London gym theft — Is your smartphone secure?

You may have seen in the headlines recently that affluent gyms such as David Lloyd have been targeted by criminals stealing smartphones and bank cards from gym lockers. Accounts are drained and thousands of pounds are spent in high-end London stores within minutes of the theft.

The criminals enter stolen credit card details onto their smartphones via a banking app or via Apple/Google/Samsung Pay. A unique code for 2-factor verification is sent via an SMS to the stolen phone to confirm their ‘new’ card details and they can shop away and withdraw thousands of pounds at ATM machines.

If the gym patrons whose phones and cards were stolen had put a few simple security measures in place, there would have been some unhappy scammers unable to fulfil their thefts.

Just how secure is your smartphone from scammers?

If you think about the way you use your phone, there’s online shopping, banking, storing photos, messaging, emails, dating... and so much more! There’s a ton of personal information stored within the apps and with third parties such as Facebook and Google for easy login.

With such a high uptake of online banking, it’s going to outpace physical banks by 2024 according to Global Business Outcome.

We’ve mentioned in previous blogs that scammers are getting more and more sophisticated with cyber-attacks and with 93% of Brits using online banking apps (Statista.com), it’s becoming an easy target.

Over the next few years, UK mobile banking statistics predict that 78% of British adults will use mobile apps for most of their financial transactions over the next few years.

It makes sense that as online banking is gaining momentum, frauds and scams are also increasing. In 2020, the banking sector reported a massive 117% increase in fraudulent activities, leading to a £159.7 million loss in value.

So... how can you secure your phone from hackers? Read on.