[00:00:00] It's around the house 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 too. When you install that antivirus, not making sure that that is up to date, you gotta keep up on the updates.

[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.

[00:00:44] 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 when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to [00:01:00] know, but we've got you covered. This is around the house.

[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.

[00:01:28] So it's a nice, safe group that we can play along nice and, uh, people can share up their projects and their questions and everything they're working on today. Now, today, in this hour, I wanted to talk about basically how to not get scammed in other security tips, because I tell you what, the scammers out 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.

[00:02:09] The first one I want to go after today is one of the big ones out. And this is one that is based on the call centers from India. And this is a huge international scam going on right now. And what happens is, is let's talk about how this happens cuz people go, oh, never get scammed. And then it happens, right?

[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.

[00:02:59] [00:03:00] She, any of them. And then they, they pop up and say, Hey, you need to call us. Maybe it's Microsoft. That's a common one. Hey, you've got a virus. Call Microsoft. We're gonna help you. So there's a one 800 number. It looks somewhat legit, and this is where people fall into the trap. So that happens. And then you click on that or call it and you'll get them and they'll answer 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.

[00:03:48] Now, these programs, there's nothing wrong with these programs when they're used correctly. If I call Geek Squad myself and make a phone call to Geek Squad, they're gonna probably jump on and use a team viewer. [00:04:00] Or an ultra viewer or any desk, but when used illegally, that's where the problem is. So those programs aren't so much the problem.

[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.

[00:04:30] And then they're gonna say to you that, oh, after our scan, which is completely fake, they can't do a scan on your system and say that you have a banking issue. Doesn't exist. But that's where they get it. It sounds so ridiculous when you hear it outside of the context, but these people are professionals and they're gonna say that you have an illegal bank transaction that was not approved, and then they're going to bring in someone else from their office that says they're from 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.

[00:05:31] But they're, this is the kind of people that will tell your grandmother to walk five miles, 10 miles with their walker to go buy gift cards, send them in the mail, or go put money into a crypto style atm. And the scam has happened, and this is where people take your money, and that is where people get scammed.

[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.

[00:06:19] Sometimes when you get under bill pay things or whatever, you're trying to pay a bill on the pop-ups get blocks. You have to go through and and allow that. But um, that can be a problem. But really, You should not have to be, you should not be talking to anyone. Google, Norton, geek Squad, Microsoft, unless you called them.

[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.

[00:07:06] That way you know who you're getting because these people are gonna try to take advantage of you. And that's where those scams occur, is that you let them in the door and all of a sudden you're sending $10,000 to these people in India. And they are relentless. They are 24 7 call. And they just keep going and keep going.

[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.

[00:07:53] So if you really want a great education on how this all works, Go over and watch it so that [00:08:00] way you can understand it and, uh, you know, maybe grandma or you know, an elder of yours can make sure they're not getting taken. But generally speaking, there's one rule that I want everybody to follow. There is no reason your bank.

[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.

[00:08:44] And so he's taking all their information, the hacker's information, deleting it, using their real names, exposing 'em on the internet and everything else. But you know something, as soon as one place gets shut down, another one pops up and there's millions of dollars being made. Just [00:09:00] off of that scam here in the United States.

[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.

[00:09:23] And then, uh, that's an important one. I think we will, we'll talk about next because it's just that important. All right, buddy. When we come back, we're gonna be talking about that and so much more. Don't change that dial around the house, we'll be right back.

[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]

[00:10:10] Welcome back to The Round The House Show. This is where we hope you get the most outta your home through good information education. Thanks for joining us today. Well, we've been talking about today about really just trying to help people not get scammed out there because there are so many different things out there.

[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.

[00:10:51] That is not a secure password. So many times when you're doing secure passwords, You tend to have one that you use across, and maybe it's got [00:11:00] some letters and numbers and symbols or whatever, because that is what they force you as a minimum. But there's a better way to do this to keep peop, keep people from hacking into your account.

[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.

[00:11:45] It will identify weak, old and reused passwords. It'll also scan the web for data leaks and generate complex passwords. The cool thing is it'll also automatically sync [00:12:00] across your devices, has multifactor authentication, and there's, you can secure your account with biometrics. There's a lot of stuff in here that will do, and it'll also give access to the passwords in case of e.

[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.

[00:12:43] It's not stored with them. So that vault that you have where all your password stuff is. They don't know what it is in there. And so that's another key to keeping things secure. So this is a really great way so you can jump on, for instance, and [00:13:00] get, you know, um, geez, what is it? Couple bucks a month. So, It's what?

[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.

[00:13:26] Norton has their own password manager. Uh, so there's a lot of different ones out there, but it's really depending on what you're looking for. But to me, this is one of the keys for Le from letting undesired people get gain access into your, your banking, your social media. I can't tell you how many times I see people getting hacked on social media, and if you manage your passwords correctly, you can pretty much eliminate that happen.

[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.

[00:14:10] So keep that stuff locked down, you're gonna be much safer. And, uh, I think a, a password manager is gonna be something that is really. Really helpful for you. And it's something that you can manage everything from your Netflix to your bank account. And, uh, that's something that I think is really important.

[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.

[00:14:45] That means it's not. Now, I think it's really important to say that of course you should have some kind of antivirus security system on your machine, whether it's your computer, tablet, or whatever. The issue is, is that some people, and, [00:15:00] and I used to be one of 'em, I would have two of them running, and that could create conflicts that can create crashes and maybe even leave a door open someplace.

[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.

[00:15:46] And so they're thinking that, uh, cybersecurity ventures estimates that cybercrime will cost the world 10.5 trillion annually by 2025. So that's how much stolen money, [00:16:00] productivity, you know, restoration hack data is what that's gonna cost. That's a big money. So that's something you really need to take seriously because, uh, it could happen to anyone.

[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.

[00:16:26] And that basically watches the data coming back and forth. So if it sees anything, any crazy activity. Or malware spyware is trying to get through, it's gonna really help you do that. So that firewall is very important to have there. You know, most operating systems out there have one. But it's easy to download one as well.

[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?

[00:17:06] Use that whenever you can. So that is really another way to make it harder for people to come. So that way when you log in, it's gonna go, Hey, I'm gonna text you a number. You give us that number, so they're gonna verify it's you. It's much harder for them to do that. So it's a pain sometimes. Yeah. I hate it sometimes where I'm like, I don't even my phone with me.

[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.

[00:17:48] So I think that's gonna be one way that you're gonna start to see this. Now another one we come back I want to talk about, and this is something that's really important and this is one that has been taking companies down out there and you [00:18:00] see it at the workplace a lot, and that is avoiding phishing emails and websites.

[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.

[00:18:47] Hey, this is Ron Keel, the middle cowboy. The Ron Kehl Band and Steeler, we are rocking around the house with Eric G. Ray is your first [00:19:00] welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is where we helped you get the most outta your home through information and education today. I really wanted to talk today about, as we've been talking here, about, uh, internet security and, uh, keeping you from getting scammed out there because it is.

[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.

[00:19:33] Really the best way to avoid any phishing attacks is really just don't click on links and emails or messages sent by people you don't know. You know, if you're unsure whether that message is authentic, make sure you reach out to 'em and see if that actually came from, you know, it's interesting. So that's one of the things.

[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.

[00:20:17] And so you really need to be careful with that because that's how they gain access in. And once they gain access, holy smokes. I have seen ransomware attacks. I have seen entire networks get taken. Over this exact same thing and it was one employee opening the wrong email that lets somebody in the back door and then guess what?

[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.

[00:20:58] You gotta keep up [00:21:00] on the updates. 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 there to add security, and when they catch a security problem, they're there to help you. They're there to get you dialed in.

[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.

[00:21:41] So you should always have a password protected network. Period. Make sure you've got a really good strong password and then you know it should be different than everything else in the home. And make sure the password is separate from the routers [00:22:00] username. Don't use the same cuz that is a common place for people to get in.

[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.

[00:22:23] That'll also. Really help as well. That encryption does help you from, uh, you know, from keeping that secure. You wanna keep that secure. And then speaking of encryption, make sure you do that to keep your data secure. It's a great way to, you know, what is encryption? It just basically scrambles your, your information so people.

[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.

[00:23:09] So that is really important. Using that encryption is key there. So, and then here's another one too. When you're going after websites, when you're on there, another key, and this is something I learned, creating my own websites for around the house online and stuff, make sure that you use an https s website because that's using.

[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]

[00:24:00] And then here's another one that's really important too, that you've gotta be very careful with. I've seen this happen a couple times and it's something you gotta be careful, turn off your Bluetooth when you're not using it. It's really easy to somebody come in and get in via Bluetooth, cuz it's gonna think that, oh, if they basically.

[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.

[00:24:43] Um, it is something that is just absolutely jam-packed with hack. This is something that you've gotta be so careful with. So, um, and otherwise, another way to do it here too. I mean, don't do that at the [00:25:00] airport over that, all those other things. And then really another way to do it, which I use, is a, uh, virtual private network of vpn.

[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.

[00:25:32] So it's that, oh, it remembers your program. It remembers your password. Yeah, the problem is there with that. And, and I love that feature, but that means people can hack in. So that's something that, uh, that's important. Now, another one here too. Is your browser tells you a lot of information about you, so make sure that you clear that every once in a while you.

[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.

[00:26:19] And now here's one too, and we talked a little bit about it earlier. Make sure your phone is being updated regularly. And we talked about it, but it's one of the big ones out there is make sure that you're doing that, um, as well. And here's another key too. This is one that I think is super smart and I've seen people get burned by this.

[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.

[00:27:01] This was an interesting story. I'll tell this before we go out to break here. I was working in a cabin shop in Seattle and I was managing it. And uh, we were based on, uh, Pacific Highway in Kent, actually. And we were sitting there. I took my computer home over the weekend. A lot of people left their laptop in the office.

[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.

[00:27:44] For backing up. That's, you know, that's an important one. Uh, I use Carbonite is one of the ones I use. Um, there's a lot of different ones out there, but, uh, there's a lot of different ways to back up your data if you do that, that's an important one. I back it up in a couple different places, [00:28:00] so it's just one of those things that you wanna make sure you got it.

[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.

[00:28:51] Gets the end of the show now. Drinking down people, it's time to go. It's that time again. It's last call. [00:29:00] Last call. That's it. It's the end of the night Last call. Welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you get the most outta your own through information and education. Hey, make sure you don't forget to catch the TV show around the House Northwest.

[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.

[00:29:41] So like VMware virtual box give you an additional security layer for web activity that makes you, well, if you look at it and go, I don't know if this is a good site, you could always open it up in that. So that's a good way to go. So it makes it harder for people to steal your identity through a thing like that.

[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.

[00:30:19] And then of course, stuff that we've always talked about, making sure that you, uh, don't disclose too much information online, social media. Don't go, Hey, I'm heading to The Bahamas for two weeks. Can't wait. You're much better off coming back and doing an upload of all your stuff. And that way people don't say, Hey, they're outta town.

[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.

[00:30:54] Those are things that, uh, be careful with those passwords. Once they get in there, they can really take a look around your [00:31:00] house and, uh, really get you. So be very careful. Now here's another one too. They can get you by crazy videos on Facebook or stuff, so be very careful. Hey, check out this crazy video.

[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.

[00:31:36] Gees, don't click on it. If you hover over that link, if there is another web address that's, Most of the time it's gonna show you what that is. Definitely on a pc. So that'll also give you a little thing to, Hey, take a look at that before you click on it. That's another way for that to happen. Now there are some things out there that I, I think, that are, are not smart to do because I [00:32:00] just think that they're taking your money and there are companies out there right now that are pitching home title scams.

[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.

[00:32:39] It is not a major threat out there. So what I spend money on trying to protect my title of my house, no, not really. The chance of that getting stolen is, uh, pretty slim cuz they have to go through a lot of steps to, uh, to take your title. So it's not like they're just gonna come down and do something really easily.

[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.

[00:33:21] I saw a dollar Google charge that was something that I didn't authorize. So they will usually, if you have a stolen card number, they're gonna see if. If it's good, bad, or ugly, maybe they're gonna hit it on a vending machine. Maybe they're gonna hit it at a, at a, at a at a store and pay, you know, pay for a pack of gum.

[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.

[00:34:06] There's way more cameras there. You have much safer chance of doing that. Any place that there's high security like that, it's really hard for that to show up in, uh, in for them to do that because it's just gonna get caught. Can't tell you how many times that they've had those, uh, skimmers. On gas stations and things like that out there, people lose their cards.

[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.

[00:34:57] So if you go in it and just kind of [00:35:00] basically shut that down, it's most states it's free. You know, doesn't cost much. But it's one of those things that you can be really careful with, and that way no one's going after your credit. Or can use that without you letting 'em to know to do it. So you're seeing that with some of these other agencies and the credit reporting companies can do that and it's available in a lot of different states.

[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.

[00:35:50] If an hour has elapsed since the last time it was unlocked, So basically you just go settings, touch Id, face id, USB [00:36:00] accessories, cuz there are problems out there with people stealing information from charging sta public charging stations and things like that for your phone. So that's, that's one that's really important.

[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.

[00:36:36] So basically disable it. You're just gonna go to setting. Security, unknown, unknown sources. Uh, and on the later Android models, the option is usually found in settings, apps, top right corner, special access. So that's another one right there. So be very careful with that. So now another interesting one here too that can cause issues, um, [00:37:00] is, you know, Joe breaking your phone.

[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.

[00:37:25] Don't post this stuff on the internet. On social media, children's names, pet names, date of your anniversary, divorce kids', birth names, anything that you use for your password, do not use that. That is just given the world, the open door to your world. So do not. Use any of those things. You know, if you're on there talking about your favorite movie, guess what?

[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.

[00:38:14] Just, uh, be smart about it. And overall, remember. These scammers are playing and prey on your emotions. So when in doubt, slow it down, and if you don't think you're talking to the right people, hang up the phone. Find a verifiable source for their number and call them back, and you'll find out who they really are, and if they're a real person that you're dealing with, that is somebody legitimate.

[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]