Identity management is something that we are becoming more involved in all the time. This story about a the cab driver I met in Melbourne recently is just one of the reasons why…

When I was visiting Melbourne last month I met a cabbie with a thick Greek accent on Chapel St South Yarra on my way to the airport.

After a few pleasantries he said, “You know I just saw this notification for free sex on my phone. They said I get a new woman every night. I tried and tried entering but it did not tell me anything.

I replied, “What happened? What did you do?”

“I entered my email address and nothing happened.”

“Did you also enter your email password as well?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure lots of times.”

“Oh dear. I’m in the internet security business and I hope you realise it’s probably a scam. They could well be on the way to stealing your identity. I hope you don’t do any internet banking, because they can probably change passwords etc. What password do you use for your banking?”

“But it was on Facebook,” the Cabbie replied looking panicked and confused.

“And you use the same password for that too, right?”

The cab driver stared wide-eyed at me. “What do I do?”

“Login from another device (iPAD) and change all your passwords. If you can’t login, phone the bank. If you give me your phone I will try to download a security appliance.”

The Android device wouldn’t connect to Google Play. I didn’t tell him what that probably means.

“Do you know someone who can help you?”

Like all things in IT, it’s much better to prevent these things from happening than have to deal with the clean up. Although a lot of you reading this story are shaking your heads thinking this guy’s an idiot, it’s still something that can happen to anyone in the workplace. Some scams are not that obvious. Important measures for protection against identity theft is something we can ensure gets done properly. Talk to us on (07) 3177 0899 to see how we can help.