Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to anyone with a mobile phone, urging them to take action immediately to protect their handset from being accessible if it is stolen
Money-saving expert Martin Lewis has dropped a crucial tip for mobile phone users, telling them to punch in a five-digit code immediately and take a screenshot of the outcome.
On his ITV show this Tuesday, Martin highlighted a worrying 40% spike in phone thefts, with crooks on the hunt for financial information kept on people’s handsets.
He’s calling on everyone to beef up their phone security to stop thieves from potentially raiding bank accounts. He said to dial *#06# to get your IMEI number, screenshot it and save it
During his March 11 episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, he warned: “Mobile security tips – thefts are up 40% in London but they’re going up right across the country too.”
He added: “Now the crucial thing, they’re not just trying to nick your phone, some of them are trying to access your financial data from your phone.
“You have to protect yourselves on this, folks.”
The cash-savvy expert is also pushing for people to get savvy with remote tracking apps like Apple’s Find My, Samsung’s SmartThings, or Google’s Android Find My Device, to track down your phone if it does gets pinched, and to suspend any payments.
Plus, he said you should also enable biometrics for both your smartphone and banking apps. He also suggested to turn off the “preview notifications” to protect your lockscreen.
“That is what you’re gonna need to give to police if your phone is stolen. Screen grab it and assuming you can access your email not just on your phone, I would just email it to yourself so you’ve got a copy somewhere.”
Martin then highlighted that ‘possibly the most important’ tip is to ensure two-factor authentication doesn’t appear on your lock screen.
He explained: “Many people have that appear on their lock screen so when your phone’s locked, the code still appears. You don’t want that. It means if someone gets your phone they can get the code.
“So what you need to do to stop that is turn off your ‘preview notifications’. It will still tell you you’ve had a message but it won’t tell you your code on your message. Everybody please do that one. It’s a nightmare if you’ve not done it.”
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