What to do if your phone gets stolen

Worried about what will happen if your cellphone gets stolen and the data falls into the wrong hands?

CapeTalk's John Maytham, in for Lester Kiewit, gets top tips from consumer journalist Wendy Knowler, on how to secure your phone and data.

Knowler says for most people the main risk of having their phone snatched is not the loss of the phone itself but the ability of fraudsters to get into their bank accounts. This can happen even if their phone is locked.

"And one of the risk factors is - and I'm told that it's a default setting on some phones - if you allow notifications from your bank, etc, to scroll across your screen even when it's locked.

"There was a case of a Cape Town man last year. When he went kite surfing, he left in his car, basically a starter kit for fraudsters - so, there was his cellphone, driver's licence and his ID. And it turns out R118,000 I think it was, from his bank account - left - because that code from his bank scrolled across his screen."

A lot of people also have the codes to get into their banking apps stored somewhere on their phone and they don't realise it so, there are things that they must do, advises Knowler.

"If your phone gets stolen the first thing you must think about is contacting your bank, not your network provider."

Then you can call your service provider and give them all your phone's information. You should take a picture of this and store it somewhere safe that you can access easily when your phone is stolen.

Additionally, she says if you are near your laptop or tablet or whatever secondary devices you have "to know how to delink your banking app from your phone yourself... It's something you should practice."

Lastly, she warns that people shouldn't be fooled by callers who say they are from their bank and have lots of information about them. Even if the incoming call says FNB or Capitec, end the call and call your bank.