Money saving expert Martin Lewis shared essential smartphone security steps on ITV’s This Morning, including typing *#06# to get IMEI numbers amid rising phone thefts
13:55, 21 Dec 2025Updated 14:01, 21 Dec 2025
Martin Lewis gave vital advice for anyone with a mobile phone ‘to do immediately'(Image: ITV)
Martin Lewis has issued a stark warning to all iPhone and Android smartphone users, urging them to make some simple adjustments to their devices or face potential regret. Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, the personal finance guru highlighted the risks of not properly setting up smartphones, which could leave users vulnerable if their device is lost or stolen.
He further recommended that everyone should set up a five-digit code for added security – and told people to turn off on-screen notifications. With mobile phone thefts on the rise, Martin Lewis detailed the easy steps everyone can take today to protect their device.
His advice comes in the wake of recent calls from MPs on the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, criticising tech companies for not doing enough to combat mobile phone theft.
The committee voiced its concerns over why these companies have not implemented measures to prevent stolen handsets from connecting to cloud accounts overseas. Mobile phone theft has become an escalating problem in recent years, especially in London where around 80,000 handsets were reported stolen last year, according to Metropolitan Police data.
Many of these stolen devices end up abroad, with the Met alleging earlier this month that one smuggling network had shipped as many as 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China in the past year alone. Mr Lewis suggested that people should start by downloading a specific app.
He elaborated: “Everybody who’s got a smartphone, if you’re Apple, if it’s find my device, if you’re Android, it’s the smart things app, then you can locate it, but also you can switch off payments. It doesn’t stop your phone being sold on, but it reduces the risk, cause let’s 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.”
Mr Lewis emphasised crucial phone settings that users should enable – especially for banking applications. He noted: “Make sure your biometrics are set up, your face or fingerprint ID both on your phone. And your banking apps, that’s very important, not just on one, make sure it’s on both.”
He then encouraged viewers to input a particular five-digit sequence into their devices: “Next one, everybody do this now. Type into your phone *#06#. Rachel’s making a note. That’s *#06#. You’ll get it like what looks like a series of barcodes come up, those are your IMEI numbers. Screen grab those, email them to yourself, that’s the ID you’ll need if your phone’s nicked, so that you can recognise your phone, *#06#.”
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The expert recommended disabling preview notifications on your mobile device: “Next, really important this one, and you’ll 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’s fine when your phone is unlocked and you’re on it, but if you have preview notifications, it will show that code on the lock screen.
“If you turn off preview notifications, it tells you you’ve got a message but doesn’t include the code. So if someone nicks your phone and then.
“They can’t see that code, so turn off preview notifications, and the final one I’d say is go onto your phone, look at the security settings of your particular phone and go and have a play and see what security settings there are. None of this will stop your phone being nicked, but it reduces the risk of you being defrauded if your phone is nicked. It protects you.”