Phone stolen or snatched? Your first-hour checklist

Phone snatching has become one of the defining street crimes of the last few years. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated about 78,000 people had a phone or bag snatched in the year to March 2024, up 153% on the year before.¹ In London alone, the Met recorded 81,365 phone theft offences in 2024 and 71,391 in 2025, a fall of about 12% after a year-long crackdown.²

The phone itself is only part of the loss. With it go your banking apps, email, photos and the codes that unlock everything else. Here’s what to do, in order, ideally within the first hour.

1. Lock it and mark it as lost

From a laptop, tablet or a friend’s phone:

• iPhone: sign in at iCloud.com/find, or use the Find My app on another Apple device. Choose Mark as Lost to lock the phone, show a message and suspend Apple Pay.
• Android: go to Google’s Find My Device (google.com/android/find) and choose Secure device to lock it and show a message.

Lost mode stops a thief using the phone and keeps your data protected, while still letting you see where it is if it’s switched on.

2. Don’t go after it

If your phone shows up on a map, it’s tempting to go and get it. Don’t. Phone snatching is often linked to organised gangs, and confronting them can be dangerous. Give the location to the police instead. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 includes a new power for police to enter premises to recover items located by tracking technology without a warrant, where getting one isn’t reasonably practicable,³ so the location you share can be genuinely useful.

3. Secure your money

Call your bank on the number on its website or your card (not one from a text message), especially if your banking app or cards were on the phone. Ask them to watch for unusual activity. If your cards were in a phone case, cancel them.

4. Change your key passwords

Start with the accounts that can reset everything else:

1. Your email account.
2. Your Apple ID or Google account.
3. Banking and payment apps.
4. Social media and messaging.

In each, use the option to sign out of all other devices. If you use an authenticator app on the stolen phone, use your backup codes to move it to a new device.

5. Block the SIM and the phone

Call your mobile network to suspend your SIM (so nobody can use your number to receive security codes) and to block the phone’s IMEI number. A blocked IMEI can’t be used on UK networks, which makes the handset far harder to sell here. You’ll find the IMEI on the original box, your bill or contract, or in your Apple or Google account’s device list.

6. Report it to the police

Report it online or call 101 (or 999 if you’ve just been robbed or are in danger). Give the IMEI, the make and model, the location data you have and any CCTV leads. Keep the crime reference number for your insurer and network.

7. Tell your insurer

Claim through your phone insurance, home contents policy or bank account insurance. Most insurers want the theft reported to the police, and to the network, within a set time, often 24 to 48 hours.

8. Mark it as stolen on a register

If your phone is registered with Regimate, mark it as stolen with your crime reference number. Anyone who checks the IMEI in Magic Search will see it’s stolen, and you’ll be alerted if a marketplace, repairer or recycler checks it through our Finder API.

9. Erase it, when you’re ready

If you’re sure it’s not coming back, erase it remotely from Find My or Find My Device. On most modern phones, activation lock stays on even after an erase, so the thief still can’t set it up as their own.

Where do stolen phones go?

Often, a long way away. The Met told MPs in 2025 that roughly three-quarters of phones stolen in London end up abroad.⁴ One gang broken up by the Met’s Operation Echosteep is suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones to China in about a year.⁵ That’s why IMEI blocking and activation lock matter: they make a phone far less valuable, here and abroad.

Make your phone worthless to a thief, today

• Turn on theft protection. On iPhone, switch on Stolen Device Protection in Face ID & Passcode settings. On Android, turn on Theft Detection Lock in your Google theft protection settings.
• Use a strong passcode, not your date of birth, and be careful who can see you type it in public.
• Write down your IMEI now. Dial *#06# and save the number somewhere other than the phone.
• Keep it away from the kerb. Many snatches are by thieves on bikes or e-bikes. Step back from the road to use your phone.
• Put contact details on the lock screen for honest finders. A Regimate lock-screen image shows “If found, please scan” with a QR code, so anyone holding your phone can reach you without seeing your number.
• Register it. Register your phone free with its IMEI, so it can be flagged the moment it’s taken.

Frequently asked questions