Martin Lewis six issues for anybody with cell phone – together with ‘should code’

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All you need to know about personal finance expert’s new advice update

Martin Lewis says anyone with a mobile phone needs to do six things to avoid having their accounts emptied by criminals

• Mr Lewis said that a few simple measures could stop people having their accounts cleared out. Mobile phone theft has become a growing issue in recent years, particularly in London where approximately 80,000 handsets were stolen last year, according to Metropolitan Police data.
• Beware shoulder surfing and use headphones. He said: “So you’re in the street and you put your pin code in and they see your pin code and nick your phone. And now I can access all your data.” Put your headphones in have your phone in your pocket. It’s much easier for people to grab otherwise. It also means you won’t be talking on speaker phone and annoying the rest of us.”
• People should change the settings on their phone to turn off ‘preview notifications’ so codes don’t appear on the lock screen if requested. On the preview notifications Mr Lewis has said: “Really important this one, and you’ll understand why, turn off your preview notifications. So you know when you, when you pay for something and they send you the text code, yeah, that comes through. That’s fine when your phone is unlocked and you’re on it, but if you have preview notifications, it will show that code on the lock screen.”
• Dial *#06# to get IMEI image then screengrab it. Mr Lewis said: “What this does is if your phone were to be nicked you give that to the police and they can block your handset. The network can block your sim but they can actually stop your handset being attached to any other network which makes it much less valuable to see and the more of us that the less encouraged the thieves will be.” You can enter that code through the dialler.
• Use remote tracking apps to locate device and suspend payments.
• Use biometrics not just on phone but on all banking and other important apps. Also he added: “If you use a pin please don’t have the same pin for your banking apps as you do for your phone. If they shoulder surf you they’re getting in to everything.”
• Check your phone’s extra safety precautions – Iphone has ‘stolen device’ “If it’s in an unfamiliar location it won’t let you change the settings or the password for an hour or so. Or if you want to pay with it, it’ll make you use biometrics first.” Android theft protection ‘will automatically lock your phone if a quick movement like someone’s just gone over and grabbed the phone in that way. We have to protect ourselves at the moment.”