You are hereBlog / what thieves can do with your GPS and cell phones
what thieves can do with your GPS and cell phones
I got the following story in one of those chain emails people get from time to time and I got to admit that it's pretty shocking what theives can do with your high-tech gadgets such as cell phones and GPS devices these days. Please share with your friends and family if you want them to be aware!
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 up the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.
Moral of the story: Keep GPS devices out of plain sight or even carry it with you to decrease the chance of theft. Consider deleting your GPS search histories when about to leave your car for long periods of time.
MOBILE PHONEA woman's handbag which contained her cell phone, credit cards, wallet, etc. was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her husband from a pay phone telling him what had happened, the husband tells her that "I received your text message asking about our ATM 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When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen.
Moral of the story: Be careful of what you name your contacts on your mobile devices and when sensitive info is being asked through text messaging, confirm by calling back. Make sure you have passwords on your devices for increased security. A general rule of thumb is to never keep confidential or important information on mobile devices.
Also, when you're being texted 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 IF YOU WISH TO SHARE THE LESSONS WITH OTHERS!
That is horrible and I am wondering what can save us. I think all of us habitual to this and we do that all the time. Thanks for sharing those horrible stories. Perhaps these can save us.
[...] what thieves can do with your GPS and cell phones | spiffy[d] (spiffyd.com) - February 04, 2009 more Spiffy delicious links ... [...]
I think the limit is higher because I recall being able to withdraw up to $400 from my ATM before. Also, yesterday, I was able withdraw $300 from my Wells Fargo ATM.
But in any case, what would stop the thief from going in person into the bank to withdraw more than the ATM limit? All they ask is for you to swipe the debit card, sign a Withdrawal form, and punch in the 4-digit pin. The signature is on the back of all credit cards so I assume they may be able to copy and forge that signature.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/intent/gps.asp
also, atm machines have a limit of $250 or so, which means the person's savings must have been this amount or less.