Real estate can be a dangerous profession, as recent incidents in the news attest, but that smartphone you carry everywhere with you can become one of your greatest weapons in protecting you against danger.

A range of mobile apps are available - some even designed specifically for real estate professionals - that can do everything from instantly alerting others when you're feeling threatened to even automatically accessing your GPS coordinates to request help when you need it most. The apps offer discreet ways to call for help when faced in uncomfortable situations, whether encountering squatters in vacant residences, meeting with strangers in empty homes, or even open houses where you never know who will walk through that door next.

The Art of Emptying Your Bank Account

Meet Dmitry Naskovets, the con man from Minsk as he explains the art of emptying your bank account.

Nightfall in Minsk means Dmitry Naskovets begins working the phone. At 24, Naskovets is tall and skinny, and still looks like the college kid he recently was. He's in his apartment's kitchen, in a respectable neighborhood off the second ring road in the capital of Belarus. He starts around 6 p.m. and usually doesn't quit until three the next morning.

On this particular winter night in 2009, Naskovets checks the online orders that have come in and sees a routine assignment. A client has tried to buy a MacBook Pro online with a stolen credit card, but American Express blocked the purchase. Now it's Naskovets's job to work it out with Amex.

Read the Full Story Here