Episode 1520
How to protect yourself from phone, email, and other scammers
Scammers are making billions of dollars from unsuspecting people all over the world. Here are my tips on how to avoid this and even some resources for you to educate yourself on the latest tricks they are using to take your money. There are even some companies out there selling insurance products you really done even need. All this and more on this episode. of Around the House!
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Transcript
[00:00:22] It's the same thing with your phone too, and we'll talk about your phone a little bit later. Keeping your phone where that actually is, doing the updates. Those updates are. To add security, and when they catch a security problem, they're there to help you. They're there to get you dialed in. So you wanna make sure that you've got that where you can do that.
[:[00:01:06] Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we hope you get the most outta your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. Hey, if you wanna find out more about us you're at Around the house, you can hit over to around the house online.com. Make sure you follow us on social media and you're part of our close group around the House Nation that's over on Facebook where we have, uh, we're sharing up stories, pictures, everything else over there.
[:[00:01:48] Are out full force and, uh, there are some amazing stories out there of people being taken for tens of thousands of dollars just because they did a couple things [00:02:00] wrong. And so I wanted to really help, you know, maybe this is something you should be sharing to family members, parents, grandparents. Uh, this is an episode for people to take a listen to.
[:[00:02:32] So here's what happens. So maybe you're on the interweb sitting there surfing, and you're looking up a, a recipe for whatever you're going to make, and you see a a, an ad or something and go, oh, there's an ad right there. I'll click on that. You click on it, everything looks good, and you get a popup. And that popup could be from Google, Norton Geeks Squad, Microsoft.
[:[00:03:26] It will sound like you're dealing with an overseas Microsoft office, and this is where they start to get you. They will ask you to un download a remote access tool and they'll say that you've been breached or hacked or whatever else. And it could be any desk, it could be team view. It could be ultra viewer.
[:[00:04:08] So once they get in there, they will get into the, ask you to get into the run part of your program in there. And this, they're already in, they are in the door. They are. They have all the access of everything that's in your computer. So they can, in a moment of minutes, download everything there. They can copy, paste, they have your life story of whatever's on your.
[:[00:04:57] Or your credit card company, and [00:05:00] then they're going to explain to you that they need to make a duplicate transaction to wipe it out because they need to do that. And this is what sounds so insane and it's so successful that people go, oh, okay, that sounds great. They don't understand what's going. And this is where these people will sit there and tell, you know, if it was my grandmother, no, I don't have a grandmother that's alive right now, but, uh, uh, you know, they've since passed.
[:[00:05:55] And so really the things you can do to prevent this is to have one [00:06:00] really good antivirus program on your computer. And I'm not gonna tell you which one to get. There are plenty out there, but get a good one. Control your pop-ups cuz you don't need these pop-ups telling you to call somebody. I generally on my computer, have my pop-ups completely blocked, which can cause problems sometimes.
[:[00:06:41] How do you do that? Head over to the Geek Squad website or the Microsoft website or the Norton website. You know, Google is extremely hard to get ahold of. I don't know why anybody would be talking to you there, but that's one of those other ones that, uh, that you don't need to talk to. [00:07:00] But you grab your card, your bank card, call the one 800 number on the back of it.
[:[00:07:29] Now, if you wanna learn more about this and how this all works, and if you wanna take a deep dive, one of my favorite channels on this is over Pierogi has it, and it's, uh, called scammer payback. Over on YouTube and he goes through and has a voice changer and actually goes through and shows you exactly how these work inside and out.
[:[00:08:19] Or anybody legitimately is going to tell you to send gift cards or go put money in a crypto account. That should never happen. There is no reason for that to happen. So this is where they're gonna get taken. Now what's funny is, and I don't know if it's legal or not, so, uh, I will preface it with that, but that pierogi guy, he goes in and hacks into their system while you're watching.
[:[00:09:02] So we've got a lot more coming up here in, uh, my next, actually, the next segment to be frank, is gonna be on how to keep your online security more, you know, lots more dialed in. There are ways to do this, to make it so you are less likely to have someone messing around with your stuff. And uh, that's an important one as well.
[:[00:09:45] What's up? This is Stick and Satchel from Stihl Panther and you are listening to Around The House with Eric G. Yeah, we love Eric G and you should too.[00:10:00]
[:[00:10:27] So I really wanted to give you just some key topics today of how not to get scammed and other security tips. And a lot of this is just gonna be online security as well. And here's one of my other tips. There are some great password managers out there, and this is what I mean, you know, we all come up with our passwords and so many people go, password one, password, two password.
[:[00:11:12] Now, here's the cool part is you can get into some of these companies out there and there's a lot of different ones, but I'll just use one that is, that is highly rated, that's really cool. That's called, for instance, Nord Pass. Which is created by Nord vpn, and what this does is that you can go in and it saves your passwords, but it's basically a vault for your passwords, and so it'll save your unlimited passwords, auto save, and autofill, which means when you go to put it date, it'll automatically put it in.
[:[00:12:16] So this is really cool. You can literally securely source credit cards and notes and, and stay logged in when switching devices. So this is something that they've got here. That can really help you out because it has all these advanced security features, and I do like the zero knowledge architecture, which really just means that it's only, you know what's stored in the vault.
[:[00:13:05] 20, I think they got a sale on right now. For instance, I think it's like 24 bucks for the first year. And then really this is your secret to being secure and that's just one of 'em. There's a lot of different other ones out there. There's Robo Formm Keeper Dash Lane one password. But, uh, you know, any of these are interesting.
[:[00:13:52] So that's the key right there, is to see how much you can do that to keep people from getting into your accounts. And, you [00:14:00] know, the problem is, is that so many people out there have, you know, two or three passwords, maybe five. And once they get a couple of those figured out, you've given them access into your whole life.
[:[00:14:29] So what you can do with that is that'll just keep people from getting in, uh, the backdoor into your system that way. And that's really important. That's really important to have those strong passwords because look, they's other people, they're gonna hack. If you make it hard, they're gonna move on and get over to easier prey.
[:[00:15:10] So that's something that, uh, of course you want to have, it seems obvious, but make sure that you've got an up to date. High quality antivirus program running on your machines, cuz that's really, really important. And uh, of course, you know, that's, um, that's, that's an important one right there. And what's interesting too is, um, when it comes down to the stuff that we're seeing out there in 2020, the internet crime report, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center says it has 2000 cyber crime complaints per.
[:[00:16:11] One of the other great defenses that you can do here as well is set up a firewall and that firewall goes on your computer. So that's really your first line of defense against Intruders Online is a firewall, cuz that is the barrier between your computer and the, uh, you know, the connection to the internet.
[:[00:16:47] So make sure that you've got a good firewall going. And uh, you know, there's also stuff out there like LifeLock and of course Norton and a lot of other ones out there. And now here's another important one too. Whenever [00:17:00] you're signing into something, and you probably see this, where it goes, Hey, would you like to enable two factor authentication?
[:[00:17:28] Something that you're gonna see a lot of these online streaming services starting to do as well, even more so is when you go log in to do that. Because with so many people sharing accounts and sharing stuff that aren't in the same household, I think you're gonna see that two factor authentic. Being used, um, or in other security things to keep that from happening.
[:[00:18:05] Now these phish sites or attacks, basically, uh, I tell you what, it can all be wrapped up in an email. And it's that email you go, did that really come from John? Something looks funny here. Or Why am I getting an invoice? These are all fishing attacks. We'll talk about that just as soon as a route in the house returns.
[:[00:19:15] A huge problem with people out there, and we've talked about a different, a bunch of different stuff earlier about, uh, passwords and, and making sure you got a firewall and a really good, uh, antivirus thing up. And the next one we started to talk about here was, was phishing emails or phishing websites, and.
[:[00:19:54] Like links that you see in there. Hey, check this out. Those are always things, or a QR code. [00:20:00] Those are things that always make me nervous, you know, if an app or a website's redirecting you. You know, just shut it down and click away immediately. You know, today's, you just see in today's hackers go after this way, and those redirects are a big deal.
[:[00:20:40] The whole system got held hostage happens all the time. So you gotta be really careful. Now you know what one of the most common mistakes people make, and this one's shocking to me out there cuz it happens so often and I catch myself every once in a while. When you install that antivirus, not making sure that that is up to date.
[:[00:21:19] So you wanna make sure that you've got that where you can do that. So that's an important one, guys. Just make sure that you get that taken care of because you really need to get that, where that online security is big. And, um, just, just be careful, just be careful. Wanna talk about here today is securing your wireless network at home or even your office really.
[:[00:22:05] That's like the front door. So make sure that you've got that. And then, you know, we were talking about the password management apps. That's a great way to do that. But make sure you turn on the network encryption for that router. It's gonna be, uh, geez, what is it? Either a WPA or a wpa, A two encryption.
[:[00:22:45] Without the key, I have access to it. It's really that simple. So there's a lot of different ways. If you, um, you know, Microsoft has their BitLocker, which is good if you have Mac, it ar it already has, um, what is that file vault in [00:23:00] it. Um, and then if you've got a, um, iMac Pro or one of the T2 chip apples, basically, uh, it's automatically encrypted.
[:[00:23:31] Encryption technology as well. Cuz usually you used to go http, you know, slash www. That s is the secure part of that. So that's good and uh, that's interesting as well. And you know, it's interesting too, there's also secure messaging services out there like WhatsApp. Um, that's a big one, you know, and that's, uh, it's interesting that that is a encrypted secure versus your text messages that aren't.[00:24:00]
[:[00:24:23] Come in, like they're pretending to be another one of your, you know, if you have an apple, maybe they're trying to be your headset, they can actually access into your system through that Bluetooth. So turn that off. And then here's another big one too. Open wifi, public wifi networks. Never use those to check your bank account or personal information.
[:[00:25:08] So basically you're sending that data through its own like tunnel that's encrypted. And so nobody can see what you're doing with that data. It's a good way to go. That keeps people there as well. And here's one that I hate by the way. And I know it's horrible, but this is one that I, I, it's, it's, they say to do, but it's harder that disable the auto complete.
[:[00:25:56] The hacker's goal is to get in there and see what you're about, [00:26:00] what you're doing, where you're going, and that data will tell them, Hey, that's their bank account. That's their credit card. That's their, they can see where they need to steer to by having that. So the more you do cleaning that out, the more safer you are because you're not giving 'em a bread come tail to where you're at.
[:[00:26:39] Where is your data going? Are you backing it up? I back mine up in two separate places because I don't ever wanna lose my work. So I have it going up into two different clouds. I have it on two different drives. I have everything backed up so that way I know where it is and if something crashes, [00:27:00] like, you know, I had this happen.
[:[00:27:21] Somebody smashed and grabbed and took all their laptops. Nobody had anything backed up. I always back my stuff up because that way if you have a hard drive, quit house, fire, whatever. If you're backing up into the cloud and it's encrypted up there, you now lose nothing. All that data's up there, and there's a lot of different programs out there that work really well.
[:[00:28:02] I can't have enough backup because I can't. Afford to lose anything. Alright, we come back, there's gonna be some great new tips here as well. And then, uh, we got a little other secret just as soon as we're on the house returns.
[:[00:29:16] You can catch that on the Fox 12 app or head over to, uh, Fox 12, Oregon. You can stream it right there or kp tv.com. Well, I've been talking about a lot of different security stuff online and ways to keep yourself more secure against hackers, scammers, and all that stuff. Now there's a tool that you can use that really can help you, and it is a visualization software tool.
[:[00:29:59] So, [00:30:00] uh, they really allow you to run a second isolated operating system on top of your main one without have to reboot your computer every time you wanna switch between them. So if anybody attacks that, it's only getting into that instead of the whole computer. So it's kind of a more complex way of doing it, but it is one way to do it.
[:[00:30:35] Let's go raid the house. That's where you can run into problems or somebody hits your bank accounts cuz they know you're on a cruise and you're gonna have limited access. Be careful, be very careful. Now, a couple other little tips here. It's pretty easy for these people to infiltrate that baby monitor, smart tv, that kind of stuff.
[:[00:31:14] And, uh, the way to get around that, go around and just find the name of the video and go over there and search it on YouTube and grab it off there. You know, it's at least a little bit more legitimate that way. So that's a key right there. Now here's another one too, is if you get that phishing email that you're worried about where there's a, a link to it, if you take your mouse and hover, don't click on it.
[:[00:32:10] I'll be honest. Can someone do that? Sure. Is it hard in most states? Yeah. Nearly impossible in most states for that to happen. It is so rare for somebody to try to steal the title from your home. And there's one commercial out there that said the F fbi. I quote, quote, I called the FBI three different places, including DC and they had no idea when I called them what they were talking.
[:[00:32:58] It's a lot [00:33:00] harder to do. That is just not something that I'm gonna put as a top level scam out there for people to be worried about. And I think that's really, really important. Now here's another tip and trick for you, and I noticed this here too. Cyber thieves will test drive a stolen card number, and I caught one of my cards this way.
[:[00:33:44] So check those online transactions all the time. Make sure, and also when you're going in and using card readers, there are a lot of card readers out there that. You know, scam readers on top of them. [00:34:00] So if you're gonna use the ATM and you're worried about that, go to the one inside the bank, inside the doorway.
[:[00:34:30] So now another one here is, and this is an interesting one here, they also suggest to avoid using debit cards and never click the box that says, remember me. Just remember your password. So another thing that you're seeing people out there do as well is they consi. You know, people consider freezing their credit.
[:[00:35:23] Now, I do have, before we go, some interesting privacy settings that you can use on your phone as well. And I know we're jumping around here a little bit, but other privacy settings you can use for your iPhone, for instance, as there is a USB restricted. Which is basically this little security feature. Uh, it came out I think, uh, iOS 11.41 basically keeps USB accessories from automatically being able to connect to an iPhone.
[:[00:36:11] And if you're over on Android, disable the option to enable unknown develops developers or apps if there's, you know, If there have been any apps that you've had to install outside of Google Play, make sure that the unknown sources or unin or install unknown apps option is not left open afterward. So make sure that that way, that way you don't get a malicious stuff showing up in there so that way it doesn't show up that way.
[:[00:37:02] That's another one. Basically you're eliminating all the security on the phone. So that's one again, that, uh, lets you know what you're doing. Um, and then as well as invalidating your warranty and everything else. Um, I, I just wouldn't recommend that, you know, that's where it gets, gets pretty poor. So. So, one last thing out there to be very careful with.
[:[00:37:54] That's probably there. What's your pet name? How many times do you use that to, to find the password that you forgot? [00:38:00] Well, you're just giving people that public answer out there, so be very careful with that. You can really cause yourself a bunch of problems with that. So just be careful, guys. This is just one of those things to Facebook, Instagram, any of that stuff.
[:[00:38:43] All right, let's keep y'all from getting scammed out there. Hope you enjoyed this one. Thanks for tuning into around the house. We'll see you next week[00:39:00]
