Imagine this: You’re at a bar with your friends, enjoying a drink and chatting. You take out your Iphone to check something and enter your passcode. You don’t notice the person behind you who’s watching your every move and memorizing your passcode. A few minutes later, they snatch your iPhone from your hand and run away.

You might think that’s bad enough, but it gets worse. Within minutes, the thief has used your passcode to gain access to your iPhone and change your Apple ID password, which enables them to disable Find My, make purchases using Apple Pay, gain access to passwords stored in iCloud Keychain, and scan through Photos for pictures of documents that contain a Social Security number or other details that could be used for identity theft.

This is not a hypothetical scenario. It’s a real threat that has been happening across the US. The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern has been hearing from victims who have lost thousands of dollars and their entire digital lives after their iPhones were stolen with the thieves obtaining their passcodes.