Crooks are not Dumb

[Sam]

BE CAREFUL.......

 NOT ALL THIEVES ARE  STUPID

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 When they  rushed down to the  bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.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 Within 20  minutes he had withdrawn all the money from  their bank account.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 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 and saying  they were Mall Security, they could lure  her out of her house long enough for them to burglarize it.

[Mike L]

As easy as our lives have become with all the new technology we have, Its times like these that I wish it was still 1955. 

 

 

 

Mike

[J Francho]

There was crime in 1955, too.

[Fishing Rhino]

Well, try this one for size, then you can thank the feds for it.

 

My wife had her identity stolen.  How?  It's really quite simple.

 

Someone paid the buck and a half to the USPS to request my wife's mail be forwarded to an address in NY.  It was done on line.  No need to prove you are who you say you are.  My wife caught it early because I received my statement from Silverscript and she did not receive hers.  They always come on the same day.  When it didn't arrive the next day, she went to the post office where she was told that her address had been changed, so all the mail that had come for her had gone elsewhere.

 

Think about it for a minute.  You get things in the mail with your account numbers to credit cards for one example.

 

It's not only that crooks aren't dumb, it's that organizations we think we can trust are sloppy.

[DINK WHISPERER]

I HATE a freakin thief!?

[slonezp]

Add onto your list valet parking. You're trusting your keys to a stranger and probably have something with your address in the glovebox. Give them the car key only. They can take a house key and have it duplicated at any big box hardware store and I know some Walmarts even have key duplicating machines at the front of the store. 

[Bluebasser86]

Yes, most of them really are dumb, trust me.  

[Tim Kelly]

They're the ones you catch.

 

[Bluebasser86]

1 hour ago, Tim Kelly said:

They're the ones you catch.

 

I don't catch any of them, I deal with them after they're caught, they're not intelligent folks for the most part. Most have just been doing it since they were kids or teens, so they have a lot of practice and know where to look to find the good stuff. 

[TOXIC]

As for the home front and getting cleaned out, I have a 110lb "man's best friend" who will (and has) dissuaded unwelcome visitors from entering my house when I am not home.  

 

As for credit card and identity thefts, there's not much you can really do about it.  Stay vigilant and check your statements and bank accounts weekly to catch any fraudulent activity.  I can only imagine the costs to credit card companies dealing with this problem.

 

On my recent trip to Florida, I was getting my credit card refused at the pump at gas stations.  I am the only one who has this particular card in my family and I use it mainly for gas so it gets used often.  I tried it at 2 stations on the way down and it got refused both times.  I thought maybe the card got de-magnetized or something.  Tried to use it at a restaurant in Florida and it went through fine.  Hmmmmmm......what was the difference?  At the pump they ask for your zip code to verify the purchase.  So, I told the wife I would try it one more time on the way home and if it didn't work we would call the CC company since we were going to be in the truck for a while.  When I tried to use it at a gas station on the way home, I got a message on the pump that actually said "Zip code verification failure" so we called the company.  Through the process the customer service rep said that my address was different than my wife's and the red flag went up.  We went through the charges on the account and found fraud.  Why didn't we know?  Because the crooks did an address change so we did not get our statement, it went to the "new" address.  Eventually we would have caught it but my wife pays the bill on-line so a missing statement may have taken a couple of months before she was prompted to call.  My card was denied at the gas stations due to the zip code being changed and subsequent new address and no longer matching the one I entered.  All is well, new card and credited back the $900 in fraud charges but it really sucks to have to deal with it.  

[the reel ess]

21 hours ago, Fishing Rhino said:

Well, try this one for size, then you can thank the feds for it.

 

My wife had her identity stolen.  How?  It's really quite simple.

 

Someone paid the buck and a half to the USPS to request my wife's mail be forwarded to an address in NY.  It was done on line.  No need to prove you are who you say you are.  My wife caught it early because I received my statement from Silverscript and she did not receive hers.  They always come on the same day.  When it didn't arrive the next day, she went to the post office where she was told that her address had been changed, so all the mail that had come for her had gone elsewhere.

 

Think about it for a minute.  You get things in the mail with your account numbers to credit cards for one example.

 

It's not only that crooks aren't dumb, it's that organizations we think we can trust are sloppy.

Funny. My dad died in May and I still haven't been able to get all his mail diverted to my house despite visiting the post office twice.

[DINK WHISPERER]

Someone went as far as to steal my boat trailers reverse lockout cap last time out! I mean really, they're under $20. 

[Columbia Craw]

In 1999 I investigated a woman and her boyfriend for identity theft.  She was able to obtain information and become five different women. In three months she purchased over $870,000.00 in real property and services by fraud. It was the case from hell. I recovered almost a hundred grand in jewelry alone.  She was sentenced to 57 months in prison.  The funny part was when I contacted her ex-husband because I had a lead she left twenty eight grand in jewelry with him.  He told me he had no idea what I was talking about.  He was wearing the one karat diamond studded earrings. We had a talk and he helped me recover six brand new vehicles she bought by fraud.  

[flyfisher]

All of these stories are thee reason why i never get any statements mailed to me unless i have to nor do i get anything emailed to me either.  If i can't log in to their website to see statements etc...there is a good chance i will be finding another company to do business with.  

[Mike L]

On 1/23/2018 at 1:14 PM, J Francho said:

There was crime in 1955, too.

Of Course..

But there weren't card readers at gas stations or grocery stores..

 

Or the internet...

 

Or ATM's...

All the technology we have to worry about now that didn't exist then. 

 

You know what I meant 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[J Francho]

What I mean is, crime is the same.  Risk is the same.  We also didn't have all these law enforcement agencies monitoring the technology you mentioned.  The nature and the paradigm changes, but the criminals are always there.  They adapt, too.  As does LE.

 

What I find funny is that in every instance a criminal is caught, there's one or a few things they did wrong to get caught.  I think to myself, well if they were smart... Oh wait, if they were smart, they wouldn't be committing crime.

[Mike L]

You're exactly right!

 

 

 

 

Mike