| Subscribe to our podcasts on Spotify | . |
You’re halfway through a great meal in a city you flew a long way to see. Your phone is sitting on the table next to your plate, screen up, right where you can keep an eye on it. Then two people nearby start shouting at each other, and you look to see what’s happening.
You turn back. The phone is gone. It only took two seconds, but here’s the scary part: the person who took it doesn’t care as much about the phone as what’s on it.
It’s peak travel season, and your phone has never been more essential, and it’s never been a bigger target. On a trip, it’s your map, boarding pass, wallet, translator, hotel key, and your lifeline to everyone back home. When it’s gone, you’re not inconvenienced, you’re stranded, locked out, and one tap away from someone draining an account. However, spending a few minutes to prepare your phone before you leave can make a huge difference.
First, Lock Your Phone Down So the Theft Isn’t a Disaster
The first goal is simple. We want to make your stolen phone useless to the thief, and findable by you.
Set a passcode, and turn on biometrics. Like we say with passwords, longer is stronger. A four-digit PIN is a speed bump, but a six-digit or alphanumeric passcode is a wall. Be sure to change the settings so you have to re-enter the PIN each time your phone is locked. Then turn on Face ID or fingerprint unlock so you’re not plugging in that code in crowds where someone can watch you. “Shoulder surfing” your passcode before they snatch the phone is a real, common tactic.
- iPhone: Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Change Passcode > Passcode Options > Custom Alphanumeric Code.
- Android: Settings > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Screen lock.
Turn on the “if it gets stolen” protections. Both platforms now help you fight back the moment a phone goes missing.
- On iPhone, switch on Stolen Device Protection (Settings > Face ID & Passcode). When your phone is somewhere unfamiliar, sensitive changes, such as viewing saved passwords, turning off Find My, and other settings require Face ID and a one-hour delay. A thief who watched you type your passcode still can’t tear your accounts apart.
- On Android, Theft Detection Lock uses on-device AI to feel the motion of a snatch-and-run and locks the screen before the thief clears the doorway. Offline Device Lock locks it the second they pull the SIM or kill the internet to dodge tracking. Remote Lock lets you lock the phone from any web browser with just your number. And Identity Check (on Android 15 / One UI 7.1 and newer) demands your face or fingerprint for sensitive changes when you’re away from your trusted places — coverage that now extends to your banking apps and password manager. Find these under Settings > Google > All services > Theft protection.
Make sure you can find your phone from someone else’s phone.
- iPhone: Settings > [your name] > Find My > Find My iPhone. On.
- Android: Settings > Google > Find My Device. On.
Then actually learn how to use the recovery pages before you go: iCloud.com/find, android.com/find, and android.com/lock. A hotel lobby at midnight is a bad place to learn a new website for the first time.
Disable your lock screen functionality. By default, your phone still lets you do some things without actually unlocking your phone. While it’s convenient for you, it also lets a stranger reply to your texts, open your wallet, or flip on airplane mode to block tracking. Therefore, it isn’t really locked.
- iPhone: Settings > Face ID & Passcode, scroll to “Allow Access When Locked,” and switch off Control Center, Wallet, and Reply with Message.
- Android: Settings > Display > Lock screen (or Settings > Security) to limit the Quick Settings panel and hide notification contents on the lock screen.
Stay Connected Without Getting Taken
Getting online abroad is where convenience quietly trades away your security. Here’s how to keep both.
Get data that doesn’t punish or expose you. Sky-high roaming charges push travelers onto sketchy free Wi-Fi, which is exactly the wrong move. A travel eSIM solves both problems at once: cheap local data, plus your own encrypted cellular connection instead of a stranger’s network. We recommend Saily, which is built by Nord Security, the team behind NordVPN, so privacy and security are the point, not an afterthought. Set it up before you fly, and keep your physical SIM active in the second slot so you still receive the two-factor authentication texts your bank sends to your real number. A dual SIM is standard on modern iPhones and most flagship Androids, so you can run your home number and a travel eSIM at the same time.
Turn on Wi-Fi Calling before you leave. When cell service is spotty, you can still call and text home over any Wi-Fi. Flip it on while you’re still home, since some carriers require it to be enabled before you cross a border.
- iPhone: Settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Calling.
- Android: Settings > Network & internet > [your carrier] > Wi-Fi Calling.
Know the real Wi-Fi risks, not the myths. Here’s the honest version, because we’re here to make you safer.
Scenario A – The evil twin. You land, you’re desperate for signal, and you spot “Free_Airport_WiFi.” So does the scammer who created it. Connect to their lookalike network and everything you type can flow through their hands first. This is the one that still bites people. The older fear, that anyone on legitimate public Wi-Fi can read your traffic, has mostly faded, because nearly every site now uses HTTPS encryption. But a fake network you chose to join sidesteps all of that.
Scenario B – Autopilot. Your phone remembers networks and silently rejoins them. Overseas, that means it’ll latch onto anything sharing a name with a network you trusted back home. Turn off auto-join for public networks and it stops volunteering you.
The fix for both is boring and bulletproof: do anything sensitive – banking, logins, email – on your own eSIM data, and treat public Wi-Fi as read-only for maps and menus. Turn off auto-join (iPhone: tap the network > Auto-Join off; Android: Wi-Fi > the network > Auto-reconnect off), and never touch a “your software needs updating” pop-up that appears on hotel or airplane Wi-Fi, that’s a classic trap. And yes, that “free” Wi-Fi waiting on your flight plays by the same rules; before you connect at 35,000 feet, know what in-flight Wi-Fi is really doing.
Paying with your phone? Watch out for “ghost tapping.” Tap-to-pay is effortless, which is exactly the problem. In crowds, scammers exploit that reflex: a “vendor” asks you to tap before you’ve clearly seen the amount or who you’re paying, or someone bumps into you with a hidden reader and starts a charge off your phone. They’ll often run a tiny test charge first so it slides past fraud alerts, then go bigger. Before you tap, see the merchant name and the amount on the screen, every time. Turn on real-time transaction alerts from your bank, and consider switching off NFC in packed markets and transit hubs. Our full breakdown of tap-to-pay “ghost tapping” scams walks through the warning signs.
- Bonus tip: If the machine asks if you’d like to pay in local currency or in U.S. dollars, select the local currency, since your credit card provider will give you a better conversion rate.
And the charging-port question. You’ve seen the airport signs warning about “juice jacking” or malware sneaking in through public USB ports. Straight talk: in more than a decade, there have not been many confirmed real-world cases, and modern phones already ask your permission before sharing any data over USB. But the fix costs you nothing, so just do it. Carry your own power bank and wall charger, and plug into the wall outlet instead of the mystery USB port. Peace of mind beats a debate.
If Your Phone is Lost, Don’t Lose Everything
You can do everything above and still watch the phone vanish into a canal, a pickpocket’s hand, or the gap behind a train or Uber car seat. So make the loss survivable.
Back up before you go, and actually confirm it’s running. “I have iCloud” is not a backup plan if your storage filled up eight months ago and quietly stopped syncing. Open the settings and check with your own eyes.
- iPhone: Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, and confirm sync is on and you’re not out of space.
- Android: Google Photos > your profile > Photos settings > Backup, and confirm it’s on.
Security pros live by the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of anything you’d hate to lose, on two kinds of media, with one copy stored off the phone entirely. A dropped phone in Venice should cost you a device, not every photo you’ve ever taken.
Share your location with someone you trust. If you get lost, robbed, or separated from your group, a companion or someone back home can see exactly where you are. iPhone: Find My > People > Share My Location. Android: Google Maps > your profile picture > Location sharing.
“Yeah, But I’m Careful”
You are. That’s not the point. Most people don’t get pickpocketed because they’re reckless. They get pickpocketed because for two seconds, when the argument breaks out, when the train doors slide open or closed, or when a friendly stranger asks you for directions, your attention goes exactly where the thief wanted it. Careful people lose phones every single day. The entire plan above exists so that if those two seconds cost you a phone, they don’t cost you your identity, savings, and vacation.
Don’t Announce You’re on Vacation (and Your House Is Empty)
Here’s a mistake that happens before people even leave the driveway. They post the countdown, the airport selfie, the “two weeks away!” story to Facebook and Instagram. It feels harmless, but a public post that says you’re gone is also a billboard to burglars that your home is empty and a signal to scammers that you’re in vacation mode.
It gets worse. Every detail you share, including where you’re headed, who you’re with, your kids’ names, your pet, your daily routine, is raw material for a convincing scam. That’s how social engineering works. The more true-sounding details a scammer has, the easier it is to pose as your bank, your airline, or a “friend of a friend” and get you to hand information or money over to them. Oversharing on social media feeds more sophisticated scams and phishing, and a trip is exactly when you’re most exposed.
Just wait to post the photos when you get home, not while you’re gone. Lock your profiles to friends only, skip the live location tags, and save the highlight reel for when your own front door is behind you again.
Your Pre-Trip Phone Checklist
Before you leave home (do this on your own Wi-Fi):
- Set a 6+ digit or alphanumeric passcode; turn on Face ID / fingerprint
- iPhone: turn on Stolen Device Protection. Android: turn on Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, and Remote Lock
- Confirm Find My iPhone / Find My Device is on; bookmark the recovery pages
- Lock down the lock screen (Control Center / Quick Settings, Wallet, message replies)
- Set your social profiles to private and plan to post photos after you’re home
- Set up a travel eSIM (Saily) and keep your home SIM in for 2FA texts
- Turn on Wi-Fi Calling
- Turn off auto-join for public Wi-Fi networks
- Back up your phone and confirm the backup is actually running (the 3-2-1 rule)
- Turn on location sharing with someone you trust
At the airport and in transit:
- Don’t plug into public USB ports — use your power bank or the wall outlet
- Verify any Wi-Fi network name with staff before joining; skip anything you can’t confirm
- Do sensitive things (banking, logins) on your eSIM data, never on public Wi-Fi
- Ignore “update” or “verify” pop-ups on public or in-flight Wi-Fi
- Before you tap to pay, check the merchant and amount; watch for ghost tapping in crowds
- Keep the phone off the table and out of your back pocket
When you land and beyond:
- Turn on transaction alerts and watch your statements for small “test” charges
- Stay skeptical of travel texts and emails , such as fake refunds, “lost item” messages, and booking problems
- If it’s stolen: use Find My / Find My Device to lock and erase it, then call your carrier
You’ve hardened the device. Now harden your judgment, because the scams aimed at travelers get sharper every season, from fake Airbnb pages to AI-generated resorts that don’t exist. Before you book or board, read up on the summer travel scams we’ve been warning about so a great trip doesn’t end with a drained account.
