Greg's Corner

Tagged: phone numbers Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  Geebo 11:51 am on October 25, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: apps ( 15 ), lyft ( 15 ), mobile phones ( 7 ), phone numbers   

  Changing your number? Change your apps. 

  

  A number of smartphone apps are tied to your cell phone number. If you end up having to change your number for whatever reason, don’t forget to update your apps with your new phone number. If you forget, it may cost you a pretty penny.

  For example a woman who changed her number found mysterious charges for the ride sharing service Lyft on her credit card. When she received her new phone number the phone company recycled her phone number and the person with her old number was able to use her Lyft account to get rides. However the person with the old number claims that Lyft wouldn’t allow to update the profile that was connected to the old number.

  While no malice may have been intended a number change can cause potential headaches for users since so many apps are tied to phone numbers. Both Facebook and Twitter allow logins through cell phone numbers and if you forget to update your apps if you change could lead to someone hijacking these accounts. This could lead to something as minor as cyber-vandalism or something as damaging as identity theft.

   

  Leave a ReplyCancel reply
• 

  Geebo 9:24 am on May 10, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: phone numbers, Scams ( 1,354 )   

  Use this subtle trick to spot the most clever of scam artists 

  

  So you finally found the hot ticket item that you’ve been searching for. Everything appears to be on the level so you get ready to call the seller then you notice something peculiar. Before their phone number they’ve typed a + symbol. Probably just a typo right? Don’t be so sure.

  In areas outside of the US the + symbol before a phone number usually indicates that you’ll be dialing what’s known as a country code. For example the US country code is +1 while the UK is +44. Since a great number of online scammers come from overseas they sometimes have a habit of putting the + symbol before US phone numbers even though we don’t use them here.

  Another less subtle way to notice an overseas scammer is if they ask you to contact them a messaging app. For example you may see an ad where the seller asks you to contact them through WhatsApp. Whatsapp is very popular overseas since a lot of countries don’t have cell phone plans that include unlimited texting so they use these apps instead.

  And as always one of the best tips in dealing with online transactions is to only deal locally and with cash.