This lady has changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell 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 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When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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.
Along with that if you have an entry called 'Home' with your actual home phone number, it's not too hard to do a reverse lookup on the number to find the address. Now the robber has your home number, keys, and address. If you have the entry of 'Home' in your phone, you may want to consider changing that to something else.
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Not that the message is bad but Unless all the money they had in the bank account was like $400, then it's impossible to take all the money out, because ATMs limit the amounts available to each customer so they can cater to more customers. Imagine if you could pull $1000 at a time, you'd wipe out the machine if you stayed there and took all your money from it if your balance was say $5000. ATMS usually give you 20s.
ReplyDeleteI know I have a maximum amount I can withdrawl using my ATM card. I think I had it set 500 dollars. If my husband got a text message from me he would know its fake we never use text message not sure he would even know how to reply lol
ReplyDeleteIt's not the ATM that has the limit it is the card. Most banks have a limit of between 300 and 500 for debit cards. Credit Cards are different--a lot of them allow access to the full line. Check with your banks-set your limit as low as you think you will need. You can possibly request a temporary increase if you need it.
ReplyDeleteI had Verizon disable my phone's texting service. My reason was because I didn't want to pay for someone texting me when they could call me for free. However, this story shows me there's yet another value in having my phone's texting disabled!
ReplyDeletethe whole texting thing is stupid anyways, imo. what's the matter with making a real with that phone you're chained to?
ReplyDelete