How To Keep Your Phone From Being Stolen

Cellphone theft has been rising quite considerably. So much and so that the chances of getting your device snatched is becoming a scarily common occurrence. In London, 314 phones are stolen everyday, which is 70% of all the personals taken. In San Francisco, forty% of all the robberies in 2012 were of cellphones. This is no wonder when we take into account that carrying a smartphone, the majority of phones stolen, is alike to carrying $300+ in one tiny slice of equipment and that in that location is plenty of black marketplace for such products in the world.

And so, here are some pointers to protect yourself and your telephone from criminals (gathered personally by the security gnomes from Prey Labs):

10 Tips to Preventing Mobile Device Street Theft

Learn Karate

Nah, but kidding. There's no need to learn martial arts when y'all can simply refrain from using your phone out on the streets. A lot of cellphone robberies happen when the user is so engrossed attending a call, checking for messages or reading the latest tweet, that they don't notice when a thief is about to commit a crime or when the low-cal pole is only a few milimeters away. Ouch.

Take cover inside

While outside, try to become in the store (building or shopping center) closest to you, to use your telephone safely. If you lot find yourself in the middle of nowhere (with no cover near), look around to see if there is anything or anybody suspicious before taking your device out. For example, if you meet a grouping of people staring at you intensely, slowly getting closer and closer to you lot… run Forrest, run!

Be enlightened of your surround

This is a must in lodge to avoid situations like what happened to this adult female who got her phone snatched within a bus. Always be aware of your surroundings. That way, you will exist able to react to any suspicious activity going on around you which might put your stuff (and you lot) in danger.

Use a handsfree unit

Alright, alright! Nobody wants to be that one person talking loudly to an invisible friend. Only, it might exist a proficient device to accept at manus if you lot desire to avoid flashing the awesomeness of your phone in front of greedy people. Nowadays, y'all can observe one past default when you purchase a new phone, but if you lost it, bankrupt it, ate it or even threw it in the toilet, don't despair, you can besides find them in all prices, shapes, and colors.

Don't leave your phone unattended

Allow'southward say yous are with a group of friends eating ice cream and chatting away. You lot are having a lot of fun and, inadvertently, you lot put your phone on the table side by side to your sundae. Suddenly, a hand appears, takes your telephone and you lot see the owner of that hand running abroad at the speed of light. There it goes, you think. Your crawly smartphone. To avoid such tragedies, never exit your phone alone on a restaurant tabular array, on the table bar, not fifty-fifty on the seat of your motorcar where it is only a cleaved window away from thieves.

Do non text and walk at the same time

Yep, people do this style likewise often. It is truthful that information technology is almost incommunicable to not react to your phone's 'ding' no affair where you are. But taking it out to bank check and answer that bulletin will put you lot in a very vulnerable position. Not only volition it increment the chances of striking yourself with a calorie-free pole but walking while texting makes you oblivious to the globe around you and, sadly, the bad dudes are skillful at noticing these things.

Hide your phone abroad when you are not using it

Again, information technology follows the simple principle of avoiding showcasing your phone. When you keep it in places easy to admission, you make information technology effortless for possible criminals to steal your phone.
These are some places where you should not proceed your phone: the back pocket of your pants, the front end pocket of your jacket, the outer pocket of your backpack, etc.

Do not to keep your personal information in your phone

According to PewInternet, today, phones are existence used all the time for every and any action, therefore, they tend to host our personal data. This includes e-mails, contact info, Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, pictures and sometimes even banking information. Once your phone gets stolen, yous can become a target for unlike types of scams and fifty-fifty bribery. If you lot practice have important personal information stored in your phone, ever back it up. There are a lot of free and paid-to-host cloud services (such every bit Dropbox, iCloud and Google Bulldoze) that can sync your phone information automatically and very easily.

Password protect your device

If your phone manages to discover itself at the hands of immoral people, having your phone password protected is the showtime affair that can finish them from accessing your basic information. Moreover, in that location are a myriad applications you can install to password protect different files within your phone that may contain individual information. Additionally, If you lot are serious about password protecting your stuff, I highly recommend you to go to this previous mail which explains all about secure passwords.

Employ an anti-theft software

Install anti-theft software like Prey before y'all get information technology stolen, that is to say: as soon as you buy it. This can help you equally a preemptive mensurate. Once your phone gets lost or stolen, you lot can report your device as lost and the software volition run its magic by sending you reports of its whereabouts and take pictures of its surroundings in one case information technology connects to the cyberspace. Pretty cool, uh?

Equally grandma used to say: opportunity creates a thief. Criminals are always going to pay attention to the opportunities given to them to snatch our phones, electronics or any of our belongings. Therefore, we accept to do our all-time to not give them any opportunity to turn united states of america into the victims.

Photo:Ed Yourdon(cc)