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The first hour
- If a bank card was with the documents, block itIn the banking app or through the bank's hotline. A new card is easy to issue; money taken from the account is much harder to get back.
- If the documents were stolen, tell the policeA report records the date and the circumstances. If someone tries to use the document, you have proof that it was no longer with you.
- Retrace your stepsBag, pockets, car, yesterday's clothes. Call the places you have been: the café, the taxi, the station, the shop. Most lost things turn up there within the first hours.
- Check whether the document has already been foundLook through the found documents on DeRechi and in local groups. Post a notice about the loss with the kind of document and the place.
Where to look
A document most often comes back the same way it was lost: someone picks it up and hands it in where they found it, or at the nearest police station.- The venue or the transport you used: the manager, the driver, the carrier's lost property office.
- The police station or lost property office near the place of loss: that is where found documents are usually taken.
- Your letterbox: finders often drop documents into the nearest post box, and the postal service delivers them to the address shown in the document.
- Local groups and DeRechi: search by the kind of document and the surname.
Keep checking for a few days: a found document often reaches the police or your letterbox not at once but two or three days later.
Replacing it
A document is replaced by whoever issued it: passports and ID cards by the passport authority, driving licences by the licensing authority, student cards by the university, bank cards by the bank. What exactly you need and what it costs depends on the country, so check the official site of the service or your city page. If you lost your passport abroad, go to your country's consulate: it issues a document for the journey home.Once you have reported the loss to the issuing service, the old document is invalid, even if it turns up the next day. You may not use it: hand it in to the service that issued the new one.
Staying clear of scammers
- Never pay “for the return” in advance and never send codes from text messages: nobody needs a code to receive money.
- Do not send photos of your other documents “to confirm”. Whoever really found your document can already see whose it is.
- Meet in daylight in a public place, not at home.
- If the document is held “hostage” for money, go to the police.
Found someone's documents?
- Take them to the police or back to where you found themThe nearest police station accepts found documents, and that is the fastest way back to the owner. Take a bank card to a branch of that bank or tell the bank through its hotline: the card is blocked and the owner gets a new one. There is no need to send it to anyone.
- Do not photograph or post the pages with personal dataPhotos of documents are used to take out loans. A notice needs only the kind of document, the owner's name and where you found it.
- Post a notice on DeRechiThe owner is already searching through the finds in town. A notice takes a minute, and we never show your contact details in full.
