Bluetooth snarfing

[Mr Buckshot]

I went on the Rogers website today to check out my SIM card balance for my cell phone, and I noticed a few calls that I never made in the call log, plus my SIM balance was lowered. I don't recall lending out my cell phone (a Motorola RAZR V3X) on that particular day but I do remember going out to the mall and bringing my cell phone along.

I heard of the phenomenon called Bluetooth snarfing some time ago but I scoffed at it, since I didn't think that typical criminals would want to haul around a laptop just to make illegal calls through another person's SIM card. I know the culprit would use a laptop or a really powerful PDA because those will have much greater range for their Bluetooth connections. Now I'm pretty sure I've been a victim of Bluetooth snarfing.

Is there a way to increase my Bluetooth security through a firmware update or something? I don't want to just turn off my Bluetooth because my phone has no headphone jack so I use a Bluetooth headset to listen to music (I no longer have my iPod and use my phone as an MP3 player).

As for the calls I never made, I made a record of the numbers and I plan to call those numbers myself to clear up matters - if they don't answer, I'm going to the police. I'm pretty sure this wasn't targeted and was the act of some geek who just wanted to prove it was possible or something. However, I use the Rogers Pay-As-You-Go system where the calls cost 33 cents per minute so I've lost about $5 for no reason. The reason why I don't use a supposedly cheaper monthly plan is that I'm not the type who calls his friends like crazy so the Pay-as-you-go system actually saves me money since I only pay for my calls when I want to.

[Sel]

Wow, this makes me glad my laptop has no bluetooth, hope you dont live in america, because then they might get bitchy and say youre liable for the calls :O

[Mr Buckshot]

I live in Canada. But Rogers Wireless is no different from Verizon (which I used when I lived in California) in terms of support, meaning that they won't let me reclaim my money from the calls I didn't make.

Anyway I just called one of the three numbers, and a female picked up and spoke in a language I didn't understand, possibly an Eastern European language, so I hung up. Since it's only around $4, I won't get too bitchy about this, but I am intent on tracking down whoever dared to snarf my Bluetooth to make "free" calls.

You don't have to worry about a Bluetooth-enabled laptop being jacked, as laptops will have a much higher level of security than a mobile phone. It takes some serious dedicated hacking to break into a properly protected laptop wirelessly, so there's no need to worry unless you're a high-ranking businessman or criminal who's made an important online transaction while outside of home.

[Limited]

Is the phone, "hidden"?, in other words is "Show my phone" turned off. Best way to stop it, is to turn bluetooth off, I know you said you use your headset to play music, but you sort of are at risk when doing that.