This is a personal experience I'd like to share with you all so that you are aware that this does happen. It isn't something that you are ever fully protected from nor is it something you can ever be fully protected from. What am I talking about you may be wondering? Fraud and identity theft.
While at home this weekend, I visited my extended family. It was my great uncle's 87th birthday and I was glad I was able to go see him and spend some time with him. We spent most of the day with him and the rest of my family sharing stories, discussing politics, talking about anything and everything we could. When the party had died down my family and I returned home. When we got there I attempted to text one of my friends to try to see if he was driving back to school the next day if I could tag along. My phone didn't work no matter what I tried. I asked my dad to call my phone and it didn't go through. It told him to call our mobile company.
Once on the phone with customer support I told them what was going on and told them the type of phone I have. It is a basic phone, seeing as how I have never owned a smartphone. They proceeded to tell me that I do not have a basic phone... I assure you, I do. So they proceeded to tell me that my father and I purchased two Iphone 6 pluses earlier in the afternoon. We didn't. After spending 2 hours on the phone with customer service and the fraud department everything is straightened out with our account. However the information is floating around somewhere. It is a somber moment when you realize that your information is not safe.
I guess what I am trying to say is that people need to be careful. You never think anything like this will happen to you or your family... Until the day that it finally does.
First off, wow. I'm glad everything is squared away. How lucky was it that you had to call your mobile company that day?
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, this read as the perfect example of some of the downfall of the digital age. We love the fact that most things now are instant. Everything is essentially easier to do because of digital technologies. However, the other shoe drops when we realize that things such as stealing other's information is also easier. It really is a somber moment. Personally, I do a lot of online shopping and I'm not extremely paranoid about it. If someone with the hacking knowledge really wanted to steal my information, I'm sure it would be simple for them. I guess what I've come to accept is that this is the world we live in now. There's always the danger that something bad might happen; however, consciously or not I make the decision that the value of what I'm getting outweighs the dangers.