Whenever you hear that crime figures are down, you are probably unaware that one segment continues to rise. The theft of mobile phones has always been a huge problem, but the introduction of increasingly sophisticated modern phones has resulted in a huge rise in this particular crime over recent years.

We all know about the precautions we must take to prevent becoming a victim of this type of crime apart from having  Phone Insurance. It’s always youngsters who have their phones stolen, right? It always happens to those less vigilant and carefree, right? Mobile phone theft is always a “mugging” type incident with the phone being snatched straight from your hand, right?

Not so. This is a true story. I can guarantee it’s true because it happened to my wife.

She was in Tenerife and went shopping to the supermarket with her uncle. Her phone was in her handbag as they returned to the car with the trolley. She put her handbag on the passenger seat and shut the door, but didn’t lock it.

A thief opened the door and stole her handbag. Where was she at the time? She, and her uncle were just a few feet away loading up the shopping. Now, it wasn’t even a traditional boot that when raised, obscured the rest of the car. No, it was a door. The thief stole it right in front of their eyes.

Now, if this can happen to a sensible mature woman it can happen to anyone. Once gone, there is little to be done. Police? Rarely interested in this sort of crime abroad because they consider it not worthy of investigation.

As well as her phone, she lost her passport, driving license and all manner of important paperwork. The worst part of losing her phone was the fact that a few of the stored numbers were very important and irreplaceable. As indeed were the pictures of our (then newborn) baby grandson. All gone forever.

To rub salt into the wounds, the phone cost a small fortune to replace. She had no phone insurance and it wasn’t covered on the regular insurance. I would strongly advise everyone to insure your mobile phone. And backup the data on your phone before it’s lost forever.

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Everyone drinks every day - whether it is alcoholic or purely refreshment.

Everyone needs to use the toilet every day.

Most people – at least in the UK – use a washing machine  to wash their clothes.

And these 3 liquid environments account for the biggest part of ALL mobile phone water damage.

In fact, over 1.2 MILLION phones are killed by water damage every year.

So every day, every phone user is at risk from water damage.

One of our management team only this last week killed his phone by inadvertently dropping it in his kid’s bath without realising.

And it was dead, dead, dead within minutes.

And yes, he did claim through his mobile phone insurance - and had a new mobile phone within 48 hours.

The reality is, water or some form of liquid is all around us every day, everywhere we go.  Tea, coffee, water, beer, wine, the sea, the bath, the pool, a puddle…

The list is almost endless.

And ALL could kill your mobile phone.

This is why water damage is actually a far bigger killer of phones than most people realise.  With most (other) mobile phone insurance policies, water damage is not covered, so when those customers who are not covered for water damage drop their phone down the loo, some of them will claim their phone was “stolen” in order to use their insurance to get a new phone.

This is insurance fraud, completely illegal but it does happen.  It is a known crime particularly with the Metropolitan Police.  And this is why the phone theft crime figures are higher than they really should be – and why phone water damage figures are lower than they should be.

So the only sensible thing to do is make sure you have water damage cover within your mobile phone insurance