London taxi passengers have left more than 60,000 hand-held devices in the back of black cabs during the past six months, a survey has found. Some 55,843 mobile phones and 6,193 other devices, such as laptops, were forgotten, Credant Technologies found. This revelation calls into question the authenticity of claims by 15,000 visitors to London each year that their laptops have been stolen. After all, few employees would be brave enough to admit that they neglectfully left a laptop in a cab!New devices - including mobiles, MP3 players and memory sticks - have the capacity to store tens of thousands of documents or pictures and millions of contacts and emails, making them a target for identity theft criminals and hackers.
A survey by credit reference agency Equifax in April suggested 16% of its customers stored PIN numbers on their mobile devices while 24% recorded birthday dates – making it easy for ID thieves to clone identities.
