Not All Thieves Are Stupid

I found this online in a 'senior forum' (sadly), but it did contain some interesting scams that I thought ATS would enjoy reading about. As some of us get older we will probably find ourselves increasingly likely to be the victim of unscrupulous elements. Enjoy!

1. LONG-TERM PARKING: 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. So 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 - don't 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 lady 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. Twenty 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 When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet "family and friends" who text you.

4. PURSE IN THE GROCERY CART SCAM: A lady went grocery-shopping at a local mall and left her purse sitting in the children's seat of the cart while she reached something off a shelf... wait till you read the WHOLE story! Her wallet was stolen, and she reported it to the store personnel. After returning home, she received a phone call from the Mall Security to say that they had her wallet and that although there was no money in it, it did still hold her personal papers. She immediately went to pick up her wallet, only to be told by Mall Security that they had not called her. By the time she returned home again, her house had been broken into and burglarized. The thieves knew that by calling a

source

a reply to: Metallicus

Amazing - too bad those thieves couldn't use that type of thinking for good instead of evil.

Can you share the original article/source? The last one is cut off in the quote and I want to finish reading Thanks for sharing Metallicus

a reply to: FamCore

Done.

Thanks for reading!

The only "stupid" thieves are the ones who are caught.

Im not really fond of legal authorities being the cheer leaders for ridiculing people who are arrested/wanted/convicted. Insulting and ridiculing people just seems like something our legal apparatus should be above doing.

Now that im off the soapbox the title compelled me to pull out, RE: the OP....crafty little buggers, huh? Even better: a stupid person can pull these things off, once shown how.

a reply to: FamCore

Crime pays Fam, although being caught and spending 'ten n the pen' is the downside to the trade.

The problem is, these people would probably do well in the security industry, but if you've got a record.

As for the O.P, well the cellphone scam I have heard about and someone actually shared a similar scenario on another social media site and it went viral.

The long term parking scenario and the football game parking scenario is down to the idiocy of the victims.

The Mall scenario.........unlucky!!

Another thing that can happen with smartphones - with your name, address, phone number, email, birthdays, etc, thieves have called banks and merchants call centers, and convinced them to disclose account info, reset passwords, change email addresses, etc.

And with access to your email on your phone, thief sets new password on your email, then on your other accounts, like amazon - they reset the password at the merchant site, who send you a "change password" email link - scammer sets the new password, locking you out, then orders gift cards, etc, with your stored credit cards.

Amazon, I don't think permits this anymore, in that any new shipping address, you have to re-enter your credit card info. But gift cards can use instant email delivery - to your email address.

There's also the "obituary" notice thing - where people's homes are robbed while at funerals - it almost sounds like an urban legend, but seems it really happens.

a reply to: Metallicus

Great thread: another add here.

NEVER put the word HOME in your GPS...and leave it in the car(unless its built in) for the very reason you said: Break into or steal the car, read registration...they know youre not home...can go and clean you out.

Happens a lot.....