![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_lewis22PNG.png\")
<\/p>\nPersonal finance expert on his ITV show also explained how changing one simple setting was vital<\/p>\n
10:03, 21 Jan 2026Updated 12:44, 21 Jan 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martin Lewis made an urgent plea to phone users over simple security changes to implement immediately(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n
Martin Lewis has told anyone with a mobile phone to change one key setting immediately. He also explained that people need to send a quick five digit text to protect their phone from thieves.<\/p>\n
Mr Lewis said that a few simple measures could stop people having their accounts<\/a> cleared out. On the Martin Lewis<\/a> Money Show Live last night viewer Paula asked: \u201cWhat can I do to stop access to my bank apps<\/a> if my phone is stolen? I have a strong passcode and biometrics to open my phone. What else can I do?\u201d<\/p>\n Martin replied: \u201cMy instant response is biometrics to open your phone isn\u2019t enough<\/a>. You need biometrics to open your phone which is a fingerprint or face ID and to open your banking app. It should be up on any secure app you should have that too.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the simple code which you enter in the dialle<\/a>r is *#06# and people should screenshot the image – it can be passed on to the police if anything happens and they will cut your phone off.<\/p>\n Martin gave his main tips for keeping your phone secureBeware shoulder surfing and use headphones. He said: \u201cSo you\u2019re in the street and you put your pin code in and they see your pin code and nick your phone. And now I can access all your data.\u201d Put your headphones in, have your phone in your pocket. It\u2019s much easier for people to grab otherwise. It also means you won\u2019t be talking on speaker phone and annoying the rest of us.\u201d Also people should change the settings on their phone to turn off \u2018preview notifications\u2019 so codes don\u2019t appear on the lock screen if requested.Dial *#06# to get IMEI image then screengrab it. Mr Lewis said: \u201cWhat this does is if your phone were to be nicked you give that to the police and they can block your handset. The network can block your SIM, but they can actually stop your handset from being attached to any other network, which makes it much less valuable to see, and the more of us that are there, the less encouraged the thieves will be.\u201d You can enter that code through the dialler.Use remote tracking apps to locate device and suspend payments.Use biometrics not just on phone but on all banking and other important apps. Also he added: \u201cIf you use a pin please don\u2019t have the same pin for your banking apps as you do for your phone. If they shoulder surf you they\u2019re getting in to everything.\u201dCheck your phone\u2019s extra safety precautions – iPhone<\/a> has \u2018stolen device\u2019. \u201cIf it\u2019s in an unfamiliar location it won\u2019t let you change the settings or the password for an hour or so. Or if you want to pay with it, it\u2019ll make you use biometrics first. Android theft protection \u2018will automatically lock your phone if a quick movement like someone\u2019s just gone over and grabbed the phone in that way. We have to protect ourselves at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n On the preview notifications Mr Lewis has said: \u201cReally important this one, and you\u2019ll understand why, turn off your preview notifications. So you know when you, when you pay for something and they send you the text code, yeah, that comes through. That\u2019s fine when your phone is unlocked and you\u2019re on it, but if you have preview notifications, it will show that code on the lock screen.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you turn off preview notifications, it tells you you\u2019ve got a message but doesn\u2019t include the code.\u201d<\/p>\n The advice follows recent appeals from MPs on the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology<\/a> Committee to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood<\/a>, stating that tech companies are not doing enough to tackle mobile phone theft.<\/p>\n The committee expressed its concern as to why these companies have not taken steps to prevent stolen handsets from connecting to cloud accounts abroad. Mobile phone theft has become a growing issue in recent years, particularly in London where approximately 80,000 handsets were stolen last year, according to Metropolitan Police data.<\/p>\n Many of these devices end up being transported overseas, with the Met alleging earlier in October that one smuggling network had shipped up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China in the past year. Mr Lewis recommended that people should initially download a specific app.<\/p>\n He explained: \u201cEverybody who\u2019s got a smartphone, if you\u2019re Apple, if it\u2019s find my device, if you\u2019re Android, it\u2019s the smart things app, then you can locate it, but also you can switch off payments. It doesn\u2019t stop your phone being sold on, but it reduces the risk, cause let\u2019s be really plain, two risks for your phone being nicked one, you lose it, you have to claim on your insurance and get it back, and two, they can access your information.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Personal finance expert on his ITV show also explained how changing one simple setting was vital 10:03, 21…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2596,304,226,641,347,2897,144960,3282,2306,2334,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-382635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-android","tag-apple","tag-apps","tag-iphone","tag-itv","tag-martin-lewis","tag-martin-lewis-money-show","tag-metropolitan-police","tag-mobile","tag-smartphones","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}