DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global Risk Technologies, Europe’s first chargeback remediation specialist, is today warning consumers to avoid falling victim to identify theft and other types of fraud exposed by cybercriminals harvesting personal data unwittingly left on old smartphones when they are resold or recycled.
According to the latest estimates, 62% of Western Europeans (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) own a smartphone and users typically look to replace their device approximately every 20 months.1 However, evidence from AVAST shows that people often leave behind personal data and files, with half of the twenty random smartphones analysed leaving over 1,200 photos, over 300 emails/texts, the identities of two previous owners, three invoices, one work contract and one explicit video.2
Eaton-Cardone explains that “fraudsters can use this data to commit identity theft, whether it’s opening accounts or loans in the owner’s name, ordering merchandise or services using the owner’s stored login details, or scamming contacts by posing as the owner. Even photos and videos can be sold to porn sites or used for blackmail and extortion.”
Below, Eaton-Cardone shares her top tips to protect data:
- Deleting files or conducting a factory reset doesn’t necessarily remove all data from the device, especially since data is often stored in several places, including the internal memory, SIM card and/or SD memory cards.
- Use passcodes and security apps so your data won’t be easily compromised if your phone is lost or stolen and subsequently resold. Apps like “Find My iPhone” can track lost or stolen devices, or you can purchase additional security apps to remotely lock the device to thwart hackers or even snap photos of the thief.
- Search online for detailed instructions for your model name/number to manually delete all data.
- Remove Storage Card and SIM cards from your old device and if they will no longer be used, destroyed them before discarding.
Global Risk Technologies is committed to educating the industry on ways to prevent fraud and Monica Eaton-Cardone will be presenting a fraud prevention session at the upcoming Affiliate Summit East in New York, where she will be available for interviews and to discuss combatting fraud and future speaking engagements.
About Global Risk Technologies
Global Risk Technologies provides a comprehensive and highly scalable enterprise solution for chargeback compliance, risk mitigation, fraud management and merchant sustainability services to European acquirers, card issuers and local merchants. It helps decrease the negative impacts of chargebacks, thereby increasing processing retention and revenues, and helping combat cyber-shoplifting, resulting in sustainable, secure growth.
1 Technalysis Research, December 2015
