Criminals operate everywhere, including on the streets, which is why it’s important to keep your phone and digital banking details safe. Criminals steal phones or ‘shoulder surf’ victims, in an attempt to get personal or financial information.
What is shoulder surfing?
Shoulder surfing is when criminals hover over your shoulder to obtain your personal or financial information. They try to obtain passwords or PINs for your phone or banking apps. This could take place anywhere: on a bus, at a cash machine, even walking down the street.
Tips to keep your phone safe:
- Always hold your phone with two hands in public, criminals can walk or even cycle past you and snatch it within seconds.
- Where possible, use biometric authentication (fingerprint or facial recognition). If you do need to enter a PIN or passcode, ensure no one is looking over your shoulder.
- Don’t save all your passwords in your notes. Instead, consider using a password protected password manager to keep your passwords safe and secure.
- Consider getting a privacy screen for your phone to make it harder for criminals to see what you’re doing.
- Make sure you have different passcodes and PINs for your lock screen and banking app and that they are completely unique from anything else.
- Check how you can report your phone as lost or stolen on your banking app or website, so you know what to do if this happens.
- Be aware that criminals may try to steal your phone and then pretend they’ve found it. They might ask you to enter your passcode to prove it’s your phone. If this happens, make sure they can’t see the passcode as they could try and steal it later.
What to do if your phone is stolen:
- Find your local bank branch to report your phone as stolen and freeze your card immediately, or use a friend’s or family member’s phone to call your bank. Alternatively, as above, report your stolen phone through your bank’s procedure.
- Report it to the police by visiting your closest police station or using a friend’s or family member’s phone.
- Contact your network provider to let them know. This will stop criminals being able to use your number and impersonate you.
- You can remotely wipe the data on your phone on Android and Apple phones so that criminals won’t be able to get hold of it.