Your phone was stolen, and the thief may have seen your PIN

A growing share of phone thefts follow the same pattern. Someone watches you unlock your phone in a bar, on a train or at a station, notes the PIN, and takes the phone soon after. With the PIN, a locked phone is just an unlocked phone with one extra step, and the thief’s aim is often your accounts and money rather than the device. The first hour matters, so work through this in order, from a friend’s phone or a computer.

What to do now

1. Lock or erase the phone remotely. Sign in to your phone’s find-my-device service from another device. You can see its last location, play a sound, lock it with a message, or erase it. On Android phones with theft protection, Remote Lock can lock the screen with just your phone number. If you don’t expect the phone back, erase it; the erase happens as soon as it next connects.

2. Secure the account tied to the phone. Change the password of the main account the phone is signed in to, then use that account’s security page to sign out of all other devices. Check that the recovery email and phone number are still yours. A thief with your PIN may have tried to change them.

3. Secure your email next. Email resets everything else. Change its password and sign out other sessions, if it’s a different account.

4. Call your carrier. Ask them to block the SIM, so text codes stop going to the stolen phone, and to send you a replacement.

5. Call your bank. If banking or payment apps were on the phone, tell the bank. Ask them to freeze cards stored in the phone’s wallet and to watch for unusual transfers.

6. Change other passwords. Prioritise anything with saved payment details, your password manager, social accounts and cloud storage. Turn on two-step verification that doesn’t depend on the stolen SIM.

7. Report the theft. Get a police reference number. Insurers usually need it, and it helps if the phone turns up.

8. Tell people. A thief may message your contacts asking for money. A quick note to family and close friends heads that off.

What doesn’t help

• Waiting to see if it turns up. The account changes are what protect you, and they’re quickest in the first hour.
• Only changing the phone’s PIN. You can’t, once it’s gone. Change the accounts instead.
• Relying on a locked folder. A gallery’s locked folder that opens with your screen lock opens for the thief too.
• Messaging the thief. It rarely helps and can tip them off to act faster.

Next time

• Use a longer PIN, and shield it when you type it in public.
• Use fingerprint or face unlock in crowded places so your PIN is seen less. See locking Android with fingerprint or face.
• Turn on theft protection features where your phone offers them. See Android theft protection explained.
• Keep your most private photos behind a lock that isn’t your phone PIN.

Where a vault helps

Silo, coming soon to iPhone and Android, opens with its own PIN, separate from the phone’s, and its contents are encrypted on the phone. A thief who knows your phone PIN still faces Silo’s lock. Silo has no account to take over, so there’s no Silo password to change. Your vault on the stolen phone is lost with it unless you exported it or, once it arrives with launch, set up Silo’s encrypted backup, which you can restore on a new phone with your recovery phrase.