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.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Wow, some terrific information in these posts, thank you! I had no idea we had a professional in this area, thanks Saulbadguy!

It looks like I have been doing a few things right, but I have no idea who to contact to lock our credit. We don't plan on buying anything on credit and haven't for 16 years since the Challenger purchase.

I do not answer the phone, ever, unless I know who it is. Still having a Chicagoland area code is actually very helpful in that area.

Made the mistake one time of answering a spoof email that had copied Paypal's logo etc. I ended up having to reset all passwords etc. Then another time I got a FB message asking if I remember this picture, oh shit, that was a mess.

The debit card, the only time we use it is for groceries or gas. Guess I will switch over to using a credit card for those as well. I actually still use cash for most purchases as they haven't killed it down here in the Ozarks yet.

Thank you again everyone!

Speaking of cash, there is another thing to consider. I had to have my mower deck repaired a couple weeks ago. They didn't tell me until I got there to pick it up but they charge 3% for using a credit card. Cost me about $8 more than if I would have stopped at the bank and got cash.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by BWillie

They can take as much as they want, as long as I get it back I don't care.

You don't seem to see all of the issues with this.

Try reading and understanding this post.

Originally Posted by T-post Tom

Lots of good advice. Years ago a family member’s checking account got cleaned out via a compromised debit card. She had multiple items “bounce” & racked up some substantial bank fees. She had to fight the bank for over 6 months to get a final resolution. Debit cards carry extra layers of risk. Especially dangerous when used online.

[ThrobProng]

Originally Posted by Lzen

Speaking of cash, there is another thing to consider. I had to have my mower deck repaired a couple weeks ago. They didn't tell me until I got there to pick it up but they charge 3% for using a credit card. Cost me about $8 more than if I would have stopped at the bank and got cash.

This practice can't end soon enough. It should be illegal.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

An old email address was on a scam email where they forgot to blind copy others, and I thought it was crazy how many people replied-all to it (and then all the people replying-all to complain about people replying-all).... people responding to say they didn't even have a Home Depot account, responding to say "**** off scammers," etc.

Another item is at least some carriers have scam blockers that won't even ring to your phone...T-Mobile's is free (Scam Shield) and for myself the number of calls has dropped from 1-2 per day to ~3-5 per month. Verizon has a similar app, but I think those assholes actually charge to block numbers.

ATT has Active Armor. I believe it definitely reduces a lot of that.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by ThrobProng

This practice can't end soon enough. It should be illegal.

What practice? You mean you think they should make it illegal to charge 3% for using a CC? Personally, I don't have a problem with it. They are just passing on the cost from the CC companies. I just wish they would make it known up front. And maybe in my case they had a notice on the door or something that I didn't see.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

That is great. Interesting they got him that fast.

The Mrs. has instant updates and notifications on all of our credit cards, pretty cool.

At that time I was considered by the military an "essential" private citizen. Don't know everything that went with that designation. I just said okay. but I know of one... it meant in case of a hurricane or war etc. if I can't make it into work, they will send a military helicopter to get me and the family and bring us on base to be housed until the crisis is over.

I always assumed that "essential" designations triggered some more urgent action with the credit card fraud, but I don't know for sure.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

At that time I was considered by the military an "essential" private citizen. Don't know everything that went with that designation but I know of one... it meant in case of a hurricane or war etc. if I can't make it into work, they will send a military helicopter to get me and the family and bring us on base to be housed until the crisis is over.

I always assumed that "essential" designations triggered some more urgent action with the credit card fraud, but I don't know for sure.

Because of your reputation on here, I will never miss an opportunity to break your balls

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by loochy

Because of your reputation on here, I will never miss an opportunity to break your balls

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by loochy

Because of your reputation on here, I will never miss an opportunity to break your balls

Just a tech. No bad ass here. But, I worked alongside many a badass.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Be afraid and buy insurance on everything you own!

Or buy gold!!!!!

[ThrobProng]

Originally Posted by tredadda

Or buy gold!!!!!

Yeah, because the dollar is going to collapse any day now.

Pat Boone said so!

[raybec 4]

Originally Posted by loochy

Because of your reputation on here, I will never miss an opportunity to break your balls

That's OK, he never misses an opportunity to tell us how important he is.

[BWillie]

I'm afraid of rap concerts. That's why I have so many guns at my home. I case of a mobile rap concert. Fear.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I'm afraid of rap concerts. That's why I have so many guns at my home. I case of a mobile rap concert. Fear.

Good stuff?

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Lzen

Speaking of cash, there is another thing to consider. I had to have my mower deck repaired a couple weeks ago. They didn't tell me until I got there to pick it up but they charge 3% for using a credit card. Cost me about $8 more than if I would have stopped at the bank and got cash.

That is the way a lot of businesses used to do it to cover their fee from the card companies. I wasn't aware any businesses were still doing it since the credit card is in such demand and so many places won't take cash.

Remember that thread? It still pisses me off when they won't take cash.