The WhatsApp App is more important than it seems to be, and it goes even further if we become victims in a Smartphone theft case. There is a large amount of information: Contacts, conversations, photos, videos, and some other kind of files that we do not want to share with anyone.

Luckily, some time ago, the WhatsApp App has the backup function. This tool allows us to upload all the information we have in our WhatsApp account to the cloud. Backing up our chats, groups, and shared files, is very useful if we lose our mobile device; whether we leave our phone in some strange place, someone steals it, or if the phone breaks and it starts malfunctioning.

Most of the App’s support pages point that the victim of robbery should block its SIM card as soon as possible. This is the first step to follow if we want to preserve our privacy. To do this, the only thing we have to do is to call our provider’s customer service and ask them to block the SIM card.

After blocking the SIM card that is associated with our WhatsApp account and our mobile device, we may request a new SIM card with the same phone number that we have in our contract; every company has its policies about this. If there is a reason needed to do this, is that we cannot recover our information without our phone number. Another good reason is that, if the SIM card is blocked, the person with the phone is still able to access the WhatsApp information by connecting to a Wi-Fi network.

Now, having our new SIM card on another phone, we can activate our WhatsApp account again, with all the information and files. At the same time, the lost or robbed device’s WhatsApp account will deactivate because one can access to a WhatsApp account with only one phone number and only one device at once.

Finally, to deactivate the account we must send an e-mail to WhatsApp’s technical support and the process will be done automatically.

The mail should be just like this:

• To: support@whatsapp.com
• Subject: Stolen/lost device: Please, deactivate my account.
• Message: It must contain the phone number associated with the WhatsApp account in the full international format.

They may take several days before they give you an answer. Be patient, they will.