudulent.