A Lakewood resident who recently had his phone stolen is warning the public to be careful after a thief accessed his Google Wallet app and racked up bills totaling thousands of dollars.
The resident tells TLS his phone went missing on Motzai Shabbos and managed to track it to a hotel room in Manhattan.
The phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note, was unlocked and the thief was able to start charging the credit cards saved on the Google wallet app, which allows users to store credit cards and other related financial information on the phone.
The drawback, however, as this resident learned the hard way, is that anyone with access to the phone can use the app to make fraudulent purchases.
In this case, he tells TLS, nearly $10,000 worth of goods was swiped, with over $7,500 of that amount being approved.
“People should be aware that if you lose your Samsung device, if it is unlocked, anybody can access the phone and make a purchase without the need for ID,” he said.
lock your phone except to use. very easy. i do not know about Samsung but you can erase a iphone remotely if lost.
Use the app “find device” for Android phones. You can track, lock and erase the phone remotely.
Thank you for sharing important information.
Hashem should some how send you the money that was stolen.
This is not just a problem with leaving your phone unlocked. I just watched a video that WSJ made 4 days ago about specifically iPhones being stolen and the way the thieves get into the phones is by secretly filming people enter their passwords and immediately changing the appleID password locking people out of their entire account on all devices so even if you have a password you have to be careful especially cuz most people put all their passwords in apples password manager which can be accessed with the phone password and they can now access all your banking accounts and have gone through photos looking for pictures of ids or ss papers to get the social and open new cards in your name. Having no password is downright reckless but now even having a password is a cause for concern if inputting it in public
The problem with locking my phone is that I cannot remove an emergency number. My 2 yr old has called 911 multiple times already when my phone is locked because he presses random buttons so I have to leave my phone unlocked. I have so far not been able to figure out how to remove 911 from my emergency calls feature.
Please don’t give your phone to your 2 year old! It is very harmful to the child!!
Why does your 2 year old have access to your phone? Buy him an age appropriate toy!
Dispute the charges.
I hope Goose Gossage is not enlightening you with this as Goose hopes you’ve already done it.
You will win the dispute
I agree you with you 100%.
The best way to dispute this is by mail and make sure that you sign the letter of dispute and date it.
You can also call to dispute it, but you must also write a letter and that letter gives you special rights under federal law.
Save a copy of your letter.
B”H!! yet another reason to go to a flip phone! it’s the only truly “smart” phone.
everything else can wait until you get to your office or your computer 🙂
@rabbi rabbinical – well said. Why the need of a smart phone, everything can wait till you get to the office or home!!!
You know if you leave your house unlocked thieves can steal your stuff too….
Who leaves a smartphone unlocked?? It’s 2023, there are many different options to lock a galaxy phone…. Fingerprint, password, pin….
Btw, use Samsung pay, not Google wallet, it’s a lot more secure and way less invasive than Google wallet.
Thank you
Good idea
Samsung pay
sounds like a android/Samsung vs apple guy to me