PTA issues guidelines to report misplaced and stolen phones

Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has issued a guideline in a newspaper to report or block misplaced and stolen phones. PTA has urged the public to report as soon as possible because of the possible misuse of the phone.

After reporting the phone with the easy steps told in the advertisement, a mobile phone will be blocked within 16 hours’ time period. PTA has mentioned a few means to lodge the complaint to get the phone blocked.

• Helpline: 0800-256225 OR
• Email PTA at imei@pta.gov.pk OR
• Visit PTA Headquarters or nearest PTA Zonal office
• Other than all these, the complainant can also contact the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) helpline 1102, 021-35662222 and 021-35682222 for lodging complaint.

When you will contact at one of these helplines, you will need few things to provide them, All IMEIs of mobile phone, Mobile number, Brand, Model and color of the phone, Date of incident, Your Name, CNIC Number, Father’s or Mother’s Name, address and a contact number where you will be contacted for the follow-up in the investigation.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has also given the details of sources from you can keep a check on the status of the phone. Status can be checked after 16 hours of reporting incident. The first way is SMS, you can easily send 15-digit IMEI to 8484 and you will receive the progress report. The second option is the Website, by opening https://dirbs.pta.gov.pk/ and the last option is Android mobile application of Device Verification System (DVS) – DIRBS Pakistan.

PTA mandate is limited to blocking the phone, in order to trace the phone you will have to contact the local police. PTA has also warned against false reporting and mentioned it as a criminal act that will be dealt with as per law.

PTA told that after blocking the phone, the status against the reported IMEI search will appear as: Your mobile device (IMEI#) is blocked (Reported Stolen/Lost/Misused to PTA).