Facing facts: Police say thieves in downtown Boston and Chinatown using phone facial recognition to unlock the phones they've just stolen

Boston Police report thieves downtown and successful the Theater District are robbing radical of their phones, past holding up the phones to their victims' faces to usage the "Face ID" diagnostic to unlock them.

Police picture 1 specified incident, involving an iPhone robbery extracurricular 224 Tremont St. adjacent Stuart Street, astir 2:30 a.m. connected Aug. 7:

The unfortunate reported that helium was successful the country erstwhile helium was surrounded by 3 chartless achromatic antheral suspects, astir successful their 20’s. The unfortunate reported that 1 of the males forcibly took his cellphone from his manus earlier fleeing the country connected foot. Detectives stated that the fishy past returned to the transgression country and held up the stolen telephone to the victim's look to unlock it with the ‘Face ID’ feature. The pursuing time the unfortunate discovered respective of his fiscal accounts had been compromised, resulting successful aggregate fraudulent charges.

Police adhd they are investigating respective different akin robberies successful the area. Although the incidental progressive an iPhone, immoderate Android phones besides let for facial unlocking.

Police connection immoderate tips, starting with utilizing a passcode alternatively of your look to unlock your phone. Also, don't person your telephone retrieve your logins and passwords for accounts connected banking and different fiscal sites and apps. And if your telephone does get stolen, either usage a "Lost" diagnostic to disable oregon ceramic it - and past alteration your fiscal passwords arsenic soon arsenic you can.