October 4, 2009
Helping Criminals Steal Your Stuff
THINK ABOUT NEW ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY.
GPS:
A couple of weeks ago someone had their car
broken into while they were at a football game.
Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium
and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car
included 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 been ransacked
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 out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty
the house of its contents.
IF YOU HAVE A GPS - DON'T PUT YOUR HOME ADDRESS IN IT.
PUT A NEARBY ADDRESS (LIKE A STORE OR GAS STATION) SO YOU CAN STILL FIND
YOUR WAY HOME IF YOU NEED TO, BUT NO ONE ELSE WOULD KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE IF
YOUR GPS WERE STOLEN.
CELL PHONES:
One woman changed 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 husband from a pay phone telling him
what had happened, he said '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was already withdrawn.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minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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 lesson:
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. AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, WHEN SENSITIVE INFO IS
BEING ASKED THROUGH TEXTS, CONFIRM BY CALLING BACK.
WHEN YOU'RE SENT A 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.
THINK ABOUT NEW ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY.
GPS:
A couple of weeks ago someone had their car
broken into while they were at a football game.
Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium
and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car
included 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 been ransacked
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 out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty
the house of its contents.
IF YOU HAVE A GPS - DON'T PUT YOUR HOME ADDRESS IN IT.
PUT A NEARBY ADDRESS (LIKE A STORE OR GAS STATION) SO YOU CAN STILL FIND
YOUR WAY HOME IF YOU NEED TO, BUT NO ONE ELSE WOULD KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE IF
YOUR GPS WERE STOLEN.
CELL PHONES:
One woman changed 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 husband from a pay phone telling him
what had happened, he said '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 lesson:
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. AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, WHEN SENSITIVE INFO IS
BEING ASKED THROUGH TEXTS, CONFIRM BY CALLING BACK.
WHEN YOU'RE SENT A 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.
Labels:
Cell Phones,
Garage Door Openers,
GPS,
Technology,
Text-Messaging
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment