Friday, August 08, 2008

Bankcard PIN Theft by Cellphone????

Saw this and thought it would be smart to confirm stuff before sending it via text... I put the stuff in bold...

Cell phone contacts, I never thought of this...

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When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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


I checked this out on Snopes. It is 'undetermined'. Still makes sense to verify stuff coming from a text message.

1 comment:

Quality Weenie said...

I have my doubts, because most banks (if not all) have a limited as to how much can be withdrawn per day by machine, heck my credit union has a limit as to how much can be withdrawn per day period.

And I am pretty sure to withdraw all your money you have to go inside because that amounts to closing the account (you have to leave even a small something in the account to keep it open).