Your smartphone knows too much. In your smartphone – and in its SIM card – there is a wealth of personal information about you and your friends and family. Everything a con artist needs to steal your identity and impersonate you via text, call, or email is right there. Your credit card information, your photos, your calendar and your little reminder notes to yourself all live in your smartphone.
What are scammers looking for to steal your phone, and what are software companies and cell phone services providers doing to prevent this? What can you do to stop your smart phone from spilling the beans? There’s actually a lot that can be done, and is being done.
smart_flipphone.jpgPhones these days may be smart, but they have no street smarts. In fact, the amount of data and personal information stored on these devices and their SIM cards leave you vulnerable to identity theft, credit card theft, and blackmail. Fortunately, software companies and service providers are continuing to develop more and more safeguard measures, apps, and devices to keep your stolen phone’s big mouth shut.
What are these features? You have probably heard about Apple’s
Find My IPhone device, and Android’s
Device Manager. This security software has been highly effective in deterring theft of smartphones. Now Google has joined in this security movement in their development of the
Find Your Phone feature. This feature allows smartphone owners who have lost their phones to use GPS tracking to locate it, lock it, and call it. You can even wipe your phone clean so if it does fall into the wrong hands your personal information won’t be there for the taking.
There are still some glitches to be worked out with these features. The biggest problem is GPS. If the phone is not turned on, GPS tracking on it is not so good. Even if it is on, these features give the general location of the phone. There have been reported instances of people being wrongfully accused of smartphone theft because their home just happened to be the general location of the smartphone’s location. Software companies are working on it as you read.
So as long as you know where your smartphone is, your data and identity are safe, right? Wrong. While we tend to take our SIM cards for granted, scammers do not. A new con that has cell phone service providers on their toes is a two-step identity theft process:
First the con artist will glean information about you from the internet – your contact information, your service provider, and so forth. Then, they will call your cell phone provider and request a replacement SIM card. Without even going anywhere near your phone, a con artist can have your SIM card, and all of the information on it. This includes photos, contacts, personal information, credit card information, and the ability to call, text, or email anyone while impersonating you.
How can you protect yourself from this species of smartphone theft? Talk to your cell phone service provider. Many companies now have additional security measures in place to prevent their customers from becoming victims of this con. Providing additional information before being sent a SIM card, or having a PIN code are two such security measures. Just be sure to NEVER store your PIN code, or the answers to your security questions in your smartphone.