If you’re looking forward to the Winter Games 2014 in the Russian bathing resort Sotschi or if you’ve already booked your tickets for the opening match of the World Cup in Sao Paulo on 12 June, you shouldn’t only prepare for fast downhill races and curling crosses, but also for much more … for example for pickpockets and grifters.
The homepage for crime prevention by the police explains that pickpockets often act in a team of different culprits. They often use their own tricks or cause jams in order to lunge out. Every year, more than 100,000 cases of wallets and credit cards being stolen within only seconds are reported. It’s really rare that their owners get them back. The percentage of cases solved was only 5.3% in 2012. Unreported cases are only vaguely perceptible.
Eventually, pickpockets do not only appear at big events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup. You have to pay attention in any crowd. This starts with entering and exiting a train and ends in the jam of an open air concert.
There’s also a new and very dangerous way of pickpocketing, which hasn’t reached the public’s attention, yet. Card data can be also sniffed without even touching you. If you run your card over the scanner of a supermarket until you hear the beep, you probably can’t imagine that a so called “sniffer” has captured all your data and can take everything that is on your card.
Result: It’s not enough to wear or carry your properties “safely”. You also have to be protected against the sniffing of your private data. Putting your credit card into an aluminum shell is a simple way to do so. If you want to have something more elegant, but still efficient, you can buy the newest aluminum wallets, which also even protect your cell phone. Honi soit qui mal y pense – Shamed to be he who thinks evil of it.
Image source and text: www.polizei-beratung.de/themen-und-tipps/diebstahl-und-einbruch/taschendiebstahl.html and www.smartminisafe.com
