Personal note: I typed this up for my work’s SharePoint site, so I’m totally going to re-use it for myself as well. 😉
At some point, it’s happened to all of us — one moment you have your phone safe in hand, and you swear you only put it down for one millisecond, and now you’re searching high and low for it, as it spontaneously sprouted legs and made an escape.
Jumped off the counter at the coffee shop? Stayed behind to take in the sites in that ride-share you were in? Wherever it went, you’ll want to act quickly.
Wallets Aren’t Just Physical Anymore
If your phone truly has gone on walkabout and you can’t find it, in addition to going into your account and putting the device into “lost mode”, don’t forget to disable your digital wallet as well. It’s your hard-earned money, so let’s keep it that way.
How Do I Disable My Wallet?
Android
Visit the Google Find Hub, sign into your Google Account, choose the lost device, and select Mark as Lost. You will need to input the PIN, pattern, or password of the device.
This will log out of your Google Account on your device, and remove all cards from your Google Wallet. While there, you can have the device display a message on the lock screen with a contact number, on the chance it is found by someone with a conscience.
If you’re not able to access your Google Account, you can use Remote Lock. Enter in your phone number and required security info to identify yourself, and as long as the device is online (or once it connects to the internet again), it will lock down so that it can’t be used.
Samsung Galaxy phones have their own security. If you have SmartThings Find set up, head over to their website from any device, sign into your Samsung account, select your phone, and choose Lock. The default behavior locks access to Samsung Wallet and all of your digital cards.
iOS
On any of your other Apple devices, open up the Find My app to locate your phone under Devices. If you don’t have access to another device, you can also visit Find My in a web browser. Once there, tap or click on your device, and turn on Lost Mode. This will lock your iPhone down, and prevent access to Apple Pay. If you manage to be reunited with your device, you can re-authenticate and your Apple Wallet and its contents will be restored.
If you want to be extra secure and go a step further (or you can’t locate the device using Find My iPhone, you can always remove the cards from your wallet outright. From another Apple device, open the Settings app, tap your name at the top, choose the missing device, scroll down to Wallet & Apple Pay, and then tap Remove Items. You can also do the same thing from your Apple Account on the web.
What Else Should I Do?
It’s also suggested that you check the security settings for any applicable accounts (Google, Apple, or Samsung) on some other device, to see where your account is signed in — this may help determine if someone else had accessed it.
You may also want to consider contacting banks, credit unions, and other card issuers to report the digital cards lost or stolen so that they can be frozen by the institutions. It may vary, but some may allow you to free the card from the app if you sign in from another known device. It’s certainly easier to freeze the digital card, as it can be re-added later, should the device be recovered. Otherwise, marking the main card as lost or stolen will mean waiting for a new one to arrive in the mail, and it will have a new number on it that you’ll need to update everywhere the old one was used.
As a last resort, you may wish to consider factory resetting your device if you don’t think you’ll find it. On iPhone, this can be done remotely through Find My. This will delete all of your data, but will keep Find My and the Activation Lock in place, allowing you to continue to track the device and prevent someone else from setting it up as their own. On Android, use caution — remotely resetting the device will no longer allow you to track it afterwards.
It’s true — there are both upsides and downsides to using a digital wallet. You can pay for something on-the-go, use digital passes or tickets, even collect royalty rewards points without having to bring along your physical wallet and cards. You can tap and pay just about everywhere without needing a separate PIN or signature. Because the digital wallet is protected by the phone’s built-in security, a strong PIN and biometrics mean that your cards are generally much safer.
All of this gives you time to lock your phone and wallet before someone else can make an unauthorized purchase. Compared to a physical card, once it’s in someone else’s possession, it can be used immediately. Digital wallet purchases use a one-time token for a transaction, which means the thief won’t get your card data from it. It also means that they can’t skim the card info from the magnetic stripe like they could from a physical card.
Still, it’s a bit frightening to think that someone with your phone could get into your digital wallet and see all of the cards you do have, even if they can’t use them. It lets them learn what institutions you may bank with, what events you may be attending, even any upcoming flights you may have scheduled. But if you act quickly and lock and/or remove your wallet, you can have some peace of mind until your phone has been recovered, or you have wiped it.
-Terry
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One response to “Lost Your Phone? Don’t Forget to Disable Your Digital Wallet”
Android: Do you recommend stock or GrapheneOS? Especially with Keep Android Open being an uncertainty on the future of Android distros.