watch this without blinking passwords photographs private information all gone in a split second phone snatching has become so common some people have had it happen to them more than once where do I begin so I had two phones stolen both times from busy streets in central London just a distress you know the thought you're you're left helpless you know there's nothing you can do can't get home you can't call anyone I've got pictures of my my my passport my home address my mom's home address my dad's address like many victims Abdul began getting messages urging him to remotely wipe his phone's security settings they pretend that it comes from Apple support the third message is when he starts to threaten me and this is like yeah I'm going to wreck your life blah blah blah you're going to be destroyed I've killed far less for effing phone blah blah blah I know where you live your whole family going to be slaughtered beating r i mean yeah yeah and then he sends this video with a with a guy with a with with a gun these messages may be familiar to thousands of others last year 78,000 phones and bags were snatched from streets across England and Wales and like in Abdul's case many of them are taken out of the country both of his phones ended up here at an address at hyang South Road in shenzen in China they're paying there multiple times before it finally you went dead phone thefts tend to happen by thieves on overpowered illegal ebikes and while a phone is reported stolen every seven minutes in England and Wales only 1% of thefts result in a charge we just picked them up on camera in the city of London Police control room thieves are chased down by cameras as soon as a call comes in generally the people that take them they are affiliated to gangs some of the time uh they're generally young people so it's where we start talking about County Line influences the size in the sheer scale of it nationally now it's got to be well organized stolen phones can be used to access bank details money emails and social media data but staying ahead of criminals isn't straightforward if you're a normal person you'll have three or four cards maybe to cancel plus maybe 30 or 40 passwords to change and a Sim doing that on a phone when you can't do your auth through your app that can take you a few hours meaning that the criminal has that long to use those credentials the government says it wants to take on the illegal Market it's convening tech companies phone manufacturers and police Chiefs to explore ideas Abdul says he's learned to stay safe in public keeping his focus on his surroundings sardia chadri Sky News in London