Mobile phone security.

With as many as 10,000 mobile phones stolen every month it's becoming a real law enforcement issue. The Metropolitan Police in London have even seen fit to include a page on their website listing some simple precautions we can take to minimise our chances of becoming part of the stats.

My own record of mobile phone loss was diabolical when I was living and working in London, some of which was through muggings. One particularly bizarre experience happened when I was briefly living in E17. I was on my way home after a few beers with the work crowd, it was dark, and I'd just got off the tube. As I was feeling a bit lazy I had my mobile in my hand with the intention of making a call to a local taxi firm. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by a gang of youths, ranging in age from 10 to 16 I'm guessing, demanding my mobile. Given their age, I didn't feel too terrified though I was conscious of the fact that even a 10 year old could carry a knife. Anyway, rather than just hand it over, I asked them what they were going to give me in return. This seemed to confuse the majority of them until one of the younger hoodies took a mobile out his pocket and said I could have his as he couldn't get it to work anyway. So we exchange phones and I avoided any embarrassing stories about how I got beaten up by a bunch of kids.

As they walked off with my phone it occurred to me that all my numbers were stored in the SIM and it'd be a real pain to replace them. I called after the kid who'd done the mugging / exchange and pointed this out to him. Within a few seconds he'd swapped SIM's for me and was off catching up with his gang. If it hadn't happened to me I wouldn't believe it.

After that I decided enough was enough. I wasn't going to invest in the latest piece of mobile phone kit any more. I was just going to buy a second hand mobile through Loot and if it was lost or stolen then no big deal. I ended up with an older model nokia but it did the job and the fact that it was a PAYG meant that I wasn't roped into any contract which suited me fine at the time.

I only had a problem when I wanted to top up in a hurry. As the phone was second hand neither the unit nor the SIM was officially registered in my name so I couldn't use my credit card to top up. I tried everything including writing to the network with my explanation that it was second hand and asked could I please register my details. Nothing in reply. This was me experiencing the backlash against mobile phone crime. How lucky can a guy get - catching it both ways !

Now that my circumstances have changed I've decided to upgrade to a pay monthly mobile that is actually registered in my name so I'm off to check out the latest mobile phones in the hope that my luck with them has improved !