Be Safe

[newsboysgrl777]

Just got this in an email and thought I''d pass it along.




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 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.

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''ve 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When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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 import ant ly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.
Also, 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

 

[Kaleigh]

THANK YOU!!! I need to pass this on to a lot of people.

 

[Lulie]

OMG, thanks for posting

 

[MichelleCarmen]

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.

Stuff like these stories do happen, but I think the second is an urban legend because most banks have an ATM limit of how much you can withdrawl per day and it''s unlikely that someone would be able to withdrawl all the funds. Usually it''s around $3-500 limit.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Date: 2/9/2009 11:12:03 AM
Author: MC

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.

Stuff like these stories do happen, but I think the second is an urban legend because most banks have an ATM limit of how much you can withdrawl per day and it''s unlikely that someone would be able to withdrawl all the funds. Usually it''s around $3-500 limit.

Ditto MC - the bank would probably do some extra verification, and unless you keep your social security number in your wallet I think they''d notice something was up.

But this is a good reminder to always be aware of what''s going on around you, don''t leave your valuables in plain sight in your car, and guard your personal financial information carefully!

 

[newsboysgrl777]

MC, you''re probably right. That one doesn''t concern me nearly as much as the first one. I mean, we don''t have a garage and therefore no garage door opener, but we do sometimes keep the GPS up in the window...and it''s ''registered'' with our address as default and so on...so it''s so easy to see how it can happen! crazy!!

As for the cell phone thing, it''s just too bad people are so dishonest and stuff. Honestly, you can''t protect yourself against EVERYTHING (for instance, I have ICE listed with some of my contacts there...just in case police or something need to know who to contact "In Case of Emergency" if anything happens to me, but my phone is recovered), so right there someone could figure out WHO to contact...but I''m not about to take that out of there because I feel like my safety (or contacting someone) is more important than being paranoid about someone getting a hold of my phone. However, it''s good advice not to text sensitive information. I also realized that I have FIs bank acct # in my ''notes'' section of my phone bc I use his account all the time to deposit $ and we dont want to put my name on the account yet (credit reasons)..so I should probably totally remove that. (It doesn''t say WHICH bank or even that it IS a bank, but still...I''ve got my ATM cards in my wallet, so if my purse is stolen, they''ll get both :-\)

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

GPS systems are the new ''in'' thing to break into cars for. We always take ours with us and put the cords, etc out of sight in the car. Any hint of a GPS will give people reason to break in...

 

[tlh]

also theives can get your address from your vehicles registration in your glove box... a gps just gives them to the door directions.

 

[musey]

Yikes!

Good thing we don''t have a GPS

I agree on the withdrawal limit thing... ours has a $300 limit, at least. I''m sure different banks have different limits, but I doubt someone could "clean out" a bank account anywhere.

Also, who on earth would respond to a text like that?! Maybe we''re just extra paranoid/careful living in a large city.

 

[geckodani]

Date: 2/9/2009 11:45:14 AM
Author: Hudson_Hawk
GPS systems are the new ''in'' thing to break into cars for. We always take ours with us and put the cords, etc out of sight in the car. Any hint of a GPS will give people reason to break in...

Ditto, I pull mine off and hide all cords etc. My car''s a pit anyway most of the time, so there''s plenty to hide it in.

 

[Italiahaircolor]

We were actually advised about the GPS thing by our car dealership...and made "home" the dealership. Haha.

The phone thing is smart, tho. Very good ideas

 

[studyer83]

I think (and others will certainly disagree) that it is safer to have your husband, mom, best friend, etc clearly listed in your cell in case of emergency. So someone might text them for the PIN - they shouldn''t send it by text.

In an emergency, I want the police, a friend, whoever, to be able to know who my ICE contacts are. This, to me, is more important than the risk that someone might use my contacts for nefarious purposes.

I don''t know, I just can''t be concerned about everything. Getting in the car to drive anywhere is dangerous enough alone, I just don''t fret about things like who might contact my husband with my cell if he is clearly labeled as such.

This kind of reminds me of this: http://www.foogazi.com/2006/10/20/family-car-decals-are-they-dangerous/
In general, we are concerned about low risk, but understandably traumatic events, and we overreact. In 1999, there were only 115 "stereotypical kidnappings" or stranger-abductions (http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/196467.pdf). I do not mean to diminish the problem or suggest that there is no cause for concern - abductions are terrifying and dangerous - just that these, like concerns that someone might text my husband for a pin, are low-risk events.

 

[April20]

I ran this thru snopes and it came back as partly true. You can read the breakdown here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/intent/gps.asp

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 2/9/2009 11:53:39 AM
Author: tlh
also theives can get your address from your vehicles registration in your glove box... a gps just gives them to the door directions.

To be on the safe side, my registration is addressed to a PO BOX. Actually, up until when I moved, all mail was sent there including my credit card and bank statements.

Kind of scary, but about four years ago, I ran my credit and on my report it stated that the address I had lived at was listed as one where someone had stolen someone's identity! That was when I got the PO Box.