Your phone was just stolen. Here's what you need to do next.

First, cut it off

The thief is racing your reaction time. Win.

1. Lock it from any browser. iCloud's Find My or Google's Find My Device work from a borrowed laptop. Mark the phone as lost - it locks the screen and can show a message. Don't erase it yet; erasing ends tracking, and tracking is evidence.
2. Freeze your cards. Every card in the phone's wallet, plus everything in your physical wallet if that went too. Web banking works from a borrowed device - if you can log in. Otherwise it's a phone call, to a hotline number you probably never memorised.
3. Kill the SIM. Call your carrier and suspend the line. An active SIM receives your login codes, and that's the fastest way into your accounts a thief has. Do this even if the phone is locked.
4. Change your email password. Email is the reset hub - control it and you can reset everything else. So can they. Use a device you trust, then sign out all other sessions.

Before you sleep

• Get the police report today. Local station, report number in writing. Insurance will demand it, some banks too, and plenty of policies want it filed within 24 hours. Nobody expects the police to find the phone. The paper is the point.
• If your passport went with it, add your embassy or consulate to today's list. An emergency travel document takes days, not hours - start now.
• Warn your people. Whoever has your number may get texts pretending to be you. And in the coming days, expect a “your phone has been found - click here” message. That's a phishing attempt aimed at your Apple or Google password. The real services don't text links.

The catch in every list like this

Read the steps again. Almost every one needs a number - the bank hotline, the carrier, your partner - and every one of those numbers lives in the phone you no longer have. That's why some travellers keep a recovery page: one memorable address, openable from any browser, encrypted so only they can read it - the key made from their name and a PIN - filled in on a calm Sunday with exactly this list and their own numbers already in it. The plan can't live on the thing you just lost.