After a long bike ride, I'm sitting on the side of the road. A person comes by and asks if I saw a phone laying on the road. He asks if he can use my phone to help him find his phone. I did, but I was cautious at the same time. It turned out he had no nefarious intentions, he used my phone to track (ping) his iPhone (which worked).
After the encounter, I got to thinking about what happened. He had access to my phone, my "wallet" and much other data. I started researching about loaning phone to strangers and had no clue how big a scam it is.
What can happen:
1. Just run away with the phone.
2. Download app to follow inputs on the phone.
3. Use Paypal, Venmo, etc. to send money.
I feel lucky nothing happened to me. But next time I'll be even leerier and take better precautions. Ideally, either the answer would be a flat "no, you can't use my phone" to if I do avail my phone to someone, I would first take a picture of them and their license, send that to my wife, then dial the number for them and put it on speakerphone.
https://clark.com/scams-rip-offs/cell-phone-borrow-payment-app-scam/
After the encounter, I got to thinking about what happened. He had access to my phone, my "wallet" and much other data. I started researching about loaning phone to strangers and had no clue how big a scam it is.
What can happen:
1. Just run away with the phone.
2. Download app to follow inputs on the phone.
3. Use Paypal, Venmo, etc. to send money.
I feel lucky nothing happened to me. But next time I'll be even leerier and take better precautions. Ideally, either the answer would be a flat "no, you can't use my phone" to if I do avail my phone to someone, I would first take a picture of them and their license, send that to my wife, then dial the number for them and put it on speakerphone.
https://clark.com/scams-rip-offs/cell-phone-borrow-payment-app-scam/