Five Most Stolen Gadgets
Cell Phones
Whether it's because of theft or drunken stupidity, finding yourself phoneless can cause big trouble. It's estimated that 600,000 phones will be lost or stolen in a year, and there have been several cases of people footing the bill for unauthorized calls. Unlike credit card issuers, cell phone companies may still hold you responsible for charges made after a theft, leading to some unfortunate cases where victims were liable for thousands of dollars in charges, even after they proved they didn't make the calls. It's all in the contract's fine print, so be careful.
How to prevent theft (or minimize the consequences of theft):
- Use a password. Sure, it might be annoying to punch it in every time you want to use the phone, but how many times do you need to hear "better safe than sorry" before you believe it?
- Be wary of insurance. Wireless companies insure the device, not account activity.
- Report it missing immediately. When your company says your phone is disabled, make sure to record all of the representative's information and mark down when exactly the call occurred. Occasionally, phones aren't turned off, and you're still billed. Having this information will help you set the record straight more efficiently.
- GadgetTrak, again. The company uses the same technology for phones that connect to computers via USB. If an unauthorized SIM card is placed in the phone, the software sends a text message to predetermined numbers telling you the new phone number and subscriber information.
- Call the police. It makes it official and can occasionally lead to retrieval, but only do so if you're positive it was stolen. If you retrieve it later, the phone can't be reactivated once the police have the serial number flagged.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ken Westin @ Feb 1st 2008 10:34AM
You can learn more about GadgetTrak and their anti-theft products for mobile devices here:
http://www.gadgettrak.com