Remember the days when you could leave home without an electronic device in hand? When people had to wait until you got home to reach you on your home phone or had to write you a letter and pay for the stamp to mail it?

With the convenience of the email, cell phones and even social media, many no longer have “land” lines in their home. Each family member has their own phone number and email address. Many no longer know the mailing address of family and friends since they have the option to text, email or chat with them online or on their cell phone.

Advances in technology are great, but they also come at a price. With the invention of smart phones that include cameras, you can take photos and email them to show them off. Photos of the kids, the dog, your latest toy or gadget. Many also use their phones for online banking, bill paying and shopping.

Identity thieves who are good computer hackers find them helpful as well. They can use computers to view what someone is viewing on their cell phone. Whatever website the cell phone user is visiting, will show up on the screen of the hacker. If the cell phone user thinks they are only securely entering their credit card information on the website they are viewing, they are mistaken. The hacker can see what they are typing in as well and has the users credit card information.

Hackers have also found a way to call cell phone users using phony caller id information. It may appear that your bank or a friend is calling, when it is really a hacker “phishing” for personal information about the user.

How do you protect yourself from these predators? First, unprotected voicemail can easily be hacked and might provide hackers with information that you don’t want them to have access to. Set up your voicemail so that a password has to be entered to retrieve messages. Also, if you use your cell phone to do online baking or to shop online, do not use unprotected, free WiFi spots to do so. Use only secure networks that you know and trust.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 10:27 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.