Presumably, you’ve already enabled Find My iPhone. If not, do that now.
Follow the link to learn about Lost Mode and how to turn it on for your iOS device. Even if your device isn’t lost, it’s worth a read, just to have a sense of how this works. Lost Mode has been around since iOS 6, but good to have a reminder.
I unfortunately lost mine on the day iOS 7 was released, before I was able to upgrade, so the latest lock-out features weren’t on the phone yet. I used Find My iPhone to locate it, but sending a message to it alerted the finder, who promptly turned the phone off, never to be found again. It’s probably back to life in some third world country now, the finder having resold it to one of those anonymous drop boxes that should not be allowed to exist.
There was local news item which said something
like 10% of user set up Find My iPhone.
May be Apple should be more proactive about it.
Also no figure has been shared after iOS 7
whether the new login to appleID has prevented thefts
or not. Especially when government is asking for kill switch.