Travel Tips – When your Phone is robbed in Dublin
Tips to save you the painful consequences of a stolen phone
OK, it’ll never happen to you. You know that, don’t you? That’s what we thought anyway.
It’s 7pm on a weekday night, and we’re in a well-known Dublin department store. We’re there to buy a bottle of wine, because the restaurant we’re going to for dinner has a generous early-week corkage policy. Life is good. Then…
The zipper on the shoulderbag probably made more of a noise than the thieves expected, and, on hearing it, we were able to swing round and identify that the phone had been taken from the bag. We could ID the man walking quickly towards the door as the guy who, along with this woman standing beside us who was slowing our passage along the narrow aisle, was the man who was there when it happened.
Discovering so quickly that the phone had been taken allowed us to watch this event play out in real time. We quickly followed him to the door, not expecting to catch him. But when we got to the door, there he was, relaxed as anything, standing there as if waiting for a non-existent bus. They were a well-dressed couple, black North Face puffer jackets, the only slight giveaway being the woman’s head covering of coat jacket pulled tightly over cap, almost covering her face.
By this time the security team in the shop had noticed something was up. They rewound the CCTV which confirmed what had happened. The man had taken the phone from the bag, placed it in an umbrella, then clearly handed the package to someone ready and waiting outside. Slick teamwork.
Then that sinking moment watching the phone on Find My iPhone, travelling now at car speed, to a lane off Dorset Street. And then the phone goes quiet. The phone is probably in the Liffey now.
Even in welcoming Ireland, this could happen to you.
Kudos to the security team working in the store, who were solicitous and sympathetic. Also to the Three Store in Daunt Square, Cork city, who are always so helpful.
No love, however, for the man at the front desk of the restaurant when we finally arrived. We had telephoned and left a message to explain what had happened and why we were going to be late, but who answers phones during service? Not him anyway. What we didn’t expect, after our emotional apologies, was his reaction as he looked down at the computer in front of him. He banged keys and stroked screens and after a while, without any sign of empathy or sympathy, said simply, “You’re late. We’ve sold your table to walk-ins.”
Here are some of the things you can do to protect your phone:
Apparently, however smart your phone might be, thieves are not interested in the hardware – once a phone is blacklisted, it can never be used again. A stolen phone is more valuable as a device to phone home, or to tap to buy something, or a more deep routed trove that may or may not be protected. With that thought, do what you can to protect a phone before it’s stolen, not after.
Bag
Our dumb mistake was to wear the bag with a back zipper. When travelling, even in peaceful Ireland, keep things to the front of your body with a good cross body bag. Dublin is just another European capital, and take the same precautions there as you would any large city.
2FA
Two-factor authentication is an additional barrier when someone steals your phone – your fingerprint or face, or a TOTP (time-based one-time password) provide that extra level of protection. Duo Mobile and Google Authenticator are recommended for Android, while Apple has a built in 2FA accessible from the Settings Menu. Enable it before you travel.
Trusted Individual
Apple allows you to give a trusted individual’s number as a recovery contact. Their iPhone can generate a six-digit backup code if you get locked out of your Apple ID. You can sort this now.
Password Manager
Whatever you do, don’t write your passwords in Notes (yes, under the heading passwords, duh!). If you do, you wouldn’t by any means be the first, it’s common, and the first place hackers look. Password Manager Apps are worth a thought. Consider 1password. We spoke to a cyber security expert who said “I couldn’t operate without it” and a web designer who said “1password is a game changer.” Otherwise, this is where you need to go back to pen and paper.
Memorising Your Codes
If you can remember even some of the most important numbers (if we’d remembered Apple ID password we could have erased the phone within seconds of it being taken) you will save yourself a sleepless night.
Banking Info
If your phone is stolen after 7pm, then there are no Customer Services agents from your provider or bank to talk to, other than to cancel your credit cards. A good tip from the credit card manager we got to speak to: Go into your banking app, and you might well have the registration code already set up. Your job is to remember your PAC. But this time don’t even try. Put five wrong PAC codes into the phone, 12345, 23456 etc and the bank will automatically suspend your online banking, until you ring in the morning to explain and do the job properly.
Find My…
Always use either Find My IPhone or Share your Location on Google Maps with a trusted friend. Then if your phone gets lost, there’s some hope of finding it.
Set Up Face ID and Fingerprint - at least that can’t be stolen
The easiest and most reliable barrier. Don’t travel without this being set up.
Apple’s Stolen Device Protection
This is a new feature that comes with 17.3 on Apple. If you’re on that iOS platform, then, literally turn it on now. You find it in Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Stolen Device Protection and it makes things much much harder for anyone intent on raiding your phone, even if they have your passcode.
Backup
Why are we even having this conversation.
Passcode
Turn it on, as in always on, not sometimes on.
Credit Cards
Don’t keep your credit cards in your phone wallet. We don’t even like to think about that one.
Safe travels.
So sorry to hear this! My MIL’s wallet was stolen out of a similar kind of bag while she was waiting to cross the street in Dublin a few years ago.