Today I had a bit of an embarrassing problem : I went to visit a friend who lives in Breda (The Netherlands) while I live in Antwerp (Belgium), by bus. A couple of minutes after crossing the border my smartphone (a Motorola Defy, Android 2.2.2., not rooted) started yelling “this phone was lost or stolen” continuously. It took a couple of attempts before it accepted the given password and the yelling stopped (some of the passengers found it quite amusing :(). This is my private phone so I left my office phone at home. I just got back and read the message sent from the Motorola to my office phone and apparently this yelling had something to do with the change from my Belgian provider to the Dutch provider, which Avast! Anti-Theft (I have Avast! Mobile Security installed) seemingly took for a change of Sim card.
This could (hopefully) have been a glitch as I go to Holland quite often and this is the very first time this problem occurred.
This is strange, because I have been in Netherlands a short time before (Eindhoven, Heerlen and Maastricht) and have been traveling over Belgium and German borders - only SMS about changing the operator has been received on my device, no yelling at all. Could you please tell me, if the operator was totally different (different service, f.e. from 2G to LTE, another data plan etc.) or just change the prices, but the operator is the same?
Jan, normally, when crossing the borders to The Netherlands, the provider changes automatically (in my case from Telenet to T-Mobile) without any fuss, apart from a sms telling me about the price for making a call or sending/receiving a sms when being abroad.
As I already told in my first post, I go to Holland quite often (the last time was on the 24th of March) and this is the very first time my phone started yelling (at me?).
The content of the message I received on my office phone (which I left at home) : “avast! Anti-Theft (www.avast.com): A SIM card change was detected on Mona Laermans’s mobile phone. The current phone number of the phone is the sender number of this SMS. Details will follow once location tracking is done”. I didn’t receive any other message.
Once I could enter my password the yelling stopped and the phone switched to T-Mobile (as it always does when I’m in Holland).
So it could have been a one time glitch, I don’t know.
I only know now that avast! Anti-Theft definitely works should anything happen to my smartphone and makes a of noise ;).
Thank you for your reply and given information, we will do some research. I totally understand how you felt in such unpleasant time. Btw. did the number from office phone’s SMS different from yours or not? What about location, did it reach with details your office phone?
the problem imho is that during crossing the operator space, the SIM card will get deactivated temporarily (resulting in SIM card ABSENT state). SIM card ABSENT state resolves to a SIM card change notification sent as soon as the SIM is available again (as during theft a thief could possibly have removed the SIM card).
Ok, but what will happen in airplane mode? If using getSimState() method I will get back SIM_STATE_UNKNOWN or RADIO_OFF; how you can possibly retrieve ABSENT state from operator?
Jan, the phone number of the SMS I received on my office phone was the number of my home phone (FWIW, all the numbers start with “+32”, especially to avoid problems when abroad and per advice of the shop where I bought my very first mobile phone, years ago).
Thanks Mona, as Reinhard said, we can not avoid this behavior, the Anti-theft module reacts on (not only) SIM statutes and these can be driven by operator, so sorry for any complications caused. Anyway thank you for your post, it is good for other users and knowledgebase.
Just to let you guys know I went to Holland yesterday again and my Motorola behaved impeccably : changed from home provider to Dutch provider without a problem.
: changed from home provider to Dutch provider without a problem.