Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Storing phone numbers

I never thought about this.... very interesting.

A lady has 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've just 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When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account. (I'm not sure you can withdraw all the money, but you can lose a chunk of change.)

Moral of the story: 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... (only use real names). 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.

Good lesson here!

1 comment:

karen said...

Man, that's a new one! Thank you for all that info! I'll try to tell others about it too.