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Now I know that some of these seem obvious, but I can tell you that my husband has all of these and truly thinks he'll never be hit with anything, I pray he doesn't, but the odds are high! I never thought about #1 (I'm guilty of that).

NOW HEAR THIS...NOT ALL THIEVES ARE STUPID!!

1. While away, a friend of a friend left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose, 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.
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew 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. MOBILE PHONES

I never thought of this.......

This lady has now 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'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.

*PLEASE PASS THIS ON * I never thought about the above!

As of now, I no longer have 'home' listed on my cell phone.

Even if this does not pertain to you....Pass it on to your family and friends.

never never never send passwords, pins, etc. electronically. And if you do CHANGE IT ASAP.

I talked to an old coworker earlier this week. His son had started in the trade and worked with me some, so I asked how he was doing. Here's his story from this week in Columbus-
Work being slow, he was offered to go out of town for a bit. When he checked in to a hotel, about fifteen minutes after walking in to his room, the room phone rang. They said it was the front desk, and his credit card did not go through, they need to run it again. They said you can bring it back down, or just give it to them over the phone and they'd do it. Since he had just gotten ready to take a shower, he gave them the info over the phone. As he was taking his shower, it hit him that was a really stupid idea. He stopped at the front desk on the way out to dinner, and they confirmed that no, they would never call and ask for that info over the phone. He immediately called his CC company, and cancelled his card. I guess the thieving bastards sit in the hotel parking lot and watch people going in to the rooms and have an idea of how long to wait to call and expect by then, most people won't want to walk all the way back down to the desk right then.