"Technology gone wild" When technology gets used against us...

[Charade]

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


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 When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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.

 

[bumbershoot]

Ooh that cell phone one is painful. (the GPS one is too, but we don't have a GPS and even from the garage our building is secure with nosy neighbors who yell at movers who block the elevator so I'm not personally worried about that one)

Though aren't we supposed to have an ICE person (in case of emergency) listed on our phone??? Making names cryptic would slow down ER staff in contacting important people, yes?

 

[GoodFairies]

http://www.snopes.com/crime/intent/gps.asp

While this certainly could happen, the fact is that 99.9% of car break-ins happen for quick cash/and easily sellable items, not to find information for further break-ins.

 

[NotUrsula]

Snopes has an article on both of these, they are only partially true:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/intent/gps.asp
http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/pintheft.asp

IMO, both of these apocryphal stories demonstrate a slightly different moral than the ones given.

1. Don't marry anyone who would be stupid enough to give out a PIN for a bank account without speaking to you directly. For that matter, don't matter anyone who isn't on the ball enough to keep track of a bank account PIN for him/her self.

2. NEVER leave a GPS (or the mount, or the mark from the mount) in view in your vehicle. That's like posting a big sign on it that says "break in; I contain valuable and easily-fenced electronics!" We take the GPS and carry it when we leave the vehicle, or lock it in the cargo lockbox, and we don't use a mount at all.