WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Welcome to to Ask Good Questions Podcasts, broadcasting live every Wednesday,
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six pm Eastern Time on W four CY Radio at
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W four cy dot com. This week and every week,
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we will reach for a higher purpose in money and life,
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as well as a focus on health and wellnent. Now,
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let's join your host, Anita bell Anderson as together we
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start with Asking Good Questions.
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Hey, welcome to the Ask Good Questions podcast. This is
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your host, Benita bell Anderson, and I'm coming at you
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in cognito today because today we are going to talk
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about something that touches almost everyone, and that is staying
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safe from scams from identity from online trickery and so
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especially for seniors and the people who love them. So
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I want you to think of so I'll want you know,
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I don't want you to be scared of me, so
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I'll take the sunglasses off. But I want you to
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think of me as like being in a jail cell.
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And I want you to think about how you're going
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to be too smart for those scammers and those people
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that are trying to trick you. So I want to
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start with a small with a short story. Someone I
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know got a phone call that found it exactly like
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their make right. The caller knew their name, they mentioned
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their bank and said your account has been compromised, please
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stay on the line, and they sounded urgent, very official,
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and within minutes this person was giving out information they
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normally never would have shared. So by the time they
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realized something felled off, it was too late. So here's
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the thing. These scams are not happening because people are
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dumb or careless or something like that. They're happening because
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scammers are getting really, really good at pretending to be trustworthy.
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So today's episode has one clear goal. I want you
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to go into the future be more confident and more prepared.
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And so I've prepared a checklist for you, and we're
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going to walk through what I call the Senior Cyber
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Safety Checklist, and you can use it for yourself with
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so you know, maybe your spouse or your partner, parents
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or grandparents, or with any senior you care about. Okay,
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So you don't need to be tech savvy to be
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following along. And if you can make a phone call,
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if you can read an email, if you can write
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a few notes, then you can absolutely do this. And
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good news, you don't have to write down the single
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thing because I put this into a one page Senior
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Cyber Safety checklist for you, and you can keep that
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by your computer or your phone. You'll be able to
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I'm going to give you information on where to find that. Okay,
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so let's talk. Let's talk. I've got some slides for you,
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so let's see. Let's pull up the slides. NIW So
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this is one email address. This is actually my website
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is Benitabell Anderson dot com. And if you go to
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podcast Guests Downloads then you can see this and that
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is actual address where you go. That's W FOURCY is
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the radio network that this is on. So you can
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go and find that. I will also mention it again
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at the end of these slides. But let's talk about
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why are seniors targeted. First, you know, seniors are typically
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trusting and they're politey. You were raised to answer the
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phone right, to listen when somebody sounds official, to be respectful,
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and scammers know this and they like to take advantage.
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So second, what do seniors have. They have savings, they
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have pensions, they have social security, they have retur accounts,
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and so from a criminal's perspective, that means there's money
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to go after, right. So Third, today's technology is changing
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so fast, isn't it. So many seniors didn't grow up
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with smartphones and online banking, so you've had to learn
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it as an adult, right, and that can sometimes feel
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confusing or intimidating. So if you've ever fallen for a
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scam or almost fallen for one, please hear this. It
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is not because you are stupid. These scammers are professionals.
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They practice their scripts. They use fear, they use urgency,
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they use emotion on purpose. And the good news is
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that you can build some very simple habits that make
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you much harder to scam. So let's go through our
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senior site safety checklist again. You can download it for
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yourself here at this web address. I'll give you it
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again at the end of these slides, or you can
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just listen now and then go later and download it.
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All right, So let's start with the biggest trouble spot,
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right The biggest treble stock spot is the phone. So
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there's a lot of scams that start with a phone
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call or an email, and if we can get better
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at spotting the red flags there, we can prevent a
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lot of damage. Here's the key habits. Hang up on
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calls that are urgent, threatening, or demand payment right now.
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If someone calls and says you're going to be arrested
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or your account will be closed in the next ten minutes,
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that's a huge red flag. Nobody's doing that to you.
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Real organizations do not threaten like that over the phone.
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So never ever, ever give up your Social Security number,
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bank information, or passwords over the phone or email. Is
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someone who reached out to you. If you called the
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number on the back of your card, that's different. But
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if they called you, don't give that out that information.
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Ignore the links in unexpected texts or emails from banks
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the irs. So security or delivery companies. They can copy
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and paste logos. It can look just like like the
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IRS or Social Security, or it can just it can
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look like anything because they can create it to look
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like that. Don't click on any links that you are
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not aware of having it come in to you. Go
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directly to the official website or use the app already have.
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If it's a bank, you call your bank and you say, hey,
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is my account in danger? And of course they're going
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to say no, your account's no, your account's fine. So
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treatment spellings, this is a big one to treatment spellings
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or oddwording or unknown senders as suspicious.
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Right, If the email sounds a little of like strange grammar,
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weird phrases, or it just doesn't feel right, then delete
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it or call a trusted person to look at it
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with you, right, and if in doubt, call again call
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the company back using a phone number that you trust.
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Right. That means the number on your bank card or
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on your statement or on the official website. Don't use
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the number the caller sends you, because that's going to
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go to their call summer, etc. Where they're impersonating people.
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If you did just this section, if you only changed
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how you handled phone calls and emails, you would already
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be much much safer. Okay. Number two is passwords and logins.
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I know nobody loves passwords, but a few small improvements
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here make a huge difference. All right, So the checklist
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says use longer pathwords or passphrazes instead of something like
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fluffy one, two three, think in terms of three or
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four random words, for example, purple, orange, garden, sun. Longer
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is better. So there's there's ways you know you can
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dream up things or else. There's a website called dice
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were that you can go and that place will dream
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up words for you. But I've been negligent of this,
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and it's something that I have changed. Avoid using the
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same password for email, banking and shopping websites. I now
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have an email that I created just for financial websites,
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just for the places where I log in, and it's
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different from my other website with other emails that I
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use for you know, a lot of other things. So
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turn on this everywhere everywhere you go, say yes to
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turning on two step verification. It's also called two factor authentication,
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and this is usually for your email for your bank accounts,
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and that's when you log in and they send you
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a code by text or another or through an app,
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then it's an extra step, but it's one of the
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best protections you can have. Usually have to put some
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numbers in to identicate that it's you, and also right
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passwords in a private, safe place or use a trusted
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password manager. There's several out there. There's there's one called
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one Password, there's there's there's a bunch of them now
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and so actually in about a month I'm going to
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be having a cybersecurity expert on we will talk more
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in depth about the different password manager companies and websites
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that are out there. But please consider doing that ideally
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set up by someone you trust. Okay. For some the seniors,
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a small paper notebook kept in a safe place is
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easier than trying to memorize everything, so that's okay, Just
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don't leave it out in public view. And also that
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little notebook might be important, you know, for I know,
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we don't want to think about it, but someday when
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you pass away, that notebook might be goal for your
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executor of your account getting into websites to take care
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of business. Okay, that's just just saying. So if passwords
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feel overwhelming, Start with just one thing. Pick your most
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important account, maybe it's your email, or maybe it's your
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main bank, and upgrade that password first. Okay. Another thing
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that I do is I change on a regular I
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have a reminder to myself on the first day of
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every month to change passwords. I don't change everything, but
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I change those things that I use a lot. And
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so that's also an idea, is just to regularly change
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your passwords. Okay. Next on the list devices that can
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be all kinds of things. Can your laptop, your phones,
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your your tablets, your it could be your your wrist rat,
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you know, your watch. So think of this as the
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locks on the doors in the windows of your digital house. Okay,
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and so first up on the list is turn on
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automatic updates for your computer and your phone and your tablet.
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Updates are are a lot of time security fixes, so
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letting them run automatically keeps you safer without you having
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to think about it. All right, and use a strong
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Wi Fi password at home, not the default from the
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sticker on the back of the router. If your Wi
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Fi password is something like admin or password, it's time
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to change it, okay. And a longer phrase is better.
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So avoid checking bank or credit card accounts on public
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Wi Fi. I'm talking, don't do that. Don't go to
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Starbucks and get your favorite drink and sit down and
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get into your bank account. Right, You're not going to
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do that. This also includes like cafes airports. Don't do
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it at the airport or malls. There have been sometimes
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when I have needed to work on something while I
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was waiting for a plane at an airport. In those cases,
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I never use the free Wi Fi at the airport.
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What I use is my mobile hotspot on my phone.
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Most people have a mobile hotspot, and so think about that.
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If you need to check something sensitive, use your cellular
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data or wait until you're back on your home network,
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all right, and then install reputable antivirus or security software.
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Actually have Norton, which is also what is linked up
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with LifeLock, and that actually just renewed for me and
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I have had Norton for a while and they're great.
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They're one of those good reputable anti virus or security software.
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And so you don't need to buy every product out there,
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just choose one recommended by someone you trust and keep
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it updated. Okay, so this section is often a great
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one to do with a son or a daughter, a grandchild,
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or a trusted friend who's comfortable with technology. You know,
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you might just ask them, can we spend twenty minutes
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making sure my devices are updated and my WiFi passport
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is strong? You know, maybe you make them some cookies
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or something like that, or maybe, you know, maybe if
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it's a big enough deal, maybe you make them dinner,
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have them come in for dinner, and do those things
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all right, Okay, So the next thing is banking. Back
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to banking and money monitoring. So even if you're really careful,
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it's smart to have some early warning systems in place,
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right okay. The checklist says set up bank alerts for withdrawals, transfers,
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or purchases over a certain dollar amount. For example, you
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might get a text if anything over two hundred dollars happens.
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That way, you see suspicious activity quickly. So one of
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the and I didn't years ago, I did not have
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this set up yet. I actually had a business credit
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card that I kept in my drawer at my office
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in downtown Spokane, Washington, and somehow, I have no idea
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how they got into it, but there were scammers that
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got into that but a whole bunch of one hundred
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dollars Walmart gift cards. And to this day, I have
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no idea how they did it, but I fortunately I
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double check. You know, every month, I would go through
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my bookkeeping and this pops up and I didn't even
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use that card, and I don't know how long. So
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if I would have had a make alert, I would
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have found out about that much sooner. So review your
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00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.400
monthly statements for unfamiliar charges. I know it's not a