Phone stolen? Critical first steps
This guide works best with JavaScript on, but here is the short version:
- Borrow any phone now. Do not go home first. The next 30 minutes decide everything.
- Call your banks and ask for an immediate freeze on cards and app access. Dial 159 from a borrowed phone — it connects you to your bank's fraud team (one bank at a time, most major UK banks).
- Call your mobile network from any phone and ask them to block your SIM.
- Secure your email — change the password and sign out of all devices. If you can't get in, start account recovery.
- Then: report to police (101, or 999 if it just happened), Action Fraud 0300 123 2040, and consider Cifas Protective Registration.