When my mother got her first cell phone about 4 years ago, she was uneasy to say the least. She felt unsure about the technology, and kept thinking she would somehow damage the phone. In fact, she was so used to using a standard, land-line that for the first month she only used her cell phone in her living room, which happened to be right next to the land line.
Once she finally got used to actually being “mobile” with her phone, she had another issue. She began receiving Spam text messages. These weren’t G-Rated texts, they were all about Viagra, Penis enlargements, and the occasional ad for “nude girls.” Not only was she annoyed by this Spam, but she was charged for incoming messages! She finally changed her cell number and the texts became far less frequent.
While this experience was quite disturbing, it was not as threatening as some scams. Yesterday I was called on my cell phone by a woman asking to speak to “Jennifer.” When I explained that was not my name she said,
“Oh, we must have the wrong name, but you are in the running for a trip for two to Mexico! I just need your address and social security number and we’ll let you know if you’ve won!”
Now I’m not stupid… I wasn’t about to give my personal information to someone over the phone. But the woman was so nice and convincing, and I thought to myself…
“A lot of people, especially those not accustomed to the “scams” out there may give out their info just because this woman is so nice.” I could even picture my own mother falling for this scam, and wind up with a stolen identity or something!
This is just another example of the potential treat of scams out there.
My advice… talk to anyone you may know with access to a cell phone and go over a set of safety rules. Tell them that if something potentially “too good to be true” comes up to call you before taking any action. If a company wont give you their name and phone number to call them back, it is a scam, ask to be put on their do not call list and hang up. Try to prevent possible problems before they happen and be careful out there!
