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Q: Pawned phone sold with personal data; what to do?
I pawned my cellphone with a contract, but missed the deadline for retrieval, and the pawn shop sold it. The phone contained sensitive personal information like photos, videos, contracts, banking information, and passwords. I have contacted the pawn shop to try retrieving my data, but they said the phone was sold and ended the call abruptly. What steps can I take to address this issue and protect my personal information?
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James L. Arrasmith
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A:
You entrusted the phone to the pawnbroker under contract, and its sale without notice has exposed your personal information.
Immediately send a written demand to the pawn shop demanding the device back or a data‐recovery solution, keep copies of that demand, and file a police report for conversion and unauthorized access. Consider a small‐claims action against the shop for breach of contract and conversion if they refuse to cooperate.
Change all account passwords and enable multi‐factor authentication on every service you accessed from the phone. Notify your banks and credit card companies about the data exposure and freeze or monitor your accounts for suspicious activity. Place fraud alerts or a credit freeze with each of the three major credit bureaus to guard against identity theft. Monitor your credit reports regularly and consider filing an identity‐theft report with the Federal Trade Commission to document the incident.
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