Not All Burglars Are Stupid
Not all burglars and thieves are stupid. Some of them use your electronic technology to rob you. The following are two examples of burglars using your vehicle’s GPS and your mobile phone to get what they want…to break into your home or your bank’s ATM.
Burglar uses GPS to Find your Home
The hypothetical incident:
While attending a football game, their car was broken into. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control and a GPS navigation device, 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 burglars 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 burglars 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.
Lesson learned:
Most people enter and save their home address in their GPS device to use conveniently as a destination when returning from some place afar.
If you have a GPS device – don’t enter your home address as a favorite place or in it’s address book. An alternative to this is to enter a nearby address instead (like a store or a gas station) so you can use it safely on a return trip.
Many GPS units have password options; turn it on. Unless you know the code, you can’t get past the login screen.
Rely more on maps and memory, than GPS… although it certainly is convenient!
Thief uses Mobile Phone to Get your Pin
The hypothetical incident:
Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.
20 minutes later when she called her hubby from another phone telling him what had happened, hubby said, “I received your text message asking about our Pin number and I replied a little while ago.”
(Oops!)
When they quickly went online to check their balance, they discovered that an ATM had been used to withdraw $500! The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text ‘hubby’ in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 10 minutes he had withdrawn the money from an ATM.
Lesson learned:
She has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone. Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.
Though most mobile phones today require a password to unlock, just be sure you’re using that feature…
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 receive a text message from friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message is actually from them. If you don’t reach them, be very careful about going places to meet ‘family and friends’ who text you.
Continue reading: 7 Mistakes that Burglars Love You To Make
