Set this up before your phone gets snatched — the 10-minute NYC lockdown

In early 2024, the NYPD broke up a moped crew tied to dozens of phone snatchings across the city — mostly in Manhattan. The phones were just the start: a “tech guy” in the crew got into victims' banking apps and drained hundreds of thousands of dollars (ABC7). In 2025, police were still chasing distraction crews in Williamsburg and Manhattan using the line “Can I use your phone?”

A phone is replaceable. Open accounts aren't. Here's the 10-minute setup we do for clients.

iPhone

1. Turn on Stolen Device Protection. Settings → Face ID & Passcode → Stolen Device Protection. When your phone is away from familiar places, sensitive changes require Face ID or Touch ID — no passcode fallback — and changing your Apple Account password requires an extra one-hour wait. That's exactly what stops a thief who watched you type your passcode on the train.
2. Use a 6-digit (or longer) passcode that isn't a birthday. Settings → Face ID & Passcode → Change Passcode.
3. Turn on Find My. Settings → [your name] → Find My → Find My iPhone, including Send Last Location.
4. Add a SIM PIN if your carrier supports it (Settings → Cellular → SIM PIN). It stops a thief from moving your SIM to another phone to receive your bank's text codes.

Android

1. Turn on Theft protection. On most phones with current Google Play services: Settings → Google → All services → Theft protection. Enable Theft Detection Lock (locks the screen if someone grabs the phone and runs) and Offline Device Lock.
2. Set up Find My Device and make sure you know your Google password.
3. Use a strong PIN, not a pattern people can see from across the car.

Everyone

• Lock your banking and payment apps separately. Most bank apps, Venmo, Cash App, and PayPal let you require Face ID or a PIN every time they open.
• Don't type your passcode in public if you can use Face ID. Thieves watch first, then snatch.
• Turn on MFA for your email with an authenticator app, not just text messages. Email is the master key to every password reset.
• Write down your carrier's number and your phone's IMEI somewhere other than the phone.

If it happens

1. From another device, go to icloud.com/find or google.com/android/find, mark it lost, and erase it if you don't expect it back.
2. Call your carrier to suspend the line.
3. Call your banks. Change your email password.
4. File a police report — you'll need it for insurance and your carrier.

When to call a tech

We do this lockdown for whole families in one visit — and set up backups so a lost phone doesn't mean lost photos. If your phone was already stolen, call us: speed matters.