My aunt sent me an email forward just now and it stuck a chord with me.  I usually don’t care for email forwards, but this one was quite insightful.

Two days ago, someone burglarized my car (right in front of my house mind you) and stole my wallet and ipod.  They left my garage door opener behind, but it rattled me to think they could have further disrupted my life.

In any event, I was consequently the vicitm of credit fraud and identity theft.

I cover technology and the concept of leveraging it to improve your day to day – but in this email highlighted ways that our reliance on daily use of technology might be used against us.

Here’s the content of the email forward – not very well written, but you get the idea.

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 match. 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.

MOBILE PHONE

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was already withdrawn.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minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.  This could
not have happened becus everyone knows ATM daily withdrawal has a $200
limit.

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.