Money expert Martin Lewis has urged all mobile phone users to call a mysterious five-digit number to protect their phone – and the banking apps on it – from thieves.
Lewis, who runs the Money Saving Expert financial advice website, explained on his associated ITV series The Martin Lewis Money Show we need to protect our phones from being stolen now more than ever.
On Tuesday’s episode of the show, he said: ‘Thefts are up 40 per cent in London but they’re going up right across the country too.
‘Now, the crucial thing: they’re not just trying to nick your phone, some of them are trying to access your financial data from your phone. You have to protect yourselves on this folks.’
One of five tips for phone security the financial guru gave was to dial the slightly bizarre, five-digit phone number *#06# to get what is known as their IMEI image, displaying their phone’s unique International Mobile Equipment Identity number.
He recommended users then take a screen grab of that image and email it to themselves, presuming they can access their inbox from a separate device that is not their phone, in the eventuality their handset gets stolen.
Dialling *#06#, simply through your mobile phone keypad, is a very useful precaution against phone theft, he explained: ‘[The IMEI image] is what you’re going to need to give to the police if your phone is stolen.’
So users know what to look out for, the image has three black barcodes on top of each other, on a white background, with the heading, ‘Device Info’.
He said: ‘Try it on your phone, literally on your phone number. I know it sounds weird but that’s what happens.’
Every mobile device has a unique IMEI number – so users knowing what this is would be invaluable to police if their phone ever did get stolen, as it makes individual handsets much easier to trace and identify.
The recommendation came as part of a segment on the episode which saw the Money Saving Expert give mobile phone users five tips to try to prevent their device being stolen.
It is particularly relevant to the consumer finance specialist’s area of expertise as phone theft could give thieves access to valuable financial information stored on the handset.
Another recommendation saw him advise users to enable biometrics – the use of fingerprint and face recognition to lock and unlock the device – on their phones.
Crucially, they should enable it both for unlocking the phone itself and for entering the individual banking apps they might have on their device.
Needing the user’s unique face or fingerprint to unlock the device of course makes it much harder for anyone else to enter and access the phone and banking apps.
But if users insist on using pin codes instead, he implored them to create a different one for entering their phone from the one they use to open their banking app.
He explained: ‘It’s called shoulder surfing these days, people look over your shoulder to see your PIN code and then if you’re doing the same for both, they can access your money.’
Another tip saw him advise how people can locate their phone if it is stolen – by making use of a remote tracking app.
All major phone brands have an in-built app for this, with Find My on Apple devices, Smart Things Find for Samsung and Find My Device for Google.
Mobile phone thefts have tripled in the last four years, new data shows.
More than 70,000 phones were snatched in the streets of London alone in 2024, out of an estimated 100,000 thefts across the UK, the figures from an FOI request to the Metropolitan Police showed.
It is thought phone snatching could cost consumers up to £70 million each year.
Victims of the crime come from all walks of life, with celebrities including model and socialite Lady Victoria Hervey and presenter Kym Marsh revealing their handsets have previously been taken.