Cellphone theft is on the rise and the bank accounts of residents could be targeted.
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What to do if your cellphone is stolen
Banks will be able to give you advice on what else you need to do to reduce the risk of thieves accessing your banking details or using your online banking information to make purchases.
What else should you do if your cellphone is stolen?
• On a computer, you can try to locate your phone using Google Find My Device and Apple iCloud – Find My iPhone.
• Do not attempt to recover the phone without security or police assistance.
• Lock and erase the stolen phone using Apple iCloud or Google’s security features in Find My Device.
• Contact your cellphone service provider to disable the SIM and blacklist the phone.
• Change all your passwords, including those for your email and social media apps.
• Consider mobile apps besides banking that may be linked to your bank accounts and credit cards such as Uber, for example, and online shopping apps.
• Report the theft to the police.
The criminals may contact you when you are online again as they will probably have got some of your personal details off the stolen phone.
Do not be fooled by text messages from findmyphone.com or similar fake websites, which may try to trick you into providing your AppleID and password to unlock your iPhone and make it saleable.
There are also various measures you can take now, which will help you if your cellphone is stolen in the future.
These are some of them:
• If you use an iPhone, you should disable “Control Centre” on the lock screen.
This prevents the network on your phone from being easily and immediately switched off by criminals to avoid tracking.
Some Android phones have a similar feature called “lock network and security”, which prevents Wi-Fi and data settings from being changed from the lock screen.
• Turn on Find My iPhone or Find My Device. This allows your phone to be tracked.
• Disable iCloud Keychain. This prevents all your passwords from being available to a cellphone thief, particularly if the phone is snatched whilst unlocked.
• Use iCloud or other backups to keep your valuable data from being lost.
• Your phone should have a unique PIN of at least six characters, not something like your birthday.
Explore the security features on your cellphone; understand and make use of them.
To reduce your risk of becoming a victim of cellphone theft, do not walk around on the streets or in shopping malls while talking or texting on your phone.
Do not use your phone when stopped in a vehicle. If a criminal snatches the phone out of your hand while you are using it, it will most likely be unlocked and it will be easier for them to bypass any passwords and security measures.
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