Sinister new tactics used by crooks to snatch phones and access cash

THIEVES are stealing personal details from banking, credit card and shopping apps by tricking victims into unlocking their phones, a Sun on Sunday investigation has revealed.

This sneaky tactic involves criminals asking unsuspecting strangers for directions so they open their mobile phones to access online maps before the devices are taken.

Scammers have also posed as charity workers, attacked passers-by during phone calls and taken mobile phones from festival-goers taking selfies.

The scams, which are flooding our high streets, have fueled the rise in stolen phones, with more than half a billion pounds stolen every year.

Davie Ure, operations director at security firm Aurelius Executive Protection, said: “Using your phone in public is becoming increasingly dangerous, especially in London.

“Three months ago, a family friend was walking home with his partner in the evening.

“He was approached by a man asking for directions and initially he tried to get rid of him but the person persisted.

“When the victim opened his phone to view the Google Maps app, the person pulled out a knife and ordered him to transfer tens of thousands of pounds to another bank account.

“Luckily he was able to get the money back from his bank.”

According to the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum (TUFF), 213,500 stolen handsets worth more than £50 million are offered for sale to UK businesses every month.

Resale giant MusicMagpie says the number offered to them has doubled in the last three years.

In the UK, the process of removing restrictions so your phone can be used on any network is called ‘unlocking’.

It is common and legal, and most shops perform the procedure for a fee of around £10.

But once the device’s unique IMEI number is reported stolen, it will be ‘blocked’ so it can no longer function on any mobile network in Britain.

Devious crooks get around this by shipping the devices abroad, where foreign companies don’t adhere to the same strict rules.

Hacked cellphones have been traced to countries like China, where they are stripped of parts and turned into “Frankenstein phones” – devices that look authentic but don’t contain all the original parts – and then sold on the black market.

Experts say the increase in thefts is partly due to organized criminal gangs from Eastern Europe, who often send phones out of the country within 24 hours of taking possession.

Theft prevention specialist Les Gray, TUFF board member, said: “Month in, month out we help legitimate UK businesses avoid around £50 million worth of stolen handsets.

“So if criminals take a phone to the likes of CeX, Cash Converters or MusicMagpie, or try to trade it in with Vodafone or EE, they will now fail. But most phones go abroad, where companies do not have the same code of practice.

“If you take a blocked phone with you to France, it will work fine on all French networks.

“Many of them pass through the Netherlands and appear throughout Europe. India, Africa and Nigeria are also hotspots. If you walk through any market in Nigeria you will find it full of mobile phone sellers, and these are usually stolen from Britain. They occur everywhere.”

The best stolen iPhones sell for £200 to £600, compared to a retail price of around £1,200.

But a device’s apps are of even greater value to scammers and hackers.

About 26 percent of consumers now report being scammed once their phone is lost, according to a survey by money insights provider Intuit Credit Karma.

‘Sold on dark web’

The average loss from banking, credit card and shopping apps is £2,711.

According to UK Finance, this led to a record £45 million loss last year due to mobile banking fraud, with 20,032 cases recorded over a twelve-month period.

One mother reported her son’s mobile phone was stolen by two knife-wielding thugs.

And “around 8.30am someone had hacked into his phone and taken out a £25,000 loan from Halifax”.

The unnamed woman added: “The loan was approved and granted at 11am, and the money was transferred from my son’s account to someone else’s.”

Some victims have reported that their drinks have been spiked so that thieves can bypass facial ID security features.

Others have been tricked into opening their iPhones by robbers claiming to work for charities or asking for directions.

Les, who is also Chief Operating Officer of security company Recipero, said: “It’s a big problem.

“If your phone is taken while you’re talking on speakerphone or following directions in an app and you don’t use full security measures, your phone will be unlocked.

“The thief then has your telephone number, contacts, photos and access to your email. They collect that information and may send phishing messages to trick people into thinking it’s you.

“If you’re logged into your banking app, like many of us, it’s entirely possible they have access to that too. It is extremely dangerous and people are open to blackmail.

“You may have exchanged family passwords via text message that end up being sold on the dark web.”

Phone thefts in England and Wales rose by 20 percent last year.

At least 316,683 were reported between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2023, according to Freedom of Information requests.

Smartphones are now the most stolen item, alongside cash and cards, the Office for National Statistics crime survey shows.

In fact, in London, which has become the mobile crime capital of Britain, a phone was stolen every six minutes.

The police registered 165,933 telephone thefts in five years, an average of 2,766 per month.

This compared with 23,559 in Manchester, 13,728 in the West Midlands, 9,367 in Leicestershire, 8,815 in Kent and 8,053 in Lancashire. Wiltshire had the fewest, with just 800 cases recorded.

This week it was revealed that Sonny Stringer, 28, from Islington, north London, stole 24 mobile phones in just one morning on March 26 before being knocked off his electric bike and arrested by police.

He will be sentenced on August 8.

Former tennis pro Annabel Croft, 57, reported her phone was snatched by a thug on a bicycle outside a tube station.

She wrote on Instagram: “Just got robbed while waiting for a taxi outside King’s Cross St. Pancras. The man was riding a bicycle and wearing a black balaclava.”

However, across the country, more than 99 percent of thefts committed by an individual do not end in criminal charges.

Illegally obtained profits

Some criminals opt for the highest value handsets and dumpsters that do not meet the requirements.

Phone thefts have fallen in summer in recent years, as robbers spend their ill-gotten gains in sunny holiday destinations such as Ibiza.

Andrew Pitt, group head of fraud and loss prevention at MusicMagpie, said: “Our data shows that the number of stolen phones that people have tried to sell to us has grown every year and has even doubled in the last five years. three.”

Milos Dragojevic, 40, from Montenegro, had his phone taken away while attending a conference in London on June 4.

He said: “On the way back to my hotel I came across a street with a view straight down to Big Ben. Instinctively, I took my brand new Samsung S24 Ultra, which costs over £1,000, out of my pocket and started taking pictures.

“Out of nowhere, a thief on an electric bike came in and took it away. It happened in a second.

“When I realized what had happened, panic set in.

“My phone was linked to two bank cards and to my Microsoft OneDrive account, where I store business documents.

“All these thoughts were racing through my head as I stood on the street while hundreds of people walked by as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t sleep that night.

“Luckily I was able to remotely wipe and lock my phone data before anything else was stolen – but this has put me off visiting London again.”