Gardaí along with tech experts are asking Irish mobile phone users to take action to protect their phones amid a risk of thieves accessing their bank accounts.
5,850 mobile phones were reported as stolen in Ireland last year – with the average value of stolen devices €650 in early 2025. Gardaí say that phones are not just being stolen for resale, but that they are increasingly seeing thieves trying to access people’s financial information through them.
As part of a new initiative, Gardaí are advising users to dial *#06# on their phones, to take a screenshot of the result, and email it to themselves so that it can be accessed if their phone is lost or stolen.
The number which will appear is your IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identify) – a unique 15-digit code that acts as a “fingerprint” on your smartphone. It can be used by the network provider or Gardai to block a stolen device, stopping it from being used.
A mobile phone can not only often be costly to replace but it also often serves as our main point of contact and very often the key to a lot of data used daily – from banking, bills, photos, school and college information.
A high proportion of thefts can be linked to the night time economy, with 24% of all incidents taking place on a Sunday (11.5% taking place between midnight and 3am). There is a significant increase in recorded cases on Saturday and Sunday, each week, statistics from 2022 showed.
A Garda spokesperson said: “Take a careful note of your unique 15 digit mobile phone IMEI number. The IMEI number will be on the original box or located on the back of your phone underneath the battery, or you can locate it by dialling *#06# on your keypad, screenshot the series of barcodes and email it to yourself.
“If your mobile phone is lost or stolen, immediately report it to An Garda Siochana and contact your Service Provider in order to have your IMEI number blocked, so that it can’t be used.”