Find-my-phone and strange SMS messages

[Spiller17]

Hello all,

Unfortunately I left my phone in a taxi at the weekend. I used the find-my-phone feature at windowsphone.com to locate it, but the last reported location was some hours earlier.
I have two questions:
(1) After using the erase function, will the 'locate' function still work? I would assume after an 'erase' the phone would return to factory settings, and so it couldn't locate itself as *your* phone?
(2) I was prompted to add another contact number. I gave a friend's number who was with me then, and since that time, he has been getting SMS messages from 'Microsoft' which contain just strings of numbers and letters. Does anyone know what these could be, could it be the location of my phone somehow?

I'm asking (1) since the 'locate' function hasn't worked since. It's possible I clicked erase that night rather than the other option.

It seems very likely that the taxi driver has actually taken the phone and I think recovery is unlikely, but I would be grateful if someone could answer my questions. Since I think that the driver has it, I would hope that i did in fact click erase!

Best wishes,
Luke.

 

[anon(8657436)]

I don't know as to what the texts contains but yes, after you ERASE, your phone is reset and the locate can no longer work. You also cannot erase it multiple times. Once the phone resets, it looses the sign in info for your windows account and that windows account is what links the phone to the find my phone feature. So once that's gone, the find my phone is gone. However you may contact your service provider to locate your phone.

 

[Spiller17]

Hi,
Thanks for confirming that!
So either I did click erase at the time, or the taxi driver/someone took the phone, and has either wiped it or has kept it turned off?
Best,
Luke