(WSVN) - Most of us upgrade our cellphones every few years. Usually a store employee will transfer your contacts, data and pictures from your old phone to your new one. But one woman says her upgrade ended with her private photos going to someone else’s phone. 7’s Jessica Holly has more on this “Dirty Download.”
Jessica Moran likes to spend her days off with her dog, Bruiser, in their Cutler Bay neighborhood.
She and her husband are members of the U.S. Coast Guard, and are moving to Alaska next month.
While she should be focused on the family’s relocation, she has a bigger problem on her hands.
Jessica Moran: “They were all probably sitting in the store, going through my phone, giggling about it, you know, just being stupid.”
Back in March, Jessica and her husband upgraded her iPhone at the AT&T retail store on Old Cutler Road. She says an employee transferred her data and contacts to her new iPhone 7.
Jessica Moran: “So I gave him my old phone. They said that they were erasing it, and everything was fine.”
But it wasn’t fine.
Jessica Moran: “He used my old phone, while we were not in the store, to text himself my photos, and they’re very personal photos. It’s not like I want to share them with the world.”
Jessica believes the employee searched through her phone, found nude pictures and sent them to himself.
She tried to call him.
Jessica Moran: “He knew I caught him. It went straight to voicemail.”
Her next call was to police. The case is still being investigated.
They also filed a complaint with the store. The owner told us the incident was a breach in customer privacy, and the employee was fired.
Jessica Moran: “These photos could pop up anywhere, so I’m like super paranoid all the time now.”
Experts say there is a way to avoid situations like this, and it’s simple: never let a store employee clean out your phone.
Leeor Geva: “If you can learn how to send a text message, you can learn how to delete your phone. It’s literally one or two steps. Every phone has a ‘settings’ feature, and an ‘erase’ feature in the settings. It’s very important.”
Jessica says she and her family will be leaving soon, but she’s afraid she could be leaving this “Dirty Download” here in South Florida.
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