Surveyed students choose phone over wallet

By Brenda Servin |Staff Writer|

More than 55 percent of CSUSB students said they’d rather lose their wallet than their smart phone.

When people lose their wallets, they fear that the information lost will be used to steal their identities.

The amount of personal information that we keep on our phones is greater than the contents of our wallets.

Unless you keep your social security card in your wallet, which means you’re begging for someone to steal your identity.

I don’t know about you, but I have all my passwords saved in my phone to make it convenient to check my mail; this can pose as a great vulnerability.

E-mail accounts contain so much more information and grant more access for identity thieves than simply having your ID.

When you go to the login page of a website there’s a link that e-mails your password for that account if you forget it.

How easy would it be for someone, who has your e-mail, to look through your previous mail for websites you have accounts with and go directly to the websites to have your password emailed right to them.

Not too hard right?

Someone can even get your home address through a past e-mail.

If you have ever ordered anything online, the confirmation e-mail the website sends you includes both your shipping address and billing address enclosed.

I have had my wallet stolen and I have also lost my iPhone.

When I had my wallet stolen, I had to call my bank to report my debit card, go to the DMV, wait in line and pay the replacement fee.

The bank reimbursed the money that was stolen after I filled out the paperwork and I received my new license in the mail.

When I lost my iPhone, I went to AT&T and logged in to my iCloud account.

Through my iCloud account I was able to use the Find My iPhone app which provides the area your phone is in, but fails to give you an exact location.

For example, if you use the app while you’re at CSUSB it would only narrow down what building your phone is in, not the room.

The app also gives you the option to erase your personal information from the phone.

You can put your phone in lost mode which displays a small message and lets you provide a number where you can be reached in case the person who found your phone wants to return it.

Unfortunately, the app only works if your phone is on and if it’s connected to the internet. Unlikely, if someone is planning on keeping it.

If you don’t have insurance on your phone, the cost to replace it is upwards of $400 a hefty price for a struggling college student.

Take all the precautions you can, to ensure the information on your phone stays private; you’ll be happy you did, if the time ever came where it was lost.