Not all thieves are stupid. - A warning
 

Got this in an email this morning--

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 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.


MOBILE PHONES
I never thought of this.......

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 When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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

Thank you for this important information. Clever bad guys

Wow, great tips and very sad for the victim this happened to.
Pat

thanks for the warning. the convenience of electronics can definitely work against you.

Thanks for the warning. I will share the info.

I am a little suspicious of the part where the bad guys withdrew "all" their money from the bank account... Every bank account I've ever had access to, both personal and (as a bookkeeper) business, has a $300 daily limit.

But the advice is good. My husband is listed by his name in my cell phone, I do not leave my GPS in my car, and my home address is not "home", it's simply another address.

thanks for sharing :)

You can't be too careful. I had my debit card number stolen and I'm still wondering how. They say the Internet it can be done easily, so please be careful.

I think I would have called the police. Especially if I saw a truck with people moving things out and none of the people were the ones that owned the house. Even more so if I never saw a For Sale sign. I'm sure someone in the neighborhood talked to those neighbors.

I got a check for $5,000.00 in the mail a few years ago that asked me to cash the check and keep $1,000.00. I checked the bank, the signature name, address, etc. There was a bank by that name at that address and the signature on the check was from the President of the bank. I immediately called the bank and the law in Texas. They asked me to send the check to them, but void it first. Nope, not doing that. So I told them until I knew for sure what to do I'll just send a copy and keep the original until needed. Long story short, there was a ring of people living in a motel there sending out checks from various banks, they did catch them and I did send the original check and the thugs are serving time as we speak.

Sick people out there. Had I been stupid enough to cash that check I would have had to cover the entire $5,000.00!

Your insurance card has your address on it, is easier to grab than the GPS is to turn on, and is required to be in the vehicle.
and as for giving pin numbers... my pin number is not the same as hubbies pin number... and if he sent me a text message asking me for his pin number I think I would be calling him back to check if he had whacked his head or something.
I will still have family members listed as who/what they are because if something happens to me instead of meaningless names, EMT's or whoever will have ICE/hubby, and MOM to call.

Great tips..thank you for sharing.

I use a debit card for purchases but the first time I used it at the ATM to save time Well I messed up I only wanted $100 and got $1000 -I no longer have that kind of money-so I had to go in and return the excess and the teller said the only limit is whats left in the ATM machine and the customer has to set up a daily limit for ATM withdrawals

How bizarre. It is exactly the opposite in my area of the country. If you want to withdraw more than $300, you have to go into the branch and arrange it with the bank/credit union, which then makes using the ATM pretty much useless. Might as well just make a withdrawal right there at the counter.

My insurance card does not have my home address printed on it, but my registration from the DMV does, and that HAS been stolen from my vehicle. It's also required by law to be in my vehicle, so I'm not sure how you get around that, unless you hide it somewhere good (and thereby make the police officer who pulled you over verrrry nervous when he asks for your registration).

I think my bank has a $300 daily limit for ATM by default - and that includes debit with pin # --- I had to call them and have that changed, since everything over a weekend technically posts to the following business day $300 isn't much on a long weekend - I can spend more than that in 1 grocery shopping trip! The daily limit on debit as credit card was $1000 I think too... I did notice the ATM itself has a $500/transaction limit now. I think that's more to keep you from emptying the machine than anything. But, the bank sets the policy.

Oh, I was talking about cash withdrawals, not point-of-sale transactions. Point-of-sale can go as high as you want. However, you can only withdraw $300 CASH maximum per day. So, if someone were to steal your card and get your pin, the most they could withdraw from your account would be $300 per day. However, if they were able to successfully use your debit card to make purchases, then the amount is unlimited (or limited to what's in the account).

Great info!!!

My bank doesn't group it to cash/purchase - they lump it in pin/non-pin. So ATM and pin purchases both come out of the same limit - so a $300 limit would include the $40 I took out of the ATM and the $200 I spent on groceries. Silly banks

Okay now THAT would get me to change banks. lol

Oh my goodness.... I never thought of any of these sneaky idea. I guess I wouldn't make a very good thief.

But seriously, many thanks for the tips. I'm going to post on my facebook.

My sister's car was stolen while she was at work. Using her address from her registration, they drove the car to her home, opened the garage door, drove in, closed the garage door, and then stole whatever they wanted from her home. Opened the garage door, and drove away. When she called the police from work, they told her NOT to go into her house until the police met her there. Seems this is not uncommon.

DH always keeps the registration in his wallet. I think we will put the insurance paper in there too.

No GPS, no garage, no garage door, no garage door opener - sometimes it pays to be poor!!

Thanks to you and the story, we are now educated. I will be passing this on.

This is a continuing trend. They prey on people in their time of need. If anything sound too good to be true it usually is. Be careful as far as limits on bank atm's, you can increase your daily limit at the bank,but do so with caution.

They could also get you address from your vehicle registration, which most people keep in the glove box.

Thanks for the info!
Blessings,
MaryAnna

Scary stuff out there! I have my husband in my cell phone under: 'ICE' (with his name listed not hubby or husband) which stands for 'in case of emergency'. I read somewhere several years ago that emergency personnel look for emergency contacts under that heading. I have my daughter listed as 'ICE 2' for a second contact.

Some friends of friends said that while they were at a football game their car was broken into. They lost the huge box on the back seat. They thought this was very funny as a) the thieves left clear fingrprints on their car but not on the others the broke into that day and b) the box was one they had created to fit the max size of an embassy bag. It was filled with toilet paper, rolls smashed for max content. things rarely turn out that well.

BTW, I have gotten literally hundreds of calls "about your credit account" and about "your mortgage". I don't have one of either. Our state atty general says that office has been swamped with calls on these, all after ID info.

So sad we have to be so wary of everything but better safe than sorry!!!

This is an urban myth. It is certainly worth putting "home" on your mobile phone in case you are unconscious after an accident and police are looking for your next of kin. This is much more likely to happen the scenario copied here.

Snopes rates this as partially true, not an urban myth. It has happened to several people.

I don't have a GPS but if I did I would put the center of my town as "Home." I don't think you need directions from there to get to your house.

Yep thanks for the advice. You can never be to careful.

I was thinking about this business of people being able to get your credit and debit card numbers without having to actually having your cards, using a gadget and passing close to you. Now explain to me, with two debit cards, a Visa, a Sams, a Lowes, and half a dozen other things with embeded numbers....library cards from two states, etc...just how do they sort out all those numbers?

Good question.

Very useful info. Thanks a million.

Regardless of what Snopes says or even whether you want to label it an urban myth or not, both scenarios the OP posted are very real possibilities. And trust me, if you have an accident where you are unconscious, even if you don't have your next of kin identified as such in your phone, the police will figure it out. (Afterall, they managed before cell phones and GPS's existed, so I think they can do it now as well :) ) I think it's far more important in today's society to be as safe as possible out there and it only takes a few easy precautions, like the OP mentioned, to stay just a bit safer. So thanks for the info - it's much appreciated!!

I work at a bank and also question this. Large withdrawals are a red flag. We're required (by the FDIC, not just the bank) to be on the lookout for fraud and report it. Also, we know our customers pretty well. Still, you can't be too careful these days.

Good info. As far as texting goes, I'm safe there, I don't know how to, and can't received them either. I opted out.

Luvs2so, something similar happened to me about a year ago. I got a check in the mail, supposedly from CitiBank, for an amount over $3,000 and a letter telling me I had 'won' this. Hmmm...sounded good, but the check, although it looked legit on the front, didn't look like a normal check on the back. DH was with me at the time, and said the same. I called the CitiBank 800 number, spoke with a representative, who was very helpful, and told me, "M'am, that sounds like a scam" and told me to call my local law enforcement. I did, and found out a number of people had been duped. The 'winners' were asked to deposit the check, keep a certain amount, and Western Union the balance to a place somewhere offshore. There was also a phone number to call which didn't match anything in the continental U.S. Like you, had I fallen for that malarkey, I would've been responsible for the entire amount.

That's why we like our caller ID so much! We don't pick up on numbers we don't recognize, or even on some numbers we DO recognized, as they've called before, and are just after donations to causes we do not suscribe to. We also have had calls from mortgage companies and those "about your credit acount"...