@Carmie wrote:
@cheriere My cousin's 20 something son was robbed of every dime he had, plus money was borrowed from his account.
He was in Miami and was a groomsman for a friend's wedding.
While he was there he either lost or had his iPhone stolen. During the course of four hours, someone maxed out several CC and even took cash advances on his cards, They cleaned out his saving and checking accounts.
There were several hundreds transactions made, and most of them were for small amounts and they went through with no problems and were not flagged.
His credit union sent verification requests to his email and to his phone, and the thief who had possession of the phone approved the transactions.
When it was all said and done, he was out nearly $30,000.
My cousin told me this story about a month ago. She asked if I had an iPhone...I don't. I have an android. She said it was easy to steal money from the info on an IPhone.
Since I don't have one, I didn't ask how.
This thief even got into his locked phone to do this.
I would never have a banking icon on my phone. I always type in an address and don't use many icons.
With icons, thief's know which stores and banks you do business with.
Thiefs today are quite knowledgeable and they use tools to make their job easy.
You also have to be sure you use a safe Internet connection. If you use public Internet, you leave yourself wide open for theft.
@Carmie
The NY Times or WSJ (I read both) had a story about this scam. People watch the cellphone user enter his or her password, then steal the phone.
The scam is that they steal the cellphone password. They may ask you to show them a picture or something on your phone, and then watch you enter the password. Then they steal the phone.
The recommendation is that, if someone steals one's phone, report it immediately to apple to lock your apple id or something, not sure what, that scammers can use to access all of one's accounts.
I keep my iphone on my body at all times when I am out and about, and avoid typing my password when someone can see. Maybe cover the typing with body and hand if possible. I see people leave their phones on tables at events. Not a great idea, even if one thinks one knows everybody.
ETA: I just remembered a user can take steps to protect the iphone data by going to icloud dot com if an iphone is lost or stolen.
- Sign in to iCloud.com/find.
- Select your iPhone or iPad. If available, the map zooms in on your device's location.
- Select Mark As Lost, then follow the onscreen instructions to leave a phone number and message.
- Select Activate to lock your iPhone or iPad with its existing passcode. If you don't have a passcode set, you're asked to create one.
Apple has more tools to protect accounts.
Google to learn what you need to protect yourself.
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