A young woman whose phone was stolen while on holiday in Zante has warned against using simple passwords after a thief was able to access her photos and online banking.
Gen Z member Lydia Coates took to TikTok to share how her phone was stolen while on holiday with friends, captioning the clip: “How a simple mistake in Zante cost me over £10,000.”
In her video, Lydia warned: ‘If you’re planning on going on a girls’ or boys’ holiday this summer, don’t make the same mistake I did!’
In 2022, the TikToker had planned a budget vacation with a friend to Zante, Greece. On the second day of the trip, the two planned to take a boat trip together.
Lydia packed a small bag for her phone, ID and cash and explains that she kept it very close to her while on the boat.
During the boat trip under the influence of alcohol, Lydia said her bag was with her “at all times.”
“The only time I didn’t have my bag with me was when I was at sea, but my friend was still on the boat so she had it,” she said.
“When I came back from the sea I picked up my bag, which was still there, but my phone was gone.”
Since the boat trip was “quite small” with around 50 people on board, Lydia and her friend asked the DJ to ask the crowd if anyone had found the lost phone.
The trip’s organizers then promised to check each individual before they got off the ship to see who had stowed the device.
“I felt at peace because if someone stole it, they would find it anyway,” he recalled.
However, she soon realized that she was wrong to assume that the organizers would take action.
‘Of course they didn’t register everyone and that’s why my phone disappeared!’
However, the lost phone was just the beginning of what turned into an expensive Christmas nightmare.
“My biggest mistake that vacation was putting my driver’s license on the back of my phone,” he explained.
‘My birthday, on my driver’s license, on the back of my phone, was my password and it was also my online banking password.’
Realising the fatal mistake, Lydia frantically checked her bank account to see if there had been any withdrawals and was relieved to see that nothing had moved while her phone was stolen.
Convinced her money was safe, Lydia said she “simply forgot” about the incident and continued using her friend’s phone throughout the trip.
However, his luck would not last long.
“And lo and behold, when I got home, I checked my mobile banking and a unique bank transfer of £12,242 had been sent to someone called Jessica,” she said.
The stolen money came from Lydia’s Help to Buy ISA, meaning years of savings were lost.
Devastated, Lydia contacted the police, who told her to contact the police in Zante, where the robbery had occurred.
“When I contacted the police in Zante, they did not help me at all,” he explained.
‘Because this person had access to my phone, my entire gallery and all the photos that were ever on my phone, my online banking, my ID, I had to open an identity fraud protection plan.
‘So now, for the rest of my life, I’m paying for identity fraud protection because this person could apply for so many loans and mortgages with my information.’
‘The moral of the story is don’t keep your ID in the back of your phone case if you’re going on holiday… or you’ll never go on holiday!’
In a later video, Lydia explained that she solved the problem by changing all her banking details and closing her old account because she considered it “fraudulent.”
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Fortunately, after several meetings with banks and the police, Lydia was able to recover the £12,242 that had been stolen from her.
‘We assumed we could find the person who stole the money on Facebook by name, but they had given a false name.
‘It was not the first time this person had stolen a bank or someone’s data.
‘This specific name was a name that had been used on multiple scam sites as a fake name, so the real perpetrators were not identified.
An app identified the phone as being located in Birmingham, but he was told not to track it.
‘In my case, they got away with it, they got the money because I recovered the money from the fraud protection and not from the person themselves.’
The money was returned to him thanks to his fraud protection plan.
Lydia’s unfortunate encounter is not the first and likely won’t be the last, as it comes amid a rise in cases of phone theft in the UK.
The capital has been hit particularly hard, with some calling it the “London epidemic” as more and more cases appear in the city.
The City of London Police said it is carrying out a targeted operation to disrupt phone theft in the Square Mile.
The operation was launched due to the worrying increase in phone thefts experienced by the force in 2022, which continued last year and this year.
The force is even spraying criminals and their motorcycles with DNA spray in an attempt to link them to crimes if they flee.
The force is advising people to remain vigilant in busy areas and on the transport network and is asking anyone who is the victim of a mobile phone theft to contact police immediately.
