Overview

• Mobile phone thefts in London have risen by 40%, with criminals increasingly targeting financial data stored on stolen devices.
• Martin Lewis advises users to dial *#06# to retrieve their phone’s IMEI number, screenshot it, and back it up for recovery and police reporting purposes.
• He recommends disabling lock-screen preview notifications to prevent two-factor authentication codes from being visible to thieves.
• Users are urged to activate remote tracking services like Apple’s Find My, Samsung’s SmartThings, or Android’s Find My Device to locate stolen phones and halt unauthorized transactions.
• Enabling biometric security, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, is advised to secure both phones and banking applications.