Cell Phone no no's

[RiverPearl]

This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

GPS
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football match. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the carincluded a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

When the victims got home, they found that their house had beenransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean up the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.


MOBILE PHONE

I never thought of this.......
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.

20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our PIN number and I replied a little while ago.' When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Moral of the story:
1.Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc....

2.And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

3. Also, ( Nancy again - especially for women) when you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.

*PLEASE PASS THIS ON
* I never thought about THAT! As of now, I no longer have 'home' listed on my cell phone.

 

[TGreene]

I don't have GPS or need it, because I know my way home. While I have considered one for my motorcycle, I always resort back to questioning myself and asking "what the hell am I thinking..?"... The reason being the idea of having a motorcycle in the first place is to get lost, not found!

In regards to cell phones, both my wife and I despise texting, so we've had it turned off by our carrier, so only they can get a text through about something which either relates to service upgrades or an overdue bill.

Back in 1992 in had a permanent mount cell phone in my car which was left behind when my car was broken into. The thieves stole absolutely everything of any value, which included thousands in audio equipment. They actually attempted to place a call and then left the phone behind, because I had just turned off my phone account about a week earlier so it was worthless to them. Unfortunately however, it still had power and because they attempted to place a call, that number was stored into memory. I gave all of this to the police but they told me it was worthless for them to try to use an unknown number to attempt to trace a theft, so I set about doing it my own way...

After placing a lot of calls to different phone operators and pleading my case, I finally got a hold of a very sympathetic woman who had also just recently been broken into, so she gave me a full trace on the low-down, complete with a physical address.

Since this happened in the middle of the night around 2:30am according to the phone clock, I knew the number had to somehow be related to the the burglary, so I check out the physical address myself without obviously ever stopping.

I then contacted the police again with all of the new info, and when they visited the address, they made 2 arrests based upon a mountain of stolen property from unresolved cases throughout our community. The 2 scumbags were roommates, and it turns out 1 was calling the other to have him show up and help him strip our car and another car in our parking lot. Both were brought up on multiple felony charges, and when they got into court, the prosecutor dropped them down to misdemeanor petty theft with a slap on the wrist and 30 days house arrest. All of my stuff was eventually recovered after insurance had paid off on it, but they allowed me to keep it all anyway since I had broken the case.

Anyway, sometimes a cell phone can be a good thing!

-Tim

 

[siikik]

...and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

Precisely why you shouldn't leave anything of value in plain sight unless you don't care if it's no longer yours.

... They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house.

Another good reason to close it up and turn the garage into extra room.

I never thought of this.......
This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.

20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our PIN number and I replied a little while ago.' When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Something new to think about.

Moral of the story:
1.Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc....

Agreed. But make it more interesting... DO have those names in your phonebook but not the correct numbers.

2.And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

3. Also, ( Nancy again - especially for women) when you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.

Better yet... stop wasting time by texting. Make it a point to call in the first place if it's that important.

In case you're wondering, I have nicknames for everybody in my personal phone... no home, office or the like. If you can guess 'em, feel free to text 'em. But I am a subscriber to efficiency... unless I need to be discreet, I will call. So much more can be said in half the amount of time it takes me to text.

Now the Blackberry is a different story... it's a company phone and you have to get past a complex password to get to it. So no worries there... yes it's a headache, but it's worth it...

And don't forget, the first two calls should be to the police and your phone carrier... The latter will be able to track your phone if it's turned on... pity on the fool who steals a GPS enabled phone... he can get caught in minutes. For the rest of you, E911 will triangulate your position, and depending on how many towers are around, it can be fairly accurate in locating your phone. And you're thinking, "I don't have that feature turned on," right? Wrong. It's always on. To put it mildly, if you have a cell phone, you're on the grid.

It's part of my job to provide computer security for my company so I am always noticing the little things mentioned above and how easy it is to "defeat" some of the measures put in place to "protect" us.



Ken

 

[NudeDiver]

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football match. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the carincluded a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

Wow - what a bunch of idiots. Better to leave your car unlocked and nothing in there for anyone to steal. Let them come in, look around and find nothing interesting - and windows will remain unbroken as an added bonus.

20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our PIN number and I replied a little while ago.' When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Smells like bull**** to me. Unless they didn't have very much money in their account. There is a rather low daily limit on ATM withdraws. I'm guessing this whole story can be found on Snopes somewhere.

And don't forget, the first two calls should be to the police and your phone carrier... The latter will be able to track your phone if it's turned on... pity on the fool who steals a GPS enabled phone... he can get caught in minutes. For the rest of you, E911 will triangulate your position, and depending on how many towers are around, it can be fairly accurate in locating your phone.

You must have quite the police force. Ours isn't even going to go out of their way to find your stolen car. There is no chance of our police expending resources to look for your stolen cell phone.

 

[shawrg]

Riverpearl,

Thanks for reminding me that someone somewhere is thinking up novel ways to steal the few things that I have worked hard to get! I will certainly review these experiences with my family and make sure we are not vulnerable.

 

[NudeDiver]

I'm guessing this whole story can be found on Snopes somewhere.

I was right.

snopes.com: GPS Burglary

snopes.com: Bankcard PIN Theft by Text Message

 

[ekremer]

My iphone is setup with a password it's only 4 digits but after 10 tries bye bye there goes the data

As for the gps. Mine is also password protected. pretty useless to a criminal. but you should never give sensitive information over a text message, always on the phone or in person.
Seriously though does this woman forget a 4 digit number often?

 

[F106A]

My bank PIN only gets me $300 a day! But, seriously, the same thing happened to me just the other day, as I told the wife, and ALL of our savings were withdrawn. (I will be at ITK, Truk lagoon, the Red Sea, several liveaboards and EPCOT diving in the next year as well as buying a new Maybach, twin turbine Beech and a complete Callaway setup. Told SWMBO that it's "business travel." Wink, wink, nod, nod.) BTW, I make sure to check with Snopes when receiving emails that say, "verified by Snopes." Usually it's not or distorted or agonizingly outdated.

 

[RJP]

No need to pass on "well known internet myths" as true stories based on something "your friend" told you.

Pretty obvious that no one in the US would call a football game a "football match" - they'd either say "football game" or "soccer match" depending on whichever they were actually talking about.

 

[Cacia]

It did occur to me that it would be nice if your GPS had a password like your phone.

Hmmm...maybe I will put the police station under *home* and call my house *FBI stakeout*

My home address and garage door opener ARE in my car which is usually unlocked with my dog in the back....my very friendly dog. I was already looking at console vaults for my gun, so I guess i should hurry up....there are some very cool ones but all for American cars and trucks.

I want one of these:

http://www.truckstuffusa.com/consolevaults.html