The business of selling fear

[HemiEd]

Heck, it is the offseason

I have noticed more and more lately adds trying to instigate fear to sell you some peace of mind.

The one that triggered this thread was a new one I saw yesterday about losing your home to a scam. I only watched it for a few minutes but remember seeing a fake bill of sale of a persons home for $10. Holy crap, how would that stand up?

This morning in my news feed one add was for SSN protection and the other Identity theft.


Have you had any personal experience with these issues or purchased these products?
What say you?

Personally I have avoided TikTok and have purchased an antivirus protection for my laptop.

Our Citibank card has been compromised at least a half dozen times in the last couple years, but none of the others have.

[Womble]

Any company that makes a commercial featuring Patrick Mahomes is selling fear.

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by Womble

Any company that makes a commercial featuring Patrick Mahomes is selling fear.

fear of a head full of luscious hair?

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Our Citibank card has been compromised at least a half dozen times in the last couple years, but none of the others have.

This happens way, way too often, and it's totally unacceptable.

I've had a friend have his local bank debit card be comprised like 6 times.

The last few haircuts I've had to prepay via PayPal. I've asked her if there was an option to bypass that and use cash. Not currently and probably won't happen. That's ok I guess, just don't like using my CC for online transactions. Her reason is way too many no shows, no calls of notifications of such, and lost money out of her pocket. I completely understand that so I guess I'm OK with it, and she has worked me in a few times when she didn't have to.

[Saulbadguy]

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

We got scammed last year, and it was by a phone call from our "bank". Now, before you start talking about how stupid we are, the problem was we had just had an issue less that 6 months prior, and they caught us at an off guard moment. Got a lot of information before we hung up...felt stupid as hell after that. Ended up having to cancel all our shit and go in to the bank to fix it. They never got any money, but they would have.

Afterwards, I was thinking...we know better. We are not idiots. Yet, this bitch was so good it seemed natural.

Don't do shit over the phone. Ever. Unless you are calling them I guess.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by InChiefsHeaven

We got scammed last year, and it was by a phone call from our "bank". Now, before you start talking about how stupid we are, the problem was we had just had an issue less that 6 months prior, and they caught us at an off guard moment. Got a lot of information before we hung up...felt stupid as hell after that. Ended up having to cancel all our shit and go in to the bank to fix it. They never got any money, but they would have.

Afterwards, I was thinking...we know better. We are not idiots. Yet, this bitch was so good it seemed natural.

Don't do shit over the phone. Ever. Unless you are calling them I guess.

It can happen to anyone. My dad (almost 80) was 100% going to fall for one a couple weeks ago. He got a call about someone accidentally depositing money into his account & needed him to refund the money. Had screenshots that looked 100% legit. He went to the bank to withdraw the money and THANKFULLY his banker overheard him withdrawing the cash & pulled him into his office to verify.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

^ This. I would also say to never answer your phone if you don't recognize the number as legit people will leave a voice mail.

Also don't answer random texts that ask if this is you.

Lastly I know many banks offer free credit monitoring, so if yours does then sign up for it.

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by tredadda

^ This. I would also say to never answer your phone if you don't recognize the number as legit people will leave a voice mail.

Also don't answer random texts that ask if this is you.

Lastly I know many banks offer free credit monitoring, so if yours does then sign up for it.

Answering the phone, in and of itself, is not really an issue IMO. As soon as you are asked to take “any” action, that is the time to disengage.

This applies to phone numbers you do recognize. It’s trivially easy to spoof an outbound call/phone number. As soon as the person who you think you may know asks for money, disengage - or at the very least require you do it in person. (This does not mean go through a third party!!)

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Answering the phone, in and of itself, is not really an issue IMO. As soon as you are asked to take “any” action, that is the time to disengage.

This applies to phone numbers you do recognize. It’s trivially easy to spoof an outbound call/phone number. As soon as the person who you think you may know asks for money, disengage - or at the very least require you do it in person. (This does not mean go through a third party!!)

That’s a good point. I just know that many times you have robo dialers that will spoof numbers and call you just to see if a line is active. Once it finds out, you then become far more open to scam calls.

I do agree that any call requiring you to take action immediately is definitely one you want to disengage from.

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by tredadda

Once it finds out, you then become far more open to scam calls.

I’ve heard that before many a time - it might be true, but I don’t believe scammers are that sophisticated. I think it’s just spray and pray. I could be wrong though.

[Why Not?]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

This. Freezing our credit gave us total peace of mind on anything "big" scam wise happening to us. We don't have debit cards so GTG there. I barely answer the phone for people I do know. lol

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

Good advice.
I'm no expert but I would add to get your free credit report every year.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

Why should we avoid debit cards? Too easy to lift the info for scammers?

And in lieu of that, just use a credit card? Or is cash king?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Why should we avoid debit cards? Too easy to lift the info for scammers?

And in lieu of that, just use a credit card? Or is cash king?

Debit cards (generally) don't have as good of protections as credit cards against fraud. Even if they technically cover the same amounts, you are often out of the money while the fraud investigation takes place.

So for example, imagine someone fraudulently charges $10k to your debit card. They money gets removed from your account, and until they close the fraud investigation, you can't get to the $10k.

If someone does that on a credit card, it's the BANK'S money that gets put on hold. Until the fraud investigation closes, you don't owe them anything for it.