UnpokemonMom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2013
I found this post on another travel forum I visit - another reason not to let someone take your phone away:
High tech pickpocketing - beware
Apr 27, 2022, 12:52 PM
When we were in California a young person approached us and asked us if he could use a phone to call his mom as he was lost.
My husband dialed the number for him but then handed him the phone to talk (on speaker) - I know you are never supposed to give anyone your phone but husband does what he wants! - and the young person was on the line for a while explaining where he was and then hung up and walked off.
I have since found out that this can be a scam where individuals use a number of quick keystrokes to access Venmo or Apple Pay accounts and transfer funds to themselves. We don’t have any of those apps enabled so we were fine and nothing happened.
https://abc7chicago.com/high-tech-pickpocketing-venmo-scam-transfer-good-samaritan-scammed/11578240/
Honestly I was more afraid of the physical phone being taken but as my husband is quite physically imposing this was unlikely to happen and I think he felt he was helping a kid out given our son is the same age. However handing over your phone is always a bad idea.
However, after reading about these scams I am even more alarmed. Just thought I would warn people about this as coming from Europe I didn’t know about it at all until this happened and I looked it up.
High tech pickpocketing - beware
Apr 27, 2022, 12:52 PM
When we were in California a young person approached us and asked us if he could use a phone to call his mom as he was lost.
My husband dialed the number for him but then handed him the phone to talk (on speaker) - I know you are never supposed to give anyone your phone but husband does what he wants! - and the young person was on the line for a while explaining where he was and then hung up and walked off.
I have since found out that this can be a scam where individuals use a number of quick keystrokes to access Venmo or Apple Pay accounts and transfer funds to themselves. We don’t have any of those apps enabled so we were fine and nothing happened.
https://abc7chicago.com/high-tech-pickpocketing-venmo-scam-transfer-good-samaritan-scammed/11578240/
Honestly I was more afraid of the physical phone being taken but as my husband is quite physically imposing this was unlikely to happen and I think he felt he was helping a kid out given our son is the same age. However handing over your phone is always a bad idea.
However, after reading about these scams I am even more alarmed. Just thought I would warn people about this as coming from Europe I didn’t know about it at all until this happened and I looked it up.