Electronic Security

The information I’m about to provide was based on an e-mail I received a couple of weeks back.  I have not been able to confirm the information, yet, it makes sense to me that someone will use the techniques.  Therefore, consider that while the new technological advances are making our lifes easier there is always a risk that you could be putting your life and goods in jeopardy if you are not been careful.

“THIS GIVES US SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT WITH ALL OUR NEW ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY.

Global Positioning Systems – 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 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 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 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.

Cell Phones
 

I’d never thought of this…….

This lady has now changed her ‘habit’ of how she lists the 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 got your text asking for our pin number and I texted you back a little while ago.’  When they rushed down to the bank, the staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 through him got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

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 SENT A 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.”