Phone stolen in Madrid - help needed

I hope there's a way, or insurance option, or summat. Bloody horrid to happen. Sad to see. All the best. Stay positive.

Zips on pockets and more. I live by them. Sailing shorts are practicality knife-proof like the ones I wore in Istanbul, now with partial slice marks thanks to UEFA's wonderful stadium policies.
 
just read this whole thread can't believe how easy it was for them , cant understand how they can get into the phone and change all those settings .
I am correct in saying they knew your passcode ? and that is how ?
sorry slight confused how this can be possible .
hope it all gets sorted with the banks etc
 
joedr116 said:
This is a long shot i know but I was in Dubliners bar on 08/04/24 and sat at the very back bar with my wife adjacent to the bar. I was talking to a guy who I now know as Jude and had nothing to do with the incident but I had my phone stolen in the bar around 23:00. The bar was very packed but I am looking for anyone who was in the bar maybe at the back end who may have taken any videos or pictures as i want to be able to identify a croatian gentleman around 35-40 wearing black jacket and grey beard.
A long story short he got access to my phone and locked me out of my account and then stole quite a large amount of money from my bank accounts. I've reported it to the Police and the bar has no CCTV which I find suspicious considering how busy it was and the potential for trouble. If anyone can help or also had their phone stolen please pm me. We are talking a loss at the moment in the region of 4k which Im now trying to recover back from the banks,

My recommendation is although Apple Pay is great for convenience however if they get your phone whilst its unlocked you are screwed and face ID can be overruled with the passcode. Apple are now onto this a bit late for myself but anyone with a newer Iphone

Also i had a couple of cards attached to Apple Pay thats a disaster only have one and ideally one with a low card limit it only takes them to double tap and they dont need your facial ID.

Ensure you have IOS 17.3 or later

Go into settings
Face ID & Passcode
scroll down to Stolen Device Protection (New Feature)
Turn it on
This adds another layer of protection if your Iphone gets stolen so if your phone is in an unfamiliar location you must authenticate with face ID and not just the passcode. It also adds security delays of an hour before critical security changes are made.

Within approx 2 hours they had cleared out 3 bank accounts of funds !!

I hope this doesn't happen to any other blues onwards and upwards and hopefully we get the result next week
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How did he know your passcode To change a passcode you have to have the current one? My phone will lock within 20 seconds
I have the new security setting that introduced a delay when making seating changes outside a familiar location
 
Avoid the temptation to enter your passcode if faceid/touchid isn't behaving. These types will watch out for people entering a passcode. If they manage to spot it, then they will target that phone for theft, because knowing the passcode, allows them to pretty much take over your apple id
 
coolcity said:
Sorry to hear that, but with all due respect I wouldn't have even bothered typing the post. There is little, if any, chance of getting a stolen phone back, but as a mobile phone retailer I have advised people for years to NEVER EVER use your phone as a wallet. You wouldn't carry a large sum of money in an envelope so why carry it in your phone? Few people actually secure them or even know how to, but given how easy it is to carry a credit or debit card around there really is no point in using your phone, it's just a gimmick.

For the record I, lock my cards and have a £100 maximum withdrawal limit in case I lose my card or have it stolen. It only takes a few seconds to unlock it again when you want to use it for a large purchase. It also gives the bank a red flag if somebody tries to use a card for more than the limit you have set. Any unauthorised use of the card is covered, I'm not sure if the rules apply to details stored in mobile phones though. Same with your computer, never store your card details in your PCs' "secure" card wallet.

I do hope you get a positive result from this, and if nothing else I hope this helps someone.

Incidentally there's nothing unusual about the bar not having cameras, CCTV blanket coverage is mostly a UK/US obsession. It's not that common in most other countries. Only the US and China have more CCTV cameras (think about how small our country is and you get an idea of how absurd it is), and only Italy (I think) has more speed cameras in total, but we have more per mile.
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I don’t understand that advice.

You advise against putting a bank card on a phone in case someone steals it, unlocks it and somehow manages to use it without face recognition or similar?

Instead you advise carrying around an actual physical card, that can nearly all be used contactless instantly for transactions up to £100, without any checks whatsoever?

How is that more secure?
 
Stephen230 said:
I don’t understand that advice.

You advise against putting a bank card on a phone in case someone steals it, unlocks it and somehow manages to use it without face recognition or similar?

Instead you advise carrying around an actual physical card, that can nearly all be used contactless instantly for transactions up to £100, without any checks whatsoever?

How is that more secure?
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A physical wallet is more likely to be in a safe pocket, not out potentially on a table.

There's no right answer as a thieving **** is a thieving ****, making it a bit more difficult is the best you can do.
 
blue b4 the moon said:
A physical wallet is more likely to be in a safe pocket, not out potentially on a table.

There's no right answer as a thieving **** is a thieving ****, making it a bit more difficult is the best you can do.
Click to expand...

That’s kind of my point. Surely it’s more difficult to use a virtual card on a locked phone, than an actual card that can just be tapped anywhere?

And most people who carry real cards seem to mainly store them tucked into the little place provided for them in phone cases anyway.
 
I got a pixel watch with my new phone last year and like how that helps me keep my phone in my zipped pocket when out and about, especially when pissed in busy places.
I now use this watch to pay contactless and reply to messages etc without having my phone out on show, so if you can get a watch, I recommend it.
 
Threeinarow said:
I got a pixel watch with my new phone last year and like how that helps me keep my phone in my zipped pocket when out and about, especially when pissed in busy places.
I now use this watch to pay contactless and reply to messages etc without having my phone out on show, so if you can get a watch, I recommend it.
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Stephen230 said:
That’s kind of my point. Surely it’s more difficult to use a virtual card on a locked phone, than an actual card that can just be tapped anywhere?

And most people who carry real cards seem to mainly store them tucked into the little place provided for them in phone cases anyway.
Click to expand...
The phone I was using was an Iphone 15 Pro i was looking at the face Id and it is really sensitive ie you can hold it at an angle a few feet away from your face at differing angles and it still opens the phone. I still haven’t worked out how they got into First Direct banking app that uses face ID as the phone was then in their possession.

First Direct - Amazing suppprt cancelled calls got through to a human being and refunded transactions to Revolut.

Post Office Money Card - Poor said they will send out a statement in the post in the next 7 days to identify the fraudulent transactions.

Revolut - Shocking the thieves were locked out as the system detected fraudulent activity straight away then the thief went on the online chat in the app to demand why the transactions were not going through. Revolut then asked the thief to do a selfie with the date and time written on a piece of paper to then cross check the picture with the picture of me on record after a torrent of abuse from the thief saying where will I get paper at this time i’m the morning i found out they then proceeded and allowed 4 transactions without the verification. It Took me 3 days to speak and it was all online but you had to be within the app that i was locked out of!

Halifax i paid extra for the rewards account to have phone insurance they were brilliant but do ensure that you have somewhere your EMEI number you can’t claim nor make a claim to the police without it. I got sent reconditioned phone the next day.


Some good advice from you fellow blues and thank you.

If you do know of any blues that were in the Dubliners bar on the Monday night 22:00 onwards and has any videos please let me know. I read the reviews on Trip Advisor and there are posts on there of 3-4 phones being stolen and terrible reviews of the bar.
 
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coolcity said:
Sorry to hear that, but with all due respect I wouldn't have even bothered typing the post. There is little, if any, chance of getting a stolen phone back, but as a mobile phone retailer I have advised people for years to NEVER EVER use your phone as a wallet. You wouldn't carry a large sum of money in an envelope so why carry it in your phone? Few people actually secure them or even know how to, but given how easy it is to carry a credit or debit card around there really is no point in using your phone, it's just a gimmick.

For the record I, lock my cards and have a £100 maximum withdrawal limit in case I lose my card or have it stolen. It only takes a few seconds to unlock it again when you want to use it for a large purchase. It also gives the bank a red flag if somebody tries to use a card for more than the limit you have set. Any unauthorised use of the card is covered, I'm not sure if the rules apply to details stored in mobile phones though. Same with your computer, never store your card details in your PCs' "secure" card wallet.

I do hope you get a positive result from this, and if nothing else I hope this helps someone.

Incidentally there's nothing unusual about the bar not having cameras, CCTV blanket coverage is mostly a UK/US obsession. It's not that common in most other countries. Only the US and China have more CCTV cameras (think about how small our country is and you get an idea of how absurd it is), and only Italy (I think) has more speed cameras in total, but we have more per mile.
Click to expand...

I know this post was well intentioned but I don’t think you understand how secure digital wallets work.

I use Apple Pay for everything and without biometric authentication via FaceID or fingerprint it’s useless. Way more secure than using physical cards.
 
Stephen230 said:
That’s kind of my point. Surely it’s more difficult to use a virtual card on a locked phone, than an actual card that can just be tapped anywhere?

And most people who carry real cards seem to mainly store them tucked into the little place provided for them in phone cases anyway.
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It is, especially as you use Face ID or fingerprint ID for unlocking your phone and then approving the use of the digital card.

You can even set different pass codes for unlocking the phone and approving the card use for each transaction and make it impossible to use the digital card without doing both.

It is also easy enough to set a transaction limit on the digital card or lock it (and at provider, not your phone) so no transactions will be processed.

Digital wallets are no less secure than physical cards. In fact, in some ways they are more secure.

The downside, of course, is that when you lose your phone you are losing far more than just the digital wallet, which can be very disruptive for many people these days.
 
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Ric said:
Really sorry to hear that mate, what a nightmare. As you say, it’s a long shot but hopefully someone can help you. There were a lot of City fans in Dubliners that night. Failing that, the advice you’ve given should be useful for other Blues.
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If the phone was stolen, as opposed to lost (which is what it sounds like), then I'd say the chances of him getting the phone back is zero. Sorry to hear about your trouble OP; that's a real kick in the bollocks.
 
SebastianBlue said:
It is, especially as you use Face ID or fingerprint ID for unlocking your phone and then approving the use of the digital card.

You can even set different pass codes for unlucking the phone and approving the card use for each transaction and make it impossible to use the digital card with doing both.

It is also easy enough to see a transaction limit on the digital card or lock it (and at provider, not your phone) so now transactions will be processed.

Digital wallets are no less secure than physical cards. In fact, in some ways they are more secure.

The downside, of course, is that when you lose your phone you are losing far more than just the digital wallet, which can be very disruptive for many people these days.
Click to expand...

Not just in some ways. Digital wallets are more secure than physical cards in every way.
 
joedr116 said:
The phone I was using was an Iphone 15 Pro i was looking at the face Id and it is really sensitive ie you can hold it at an angle a few feet away from your face at differing angles and it still opens the phone. I still haven’t worked out how they got into First Direct banking app that uses face ID as the phone was then in their possession.

.
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There’s a setting called Requires Attention that makes Face ID more secure as you have to look directly at the screen. I wonder if they managed to hold the phone near to your face before you realised it was stolen to get access. Even with that setting turned on I have found the FD app sometimes still IDs my face when the phone is tilted away from me (such as when I don’t want to go into the app but instead generate a security code).
 
joedr116 said:
The phone I was using was an Iphone 15 Pro i was looking at the face Id and it is really sensitive ie you can hold it at an angle a few feet away from your face at differing angles and it still opens the phone. I still haven’t worked out how they got into First Direct banking app that uses face ID as the phone was then in their possession.

First Direct - Amazing suppprt cancelled calls got through to a human being and refunded transactions to Revolut.

Post Office Money Card - Poor said they will send out a statement in the post in the next 7 days to identify the fraudulent transactions.

Revolut - Shocking the thieves were locked out as the system detected fraudulent activity straight away then the thief went on the online chat in the app to demand why the transactions were not going through. Revolut then asked the thief to do a selfie with the date and time written on a piece of paper to then cross check the picture with the picture of me on record after a torrent of abuse from the thief saying where will I get paper at this time i’m the morning i found out they then proceeded and allowed 4 transactions without the verification. It Took me 3 days to speak and it was all online but you had to be within the app that i was locked out of!

Halifax i paid extra for the rewards account to have phone insurance they were brilliant but do ensure that you have somewhere your EMEI number you can’t claim nor make a claim to the police without it. I got sent reconditioned phone the next day.


Some good advice from you fellow blues and thank you.

If you do know of any blues that were in the Dubliners bar on the Monday night 22:00 onwards and has any videos please let me know. I read the reviews on Trip Advisor and there are posts on there of 3-4 phones being stolen and terrible reviews of the bar.
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Why did they require a photo with the day and date written on a piece of paper to verify the faces matched? He kicked off saying he didn't have a pen or paper. But his face would still not have looked like yours with or without the paper so why not just say "OK just send us your face and hold 4 fingers up"?
 
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Have a look on you tube there’s some good videos about how they steal your info once they get your phone, lots of people keep their password etc in notes and once they are in your phone they go to work. Also they sit near you in a bar and watch you type in your passcode, I use my watch to pay for most things now and keep my phone in my pocket, but have limits and biometric setup as well. Always keep my card in my pocket front pocket as well.
 
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