While shopping at the mall, a young man approached me with a distressed look and asked, “I’m lost! Can I borrow your phone?”

Immediately, my Spidey sense tingled. After all, someone lost in a mall has plenty of ways to get help. They could:

✔️ Visit the information desk for directions.

✔️ Head to the security office for assistance.

✔️Ask any sales associate in one of the dozens of stores. 

What they wouldn’t need is my smartphone!

This got me thinking: what’s the scammer’s angle? 🤔

Here are six potential dangers if you hand over your smartphone:

1️⃣ Access to Payment Apps: The scammer could pretend to make a call but instead access your payment apps and drain your accounts right under your nose.

2️⃣ Theft and Blackmail: The scammer could pocket your smartphone and demand money to return it. Or, the scammer could run off with your unlocked smartphone, gaining access to your MFA apps, banking apps, shopping apps, and email accounts. The ransom for your smartphone’s return could skyrocket! 

3️⃣ Unauthorized Purchases: The scammer could use your unlocked smartphone to make purchases on your shopping apps. 

4️⃣ Cybercrimes: Using your email accounts, the scammer could launch phishing scams.

5️⃣  Identity Theft: The scammer could access personal information stored on your smartphone, such as your contacts, photos, and documents, which could be used to steal your identity.

6️⃣ Social Media Hijacking: The scammer could access your social media accounts and post malicious content or scam your friends and followers.

👉 Bottom Line: You wouldn’t give a stranger your wallet, purse, or car keys, so think twice before you hand over your smartphone!