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View Full Version : Not All Thieves are Stupid



Ludwig
March 3rd, 2013, 3:50 PM
1. Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car’s registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people’s home in Pebble Beach and robbed it. Therefore, I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener. This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

2. GPS. Someone 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 - do not 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.

3. CELL PHONES

I never thought of this...

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 When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20 minutes, he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.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

a. 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....

b. And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

c. 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 do not reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.

CenTexDave
March 4th, 2013, 12:38 PM
Sorry - I don't believe number 3. I'm sure that could happen easily enough - texting hubby and ask for the PIN, but most banks limit withdrawals at ATMs to no more than $300 per day.

Ludwig
March 4th, 2013, 1:08 PM
Sorry - I don't believe number 3. I'm sure that could happen easily enough - texting hubby and ask for the PIN, but most banks limit withdrawals at ATMs to no more than $300 per day.

No one expected you to believe anything. The text says that the thieves had withdrawn all the money (that which was withdrawn), not all their money (the total in their account). It is possible, too, that the account held less than the daily withdrawal limit. The point was, don't be stupid and give your pin to a text message for which you cannot verify the source.

CenTexDave
March 4th, 2013, 1:36 PM
If all they had was $300 or less in their account then BFD.
But I agree, take precautions.

Dagobert II
March 4th, 2013, 2:03 PM
Encryption is your friend against the predation of looters and tyrants:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCROjpgCB0

IronErnin
March 4th, 2013, 3:04 PM
Sorry - I don't believe number 3. I'm sure that could happen easily enough - texting hubby and ask for the PIN, but most banks limit withdrawals at ATMs to no more than $300 per day.

Sorry, Dave. 1st Notional Bank/Texas currently limits ATM withdrawls to $600 per day.

CenTexDave
March 4th, 2013, 3:48 PM
OK, so they lost $600. Hope they learned their lesson.
Also - every ATM I've seen lately has a security camera. So there should be much more to the story than was printed.

Mestral
March 5th, 2013, 9:27 AM
OK, so they lost $600. Hope they learned their lesson.
Also - every ATM I've seen lately has a security camera. So there should be much more to the story than was printed.There probably is a great deal more to each of those stories. Most of these "cautionary tales" are extremely stripped down versions of something that happened in real life, and sometimes embellished.
Also, most of the "security camera" footage I have seen is pretty extremely worthless.

kantwin
March 5th, 2013, 10:36 AM
When I was working for a bank, almost NONE of the ATMs had a camera. This was just a few years ago, and our bank had over 250 ATMs.
It would seem that many convenience stores have better quality security video cameras than many banks.
I would imagine that's because the banks abhor spending money on things that don't directly make them money. Cameras and video don't make the bank any money.

Mestral
March 5th, 2013, 12:09 PM
Not surprised. What city was that bank in?

Most of them here have camera boxes, but some of the lens don't look too clean, and a couple of the look fake.

When I was in Austin (late 80's early 90's) most of the ones I used had cameras, or decent replica's, but after a rash of thefts where they took the whole ATM, the cameras moved. I found a couple of them a few yards away, but I suspect, in many cases, the banks may have found it easier to used the convenience store's camera. I haven't heard of any ATM's being driven off around here, so they may have gotten complacent.

IronErnin
March 5th, 2013, 12:39 PM
Oh, the local banks have had their share of people drive off with ATMs. But, it has been awhile.

kantwin
March 5th, 2013, 12:56 PM
Not surprised. What city was that bank in?

Most of them here have camera boxes, but some of the lens don't look too clean, and a couple of the look fake.

When I was in Austin (late 80's early 90's) most of the ones I used had cameras, or decent replica's, but after a rash of thefts where they took the whole ATM, the cameras moved. I found a couple of them a few yards away, but I suspect, in many cases, the banks may have found it easier to used the convenience store's camera. I haven't heard of any ATM's being driven off around here, so they may have gotten complacent.
It was a state wide bank. From New Boston in the east to El Paso in the West. From Dumas in the north, to SPID in the south. Many cities, mostly in Wal-Mart, HEB, and Kroger.

Mestral
March 5th, 2013, 1:01 PM
It was a state wide bank. From New Boston in the east to El Paso in the West. From Dumas in the north, to SPID in the south. Many cities, mostly in Wal-Mart, HEB, and Kroger.Ouch. I know some of your former co workers. The stories they tell about the management of those places (similar to the run in I had with Bank of [central] America). Wow.

kantwin
March 5th, 2013, 1:51 PM
Ouch. I know some of your former co workers. The stories they tell about the management of those places (similar to the run in I had with Bank of [central] America). Wow.
It was an experience, that's for sure.
The IT Services VP that was hired brought a few of his cronies from a former employer in to "help" us get things straight.
Used to call one of the "senior" (by title only, not skills) techs that was brought in Yoda.
Use your best Yoda voice and say, "Help you, I can. Yes"...:pukeface:
I was working at the console of one of the servers, Yoda was standing there chatting about some drivel, and the server blue screened. He said, "Man, I hate it when that happens", turned and walked away. It took me a bit to lift my chin off the floor. Some "senior server tech"...
He's the same guy {dumass} that was convinced that the domain controllers that were named starting with a letter higher in the alphabet would take a higher domain processing load than ones that were named starting with a letter lower in the alphabet because that's the way they showed up in the AD query.