Phone users warned of ‘shoulder surfing’ criminals ready to pounce

Criminals are getting smarter at targeting victims to gain access to banking apps on mobile phones, a senior UK fraud officer has said.

Detective Superintendent John Roch says the technology behind the apps is secure but criminals are getting better at exploiting human behaviour.

Thieves typically “shoulder surf” victims to catch them entering their PIN before stealing the phone.

The financial impact of the crime can be enormous.

“It’s only a phone… but if you take that out without the right precautions and protections around it you are essentially walking around with a bag of cash,” says Detective Superintendent Roch.

“If you start to think of it like that, would you walk into a bar, put it down and turn your back on it? Probably not.”

Detective Superintendent Roch says it is impossible to know how many victims there are, but while he believes the scale of the crime might be small the impact of it could be huge.