Shopping warning..this may make you paranoid..besafe.

[Ed Hahn]

Just a warning..
> Keep a watch out for people standing near you in the checkout line
> at retail stores, restaurants, grocery stores, etc who have a camera
> cell phone in hand. With the camera cell phones, they can take a
> picture of your credit card, which gives them your name, card number,
> and expiration date. CBS reported this type of identification
> theft is one of the fastest growing scams today.
>
> Be aware of your surroundings,forward to all your friends and
> family.
>

 

[BCT182]

Thanks for the tip Ed. You can NEVER be too safe. Espcially when its ID theft.

 

[hwguru]

and then the guilable line up to believe it...

read this report

http://www.wirelessmoment.com/2004/02/msnbc_reports_p.html

it states that not one reporter working on this story has yet asked if this is even possible. aqnd at the bottom of the story is this response from a reader who states...

just took a picture of my credit card using my Nokia 3650. I got as close as I could (3 - 4 inches) and could still barely make out the credit card number. I'm not worried.


and then there is is this report....

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_camera_cell_phone.htm

that's right, urbanlegends.com

sometimes, it just pays to check out a story, before you pass it on blindly.

 

[BCT182]

Wow hwguru! I hope one day to be as smart as you so that I can go around calling people gullible and attack people saying they pass on information blindly. If you could hold some classes I will surely attend. Then I can hold some spelling classes for you because its GULLIBLE not GUILABLE. :badgrin:

 

[mattseattle]

i tried it with my camera phone and i had the same results. i was pretty close to my credit card and could barely make out the number. i haven't seen any camera phones with a zoom lens yet.

 

[MarineDreamer]

Hey! I heard about this one too......

Only it came down as an OFFICAL memorandum from the United States Postal Service to all employees.

Yes, I held the memo in my hand.

So, I’m not really sure about if that’s an argument for or against. (I don’t know if I would really want the USPS on my side!)

Trevor

 

[hwguru]

Wow hwguru! I hope one day to be as smart as you so that I can go around calling people gullible and attack people saying they pass on information blindly. If you could hold some classes I will surely attend. Then I can hold some spelling classes for you because its GULLIBLE not GUILABLE. :badgrin:

"tis the mark of a truly poor man, who only knows one way to spell a word"

-Thomas Jefferson

and since you can't attack the logic, why not attack the spelling? after all, spelling is the mark of a truly educated, and well versed human, yes?

 

[Llarian]

Man. Play nice guys.

Not everybody knows about things like snopes and urbanlegends.com, and in this day and age its probably better to be safe about things like this anyways. There ARE a lot of way to get credit card numbers out there, and while cell phone cameras probably aren't one of them (yet, there at now 3MP camera phones. I could easily capture a CC number from 4-5 feet away with my 4MP camera, so it could very well be possible now), being safe with your check cards, debit cards, credit cards, etc is always a good policy.

I have a couple friends who were recently victims of identity theft, and to this day they still don't know how. They shred their mail, are careful with numbers, etc. Its something to be conscious of, regardless of whether a particular method is true or false.

-Dylan

 

[hwguru]

Hey! I heard about this one too......

Only it came down as an OFFICAL memorandum from the United States Postal Service to all employees.

Yes, I held the memo in my hand.

So, I’m not really sure about if that’s an argument for or against. (I don’t know if I would really want the USPS on my side!)

Trevor

just a couple things....

on the urbanlegends site, you'll notice this

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_camera_cell_phone.htm

Email example contributed by C. Wood, 14 Jan. 2004:

Something to think about.

Keep a watch out for people standing near you at retail stores, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. that have a cell phone in hand. With the new camera cell phones, they can take a picture of your credit card, which gives them your name, number, and expiration date. Identification theft is one of the fastest growing scams today, and this is just another example of the means that are being used. So...be aware of your surroundings.



Comments: Approximately two weeks after this anonymous message began circulating, police departments from Colorado to New Jersey began issuing similar alerts to the press, in some cases using phrasings identical to the above. It's unclear, therefore, whether this information came originally from police sources, or whether the latter have simply passed along the contents of the email.



It seems the USPS can just pass things on as well.

I think the compelling arguments, are those that say no reporter evwer actually tried it. But ID theft is such a buzz word for people now,...

 

[BCT182]

You got a name hwguru? Im not sure who you think you are, but if you take a look at Ed Hahn's profile he is a contributing Member. Getting on this message board and attacking him was your first mistake. Calling me GULLIBLE is your second. This web site is designed for people who love aquarium fish and reef keeping. A place for reef keepers to share experience and advise. Quote Thomas Jefferson if you will, but when he spoke, I don't think his purpose was to give catch phrases to arrogant people who haven't anything better to say. I have nothing more to say to you on this topic. You can take more shots at me to swell your pride if you must. Don't expect a response. If you are one of those self absorbed people who has to jump into a conversation and start an argument to make your self feel smart, I recommend you go to a chat room on AOL. I'm sure you can find plenty of like minded 14 year olds.
Sincerely yours,
Brett

 

[wrightme43]

Well some SOB in Great Britain got my business check card # and went on a shopping spree. About 1000$ worth of shopping spree. I have also got 2 new phones in G.B. Visa is refunding my money, but I had to cancel my card and that makes it very hard to buy Fish, and Corals, and maintence supplies. I dont really understand how someone could use my business card in another country to buy cloths and phone service and God only knows what else, and the bank not notice it. I dont think anybody got a picture of it by the way. Id theft sucks butt. Today I needed gas for the truck and spent forever trying to get someone to take a check because the bank was closed for vetrans day. All right my rant is over. LOL Steve

 

[hwguru]

You got a name hwguru? Im not sure who you think you are, but if you take a look at Ed Hahn's profile he is a contributing Member. Getting on this message board and attacking him was your first mistake. Calling me GULLIBLE is your second. This web site is designed for people who love aquarium fish and reef keeping. A place for reef keepers to share experience and advise. Quote Thomas Jefferson if you will, but when he spoke, I don't think his purpose was to give catch phrases to arrogant people who haven't anything better to say. I have nothing more to say to you on this topic. You can take more shots at me to swell your pride if you must. Don't expect a response. If you are one of those self absorbed people who has to jump into a conversation and start an argument to make your self feel smart, I recommend you go to a chat room on AOL. I'm sure you can find plenty of like minded 14 year olds.
Sincerely yours,
Brett

hmm. very interesting.

I'm looking through my posts to see where I called you ANYTHING. yet I see your posts filled with invective.

Perhaps I came off a bit too nasty in my first post, yet the intent of what I said was to first, before you pass on some nonsense, please use some common sense, and check it out. You could tell from Ed's post that what he had done was to cut and past from an email that had been forwarded to him, because of how the message was formed. The two results I posted, were the first two results from a quick web search with the words "camera phone identity theft". This didn't take long, and the first two results were enough to make me suspicious. Urban legends, and net hoaxes abound, because not enough people say "huh? what's that? how come I haven't heard about that somewhere else?" and just believe it, because it looks or sounds official. This is how "phishing" scams work as well. They pose as a legit website, asking for your personal information "just to clear up our records" or, even worse "we suspect there has been some fraud, so please give us your account number and password so we can verify it".

I get well meaning relatives sending me info on urban legends weekly, I usually send them back a report from snopes, or from urbanlegends.com and leave it at that. maybe I snapped because I see this kind of behavior as an unending torrent, and If I went too far, then I am sorry. If I can make one more person stop, and take a critical look before passing on what appears to be a rumor; then maybe I have done some good. If you can stop trying to see me as a shark looking for blood in the water, then maybe we could talk about the real problem of identity theft, and about stopping chain letters, and other bunk.

just my $.02, and worth every penny.

 

[CarlaW]

Ed was just tryin to be helpful. If you can't take it and leave it at that, that's fine. I happen to know the man personally. I don't think that he would pass something along without good intent.
That's just my .02, and it's worth every bit as much as anyone elses.
Ed, thanx for the tip.

 

[Llarian]

I'm looking through my posts to see where I called you ANYTHING. yet I see your posts filled with invective.

<rest of post cut>

A little better, and I even happen to agree with you, especially as somebody who spends a lot of time deleting similar hoaxes. But, ya know, on a message board you just joined, coming out and calling a longstanding member gullible isn't exactly a good way to make friends. Just a thought.

Without that comment, there would probably have never been any issue.

So, can I repeat what I said earlier and ask you guys to play nice? Ed has good intentions, and it would have been a lot easier to just ignore his post if it annoyed you.

-Dylan

 

[mattseattle]

actually he didn't call Ed gullible....

he said this
'and then the guilable line up to believe it...'

which means.....if you automatically believe every posting as the truth then you are guilable. he is right - you should do a little logical thinking on posts and not just accept them as point blank. good example was i was going to buy a swiffer wet jet to clean my hard wood floors and all. i did a google search on it and the first thing i found was how swiffer wet jets cleaning solution should not be used in a house with pets or a baby that would be on the floor. that the solution would kill them. i jumped back and thought - hmmm - a little hard to believe. so i did another search and came up with a statement from the company showing how this was a hoax and an internet scam being passed around. so as you can see don't accept everything as fact just because someone you know or trust posts it.

so i'm agreeing with everyone on here! the point of the post was to be careful about identity threft and we all can agree that we should be. also you can be too careful and make yourself paranoid!

 

[hwguru]

this says it quite well...


http://www.smilepop.com/index.cfm?action=viewcard&content_id=8407&page_id=8407

 

[MarineDreamer]

also you can be too careful and make yourself paranoid!

Ah, yes. I may be paranoid, but I am paranoid enough?

Trevor

 

[NaH2O]

I'm glad everyone is/will playing/play nicely

I have been known to fall into the "urban legend" trap, and actually, Matt, I'm glad you cleared up the Swiffer wet jet thing for me. When I discovered Snopes.com I was on there forever. The sad fact is, this type of credit card theft could certainly develop, and urban legend or not.....some criminal will figure out a way to do it.

I think this thread has a bigger picture.....be responsible. Identity theft is a real thing.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Hey, I did not see anyone call me a name. I am gullable though. :lol: I got this tip from work. It may not be accurate. I should have researched it more. Thanks for you help. Idenity theft happens quite often. I am not sure if people remember check card numbers, credit card numbers, or how they do it. It does happen. Its that time a year at work that people post it more often because they have been affected and remember it.

 

[aquariumdebacle]

Would somebody please steal my Identity? I could use the insurance money to get a new one