The story behind TheftResponse
Built after a robbery in São Paulo, this is the crisis playbook I wish I'd had that night.
The incident
February 24, 2026, 22:00. I was robbed at gunpoint in São Paulo. Two assailants on a motorcycle took my iPhone while I was using it. By the time I got home, new logins were appearing from unfamiliar locations, withdrawals were processing, and I was watching my accounts drain in real time. Crypto gone. Bank account compromised. My partner's accounts hit too.
The panic
In those first 90 minutes, I had no idea what to do first. Freeze the card? Call the bank? Report the SIM? Lock the crypto exchange? Every minute I spent figuring out the order was another minute the thief had access. There was no checklist. No guide. No calm voice telling me the steps.
Building the checklist
After the incident, I documented everything I wish I'd known. I created a checklist: the exact order of calls to make, which accounts mattered most, which institutions would actually refund you. I shared it with friends. They used it. Other people asked for it. The checklist worked, but it had a problem: a PDF file doesn't know your accounts. It doesn't know what you're at risk for. It can't tell you which steps apply to you and which don't.
The realisation
People kept asking: “But is my phone vulnerable this way?” “Will my bank actually refund me?” “Do I need to do this step or that one?” The checklist was useful in a crisis, but it was generic. And in those 90 minutes when everything is falling apart, you don't want generic. You want specific. You want to know your own exposure before the crisis happens.
I realised the checklist needed to become an app. An app that knows your accounts, knows your devices, knows which institutions protect you and which don't, and tells you exactly what to do in order, for your situation, in the panic.
Building TheftResponse
So I started over. I mapped your financial exposure before anything happens. I built an incident mode that walks you through the exact steps in the right order. I created a recovery tracker to help you claim your money back.
Exposure Audit
Shows you your financial vulnerability before anything happens. Not what you should do (everyone knows that). But what you would actually lose, and which accounts have real protection.
Incident Mode
Tells you exactly what to do in order, for your devices, with your accounts. No decision-making in the panic. Just the next step.
Recovery Tracker
Helps you claim back your money. Because getting robbed is the crime. Losing the recovery is the failure.
The mission
Phone theft is one of the most common crimes in the world. But the phone is almost never the target. The target is everything the phone unlocks. Your money. Your identity. Your accounts.
Most people know they should lock their phone. What they don't know is that this happens to thousands of people every month, and most will lose money that could have been recovered. They'll panic. They'll skip critical steps. They'll spend weeks fighting with banks and exchanges.
TheftResponse exists so that no one else has to face that night without a plan.
— Victoria