Magnus Ahmad, who has 15 years of experience in the crypto industry, lost approximately $14,000 in total from his crypto assets and other financial accounts in a theft after handing his unlocked phone to a stranger in London.
Former crypto executive Ahmad told CoinDesk that his phone was stolen on August 8 in the Hackney neighborhood of east London. Ahmad, who now works in AI training, handed his unlocked iPhone to someone he was chatting with outside a bar so they could save his phone number more quickly. At that moment, a third person snatched the phone and ran off.
As Ahmad chased the thief, his loss was not limited to his phone. According to his account, it took about seven hours to regain access to his accounts and freeze his cards.
Losses spanning crypto wallets and cards
Shortly after the theft, which took place just after 1 a.m., the crypto assets in his MetaMask wallet were being converted and transferred by 1:53 a.m. His Phantom and Bybit accounts were also accessed. By 3:22 a.m., six unauthorized transactions had been made on his cards, including more than $2,000 in purchases at the Costcutter grocery chain.
The attackers also opened leveraged crypto positions worth approximately $44,000 in Ahmad’s eToro account. These trades resulted in more than $800 in losses and costs. No $44,000 was withdrawn from Ahmad’s account; the figure refers to the total size of the positions opened.
According to Ahmad’s calculations, approximately $9,500 of the total loss came from crypto assets, while nearly $3,000 resulted from unauthorized card purchases. Including the losses and costs on eToro, the total loss reached approximately $14,000. By the time he managed to freeze his accounts and cards, he had protected larger bank balances and other crypto assets.
His biggest regret was chasing the thief
Looking back, Ahmad says the first thing he should have done was secure his accounts from another device, rather than chase the thief. He believes the time spent chasing the thief and then seeking help gave the attackers an opportunity to transfer money and change account access details.
He emphasizes the importance of accessing an Apple or Google account from another device to remotely lock the phone and mark it as lost in a similar situation. Ahmad also says it is important to contact banks and the mobile carrier quickly, and notes that filing a police report matters when seeking reimbursement from financial institutions. These steps do not guarantee that stolen money will be recovered.
After what happened, Ahmad has started carrying an older iPhone with only a few apps when he goes out, linked to a separate Apple account. His concerns are not limited to financial loss: because photos of his and his relatives’ identity documents were also on his phone, he worries that their personal information could be misused in the future.
Not investment advice.