I was flirting with someone who stole my phone and locked me out of Google. It destroyed my digital life and years of work.

31.07.2024 - 10:22 / insider.com

I was days away from sending my agent the 35,000-word proposal for my second book when I decided to treat myself with a three-week adventure in Brazil.

There, locals repeated three words ad infinitum: mind your phone.

I was warned I'd be pickpocketed or mugged at gunpoint for it. For the first week in Rio de Janeiro, my phone barely left my Airbnb. While it was occasionally inconvenient to walk around without it, it was also refreshing; I'd long craved a digital detox.

Be careful what you wish for.

We then went to São Paulo, which I wanted to visit because of its huge LGBTQ+ Pride event. But my travel buddy and I were on high alert after hearing robbery stories. We needed a drink to settle our nerves.

We agonized about taking our phones. Should we risk being robbed while hailing a cab on a dangerous street? Or risk having our phones taken while trying to order an Uber? We decided to take them.

At the bar, there was disco music, a mirror ball, cocktails, and some friendly-seeming men dancing. I exhaled.

A man walked in. I thought his large neck tattoo made him look attractive; my buddy thought it made him look dodgy.

We got chatting, using Google Translate to navigate my poor Portuguese. I bought him a drink, we kissed, then returned to where my friend was and continued talking for the best part of an hour.

Suddenly, he grabbed my phone and ran out of the bar at breakneck speed.

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I gave chase but tripped, grazing my leg. The thief was gone. I felt humiliated. I didn't report it to the police. I'd heard this crime was so rife that they were unlikely to be able to do anything. My friend got us an Uber home; I passed out.

The next morning, I found out just how much he'd violated me.

I fired up my laptop. To my alarm, the thief had hacked into my Google account and changed the password, locking me out.

I never imagined a thief would rob my phone and hack my Google. I suspect he had experience doing this because he'd changed the phone's password before it could lock while Google was still open via the translator.

I then received a panicked call from my flatmate back home in Sydney. The thief had tried to remove all the money from a joint account with which we pay the mortgage. Luckily, he was unsuccessful. I've now triple-checked that I have Face ID set up for all my banking apps.

I bought a new smartphone the day after the theft; you can't survive more than 24 hours world without one. At the Apple store in São Paulo, the staff said they often saw people buying phones because their previous one was stolen the day before.

At first, I tried to get back into Google, but when that didn't work, decided to wait a few days before trying again. In the meantime, I changed every account linked to