Beware of the “too good to be real” offers for your mobile phone
Our phones are not only getting smarter day by day, but the world seems to fit into our cell phone memory. Pictures, music, games, applications, movies, you name it! Wireless internet enabled features and Bluetooth have taken mobile networking to an incredible level of acceptance and popularity. It seems everything is available just a few clicks away, be it your Farmville application or your stock investment portfolio, everything can be accessed from your mobile phones. Some of these applications are free, and some are not. Unfortunately, the free ones can pose to be a potential threat to your phone and to add to that they are sometimes not free at all!
The flashy and tempting advertisements for free games, wallpapers, ringtones or applications are generally too good to be real, and that is when you must think again, why exactly would they give it to you for free if it were that good? Sometimes, these advertisements for applications have hidden or strategically placed conditions, that do charge you eventually, and sometimes, they can actually be hacking software for mobile phones.
Hackers tend to creep in and exploit all routes possible, text messaging, Bluetooth devices, wireless networking all are being exploited by hackers to access personal information, such as personal details, be it your bank account details or your social networking passwords. These hackers have also crept into the world of telemarketing, and many of the “best”, “totally free”, “to die for” offers that you see on your cell phone could very well be a scam, automated hacking software for mobile phones or a plain old-fashioned virus.
These bots or viruses creep in to your cell phone memory transfer and can easily extract personal information such as saved data, saved passwords, emails, personal messages, pictures or anything else. It is very easy for the hacker to gain access to the extracted information by exploiting the wireless (WIFI) internet or simply by being in a Bluetooth supported distance from you.
The boon of having everything virtually on your smart little phone can easily turn into a curse if you are not paying heed to the security measures you need to take. Be careful with the kind of data you save on your cell phone, avoid saving your bank details, passwords etc. Install a good quality anti-virus on your phone. Be prudent about using your Bluetooth or WIFI in an unsecured network or on any arbitrary website. Last but not the least, be circumspect in the kind of downloading you do on your phone, if an offer seems too good to be real, it probably is.