Five things you should do to protect your money if your phone is stolen

• Experts predict waves of phone theft at summer events such as festivals and the Euros
• Five tech tricks to make sure they don’t get their hands on YOUR money

Brits are gearing up for summer and events like Glastonbury and the Euros are just around the corner.

But criminals are also planning their summer fortune, as packed festivals, stadiums and bars are packed with opportunities to steal the phones of unsuspecting victims.

In the past, criminals would steal a phone to sell it for a quick profit – but today they’re more interested in using it to gain access to your bank account.

Fraud experts are warning of a surfing scam sweeping the nation.

Here criminals hover behind people in busy places like bars and watch them enter their phone passcode.

They then steal the phone and are able to access the device and any app that has the same passcode.

Here are five expert tips on how to protect your money if your phone is pickpocketed or your bank details breached.

1. Activate the protection of the stolen device

Many people who have stolen phones believe that their information will be safe if it is accessed via biometrics – such as face or fingerprints.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Armed with the phone’s passcode, the thief is usually able to disable those settings or change the face or fingerprint to their own.

Fraud expert Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, recently told This is Money about a new iPhone feature called stolen device protection, which users can opt into.

This means that when the phone is in an unknown location (not at the owner’s home or work), their credit cards can only be accessed using Face ID or Touch ID, and the user will not be able to enter a password as “fall back”. ‘ option.

An hour delay is also imposed on certain actions such as changing the phone’s password, giving more time to report it as stolen.

To use stolen device protection, you must have an iPhone running iOS 17.3 or later. Go to Settings > Face ID & passcode > Stolen device protection.

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2. Report it as stolen

If your phone contains banking apps or credentials, you should report it to your bank as soon as possible.

Chris Ainsley, Santander’s head of fraud risk, explains: “We have specific procedures to follow to support customers in this scenario and protect their details.”

You should also report it as stolen through the phone manufacturer as well as your network provider so that the phone can be blocked and the mobile deleted.

It may be helpful to keep a note of your phone’s serial numbers and IMEI for loss reporting. This will help lock the phone and mark it as stolen in case the criminal tries to sell it.

3. Set up multiple user profiles on your phone

Reader Ben emailed us with another helpful tip that can help Android users hide their banking apps from criminals.

Android phones allow multiple user profiles. This can allow you to ‘hide’ your banking apps in a second version of your home screen that is only used occasionally – reducing the risk of a criminal seeing you open them.

It suggests having a primary user account (eg ‘name’) which can be used most of the time and have a passcode or fingerprint unlock. Then another user account (eg ‘private’) can have a different password and your fingerprint, for example.

That way, if your phone is stolen, chances are it’s the user “firstname” who logged in and the passcode “firstname” that was browsed.

Thieves are unlikely to be aware of the second profile where your banking apps are located, and this can buy you some time while you report your phone as stolen.

4. Put a pin on your Sim card

If a fraudster can’t get into your phone, they can still gain access to a lot of your information simply by putting the SIM card in another device.

You can stop them in their tracks by requiring them to enter a PIN to access your SIM card.

For iPhone you can set a pin on your card by going to Settings > Mobile Data > Sims > Sim Pin.

For Android phones, this will be Settings > Connections > Sim Manager.

5. Turn off notifications when your phone is locked

When fraudsters steal a phone, they often have to enter a code sent to it in a text message in order to approve money transfers or purchases.

That’s why it’s a good idea to set your notifications, including texts, to not show a preview when your phone is locked.

This will help if the criminal stole your phone from your hand while it was unlocked and did not note your passcode.

Once they allow the phone to be locked, they will not be able to view the texts sent to your phone as a preview.

Shoulder Surfing: What to watch out for

Shoulder surfing is a technique used by criminals to obtain PINs and other personal details by looking over someone’s shoulder when they are using an ATM or card machine or accessing mobile banking in public.

The criminal then steals the card or device using distraction or pickpocketing techniques.

1. Make sure you have different codes for your card PIN than those used to access your phone and any mobile banking apps.

2. Be aware of your surroundings and make sure you’re not trying to sign in to mobile banking in a place where people could be looking at your screen – especially if you’re in a crowded place like public transport.

It’s also entirely possible that they can see your screen in the reflection of windows on buses and trains for example, so be extremely careful.

3. Consider enabling biometric authentication, which requires your fingerprint or facial recognition to access your device and now, increasingly, your mobile banking.

That way your pin or password can’t be memorized by someone looking over your shoulder.