Not All Thieves Are Stupid
Here is 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 game. Their car was parked on the green
that 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
that 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.
Something to consider if you have a GPS, don’t put your home address in it.
Put a nearby address (like a store or a 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.
MOBILE PHONES
Another friend 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When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes, he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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.
Most importantly, when sensitive information is being requested through texts, CONFIRM by calling back. 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.
Better safe than sorry.