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With phone theft on the rise, our smartphone expert shares instructions on what to do before and after
Jon Mundy Tech Reviews Writer
Jon is a freelance journalist for Telegraph Recommended, specialising in consumer technology and popular culture. Jon has contributed reviews, news and opinion pieces to some of the UK’s biggest tech websites, including TechRadar, Trusted Reviews, Tech Advisor and Expert Reviews.
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More than 117,000 phone thefts were reported in London in 2024. That’s more than double the number from the previous year (52,000). The most common method involves thieves riding past on modified e-bikes, scooters, and mopeds and snatching phones from the hands of oblivious pedestrians.
In an effort to tackle this phone-swiping epidemic, the Metropolitan Police is working with Apple to install “kill switches” that render the company’s phones unusable after they’ve been stolen.
Many see this as a distinctly English issue. The New York Times published a report recently on London’s status as a “global hub” for phone thieves, with the city being criticised by US media for ‘normalising’ phone theft.
Device insurer SquareTrade, meanwhile, reports that the UK as a whole accounts for nearly 40 per cent of all phone theft claims across its 12 European markets, with 42 per cent of those UK insurance claims coming from London.
Ultimately, caution is the best line of defence. Here’s what we should all do right now to help avoid becoming another phone theft statistic, including my tips on what to do should the worst happen.
The Metropolitan Police’s advice is to “be mindful of who’s around you when you’re using your phone in public, particularly when entering your PIN number or passcodes. Avoid entering personal information in a public space wherever possible.”
“Never give your phone to people you don’t know, particularly if you have just met them. Thieves may ask to borrow your phone or offer to enter their number – don’t let them.”
The Met also offers the following advice on how to protect yourself against the specific threat of thieves on bikes and mopeds:
With these common-sense pointers in mind, here are the steps you should take to secure your phone, both before and after a theft. Let’s start with the anti-theft measures in place on every smartphone, whether you’re using an iPhone or an Android handset.
You’ve almost certainly set a PIN for accessing your phone. It’s a prerequisite when first setting it up. However, you can bolster your security by using at least a six-digit code rather than the minimum four.
The vast majority of phones incorporate biometric authentication methods that can be used as an alternative means of access. These are generally both more secure and more convenient than password entry, taking the form of fingerprint (most Android phones) or facial (iPhone) identification systems. Make sure that you have set this up on your phone.
On iPhone, head into Settings > Face ID & Passcode.
On Android, try Settings > Security and privacy, Biometrics & password or similar (it can vary by manufacturer).
Modern smartphones allow you to track your phone remotely on your laptop or another smart device. You can even wipe a stolen phone to ensure that a thief can’t access it.
To activate ‘Find My’ on your iPhone, head to Settings > ID (your name) > Find My, and ensure that it’s toggled on. Ensure that Find My network is active here, so your iPhone can be tracked even when it’s offline.
To activate “Find My Device” on Android, go to Settings > Security and privacy > Device finders > Find Hub and ensure that “Allow device to be located” is toggled on.
Given that iPhones account for 80 per cent of stolen phones according to SquareTrade, it’s reassuring to note that Apple offers an extra anti-theft measure.
“Stolen Device Protection” adds a layer of security when you’re away from familiar locations like your home or place of work. It means that even if someone knows your passcode, they won’t be able to access your most sensitive data (such as stored passwords and credit cards) without biometric authentication.
It also delays you from being able to make critical changes to the phone outside of your home or work, such as altering the password.
To activate Stolen Device Protection, head to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Stolen Device Protection and toggle it on. Note that you’ll need to have set up all of the other security measures mentioned here to activate it. You’ll be guided through these stages if necessary.
Android has a handy feature called ‘Theft Detection Lock’ which, when active, detects the motion of your phone being snatched and instantly locks your phone’s screen.
To initiate this, head to Settings > Security and privacy > Device unlock > Theft protection, then toggle Theft Detection Lock on.
Many people will have their phones set to display notification information on their lock screen so that they can easily read their messages without unlocking their phone. However, this makes it easy for phone thieves to access any two-factor authentication (2FA) messages when trying to change your login passwords.
In order to ensure that such lock screen previews are off on iPhone, head to Settings > Notifications > Show Previews, and select either Never or When Unlocked.
On Android, go to Settings > Notifications, and look for an option such as “Notifications on lock screen” or “Previews on lock screen” and opt not to show content when locked.
Your International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is your phone’s unique 15-digit code, used to identify it. You’ll want to have this number noted down somewhere, either in a physical or digital notebook. If it’s the latter, you should ensure that it’s accessible from your other devices.
This is important to know because your mobile provider will be able to use your IMEI number to block your stolen phone from accessing their networks, rendering it nigh-on useless.
There are multiple ways to find your IMEI. It’s often written on your phone’s packaging, but the most surefire way is to dial *#06# on your phone.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) serves as a valuable extra layer of protection against thieves accessing your phone accounts by requiring a second verification step. It’s also necessary to activate 2FA to use the Stolen Device Protection feature on iPhone (mentioned above).
To activate 2FA on your iPhone, go to Settings > ID (your name) > Sign-In & Security > Two-Factor Authentication. Now enter your telephone number, then enter the verification code that you received. Two-Factor Authentication is now active.
On Android, head to your Google account, then Security & sign-in and select “Turn on 2-Step Verification”. Follow the steps on screen. Now, whenever you try to sign in to your Google account on a phone or elsewhere, you will need to complete a second verification round beyond your usual password.
It’s vital that you regularly back up your phone’s data to the cloud. At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, the outcome of most phone theft cases is to remotely wipe your stolen phone, then restore all of your data to a replacement device.
In order to do this, you’ll need to have a backup of your old phone attached to your account. To minimise disruption and avoid lost data, it’s imperative that this backup be a regular, ideally daily occurrence. Thankfully, this isn’t something you need to worry about doing after an initial set-up phase, as it’ll all be taken care of whenever your phone is plugged into a wall outlet whilst connected to Wi-Fi. In other words, while charging at night.
To ensure that your iPhone is backing up regularly, head to Settings > ID (your name) > iCloud > iCloud Backup, and ensure that “Back Up This iPhone” is toggled on.
On Android, go to Settings > Google and ensure that “Backup is on”.
Password managers are useful tools for providing safer and more convenient password protection. They keep your various website and service passwords stored securely, autofilling when required, using your biometric data (fingerprints and facial ID) for authentication.
Not only that, but they will suggest more secure passwords that are nigh-on impossible for phone thieves to guess. Both iPhone and Android contain their own password managers, while Samsung (which uses Android) also deploys its own password manager by default. There are also third-party solutions, such as 1Password and NordPass, which can be useful if you use devices across both platforms, but most people are best served using the free pre-installed provisions.
To use Apple’s own password manager on iPhone, open the dedicated Passwords app, go through the tutorial, and log in when prompted.
You might also need to ensure that a couple of iCloud features are active to make full use of the Passwords app. Head into Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords, then make sure the AutoFill Passwords and Passkeys toggle is on.
Next, head into Settings > ID (your name) > iCloud > Passwords, and ensure that the ‘Sync this iPhone’ toggle is on.
On Android, it can be less straightforward to access depending on the brand of your phone. The most consistent way for most people is to open Chrome, sign in to your Google account, and agree to let Chrome use your saved passwords and passkeys.
To access Google Password Manager directly through Chrome, open a new tab (hit the + button) and tap on your ID picture at the top. Tap Google Password Manager under Passwords and autofill. You can also head to the latter section and tap Autofill services to check that Autofill with Google is selected.
Samsung phones use Samsung Pass by default. You can head straight into the Samsung Pass set-up by heading to Settings > Security and Privacy > Samsung Pass.
You’ve followed all of these steps and secured your phone, which brings us to the thorny matter: what do you do if your phone has been stolen?
The first thing to do is try and locate your phone. If it’s an iPhone, head to Apple’s iCloud Find Devices My website, or open the Find My app on another trusted Apple device. If you’re on Android, navigate to Google’s Find Hub website or open the Find Hub app on another Android device that you’re logged into.
Sign in to your Apple or Google account, and you should be given a list of your registered devices, along with their location on a map. Click on the device that has been stolen.
The first thing Apple users should do here is to select the stolen iPhone, press the “Lost iPhone” button, and follow the instructions. This will immediately prevent the thief from accessing and making changes to your device, requiring a face unlock to access again.
Android users can do the same by tapping on the stolen device and selecting “Secure device”.
We’re operating under the assumption that you know your phone has been stolen, rather than merely lost. As such, you should never attempt to track down your phone from this map. Instead, you should report it stolen to the police.
If you’ve been hurt in the theft, you still feel unsafe, or the incident has just happened, and you have immediate access to another phone, the official Metropolitan Police advice is to call 999 as the first step in the process. Otherwise, you can report the theft after the fact on 101 or online. Be sure to have that IMEI number to hand when you do.
You should also contact your mobile network and report your phone as stolen. Using your IMEI, they will be able to suspend your account and prevent the phone from accessing a mobile network.
Now might be the appropriate time to notify your insurer, too.
While the security measures you’ve set up during the first phase should protect you, no system is foolproof. It pays to cover all eventualities, given that your entire life is effectively on your phone.
You should contact your banks to have any payment methods stored on your stolen phone frozen. Any transactions made after you’ve reported your phone stolen may be recovered by your bank.
It’s also worth changing the passwords to your email accounts, social media, and any important apps that you regularly use.
The nuclear option is to wipe your phone remotely, removing all of your personal data. We mention this last because a safe recovery is the preferable avenue, no matter how improbable. Once you’ve wiped a phone, it’s irreversible.
Locking the phone is quicker than wiping it, while notifying the appropriate institutions should also ideally take precedence.
To wipe your phone remotely, repeat the first two steps. Rather than opting to lock your phone, however, this time you’re selecting “Reset” (on iPhone) or “Factory reset device” (on Android).
Note that you shouldn’t remove your stolen device from Find My, even if you do decide to wipe it. This will make it easier for the thief to resell the phone.
Apple also notes that subscribers to the AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss service shouldn’t remove an iPhone from their Apple Account or Find My until their claim has been approved.
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