Jan/Feb 2005

In the last six months, 63,135 mobile phones have been left behind by travellers in London taxis (an average of three phones per taxi), along with 5,838 Pocket PCs and 4,973 laptop computers. The figure for laptops has risen 71 per cent since 2001, while that for Pocket PCs is up 350 per cent. These are among findings of a nine-nation survey by computer security specialist Pointsec.

However, if you leave these devices on a taxi, you're quite likely to get them back. Globally an average of 80 per cent of passengers were reunited with their mobiles, the survey says, and 96 per cent with their Pocket PCs and laptops. But in Australia, for some reason, only 46 per cent bothered to reclaim their mobiles, and only 18 per cent recovered their laptops.

However, as Pointsec points out, users are less likely to recover mobile devices if they leave them in restaurants, airports or other public places. The solution, it says, is to lock down the security of the devices, using systems such as its own.