Electronic Technology

[lilhave]

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 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'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money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank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 importantly, 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. I never thought about THAT! As of now, I no longer have 'home'
listed on my cell phone.

Harvey

[Chocoholic]

That's some scary stuff to think about. You just can't trust people these days.

[phoebe7165]

Wow, I never thought of that about the cell phone!! I took a look at my address book on my phone. I don't have "Home" on there, but I do have "Mom". Everybody else has a name. Still, they could always look at your most recent calls and see who you communicate with alot. It really is a shame it comes to this.

I actually was able to find the owner of a lost cell phone through recent calls. This guy, too, did the smart thing and put names in his address book rather than HOME or WIFE. But I still was able to get in contact with his wife, who was able to get in touch with him. He was staying at a nearby hotel

[TripperFan]

I use a Blackberry and ALWAYS have it password protected in the event it gets lost or stolen.

If you have a phone that has that ability - USE IT!!!

And another thing, if you have your photos on your phone, make sure you also have copies on your laptop or desktop. A girlfriend of mine lost her daughters phone which contained one of a kind pictures of a birthday party back in her native Phillipines. She was as much upset about losing those as she was about privacy protection.