Selling your mobile phone: Take these steps to ensure your data remains safe

• Punjab Police issues guidelines for people who want to sell their cell phones. 
• Users urged to wipe their mobile phones' memories before selling their cellphones. 
• Users have been advised to obtain a sale receipt with IMEI number of the sold phone written on it. 

Security or personal information is an important subject matter which is now being taken seriously by the world, after many sexually explicit videos and pictures have made the rounds of the internet in recent days and weeks. 

The Punjab Police raised awareness on the issue and cautioned mobile phone users on the precautionary measures to take while selling their mobile phones. 

The Punjab police posted a video on Twitter in which it educated people on certain steps to take before selling their cellphones. 

"If you intend to sell your mobile phone, delete the data present in your mobile phone memory before you sell it," said the video.

The video cautions users to sell their mobile phones after resetting and formatting them. Moreover, users should log off all their accounts on their mobile phones before handing them over to a buyer. 

Before selling the handset, a user should make sure that none of his/her accounts in the phone is logged in so that the account cannot be compromised and used for criminal activities.

After selling the mobile phone, a user should receive a receipt from the shopkeeper with the IMEI number of the sold phone written on it.

The advisory video ends with a message for the users to act upon all suggestions mentioned in the video to protect themselves against cybercrimes.