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Are you being scammed by a fraudster? · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:04
  Welcome to After Dark, the America Out Loud Talk Radio News Network.
• 0:08
  I am your host, Rob Harper.
• 0:10
  I am glad you could join me tonight.
• 0:12
  As I always say, I know that there are other podcasts that you could be listening to or other news shows, but you have decided to come to After Dark and carve out 45 minutes of your time to listen to us.
• 0:25
  And I greatly appreciate it.
• 0:27
  Folks, tonight, we're going to take a hard turn.
• 0:29
  Usually when we're on, we're talking about politics.
• 0:31
  But tonight we're going to talk about something a little different, something that impacts us all.
• 0:37
  And something that myself and Andrew have been talking about as well as Heather Robinson, the contributor of the New York Post.
• 0:43
  And that topic is fraud.
• 0:45
  Hopefully, none of you have been impacted by it, but I'm sure some of your friends or relatives have been impacted by it.
• 0:51
  And we've heard numerous stories of fraud being committed on the elderly, young people.
• 0:57
  There are so many things that we need to be looking out for when fraud is presented.
• 1:02
  So tonight, I've decided to invite a guest.
• 1:06
  She's actually my baby sister, Vanessa Harper.
• 1:10
  She is a fraud prevention expert and a certified fraud examiner.
• 1:15
  She has over 30 years of experience working for Fortune 500 companies where she educates financial advisors and their clients on fraud, the threat landscape, common scams, and ways to fight back against fraud.
• 1:28
  You don't want to miss this show.
• 1:31
  And I would encourage you to call your friends and tell them to jump on wherever they listen to their podcast, jump on right now, send them the link because she is going to give you a lot of good information.
• 1:44
  But should you miss the show, the podcast will drop also.
• 1:47
  And you can go to America Outlaw.news network and you can listen to it there.
• 1:52
  So without further ado, let me introduce my sister and certified fraud expert, Vanessa Harper.
• 2:00
  Hi, Rob.
• 2:01
  I am doing great.
• 2:02
  Thank you so much for inviting me to join your show, talk about this important topic.
• 2:07
  You know, Verissa, we've been trying to book you for quite some time, but it seems you have been extremely busy trying to educate people about fraud.
• 2:17
  Is it that is it that serious?
• 2:19
  And is it on the on the uptick?
• 2:22
  It is, Rob.
• 2:23
  One of the things I share is that you know, fraudsters they work 365 days a year.
• 2:30
  So they never take a break, they don't take holidays.
• 2:33
  And yes, it keeps me extremely busy.
• 2:36
  How serious should we take fraud?
• 2:39
  And when I when I say that, because we've heard about identity theft and people try to immune themselves from identity theft, and there's always that it'll never happen to me.
• 2:48
  So I don't have to worry about it.
• 2:49
  What do you see on your end?
• 2:51
  Rob, let me say fraud is something that everybody is going to be impacted by at some point in time.
• 2:59
  As I mentioned, fraudsters don't take holidays, they don't take days off.
• 3:03
  And let me also share this with you is that our information, our personally identifiable information, like your name, your data birth, your social security numbers.
• 3:12
  That information is out there, it's out there on the dark web.
• 3:16
  Frosters have access to it.
• 3:17
  And it's not about if they're going to try to use it to commit fraud and identity theft against you, but when will they attempt?
• 3:26
  Wow.
• 3:26
  I've heard that so many times.
• 3:27
  It's when they will attempt.
• 3:29
  I'm not gonna I have to admit, I'm gonna share this with our listeners.
• 3:31
  I mean, and you've talked to me about this on so many occasions.
• 3:34
  I hate changing my password.
• 3:38
  I hate it.
• 3:39
  And I've heard that you're supposed to change it every month and don't use the same password, use a different password.
• 3:46
  I hate it.
• 3:47
  I mean, I've just now started trying to mix it up and you know, make it complicated.
• 3:53
  But I hate it.
• 3:54
  Usually I would use my data birth.
• 3:56
  They say, Don't use your data birth.
• 3:57
  You know, I've used my name.
• 3:58
  I mean, simple things that I would remember.
• 4:01
  But from what I've been reading, that is easy access for fraudsters.
• 4:06
  They know that you're gonna use it.
• 4:08
  So immediately they that's the first thing they'll do is they'll tap in and try to use your data birth.
• 4:13
  What are your thoughts on that before we dig deeper into fraud?
• 4:16
  So, Rob, I'm glad you brought up passwords because you know, most people use the same password on more than one website that they log into, and that is extremely dangerous.
• 4:26
  Because fosters, fraudsters, you're not alone, Rob.
• 4:30
  I used to do it, right?
• 4:31
  I did it for many years because it's easy.
• 4:33
  It's so many passwords out there that we have to try to remember, right?
• 4:37
  And so fraudsters know that we have the tendency to use the same password on more than one website that we log into.
• 4:44
  So what they do is when they gain access to one of your passwords, you have basically given them the keys to your kingdom.
• 4:54
  So, how to fight back against that?
• 4:56
  Well, I encourage people if you have a hard time creating those unique passwords for every website that you log into, you may want to consider using a password manager because a password manager is going to create that unique password for every website that you log into.
• 5:14
  I hate password managers also.
• 5:16
  I mean, I I use a lot of Apple products, and whenever I'm getting ready to set a password, they'll come up, they'll say use this password, it's very difficult, and it has all these amper signs, the the uh letters of the alphabet, I mean, all this stuff, and I'm like, oh my God, I can't remember this.
• 5:30
  And then when I go in sometimes to call up the password, it doesn't always populate.
• 5:35
  And then it's asking me, what is a password?
• 5:36
  I'm like, I don't know.
• 5:37
  I gave it to you.
• 5:38
  What's the problem here?
• 5:40
  Then I have to recreate the password all over again.
• 5:43
  But if I'm hearing you correctly, that's the best option.
• 5:46
  It is opposed to me.
• 5:48
  Go ahead.
• 5:49
  It is Rob.
• 5:50
  And let me share one of the reasons why you know we educate on using a password manager, is because a password manager is going to encrypt your data.
• 5:59
  Ah.
• 5:59
  So it encrypts the data.
• 6:02
  And now you only need to remember the password for the password manager.
• 6:07
  So it encrypts your data, which keeps it secure and safe.
• 6:11
  And now all you need to remember is just that one password for your password manager.
• 6:16
  And some people say, but what if I forget the password for the password manager?
• 6:19
  I tell people to write it down, put it in your safe and keep it.
• 6:24
  So if you forget it, you go in your safe and you get it out.
• 6:27
  What are we gonna have a safe?
• 6:28
  I want to just put it on a piece of paper in my notebook so that I could just look at it.
• 6:32
  But again, I'm on what I've been reading when we before we came on, I was doing some prep work, and they said that's not a good idea.
• 6:40
  You know, writing it down the back of a book or in your on your calendar, put it in your wallet, it's not a good idea.
• 6:45
  And like you said, putting it in a safe.
• 6:48
  Yeah, I think everyone today, Rob, should have a small safe in their homes.
• 6:52
  You know, when we think about the wildfires that happened in Southern California and all of the important documents that those individuals lost, and now they have to try to go and retrieve those documents.
• 7:02
  But if they had a really nice safe in their home that was fireproof, you know, they could go back and go to that safe and get those documents out.
• 7:11
  So I encourage everyone today to consider having a small safe in your home where you keep all of your confidential documents, including you know, your passwords.
• 7:21
  You know, if you don't want a password manager and you want to keep them written down in a notebook, put them in your save.
• 7:28
  So if for some reason, let's say your home is is broken into, or let's just say someone is working on something in your home and they were to get their hands on that on that password notebook.
• 7:41
  Um, if it's in your safe, right?
• 7:43
  If they're in your home and if it's in your safe, it's safe.
• 7:46
  So that's something that I encourage individuals to do.
• 7:49
  Use a password manager and put your password inside of your safe in your home.
• 7:56
  Put your password inside of a safe, and that way you will be safe.
• 8:00
  Now, you mentioned password managers.
• 8:03
  Are there types of password managers that people should be looking at?
• 8:07
  Or is it like as I mentioned, I use a lot of Apple products.
• 8:11
  So when I'm trying to create a password, they'll automatically populate it and say, hey, do you want to use our password or create your own password?
• 8:19
  So are there password manager uh programs that are out there or is it just really?
• 8:26
  Yes, there's a lot of password managers out there.
• 8:29
  Now you mentioned Apple, and so you know, I use Apple and Apple has a password manager, right?
• 8:35
  Um what you're what you really want to look for is is something where your data is encrypted.
• 8:42
  Now, um people say, well, you know, there's a lot of free password managers out there.
• 8:47
  What do you think of those?
• 8:49
  One of the things I say is that you're gonna get what you pay for.
• 8:52
  Okay.
• 8:53
  If you didn't pay anything for it, chances are you may not be getting a good password manager.
• 9:00
  So I encourage Rob, I encourage people to go to a website.
• 9:04
  It's it's PC Mag.com.
• 9:08
  And again, that's P is in Paul, C is in Charlie, Mag M A G dot com.
• 9:14
  Go to that website.
• 9:15
  And when you're on that website, type in top password managers.
• 9:20
  And that site will list the top password managers, and then you can do your own research and determine which password manager will fit best based on what you're looking for.
• 9:33
  Wow.
• 9:33
  That's really good advice.
• 9:34
  Because when you said password manager, I just assumed that you know, you get the free one, and then you go your merry little way.
• 9:41
  But like you said, you get what you pay for.
• 9:45
  And a lot of times, if you want to be safe, if you want to protect all that information, you gotta spend a little money.
• 9:51
  Yeah.
• 9:51
  I mean, and the most important thing, Rob, too, is making sure that your data is encrypted in your password manager.
• 9:57
  And what I mean by that is when you see the dot.
• 10:01
  Right.
• 10:01
  That's letting you know that the data is encrypted.
• 10:05
  So that's one of the things.
• 10:07
  Right.
• 10:07
  When you see dot dot dot dot, you want to make sure that your password is being encrypted.
• 10:13
  That data is encrypted in that password manager.
• 10:17
  So that way a lot of people have asked have have any password managers ever been breached?
• 10:22
  And the answer is yes, they have.
• 10:24
  However, the the criminals who may have breached that password manager would need the encryption code to be able to gain access to the passwords in the password manager.
• 10:37
  Okay.
• 10:38
  So again, you know, I know I may be talking at a higher level here for some of the listeners, but I just want to say when you're looking for a password manager, do your research.
• 10:47
  Make sure that the data is encrypted.
• 10:51
  So that's a definitely a takeaway, making certain that the data that the password manager is housing is encrypted.
• 10:58
  So that makes it even more difficult for the fraudsters to have access to your information.
• 11:06
  I mean, I can't believe that here we are trying to protect our information.
• 11:11
  I mean, at one point we only had to worry about identity theft.
• 11:15
  And now it's frosters that are coming in trying to get access to your information.
• 11:19
  I remember so clearly when we started the with the internet, and no one was concerned about passwords.
• 11:26
  It's like, oh, you know, we just go into our computer and then all at once, there was a move for passwords, and people hated it.
• 11:33
  And I remember people would write their passwords on their calendars, putting the mention in their wallets and their purses, or people in the offices, they would just, you know, put it on their desk and put it inside their drawer.
• 11:44
  And then when they weren't there, their manager or anyone else could go in and easily access their passwords.
• 11:52
  And people even shared passwords to say, oh, by the way, this is my password.
• 11:56
  Now I mean, you remember that?
• 11:58
  People say, Oh, here's my password.
• 11:59
  You know, you out sick, you call someone, oh, well, this is my password.
• 12:04
  Now that is frowned upon.
• 12:06
  It's like, no, no, wait.
• 12:07
  No, and no, I know there's a lot we've got to cover here.
• 12:10
  So I want to talk about the common types of uh fraud tactics, but what are your thoughts on the the passwords whereby you use your your your finger to access it?
• 12:21
  Is that is that in your terrain?
• 12:24
  Can you give comments about that?
• 12:25
  Yeah, yeah.
• 12:26
  It's a good thing, a bad thing.
• 12:28
  Then the I I consider it a good thing.
• 12:31
  Uh-huh.
• 12:32
  Because see, that's your personal biometrics.
• 12:34
  Uh, I was gonna mention that the biometrics, okay?
• 12:38
  Yes, and and something that I do, Rob, is I use mobile apps.
• 12:44
  I use mobile apps.
• 12:45
  And why do I use mobile apps?
• 12:46
  Is because now I don't have to remember the password.
• 12:49
  My face is going to be recognized in order to let me get log into my banks.
• 12:57
  And you know, I highly encourage individuals to use the mobile apps because the mobile apps are designed with security features and encryption.
• 13:09
  Yeah, no, I'm glad you mentioned that because I don't like mobile apps.
• 13:12
  I'm always thinking, well, what if they get access to my information?
• 13:15
  But as you mentioned, biometrics.
• 13:18
  Yes, if I set it up so that in order to open get into my information, you would have to use my facial ID recognition or my fingertip fingerprint.
• 13:29
  Wow, you know, I never gosh, I'm you know, Brunel, so where have you been?
• 13:33
  I've been trying to bring you on here, you know, talk about this, and I've been shying away.
• 13:38
  And now that we're talking about it, you're right.
• 13:40
  That is more secure.
• 13:42
  Even if here was another concern of mine.
• 13:45
  If I were to give someone my phone, that and I don't ever do it and say, here, here's my phone.
• 13:50
  Even if my phone is open and they're making a call or looking up something on the web, they still wouldn't be able to access my account because of my bail my biometric code.
• 14:00
  I've improve it that.
• 14:02
  And unless I'm in front of it, it won't open up.
• 14:05
  You got it.
• 14:06
  You got it.
• 14:07
  Absolutely.
• 14:07
  So if they start scrolling through and they land on your banking app and they try to open it, thinking that okay, maybe you've just saved your password.
• 14:16
  You know how websites will say, Do you want to save your password?
• 14:19
  Uh, since we're talking about that, don't ever do that.
• 14:21
  Never save your passwords on these websites because if you're if your device ever gets compromised by a bad actor, a criminal uh through malware being installed on that device, and you've saved all your passwords thinking that's convenient.
• 14:34
  You again have basically made it easy for fraudsters to be able to just log right into those websites.
• 14:40
  This is good to know.
• 14:41
  So biometric, I'm gonna go back to that because I now I'm being sold on it.
• 14:45
  I wasn't always sold on it.
• 14:46
  Now, for my phone in itself, in order for me to open up my phone, I put in my password, but also my facial ID biometric, and then it will open up.
• 14:56
  Now, here's here's the kicker to this.
• 14:58
  I don't know if I should say kicker, but my son and my nephew, they always want access to my phone so they could play games.
• 15:06
  So whenever they say, Oh, let me see your phone, you know, and they're watching me put my password in.
• 15:12
  So one day they thought, oh, we know his password, we know his password.
• 15:15
  And I'm like, those little devils are watching me.
• 15:19
  So now I changed it.
• 15:21
  So it's my my face.
• 15:23
  You gotta see my face also.
• 15:24
  So they get the phone and they they'll take my phone and they're like silently trying to put the password in.
• 15:29
  It's like, oh, we can't get it to open.
• 15:31
  And they're giggling and well, what's wrong with it?
• 15:33
  I'm like, stop, because you're gonna mess up everything.
• 15:36
  I use my facial ID and my password.
• 15:38
  But now that I'm thinking about it, that is the that that is the best way to protect your information, it's biometric.
• 15:46
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:47
  Using it.
• 15:48
  Because if you hand your phone to someone, even if I were to lose my phone, if someone were to break into it, still my facial ID to go to those accounts.
• 15:57
  I'm sold on it now.
• 15:59
  I I never thought about it that way.
• 16:01
  I was always fearful of it, thinking, oh no, you know, that's just something else.
• 16:05
  But without that, even if my accounts are there, they can't get access to the account unless I use my face.
• 16:12
  And it does ask when you're putting you when you open up those accounts, it'll say, Do you want to use this?
• 16:16
  So that when you have your phone, you put it at position it, and then it will open.
• 16:20
  And they ask you all these different ways.
• 16:22
  Put if you wear glasses, take the glasses off, look this way, turn this way to make certain that they capture it.
• 16:28
  That is a very powerful thing.
• 16:30
  Yeah, and something else is that people are always shoulder surfing.
• 16:33
  That's what what the boys were doing with you.
• 16:35
  They just look over your shoulder.
• 16:37
  So you're out and about, and and look, you're going on your mobile app, you're trying to get in, and you put your password in, someone's looking over your shoulder.
• 16:45
  But again, if you're using facial recognition, again, that's one of the secure ways to gain access to your mobile apps.
• 16:53
  And if you lose the phone, you don't have to worry about it because you still have your face.
• 16:56
  Folks, you've been listening to After Dark here on the America Outlaw Talk Radio Network.
• 17:01
  And my guest tonight is Bernessa Harper, my kid's sister, but more importantly, she is a fraud prevention SME subject matter expert and a certified fraud examiner.
• 17:14
  You don't want to miss this show if you're just tuning in.
• 17:18
  Now we've got to get a quick break in because we've got to pay the bills.
• 17:21
  But she's coming back on the other half.
• 17:23
  So I would encourage you to tune in.
• 17:26
  Go get your favorite adult beverage, grab some popcorn, grab your snack, and sit back and listen.
• 17:32
  We'll be back after this break.
• 17:36
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• 20:06
  And we're back with more discussion on fraud with fraud expert Vanessa Harper.
• 20:14
  Now, during the first block of the show, she was sharing with us the importance of having a password manager to host all of your passwords.
• 20:23
  She also mentioned making certain that those managers are encrypted so that your information passwords are encrypted.
• 20:30
  And something that she also mentioned that I'm taking to heart is biometric, the biometric feature for apps and how they are a good thing while I've been thinking they were a bad thing.
• 20:41
  So guess what?
• 20:42
  After this show, I'm going on to all my apps and making certain that I'm using biometric to access all of my financial apps and what have you that I consider personal that I don't want anyone to have access to.
• 20:55
  There's something else she mentioned.
• 20:56
  I want her to talk about this a little bit more before we delve into the common types of fraud.
• 21:03
  And that is, okay, I'm sorry, I said she's a far prevention expert, not a fraud expert.
• 21:08
  Sorry about that.
• 21:10
  Now, uh Vanessa, uh going back to our private information like social security number and date of birth.
• 21:17
  A lot of times people freak out when they are someone is asking them their date of birth or their social security number.
• 21:23
  And I tell people all the time uh you you're giving this information when you go to restaurants, you give them your credit cards.
• 21:29
  You don't know what's happening to your credit cards.
• 21:32
  But the dark web, if someone wants to get information on you, your social security number, date of birth or whatever, they can very easily go online and pay a nominal fee and get all the information about you.
• 21:47
  Is that true or not?
• 21:49
  Uh let me say this, Rob.
• 21:52
  Yes, it is easy to get someone's data birth.
• 21:55
  I mean, you can you can Google right now someone's name and and you can see their their date of birth, right?
• 22:01
  On websites.
• 22:03
  Um, what fraudsters are doing though, these criminals, they're using what you just said, is the dark web, right?
• 22:10
  This is a place where people years ago, and when I say people, like law enforcement, will whistleblowers, they used to go to the dark web to share information anonymously.
• 22:24
  Okay.
• 22:25
  So the dark web was was was a place where people would share information like law enforcement.
• 22:32
  So it was a tool that was designed to do good.
• 22:35
  But we know anytime there's a tool out there that's designed to do good, fraudsters are going to figure out how to use it for nefarious purposes.
• 22:41
  So now they're using the dark web to buy and sell people's uh information, like your data birth, your social security number, uh, your address, your email address.
• 22:53
  Um, if they've gained access to your computer, they take and take pictures of information and they can put that information out there on the dark web, and and that information is being sold for a fee, uh, which then another criminal will purchase that data, and then they use that data to commit identity theft or fraud.
• 23:13
  Why can't they shut that down?
• 23:16
  I mean, this is insane that people, and I've always said that anyone who's stealing someone's ID, uh, acting nefariously and getting information committing fraud, I mean, death penalty automatically.
• 23:27
  I mean, you know, if ands or buts, because that is extremely dangerous.
• 23:32
  Going in, taking people's information.
• 23:35
  I mean, I had my identity stolen from me, I think about almost a decade ago, and it was hell on Wills trying to get that all corrected.
• 23:44
  And I remember I had spoken to you about it briefly, and I was encouraged to put a I think it was to freeze my credit account or something like that.
• 23:51
  That was so painful.
• 23:52
  Every time I went to use my credit card, they had to stop, they had to call in, they had to do this.
• 23:57
  I'm like, oh my gosh, this is insane.
• 23:59
  And went on for a better part of seven years.
• 24:02
  Like, I I don't wish that on anyone except for bad people.
• 24:05
  I don't care about that.
• 24:06
  But Rob, let me let me let me take a moment if you if it's okay and talk about a credit freeze for a moment for your listeners, because I want them to really understand how valuable a credit freeze is.
• 24:18
  So a credit freeze, right, is where you put a lock on your credit, okay?
• 24:27
  You can still use your credit cards, but what it does, it prevents you from being able to establish a new credit card, right?
• 24:36
  Get new credit.
• 24:38
  Okay.
• 24:38
  So you can use your credit cards.
• 24:40
  So I want to make sure everyone understands that you can still use your credit cards, but a freeze will prevent, let's say, if a fraudster has gained access to your personally identifiable information, also known as PII.
• 24:53
  If they've got access to that information about you, and they think that now they can use it to establish new credit, meaning to open up a new credit card, that freeze will prevent them from establishing new credit using your information.
• 25:08
  Okay.
• 25:09
  So if you already have the credit cards that you need, if you already own your home, you own a car, and you're not trying to establish new credit.
• 25:18
  I highly encourage you to add a credit freeze on your credit.
• 25:22
  Because as I mentioned earlier, our information is out there, and we don't know when a fraudster is going to attempt to use that information to commit identity theft against us.
• 25:33
  So I encourage putting a credit freeze on your credit and do it for your children as well, because a child's credit is worth more to a fraudster than a millionaire's credit.
• 25:47
  Why is that?
• 25:49
  But think about it.
• 25:51
  A young person hasn't even established credit cards.
• 25:54
  Okay.
• 25:54
  Okay.
• 25:55
  So now the fraudsters will establish credit for them.
• 25:58
  For them.
• 25:59
  So okay, so with you know, putting a freeze on my credit.
• 26:01
  Like I said, I thought it was like a pain in the butt.
• 26:04
  But like you said, if I'm not opening up new credit, not to worry about it.
• 26:07
  But when I, whenever I got ready to use my credit card, I guess a different merchant, there was always this, like they have to stop, they say, wait a minute, you know, before we can let this go through.
• 26:18
  And it seems as though they had to call someone and then they have to speak with me.
• 26:22
  And I'm like, yeah, it's me making the purchase.
• 26:25
  Now is that is that standard?
• 26:27
  And again, this is like seven years ago.
• 26:29
  Maybe it has gotten better.
• 26:30
  I and I know what you're talking about.
• 26:31
  So that's different, Rob.
• 26:33
  So what they're doing is that your credit card, they monitor real-time transactions, right?
• 26:40
  So they're looking at your spending pattern.
• 26:43
  And they're trying, so what they're doing is, and this is great that that banks are doing this.
• 26:48
  So they're looking at real-time transactions, right?
• 26:51
  So if they see a transaction that looks outside of your normal spending pattern, they will block that transaction and then they call you to verify that, okay, we know you live in this particular state, but and most of your transactions come from that state, but now all of a sudden we see this transaction that's a bit outside of your spending pattern, somewhere in a different state.
• 27:13
  So they then call you, they block it, and then they call you and say, hey, are you making this transaction?
• 27:19
  We see a transaction coming out of, let's say uh uh another state where you don't live, but you're there visiting, right?
• 27:27
  And you make this transaction.
• 27:29
  So that's basically your uh your business, your financial institution, they're basically monitoring your real-time transactions to ensure that a fraudster isn't making a transaction and pretending to be you, using your information, your card.
• 27:44
  Ah, real time.
• 27:46
  Okay.
• 27:46
  Yeah.
• 27:47
  Wow.
• 27:47
  This is really good stuff.
• 27:48
  Okay, so moving on.
• 27:50
  Common types of fraud tactics.
• 27:53
  What are you seeing out there?
• 27:54
  Or what are the common fraud scams that you have seen that you've witnessed and people should be aware of?
• 28:01
  So one of the most common fraud tactics right now, Rob, is social engineering.
• 28:06
  And I don't know if anyone out there listening is familiar with this term, social engineering.
• 28:12
  This is basically fraudsters or criminals tricking you into providing them with sensitive information or taking an action.
• 28:22
  So I'll give you an example.
• 28:24
  A successful social engineering tactic can lead to successful scam incidents, okay?
• 28:33
  And here's where I'm going with this.
• 28:35
  And I want everyone to listen carefully because the scams that we see today, they start with social engineering.
• 28:44
  Okay.
• 28:44
  And let me just share this too.
• 28:46
  Scams don't always start with money.
• 28:49
  It start with emotions.
• 28:51
  Because see, if I can trick you, if I can get you afraid, then I know I can then get you to take action, which is going to lead to you either giving me some information or sending me some money.
• 29:06
  Hmm.
• 29:08
  Now, let me talk about very quickly.
• 29:10
  What are some of those top scams?
• 29:12
  Okay.
• 29:13
  If I social engineer you successfully, right, I can then facilitate what we call the imposter scam.
• 29:21
  That's basically cyber criminals out there pretending to be a trusted entity like the IRS, okay?
• 29:30
  Or they will pretend to be with a big tech company like Microsoft or Amazon, or they may pretend to be like they're calling from your bank.
• 29:39
  And they may even pretend to be a family member.
• 29:43
  Those are all examples of an imposter scam.
• 29:47
  Uh fraudsters are going to then use that social engineering, right?
• 29:52
  To get you to believe that they're that IRS employee, get you to believe that they're your grandmother.
• 30:00
  Grandchild calling you for assistance for some emergency or get you to believe that there's a problem with your computer, right?
• 30:08
  And I'm with Microsoft, and they're trying to trick you to pay them to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
• 30:16
  Okay, Vanessa, if I could stop you really quick, just to add on to it.
• 30:19
  I've experienced two of those types of frauds.
• 30:22
  The first one, calling emotional scams, calling someone to make it seem as if though you're someone else.
• 30:28
  Case in point, someone called our mom and told them that I was in jail and that they needed to send her, send them money to get me out of jail.
• 30:37
  And for her not to worry about it.
• 30:39
  Well, you know what?
• 30:39
  Mom didn't care.
• 30:40
  And she's like, well, if he's in jail, he's gonna have to stay there.
• 30:42
  I'm like, what?
• 30:43
  You want to let me stay in jail?
• 30:45
  She's like, no.
• 30:45
  She's like, I knew it wasn't real.
• 30:47
  I mean, and this is before, you know, we learned about all these like scams.
• 30:51
  She was like, they called me, they said you were in jail.
• 30:53
  And I was like, well, you know what?
• 30:55
  He's gonna have to stay in jail because I have no money.
• 30:57
  And she hung up the phone.
• 30:59
  I love it.
• 31:00
  And she didn't even she didn't even call me back.
• 31:02
  She didn't even call me to see if I was in jail.
• 31:04
  I didn't learn out about it until later on we were having a conversation, and I was trying to warn her about people calling.
• 31:10
  She's like, Oh, don't worry about that.
• 31:12
  I've already nipped that in the butt.
• 31:13
  I'm like, what do you mean?
• 31:14
  And then she proceeded to tell me what happened.
• 31:16
  I thought, mom, what if it had been for real?
• 31:19
  Kudos to mom, Rob.
• 31:21
  What if it had been for real?
• 31:22
  She's like, no, I knew it wasn't real.
• 31:24
  You know, see, she says, I'm talking to you now.
• 31:26
  I'm like, ah, mom, you're smart.
• 31:28
  Okay, that was the first one.
• 31:29
  A second one.
• 31:30
  A friend of mine.
• 31:32
  She fell for it, unfortunately.
• 31:34
  And this is a smart, educated woman.
• 31:37
  But she was working on her computer, and she got this message that her computer was frozen, and that they can help her call this number.
• 31:47
  She called the number, not realizing that her computer wasn't frozen.
• 31:51
  And they said, This is what you need to do.
• 31:53
  You think you've got to send us some money.
• 31:55
  No, we don't want any money.
• 31:56
  All you have to do is go to the store and get debit, what is it?
• 32:01
  Those uh gift cards.
• 32:03
  And then give it to us, and then we'll take care of it.
• 32:05
  Now, here's the thing about it.
• 32:07
  When it happened, she and I were talking on the phone.
• 32:11
  And she told me, she's like, Oh, Rob, I gotta go, something's come up.
• 32:14
  I'll talk to you later.
• 32:15
  And I thought, that's strange.
• 32:17
  So she went, bought the card, she went all over looking for a card, and they told her a particular card to get.
• 32:23
  She got the card, called them, she gave them the information, and then she realized, wait, my computer isn't messed up.
• 32:30
  So she then tried to call them back and say, hey, what are you guys doing?
• 32:34
  And then she tried to go back to the store where she got the card, the cards from to see if they would give her her money.
• 32:38
  They say, No, how do we know that you're not trying to scam us?
• 32:41
  She then called me and told me about it.
• 32:42
  I thought, oh my gosh, had you told me, I would have told you not to do it.
• 32:46
  That's how good they are, Vanessa.
• 32:49
  Yeah, that that example, Rob, is is a case book tech support scam.
• 32:53
  That's case book right there, tricking you into believing that that there's a problem with your computer, and they want you to pay them again to fix this problem that doesn't really exist.
• 33:03
  On believable.
• 33:04
  And as I mentioned, this is a smart woman.
• 33:07
  We had talked about people being scammed.
• 33:09
  It's like, oh, this will never happen to me, and it happened to her.
• 33:14
  Like I mentioned, my mom.
• 33:15
  I've heard so many stories of people being called uh saying that I'm your loved one or your loved one is in trouble.
• 33:22
  Now we just got out of the Christmas holiday, and I'm sure that there were a lot of scams that were taking place.
• 33:27
  And I was trying to bring Vanessa on before then, but her schedule wouldn't wasn't such that she could come on.
• 33:33
  But this is still good information because we're heading into tax season.
• 33:36
  You have different scammers that are calling people, asking for their social security number, or telling them, go to this site, we'll file your taxes for you, and we can do this.
• 33:44
  And people thinking, hey, it's gonna cost me less.
• 33:47
  Why don't I do it?
• 33:48
  And it's like you said, it's always the emotions, and people aren't thinking.
• 33:53
  So when they start hearing about less money, start preying on your emotions, they say, Oh, we'll do this for you.
• 33:58
  Even smart people, Vanessa, fall for it.
• 34:02
  Right.
• 34:02
  You're right.
• 34:03
  And one of the things Rob always say is that, you know, fraudsters don't care who you are.
• 34:07
  They don't care if you're a doctor, if you're a lawyer, they don't care that I'm a certified fraud examiner.
• 34:13
  They're just looking for the perfect target who will fall victim to their scams.
• 34:18
  Yeah, and there's so many people out there that they prey on their emotions and they're thinking that this is going to be okay.
• 34:22
  No, can you imagine?
• 34:23
  Remember some time ago, there was uh publishers clearing house.
• 34:27
  And to me, I always thought that was a scam because I don't think anyone I don't I I never knew anyone who won't won.
• 34:33
  And you know, we had an aunt who was just like she loved publishers' clearing house.
• 34:37
  She was always, she couldn't wait for it to come out.
• 34:40
  Now there are scams around that that they tell people, hey, you're gonna win this, you're gonna win that, and people will go fall for it and they'll tell them here's another that I heard, and don't tell anyone that we're calling you.
• 34:50
  This is just between us.
• 34:51
  Again, educated people, Vanessa.
• 34:54
  Yeah, for this.
• 34:56
  Yeah, right.
• 34:56
  I feel bad.
• 34:57
  And Rob, do you remember when dad thought he had won the sweepstakes lottery?
• 35:01
  Yep, yeah.
• 35:02
  And he received something in the mail, and I was trying to tell Dad, I said, Dad, you know, have you ever played the the sweepstakes lottery?
• 35:10
  He said, No, I said, Dad, you gotta be in it to win it.
• 35:13
  God rest his soul, but he thought he thought he he really thought he had won.
• 35:17
  And I had to say, Dad, you need to take it to an attorney, you know, and and let them look at it.
• 35:22
  And I remember he took it.
• 35:24
  The attorney came back and said, you know, Mr.
• 35:26
  Harper, didn't you say your daughter was a certified fraud examiner?
• 35:28
  And dad was like, Oh, yeah, she is.
• 35:29
  He said, What did she say?
• 35:30
  Oh, she said it was a scam.
• 35:32
  He said, believe your daughter.
• 35:33
  And dad finally was like, okay, you know, baby girl, it was a scam.
• 35:37
  But you see, you know, they're they're going back to the good old-fashioned mail because dad didn't use email.
• 35:43
  They are they are sending information in the mail, you know, and people are getting it, and they're falling victim.
• 35:50
  So fraudsters are using everything at their disposal to be able to trick individuals, you know, and to be able to reach individuals and get them to fall victim to their scams.
• 36:01
  And they don't care, like you say, they will use any means necessary, they will use the mail, they would use the phone.
• 36:06
  If you're on uh use the internet, they will use the internet emails.
• 36:10
  And here's something you could always look at.
• 36:12
  I'm gonna say this, and then we've got for another commercial break.
• 36:15
  Is that when you're getting these letters by mail or an email?
• 36:19
  99% of the time, if not 100% of the time, there's always a word that's misspelled.
• 36:25
  Or they're writing an all-lore case.
• 36:28
  And sometimes they will use the what is it?
• 36:33
  The logos of companies.
• 36:34
  I remember getting one from American Express, and I looked at it closely.
• 36:37
  I'm thinking, wait a minute, they're saying America Express as opposed to American Express.
• 36:42
  Yeah.
• 36:43
  I'm like, this is I'm like, no.
• 36:44
  So I called them up.
• 36:45
  There's like, no, this isn't us.
• 36:46
  Give us the information, forward us the email.
• 36:49
  That is definitely a scam.
• 36:50
  It's fraud.
• 36:51
  Folks, you listen to After Dark on the America Outlaw Talk Radio Network.
• 36:54
  And my guest tonight is Vanessa Harper, who is a fraud prevention expert and a certified fraud examiner.
• 37:00
  We'll be back for the last half of the show after this brief commercial break.
• 37:04
  You don't want to miss the last half of the show.
• 37:06
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• 38:35
  And we're back with the last half.
• 38:37
  And if you have not been listening, if you're just now tuning in, Vanessa has been giving us a lot of good information.
• 38:44
  As I mentioned, she is a fraud prevention expert and a certified fraud examiner.
• 38:49
  And she's just sharing with you what she has seen, what she has experienced, and how you can inoculate yourself, protect yourself from a lot of these fraudsters that are out there.
• 39:00
  Now, during the commercial break, she and I were talking, and she mentioned to me a couple of things that she definitely want to touch on.
• 39:06
  Folks, we're gonna bring her back because we're almost we're getting ready for the tax season.
• 39:10
  And I'm sure there are some things that she would like to share with us about that as well.
• 39:15
  But two things in particular that I want her to cover, and then she's gonna tell you how you can protect yourself.
• 39:21
  The first one is mail theft and check fraud.
• 39:25
  Vanessa, what should we know about male theft and check fraud?
• 39:30
  So, Rob, let me just share that, you know, male theft is on the rise.
• 39:36
  What fraudsters are doing is that they're basically robbing, unfortunately, the the mail carriers, and they're stealing the the master keys to those blue mailboxes that you oftentimes see in different neighborhoods.
• 39:49
  And what they're doing is that when they when they get into those blue mailboxes, they they they will go through the mail and they're looking for checks.
• 39:57
  So check fraud is on the rise.
• 40:00
  You know, where you know you may say, Well, are people still writing checks?
• 40:03
  Yes, you still have some people who are writing checks, and you still have people who receive checks in the mail.
• 40:10
  So fraudsters get those checks, and what they do is they will wash the check, meaning that they're going to remove the information, right?
• 40:20
  On the check, like the payee's name and the dollar amount.
• 40:23
  And what they do is they add their pay name and they add their dollar amount.
• 40:29
  So, for example, if you wrote a check for $500, they know that you have at least $500 in your bank account.
• 40:36
  So, what they do is they write the check amount for $600.
• 40:41
  And then they have that check deposited.
• 40:44
  One of the ways to fight back against check fraud is well, don't write checks, unless you just have to.
• 40:52
  There's so many many other ways to move money outside of writing a check.
• 40:56
  You can do peer-to-peer payments through your bank transfers, like ACH wires, you can do bill pays.
• 41:03
  And if you just have to write a check, use black indelible ink.
• 41:09
  No, why use black indelible?
• 41:11
  Because black indelible ink is going to be extremely hard for the fraudster to be able to remove the writing on the check.
• 41:20
  Never thought about that.
• 41:21
  Wow.
• 41:22
  Some people are probably asking themselves right now, you know, where do I find black indelible ink?
• 41:26
  You can go to like Office Depot and just say, I need black indelible ink.
• 41:31
  Because a lot of the pens that we use today, that that ink is it just stays on the surface, right?
• 41:38
  I'm glad she mentioned that because I'm I was thinking the same thing.
• 41:40
  Just use a regular ink pen, but it is a specific type of ink that you would have to record.
• 41:46
  Wow.
• 41:47
  This is really good to know.
• 41:49
  And as you mentioned, if you you just have to use a check, you know, if you can avoid it, avoid it.
• 41:54
  I mean, I have a lot of checkbooks right now, and I only use it like every so often.
• 41:58
  Like if I'm sending something to uh a relative or a great aunt, I'm like, I want to give a little gift or something because they don't they don't know how you know, like cash apps and all the other stuff.
• 42:08
  They don't use it, minimal, they don't use it.
• 42:10
  You know, and I don't want to send cash to the mail.
• 42:12
  So I'm like, okay, let me just write a check, but you're right.
• 42:15
  A uh what is it called?
• 42:17
  Uh indelible ink.
• 42:18
  Black indelible ink.
• 42:20
  And if you're gonna write a check, always take it to the post office, right?
• 42:24
  Because if you put it in the blue mailbox, you know, chances are dangerous.
• 42:28
  Yeah, if that if if someone has robbed one of the carriers and they've gotten access to one of those keys that get into those blue mailboxes and they get the checks out, you know, get you the mail out, then this is how they're getting access to those checks.
• 42:41
  So I always encourage taking the check to the post office and mailing it there.
• 42:46
  Okay, that's good.
• 42:46
  I mean, I don't trust those blue, I've long since stopped trusting those things because I've seen people actually putting their hands in, rummaging around trying to get things out.
• 42:55
  What they're looking for, I don't know.
• 42:56
  Maybe we should put a snake in there to bite their hands and then they'll start.
• 42:59
  But if you do that, then there's a lawsuit, and then they'll get a million dollars.
• 43:03
  So no, we won't we won't do that.
• 43:04
  So moving on, you also mentioned uh mail theft and check fraud.
• 43:09
  Did we cover those both in the same thing?
• 43:11
  Yeah, we did.
• 43:12
  Mail theft basically is just you know, fraudsters being able to gain access to your mail.
• 43:15
  That you know, even when you when you when you go out of town, if you have your mail uh, you know, sent to let's say a mailbox that some people still have the old fashioned mailboxes on the outside of their homes.
• 43:27
  Um, have your mail stopped, right?
• 43:29
  Just put a stop on your mail until you get back.
• 43:32
  If you live in an apartment building, right?
• 43:34
  Sometimes mail gushed in the wrong mailboxes and the people there will just sit it right there in front, you know, thinking that you'll pick it up.
• 43:42
  Again, if you're uh going out of town for some reason, just put a stop on your on your mail.
• 43:48
  Uh, but again, to avoid um, you know, you know, the check fraud thing is just if someone is gonna send you a check, say, hey, can you send me a wire instead?
• 43:57
  Can you can you send me an ATH or a bill pay?
• 44:00
  So that way you don't have to worry about if your mail gets put in the wrong mailbox, the person is just sit it instead of them putting it back in the slot, they'll just sit it right there in front, thinking you're pick it up, not knowing that there's a check in there.
• 44:12
  So again, avoid if you can avoid using checks.
• 44:15
  So much information is on a check when you write a check, right?
• 44:18
  You put your date of birth on there, your phone number.
• 44:20
  Imagine if that check gets in the hands of a criminal, they have all these data points that they can use to commit identity theft against you.
• 44:27
  So my um, you know, advice is to avoid using checks if you don't have to use them.
• 44:34
  There are other ways that you can send money, and there's other ways that you can receive money versus receiving a check or sending a check.
• 44:41
  Ah, this is all good information.
• 44:44
  Now, is there are there any concerns we should have about using credit cards?
• 44:48
  You know, um, a credit card has the best fraud protection, okay.
• 44:55
  If you're shopping on the internet, right?
• 44:58
  Or you're sending money to somebody that you don't know, you know, you see you see a website and you say, Oh, I want to buy this, always use a credit card versus using your debit card because that's gonna ask that.
• 45:08
  Yep, if you don't, because when you use a credit, a debit card, you're using your money.
• 45:13
  But when you use a credit card, you're using the issuer's money, right?
• 45:17
  You can always dispute the transaction if you didn't receive it, or if you received it, and let's say there is is not what you expected, right?
• 45:28
  You can always dispute it.
• 45:29
  So credit cards have the best fraud protection.
• 45:33
  Anytime you're shopping on the internet, use a credit card.
• 45:36
  And some people say, but I don't like using credit cards.
• 45:39
  Well, you use the credit card, then you pay your credit card off.
• 45:42
  But anytime you're you're purchasing something online, I highly recommend using a credit card versus using your debit card because if you need to dispute that transaction, or let's just say you sent money to a fraudster, you can always again call your credit card and dispute it.
• 45:57
  Because you're using their money, and of course, they're gonna want to protect their money.
• 46:00
  This is such good information.
• 46:02
  Again, folks, I would encourage you all to listen in and take notes.
• 46:08
  And if you're missing this, if you're getting in the middle of it, or if you want to go back and revisit this, America Outlaw.news, you can go there when the podcast dropped, and you can read it all over again.
• 46:19
  And if you have questions, feel free to drop it in the chat, and I will make certain that Bernessa gets it, and then we will respond back to you.
• 46:27
  But this is information to live by because we're this day and age that we're in now, there is so much fraud that's on the rampant.
• 46:34
  And people need to know how to protect themselves to protect their assets.
• 46:39
  And what she's telling you right now, we're living this right now.
• 46:42
  We see is happening to people.
• 46:44
  As I mentioned, it happened to me, you know, it happened.
• 46:46
  My mom is gonna leave me in jail.
• 46:48
  Thank God it wasn't for real, but it's happening.
• 46:50
  Now, uh, how can we protect ourselves, Vanessa, from everything that's there?
• 46:56
  Now, I know at the top of the show during the first block, you mentioned the password manager, but how can we be diligent?
• 47:04
  You mentioned, you know, using the credit card and not using checks.
• 47:08
  What are other ways we can protect ourselves against these fraudsters that are definitely coming after us?
• 47:16
  Well, let's let me just share a couple of phrases with everybody.
• 47:20
  The first one is assume that the email you receive, assume that the text message that you receive, assume that the phone call that you receive is fraud until you can prove that it's not.
• 47:34
  Interesting.
• 47:35
  So it goes back to a phrase that I recall former, I believe it was former president Ronald Reagan coined this phrase, trust but verify.
• 47:45
  I think that phrase is very, very appropriate when we talk about preventing fraud and protecting ourselves.
• 47:53
  Trust but verify, and then assume that it's fraud until you prove that it's not.
• 47:58
  You receive an email and it appears to be from a trustworthy source.
• 48:02
  Uh, don't click on the link, assume that it's fraud until you can prove that it's not.
• 48:07
  If you receive a phone call during the tax season and on your caller ID, it says it's the IRS.
• 48:13
  They may have spoofed the IRS phone number.
• 48:16
  Assume that it is fraud until you can prove that it's not.
• 48:20
  Let them know I'm gonna hang up, I'm gonna call a phone number that's known to me, and I'm gonna make sure that this is my bank.
• 48:26
  I'm gonna make sure that it's the IRS.
• 48:28
  I'm gonna make sure that it is my granddaughter that's calling me or my grandson or my family member.
• 48:34
  Now, Rob, we all know that artificial intelligence has made its way into the fraud landscape.
• 48:41
  Fraudsters are now using AI to help them facilitate their scams, and they're using it in a way that you know, I say it blows my mind because they can actually sound just like me and you.
• 48:54
  Yep, I've heard about it.
• 48:55
  I read about that with the voices calling and saying, Oh, I help me, mom, help me, dad.
• 49:00
  Yes, it's unfortunate, but yeah.
• 49:02
  Years ago, they would say, You don't sound like Rob, or you don't sound like my granddaughter.
• 49:09
  Um, now they don't have to worry about saying, Well, you know, I have a sore throat, grandma, I got a cold.
• 49:14
  They can actually sound like your grandchild, sound like your family member.
• 49:18
  So, how do we fight back against that, Rob?
• 49:20
  Well, I educate on every family should consider having a family password or passphrase.
• 49:27
  Ah, and if someone calls you and they are sounding like they're in distress and they're asking you to send money, tell them, hey, what's the family password?
• 49:36
  If they don't know it, chances are it might be a fraud, sir.
• 49:40
  Hang up the phone and call that individual to ensure that it really was them.
• 49:45
  So that's one of the ways to fight back against AI and deep fake is what we call it.
• 49:50
  Fraudsters being able to clone the voices.
• 49:54
  Now, we talked about credit freeze.
• 49:56
  I encourage you again, add a credit freeze on your credit.
• 49:59
  Go.
• 50:00
  Go to Equifax, TransUn and Experian.
• 50:02
  You'll need to go to all three credit bureaus and let them know I want to add a credit freeze, freeze your credit.
• 50:09
  If you are this is at no cost, this is at no cost to the consumer if I were to call them up.
• 50:14
  Absolutely.
• 50:14
  And I just want to make certain I'm understanding also.
• 50:17
  So although I'm not experiencing fraud, but you would recommend people going in and just saying, I want to put a credit freeze.
• 50:26
  It's not, there's no downside.
• 50:28
  You can still use your credit.
• 50:29
  But in the event, let's say you get ready to do a huge purchase, which you unfreeze it, or you would just say, hey, there's a credit freeze, and this is a reason why, but this is actually me making this this purchase.
• 50:41
  So great question, Rob.
• 50:42
  So keep in mind, the credit freeze does not prevent you from using your credit cards.
• 50:47
  It's going to block a fraudster from opening and establishing new credit.
• 50:52
  Okay.
• 50:52
  So, but if you ever decide that you need to open up a new credit card for whatever reason, or you need to establish some new credit, you would then need to call the credit bureaus and have that freeze lift it, right?
• 51:06
  And they they when you add it on there, they will give you a pen number that you'll want to hold on to.
• 51:11
  And you say, Well, what if I forget the pen?
• 51:13
  Remember what I said earlier?
• 51:14
  You can just write it down, put it in your safe when you need it, it's right there.
• 51:20
  Ah, okay.
• 51:22
  Wow.
• 51:23
  That is good to know.
• 51:24
  What other ways can we protect ourselves?
• 51:25
  What else are you recommending out there that we do?
• 51:28
  The other thing I'm gonna say is just be extra vigilant.
• 51:31
  You know, uh, you don't want to be paranoid, but you want to have that healthy dose of skepticism.
• 51:37
  As I mentioned earlier, you know, trust, but verify.
• 51:42
  But very so just again, just use a um a healthy dose of skepticism.
• 51:47
  Be vigilant.
• 51:48
  If someone is calling you and they're trying to pressure you to take action right away and they're trying to instill fear.
• 51:54
  Say, you know what?
• 51:55
  I'm gonna hang up and I am going to reach out and I'm gonna verify that you are who you say you really are.
• 52:03
  I say, if people would just take the time, you know, to slow down and and and and and not take action, not be so quick to take action.
• 52:10
  You know, this is one of the ways that we can protect ourselves and we can prevent ourselves from falling victim to all of these common scams that are out there today.
• 52:18
  You're right, because a lot of times when they're doing it, just goes back to what you were saying during the second block of the show.
• 52:23
  They're playing on your emotions.
• 52:26
  They're calling you and they're making it seem as if though this is legit, this is the real thing.
• 52:30
  And then we become succeptable, and then we fall for it, and before we know it, like, wow, I've been taken.
• 52:37
  And as I mentioned, my my friend, very educated person, she fell for.
• 52:40
  And there, I've heard so many other stories of people who have fallen for this.
• 52:46
  I've gotten emails that looked so legitimate, but a closer observation, it goes back to what you're saying, being diligent.
• 52:53
  I was looking at it, I'm thinking, wait a minute.
• 52:55
  This isn't the company's logo.
• 52:57
  There's a misspelled word here.
• 52:58
  They're saying that a city bank and they're spelling citibank C I T Y as opposed to C I T I, or they're they're spelling it with the S.
• 53:05
  Oh, yeah.
• 53:07
  I mean, all those little things.
• 53:08
  I mean, the logo looks real, but then when you start looking at the spelling, it's incorrect.
• 53:14
  And then even the letters that they send, it'll start out looking all professional, but then closer observation, being diligent, you'll see that they're misspelled words, they're run on sentences.
• 53:23
  I mean, and some of it, Vanessa, is so glaringly you can see it, but because people think this came from someone official, it came in the mail.
• 53:31
  So they assume, but then a closer observation when they sit down and look at it again.
• 53:36
  It's like, oh wow, look at all these misspelled words.
• 53:39
  And why are they spelling words with lower case?
• 53:41
  Or they didn't even get my name right.
• 53:43
  I mean, so all of that.
• 53:45
  Now, is there have you noticed in your profession that there's a particular geographic area that a lot of the fraud comes from, or is it just global?
• 53:54
  You know, a lot of these fraudsters that you know, they're all over.
• 53:57
  I'll just say that.
• 53:58
  They're all over the place.
• 54:01
  Um, they're in the states, they're outside of the states.
• 54:05
  Um, and when they're outside of the states, it makes it extremely hard for us to be able to, you know, you know, to catch these guys because you know, we have you know little to no jurisdiction, right?
• 54:16
  Over there.
• 54:17
  But one of the things I do want to encourage your listeners to do is if you fall victim, always report these these incidents to the FBI.
• 54:24
  And you can do that by going to IC3.gov.
• 54:29
  Again, that's I is an ice.
• 54:31
  C is in Charlie, the number three dot gov.
• 54:36
  It's so important that you report the incidents to the to the FBI because they they will investigate and they will prosecute.
• 54:43
  In a lot of these cases, they will prosecute.
• 54:46
  So please make sure that if you have fallen victim to a scam, that you report those items.
• 54:52
  And that's IC3.gov.
• 54:56
  You go there and you report it.
• 54:57
  And don't be embarrassed, like you said, because they will look this up because someone else might be, they might be fraud is committing against them.
• 55:06
  Right.
• 55:06
  You have to be able to nip this in the bud and stop it.
• 55:10
  Because we see that it is on the rise.
• 55:13
  No matter what you do, it is on the rise, and they're using everything possible.
• 55:18
  AI, they're using this to their advantage to deceive them so that they can get what they want to get out of it.
• 55:25
  And just going back to the credit cards and debit cards, I know a lot of people prefer using their debit card as opposed to the credit card because they're saying, Oh, it's cash on the barrel, cash on the barrel, but like you said, you get it and then you pay it off.
• 55:36
  But it's a lot easier for you if fraud is committed for you to get that back.
• 55:40
  Okay, Vanessa, in these last closing moments, is there anything else you want to make our listeners, my listeners aware of?
• 55:46
  I do.
• 55:47
  And I'm gonna share this.
• 55:48
  When you think about protecting your identity, when you think about protecting your assets, the money that you've worked hard for, you know, I want you to think about um this think about protecting your identity, think about protecting your your online accounts and all of your your, you know, your identity, your personal identifiable information, the same way you protect your home.
• 56:09
  You know, we have layers of security to protect our homes.
• 56:13
  For example, you have the lock on the door, okay?
• 56:16
  That's the first layer.
• 56:18
  Some people have more than one lock on their door.
• 56:21
  Then they have the the alarm system, right?
• 56:24
  Then some people have security cameras.
• 56:27
  Again, these are layers of security that you're putting in place to protect your home.
• 56:31
  Then you have people who live in a gated community.
• 56:35
  These are all layers of protection, right?
• 56:38
  They act as a roadblock to keep a criminal out of their home.
• 56:43
  Well, I want you to think about protecting your identity, protecting your money, the exact same way.
• 56:49
  You have to put layers of security in place.
• 56:52
  And I've gone over a lot of these security measures and things that you can do to protect your identity, to protect your online accounts, which ultimately will protect your money.
• 57:02
  The more layers, Rob, that we put into place, it's going to act as a roadblock for a criminal.
• 57:10
  And when you have a lot of roadblocks in place, guess what ends up happening?
• 57:14
  When the fraudster or the criminal keep running into roadblocks, they eventually move on, right?
• 57:19
  And that's what you want.
• 57:20
  You want so many layers of security in place that it makes it extremely hard to be compromised.
• 57:28
  Well, folks, there you've had it from Vanessa Harper, a fraud prevention expert and a certified fraud examiner.
• 57:36
  You can't go wrong.
• 57:37
  You've been listening to After Dark on the America Outlaw Talk Radio Network.
• 57:41
  I hope you've enjoyed tonight's show.
• 57:42
  I I hope you take it to heart.
• 57:44
  Tune in again tomorrow night when we will come again, bringing you the latest and the greatest, as we always say, God bless.
• 57:50
  Good night and thank you.