Phone Security Reset in Clare
Scam call, remote access, or a phone that feels like someone else is on it. A full erase and clean reinstall, about an hour, £24.
A scam call that got a screen-sharing app onto your phone leaves one safe option, which is to erase the phone and start it again as new.
Bring it over from Clare and you can take it home clean in about an hour, with a report for the device. Our only shop is at 3 Queen Street in Haverhill, about 15 minutes away, and there is no appointment, so a trip over fits into a morning. The people who arrive have usually been told by their bank to do exactly this, after a caller talked them into installing something, or a missed-parcel text led them to a page that took their details. Before you come, find your Apple Account or Google Account password, because the phone will not set up again without it, and change the passwords that matter from a different device. If you cannot get over, ask for a free tracked mail-in label and post it to us.
How does a security reset work from Clare?
The reset itself is the easy part. The passwords and the backup are what people forget, and without them the phone comes back clean but empty.
Save your passwords, then back up
Your Apple Account or Google Account password first, because it is what gets you back in after the erase, then every other login you use. Check iCloud Backup or Google backup and photo sync are on before you set off: everything on the device is erased, and what comes back is what was synced.
Bring it or send it
Walk into 3 Queen Street from Clare or ask us for a free tracked label. No appointment needed for a walk-in.
Full erase and clean install
We wipe the device completely and reinstall the operating system fresh, so nothing a scammer installed or changed survives. About an hour.
Back to you, set up as new
You get it back running a clean install, ready to sign in with your own account. Set it up as new rather than restoring a backup from before the scam. Want us to do that part and move your data back? That is our separate Data Transfer service, £24.
What does the reset clear?
Anything that lives on the device. Remote-access apps a caller talked you into installing, apps you do not recognise, management profiles, changed settings, and whatever else was put there. The storage is erased and the operating system goes back on clean, so there is nothing for it to hide in. That includes anything you would call a virus: on a modern phone the erase destroys the encryption keys, so what was on the storage is unreadable afterwards, named or not, and the NCSC's advice for a phone that may be infected is exactly this, a factory reset rather than a scan.
What will a security reset not fix?
It does not change your passwords or secure your bank account. If someone had your phone, treat your email and banking logins as seen: change them from another device, turn on two-step verification, and speak to your bank on 159. Our guide on what to do if your phone is hacked walks through the order.
Laptop or desktop involved as well? See our Mac repair and laptop repair pages.
How much is a security reset in Clare?
The price is read live from our repair pages. Pick your exact model on any of them and the Security Reset row is listed with the other repairs.
More in Clare
The same shop handles the rest of the phone too: screens and batteries, buying your old handset, and console repairs, all for Clare.
Why do people in Clare come to us for this?
An hour, a fixed price, certified erasure software and a report to show the bank, from a shop close enough to walk into.
Walk in, about an hour
Bring it to 3 Queen Street, Haverhill, about 15 minutes from our Haverhill workshop. About an hour start to finish.
Free tracked mail-in
Prefer to post it? Ask us for a free tracked label to print, or packaging with the label already on it, and the phone comes back the same way.
Everything erased, nothing left behind
A full erase and a clean reinstall of the operating system, not a settings reset.
One fixed price, £24
The same price on any phone or tablet, agreed before we start.
4.9 out of 5
across 767 reviews on Trustpilot, Google and Facebook
Scam calls in Clare
Clare is a small, settled town of period houses, the castle and country park, and independent businesses around the market square, and a good share of the people living here are retired or commute out for work. Suffolk Police put fraud at more than 40 per cent of all crime recorded in the county, and courier fraud in Suffolk cost victims £364,763 across 43 reports in the year to March 2025, most of them older people who trusted a caller claiming to be the bank or the police. For a retired couple sharing one iPad, or anyone running a gallery, an antiques shop or a cafe in Clare from a single phone, a device a scammer has had access to is not something to keep using and hope for the best.
Sources: Suffolk News, 18 June 2026: Suffolk courier fraud figures for the year to March 2025 ; Suffolk News, 27 May 2026: fraud as more than 40 per cent of recorded crime in Suffolk
Find our Haverhill shop
| Monday | 9am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 5pm |
| Friday | 9am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 10am - 1pm |
| Sunday | Closed |
Security reset from other towns
Same shop, same hour, same price. Each town has its own page with what to bring and how people get it to us from there.
Clare security reset questions
We only have the one iPad between us. How long will we be without it?
About an hour if you bring it over to Haverhill, which from Clare is about 15 minutes each way, so you are home again before lunch. Posting it means a few days without it, which is why nearly everyone from Clare drives over. If the iPad is how you reach the bank, make the calls you need to from a landline or a family member's phone first.
I gave the caller my card details but did not install anything. Is the phone affected?
Probably not, and we will say so if that is the case. Card details given over the phone are a problem for the bank and the card, not the handset. Ring your bank on 159, have the card stopped, and report it to Report Fraud. If at any point you tapped a link, read out a code from a text, or let the caller guide you through the phone's settings, bring it in and we will check.
Can you set it all up again for me afterwards?
Yes, as our separate Data Transfer service, booked alongside the reset. We sign the clean device in with you, bring back the photos, contacts and messages from your Apple or Google account and reinstall the apps you actually use. It is priced on its own because some people prefer to do that part at home with a cup of tea.
Why not just delete the app the caller made me install?
Because you would be assuming that was all they did. Twenty minutes with your screen is long enough to change a setting, add a profile or set up forwarding you would never notice. Which? and the NCSC both say the same thing about a phone a scammer has had access to: a factory reset, not a tidy-up. The erase removes everything, whether or not anyone knows its name.
Do you need the phone's passcode?
On an iPhone or iPad, no: the erase runs from a computer and we never need to be inside your phone. On an Android phone the erase tool runs on the handset, so it has to be unlocked for a few minutes, and you can type the passcode in yourself at the counter. What everyone needs afterwards is their Apple Account or Google Account password, because the phone demands it after the wipe before anyone can use it, and that includes you.
Book a security reset from Clare
Walk into 3 Queen Street with your account password to hand, or ask us for a free tracked label. About an hour, £24, any phone or tablet.