Brits told to switch on anti-theft setting after police seize 1,000 stolen phones in 1 week as part of £50m crime trade
BRITS have been urged to switch on a number of theft protection settings on their phones after police seized more than 1,000 stolen handsets and arrested 230 people in a single week.
Met Police officers have stepped up efforts to tackle phone thefts with a week of co-ordinated action across London.
The force has described it as a colossal £50million-a-year trade.
Hotspots include the West End and Westminster.
Police had already increased patrols and “plain-clothed operations” in those areas.
In Westminster, 17 arrests for robbery and theft were made, after 42 stop and searches linked to the Met’s activity.
And in Hackney and Haringey boroughs, officers made 15 arrests linked to the operation, including a 15-year-old boy on an illegal electric bike who was found with £1,000 in cash and a large knife.
Police chiefs want tech firms to make stolen phones unusable rendering criminal phone operations worthless.
“We are seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale, fuelled by criminals making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad,” said Commander Owain Richards, who leads the Met’s response to phone thefts.
“By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital.
“But we need help from partners and industry to do more.
“That is why we’re working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.”
A tech expert has urged both iPhone and Android users to make use of existing protections on their devices which need to be switched on.
“With an epidemic of phone thefts across the country, Apple and Android are adding measures to help reduce the problem,” Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET explained.
“Apple has introduced Stolen Device Protection which makes it harder for unauthorised access or alteration of sensitive settings making iPhones less appealing to criminals but this security feature is not on by default.
“Android has introduced Theft Detection Lock takes which advantage of newer AI technology and sensors to detect suspicious movement to lock the device.”
“If you find you’ve had your phone stolen, you should immediately contact your phone provider to kill the SIM card as well as attempt to put your phone into lost mode and attempt to remotely wipe it.
“It is also important to contact your bank and change the passwords on any account associated with that phone.
“But unfortunately this is not just a technology problem and therefore, in the meantime, phone insurance is vital and make sure your data is always backed up.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is chairing a summit on the issue today, with Met Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens.
Officers want to work with tech giants to prevent stolen handsets from re-connecting to cloud services, and to make a device’s international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number viewable on its lockscreen.
Network providers can use the unique 15-digit IMEI to block the device if it is stolen.
Four members of a gang were sentenced to a combined 18 years in 2024, after handling more than 5,000 stolen phones.
They were tracked down by police after several victims reported their stolen phones being at the same location.
Kaya Comer-Schwartz, London’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, said “personal robbery” has fallen by 13 per cent in the capital compared to the same period last year but warned “there is more to do”.
“As the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow globally, the Mayor and I are clear that companies must go further and faster to make it harder for stolen phones to be sold on, repurposed and reused illegally.
“We’ll continue to work with leading mobile phone companies, the Home Secretary and Met leaders to find innovative solutions to end the scourge of mobile phone crime.”
How to turn on Android's theft protection
Google recently introduced a brand new theft protection feature for Android that could be extremely helpful if you ever fall victim to a phone criminal.
The tool works by cleverly detecting the motions associated with someone stealing a phone – so that swift swipe feeling as it’s quickly snatched from your hand.
When this is detected, the feature will lock your phone automatically and an offline device lock will kick in too to prevent unauthorised access to your data.
You can set this up by doing the following:
- Go to Settings
- Tap Security and privacy
- Tap Device unlock
- Tap Theft protection
- Switch on the options seen here