Protect your phone from thieves

Summer! After a period of near-hibernation that lasted months and felt even longer, it’s time to put away the winter coats and head out into the sunshine. Whether you’re travelling for a spring getaway, sunning yourself outside a café or in the park, or just enjoying the weather wherever you find yourself, it’s all about spending time outside when the world feels a little brighter.  

But, while we hesitate to introduce rain clouds to that sunny scenario, being out and about increases the risk of phone theft. Incidences of “snatch theft” where belongings are stolen in public – the majority of which involve phones – rose 150% in the UK in the year to September 2024, and 2023 stats indicated that a phone is stolen in London every six minutes. And we all use our phones for so many things these days (shopping, banking, travel tickets, navigation) that most of us would be bereft without one. 

Of course, you don’t want to stay indoors all summer to keep your devices safe or, if you’re travelling abroad, to keep your phone stashed away rather than taking advantage of EU roaming at no extra cost up to 25GB. And fortunately, there are plenty of measures you can take to reduce the danger to your data. For a start, switch off your message previews to keep confidential information hidden from prying eyes, and always keep your device secure when you’re not using it.   

Read on to discover more steps you can take to protect your device and personal information from thieves, as well as what to do next if your phone is stolen. Stay vigilant.    

The more barriers you can put in front of fraudsters, the better. Simply put, putting a passcode or biometric protection (fingerprints, voice patterns, face recognition) on your device can stop thieves from accessing your basic information at the first hurdle.  

Of course, the danger of snatch theft is that it can happen any time – including when your phone is already unlocked. So, if the front door is open, make sure all the other doors are secured. For sensitive apps, ensure you’ve used biometric features or hard-to-guess passwords to create additional barriers that can prevent fraudsters doing further damage.  

Banking apps will often have these as standard, but many other apps that use your data have introduced them, like social media apps. Just check the privacy or password settings in your apps to see if you can activate them.  

Did you know that 38% of Brits reuse their phone password or PIN on other apps such as online banking? Criminals have been known to “shoulder surf” victims to obtain passcodes before swiping their phones, making it much easier for them to break into your device’s accounts. It’s a scary thought. But using multiple codes helps to slow fraudsters down while giving you more time to react.  

Don’t forget: never store password details in easily accessible parts of your smartphone, such as your notes app. It might feel secure, but it’s often the first place that a criminal looks if they have access to your phone.  

Setting up a SIM PIN helps protect your mobile number and the information stored on your SIM card. Once activated, whenever you restart your device or put your SIM into another device, you’ll need to enter a PIN to unlock it. All O2 customers’ default PIN will be 0000 and will be turned off as standard. You can easily change and turn on your SIM PIN in your phone settings.  

If you haven’t already set up this useful layer of security, it’s worth taking a pause reading this article and doing it now. Seriously. We can wait.  

Writing down account information such as your Apple ID or Google account password and storing it in a safe location (that’s not on your phone!) is a crucial step in protecting your smartphone’s data. With this information, you can quickly mark your handset as lost while also remotely erasing data and deactivating features such as virtual bank cards. Plus, remember to back up your device regularly using cloud storage to help protect your data while also keeping valuable information such as personal details and photos safe.  

You should also make note of your IMEI number, which is a unique 15-digit number that identifies a phone which we can then use to block your phone. It can also be passed on to the police who will use this number to return your device if they manage to retrieve it. You can find your IMEI number in three simple ways:   

• Dialling *#06# on your phone   

• Looking in your Settings   

• Looking in the battery compartment (if your phone has a removable battery) 

If your device is lost or stolen, then it’s essential you report it as quickly as possible to us. Provided you report the case within 24 hours, we’ll cap any call, data or text costs that a thief racks up, ensuring you’re not left with a hefty bill. In addition, we can cancel the SIM on the device and stop it from being used on any UK network in future, preventing fraudsters from trying to exploit your number for online verification to, say, authorise bank payments.  

Fraudsters act fast – but alerting us quickly means we can help lock down your phone and prevent them wreaking more havoc.   

It can feel very scary losing your device – and even more so if you’re a victim of crime – so put these simple steps into place now to limit the pain of that experience. Back up as often as you can. And put as many barriers between your data and the fraudsters as possible.  

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