Sinister new tactics used by criminals to steal phones and access cash, including a London crook who stole 28 devices in one day

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.

The sneaky tactic includes criminals asking unsuspecting strangers for directions so they can open their cell phones to access online maps before the devices are captured.

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Criminals also posed as charity workers, attacked passers-by on phone calls and stole devices from festival-goers taking selfies.

The stunts sweeping our high streets have fueled the number of stolen phones here, with more than half a billion pounds stolen each 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 at night with his partner.

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

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

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

Every month, 213,500 stolen handsets worth more than £50 million are put up for sale to UK businesses, according to the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum (TUFF).

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

In the UK, the process of lifting restrictions so your phone can be used on any network is known as “unlocking”.

It’s common and legal, and most shops carry out the procedure for a fee of around £10.

But once the device’s unique IMEI number is reported stolen, it will be “locked” and will no longer be able to work on any UK cellular network.

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

Stolen cellphones have been traced to countries such as China, where they were dismantled and turned into “Frankenstein phones” – devices that look authentic but do not contain all of the original parts – and then sold on the black market.

Experts say the rise in robberies is partly due to organized criminal gangs from Eastern Europe, which often ship phones out of the country within 24 hours of obtaining them.

Theft prevention expert Les Gray, TUFF board member, said: “Month after month, we are helping legitimate UK businesses prevent around £50 million worth of stolen devices.

“So if criminals take a phone from, say, CeX, Cash Converters or MusicMagpie, or try to exchange it at Vodafone or EE, they will fail. But most phones go overseas, where companies don’t have the same code of practice.

“If you bring a locked phone to France, it will work perfectly on all French networks.

“Many pass through the Netherlands and appear throughout Europe. India, Africa and Nigeria are also hot spots. If you go through any market in Nigeria, you will find it full of cell phone sellers and they are mostly stolen from the UK. They appear everywhere.”

Stolen high-end iPhones sell for £200 to £600, compared to a retail price of around £1,200.

But a device’s apps are even more valuable to criminals and hackers.

About 26% of consumers now report being defrauded when their phones are lost, according to a study by financial information provider Intuit Credit Karma.

‘Sold on the dark web’

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

This led to a record loss of £45m from mobile banking fraud last year, according to UK Finance, with 20,032 cases recorded in 12 months.

A mother reported that her son’s cell phone was stolen by two thieves armed with knives.

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

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

Some victims reported having their drinks spiked so thieves could bypass Face ID security features.

Others have been tricked into opening their iPhones by thieves who claimed to work for charities or asked for information.

Les, who is also operations director at security firm Recipero, said: “It’s a big problem.

“If your phone is stolen while you are talking on speaker or following instructions from an app and you are not using thorough security measures, your phone will be unlocked.

“The thief then has your phone number, contacts, photos and access to your email. They will collect this information and may send phishing messages to make people think it’s you.

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

“You may have exchanged family passwords for text messages that will end up being sold on the dark web.”

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Phone thefts in England and Wales rose by 20% 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 frequently stolen item, above cash and cards, Office for National Statistics crime research shows.

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

The Met Police recorded 165,933 phone thefts in five years, an average of 2,766 per month.

This compared to 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 lowest number, 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 professional tennis player Annabel Croft, 57, reported her phone was stolen by a bike thug outside a tube station.

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

However, nationwide, more than 99 percent of robberies from a person do not end in criminal charges.

Badly acquired gains

Some crooks opt for the highest value gadgets and junk devices that are not up to the mark.

Phone thefts have declined in previous years in the summer, as thieves spend their ill-gotten gains in sunny holiday destinations such as Ibiza.

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

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

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

“Out of nowhere, a thief appeared on an electric bike and stole it. It happened in a second.

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

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

“All these thoughts ran through my mind as I stood on the street as hundreds of people passed by as if nothing had happened. I couldn’t sleep that night.

“Luckily, I was able to remotely erase the data on my phone and lock it before anything else was stolen – but it stopped me from visiting London again.”