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Internet Smarts–Tips for Readers and Writers · Reality Writes

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, hello, and welcome to Reality Rights.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I am Author Ellie Alexander, and I'm here with I am the Tech Guy.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we bring you all of the juicy news and information from the world of books.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: But um today we're sweltering here in California, and we're hoping that all the darlings out there are somewhere cool and safe with hurricanes and fires and all the joys of summer.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hundred degree temps, yeah.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's rough out there.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's rough.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's rough.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, speaking of rough, uh this week we're gonna get um we're gonna get a little tech schooling, perhaps.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: You've got some information to impart to us.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Is that correct?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct, yeah, yeah.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get uh we're gonna get all technical, but I don't want people to get afraid.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh a couple of caveats though before we get started that are super important.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um one, I may rattle off some URLs, some domain names and such while we're talking.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, do not go to these websites.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make them up on the fly.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And going to these websites will actually go against everything we're gonna talk about about uh internet smarts for readers and writers.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and why are we doing this?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, we had a situation this week, or not this week, I guess it was what, two, two weeks ago now, right?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever I have a new book at come out, or whenever I get extra copies from my publishing house, a lot of times audio will show up for me or special copies.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love to get to share them with readers.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so often we will do a giveaway on social media, which is fantastic.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I always have language in there about how none of this is associated with Facebook or Instagram, when the giveaway is gonna end.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, never would I charge for a giveaway.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: The whole point is to share free books with readers.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we were on uh the newest book releases had just come out The Body in the Bookstore and A Murder with the Movies.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we were up in Seattle and we were getting ready to go to Leavenworth.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I woke up on Friday morning and I just was like barraged with DMs that's like Ellie, Ellie, you've been hacked, you've been hacked.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, wait, no, I haven't been hacked.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, which brings us to your TED talk today.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not sure that Friday morning was super fun for you because I mean, one, the this happened with your giveaway.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, but two, you know how I get about this subject in in particular, and I just I kind of went off.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was pretty riled up.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um pre-coffee too.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like we yeah, well, it's not exactly the way that uh that we wanted to start the day.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was my day off, and like it just yeah, we spent a couple hours dealing with it, but essentially.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's one of the things that you are just known for in our own personal sphere, and certainly have um provided insight into some of um the writing groups that I teach.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: You've popped on to give them your own little TED talks about technology and marketing.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so this is you mean you mean tech talks.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: See what I did there?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nailed it.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, welcome to the tech talk today.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is a little bit of a PSA too, because um, you know, we want to be able to share things like giveaways and anything on social, but we're at an age and a time where you have to be really careful and conscientious about what you're viewing, how you're viewing with it, how you're interacting with a post, etc.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's for sure.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh, you know, for all the aspiring writers out there, the new writers, the the veteran writers, this is gonna happen.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just is that it's unfortunate.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for the readers out there, you have to be careful, you have to pay attention.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so we're gonna talk through what happened.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, essentially there were some bad actors that um decided they were gonna take over.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And no, I'm not talking about like Andrew McCarthy.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, just like a terrible bratz uh documentary, like pity party for him.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: It could have been great, but anyway, we're talking about a different kind of bad actor.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's the people online that are hackers, fishers that are, you know, they're out there trying to get your information, trying to steal your money, trying to steal your identity.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they're everywhere.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh can we back up for one second before you do a deep dive into this too?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's buff bust some myths about hacking.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: I did not get hacked.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is a fishing scam.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe you can start at that point.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know, like, I by osmosis, osmosis, osmosis, I cannot talk today.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, have learned so much from you.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, there's this immediate thing of like, oh my gosh, you've been hacked.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, I hadn't been hacked.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hacking is actually pretty, it's it's pretty rare if you're comparing the two.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hacking and phishing, phishing with a pH, uh phish.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's um hacking is somebody breaking into your device, whether that's stealing your device and breaking into it, your laptop, your phone, whatever, and getting the information off of it, or um doing it remotely.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there are all sorts of scary things called like key loggers.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's just like there, there are ways that people can can get your information.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's getting hacked.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: They take control of your your device, your accounts.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, whether you used a terrible password or used the same password on multiple sites, by the way, never ever do that.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Never do that.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not even for two sites that you think don't matter at all.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: There was just actually um two days ago, I read on the 4th of July, uh, I read an article.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: There was a um some user, some hacker uh uploaded 10 billion passwords to a uh site on the dark web.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um so it just I guess to backup to backup to backup, the first thing is uh go change all your passwords.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just do it because 10 billion uh passwords, 10 billion sets of login credentials.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: The odds that your information for at least one of the services that you use isn't in that file are pretty small.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty small that some of your information is not in there.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know it it happens.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so that that's hacking.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, phishing, on the other hand, is when uh nefarious people online or over the phone impersonate others to try and see if they can steal your information, or worst case scenario, steal your financial information and get money out of it.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so they're two different things, and it's it's usually it's two different people.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hacking is very, very technical.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It takes somebody that's very technically savvy, much more so than than myself.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I wouldn't even know how to hack somebody's device.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, honestly, like that's for a book, right?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Totally, totally.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I wouldn't even know where to start.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'd probably break something and like uh render whatever I was trying to steal useless.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: But phishing, on the other hand, anybody can do that because all it takes is just the um understanding that most people don't pay very close attention when they're sharing their information.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And most people do a really, really poor job of locking down their information online.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like really poor.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we'll get into some of those ways.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh, but uh but you want to talk a little bit about why this relates to writers and readers, because that's what uh reality rights is all about, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're like here to help.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, because we don't want uh well, and like you said, um I I coach and I teach a lot of new writers, and so this is a good way if you are just starting out your writing career to make sure that all of your social media accounts are also locked down, password protection, double authentication.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why am I not asking today?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta the concepts down, just not the not the pronunciation.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I know what the heck you want to make sure that you start out any sort of platform that you're building from that place.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then from a reader perspective, one thing that has happened so often is that readers then will send me direct messages or emails, and they're so excited about you know whatever the giveaway or event is happening.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had this happen to so many of my colleagues too.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's really making us rethink how we're gonna do giveaways moving forward too, because clearly a lot of the social media platforms are not really invested in stopping this behavior either.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then just not reading and not paying attention to what you're seeing and not really thinking and taking a pause and using discernment to be like, wait a minute, Ellie doesn't talk like that.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as a writer, I sort of pride myself in having good grammar.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um clearly I can't speak to die, but in general, uh, you know, I'm not gonna use broken English and punctuation that's wrong.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm never gonna ask you for money.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that that was one of the clear red flags immediately.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you're clicking on a link from me saying that you've won a giveaway and please pay me a dollar ninety-nine, like you should run screaming immediately.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's gonna get harder uh for people to identify this stuff, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because like the broken English thing, that those are lazy fishers because with the advent of AI, anybody could just type broken English into Chat GPT or Claude or any of the any of the large language models out there, and they could they'll get back a perfectly normal sounding English sentence, you know.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So so you just have to be careful and you just have to watch out.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh the um uh the thing that that the the situation I guess that got us here though was um was something that affected readers, and it's something that as writers who have social media accounts, you're going to um you're going to probably experience, unfortunately.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um this particular issue happened on Facebook.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say my opinions of Facebook for the after party.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um so if you're one of Ellie's patrons, you'll get to hear all about it because I uh I have thoughts.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have lots of things.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh a little more centered here, but but I I guess we should start with just um so what what happened?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: You had a book giveaway going on your on your page, on your Facebook page.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: People had to comment on the post in order to be eligible to win a a signed copy.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: They somebody went through, somebody created multiple because there were multiple pages, multiple fake pages that look somewhat like yours.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then they commented the same exact comment on all like 200 and some people who you know, comments that were already in the thread.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna read the the the message, um, just just so just so we can get a sense of of how things started, and then I'll go through like what what was wrong.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, well, also like okay, yeah, I can't wait because I'm already reading this because I know I know it all.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: What right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, first, first up, congratulations.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Present emoji, present emoji, present emoji, ellipses.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I do like a good emoji, like I know, and sure.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so, all right, normally I would say, okay, yeah, that's that's probably okay.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I you that sounds like something you might write.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I am very happy to say, followed by another ellipses, dot dot dot base.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: You have been selected as the winner, but that's it.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: No period.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's just the end of the sentence.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: To officially claim your prize, comma, we need to verify a few things first.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Click the link.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh, yeah, right.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who is we, right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now I should say these people, they they just copied your profile photo.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it it it said it has your profile.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: The comments all have your profile photo, but for your name, it's just a comma.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Comma.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: A freaking comma.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: It does not say Alexander author.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't, it just it's a comma.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm thinking about changing my name to a comma now, though.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know, a little print section.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Little little statement.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, so that that should have been the first red flag, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we gotta okay.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So now the next thing is click the link below to to claim your prize, and then there's the link.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: No punctuation.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right, no punctuation.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then there's a link, and it's like it's it's and here again, again, another disclaimer.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna reiterate the the disclaimer that I said earlier.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do not go to this website, but the website, do not go to this website, darlings.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do not go to this website.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's elie hyphen alexander.myfreesites.net.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I mean, come on.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, really?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, don't okay.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So again, do not go to that website.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are a bunch of instructions like click continue, comma, capital R return here and comment quotes done in all caps, and send proof of the screenshot confirmation email after you are done, exclamation point.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, take this opportunity if within 12 hours we do not get back to you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to go through the whole thing.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: There were a bunch of steps.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't I never saw the site, but we know from a few readers who actually unfortunately did this.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: They when you click through, there was a form to fill out, and you had to like basically make a dollar, it was like 99 cents or$1.99 purchase, essentially, to like verify your identity or whatever.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's what what what these people were doing, there was no 99 cent or dollar 99 charge going through.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: They these people were just capturing your credit card information.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And well, along with your name and your address and your you know, the little CCV code on the back of your card, all that.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sound scary.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um so a couple of red flags.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: One, as I already stated, like the name is a comma.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that should have been red flag number one.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh red flag number two would be that stupid website that they used.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, myfreesights.net.net.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever go to anything that says myfreesights.net.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna find there that's of value?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is like, yeah, I I can't even think of a real world example, but this is it's terrible.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like anything, so uh uh real quick.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anything to the left, like whenever you're going to a website, whenever you're going to Google, Amazon, Apple, like whatever website, elexander, what whatever website, everything immediately to the left of the domain extension, the the dot com, the dot net, the dot co in this case, listen to past episodes if you want to hear about my issues with not owning lealexander.com.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think we've talked about that yet.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta go over that.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we haven't.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm good.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's another topic, but I digress.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, everything immediately to the left of that that domain extension should be the name, the the URL, the domain that you are trying to go to.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in this case recognize that you recognize.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're going to Apple, it should be Apple.com.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be Apple dot myfreesites.com, it shouldn't be Apple.youreawinner.com, shouldn't be Apple.giveMeAfree Mac dot com.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you if you go to any of those websites, and again, do not go to those websites, but if you go to those, if you were to click on this website, you're not going to Apple, you're going to my free sites.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what did I say?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're a winner and uh and give me a free Mac.com.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to a site that it like uh with with all likelihood, in all likelihood, I guess, uh Apple has nothing to do with.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was the case here.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: We do not have anything to do with myfreesites.net.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've never used this the myfreesites.net service.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is a free, it's likely a free website hosting company that anybody can go and set up a free website at in like two minutes.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that was well, that's what they did.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um that should have been a huge red flag.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so people like this is just something that I hope, I hope that if like even one person listens to me and before they click on a link, and this goes for text messages too, because text spam is like off the charts now.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've gotten tons of emails over the years from like US bank that's like USBank.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can get free money.net or that's not right.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you just you don't click on those links.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um they it and it just you're not gonna find what you're looking for there.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And in all likelihood, bad things are gonna happen.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: But there were other red flags that um and other ways that people could have uh easily determined that this wasn't an official communication.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: One, everybody on the thread got the same comment.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, so you all get a book, you get a book, you get a book, I should I mean it'd be great if we were in the position that when 200 and plus people comment on a post, we could make them all winners and give away 200 free books.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, that's we cannot, yeah, we cannot do that right now.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, your Facebook page, it's you, right?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's you've got your cover photo, you've got your profile pick, and you've got your name.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so those three things.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: The the problem with Facebook in particular is that and and uh we saw this, is that somebody can save those photos.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can you can they can download them and then they can use them themselves so that they um they're able to go through and and make it look like you.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: What they can't do though is they can't um they they can't fake your page in the sense that you've got a ton of content on there that shows that you're Ellie Alexander.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like things like you have an intro and you have links to all your other sites.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: So everything else that you you have on online is there.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Your your TikTok account, your YouTube account, your Instagram account, SC Shop, Patreon, everything is there uh on the left side of the page on the desktop version of Facebook.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, and this is the Vickers one, the posts, the things that you post, there it's all the content that you've shared over the years.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you been on Facebook?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you stayed here?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, I think professionally I've been on Facebook since 2012.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, like going on, you know, what is that?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: 12 years.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: So a dozen years in in 12 years, you've probably you've posted thousands of times, thousands, you've shared thousands of photos, you've you like thousands of times.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the fake accounts, because there were three or four that I found and reported to Facebook, but one of the accounts, they they stole your your uh cover photo and they stole your profile pick, but there's no name, it's just two ASCII characters, like weird-looking ASCII characters.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: There, there's no name.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's another option for a name change, though.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: It could be totally ASCII.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: We should get a new cat, name it that.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um but the the other thing was if if you looked at there's there's no intro, there's no links to other accounts and everything.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is where phishing, some phishing is really sophisticated, some of it is just stupid.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh bad.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just real low level.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: But this is a volume game.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you look at the photos, you'll see a bunch of uh they've shared a bunch of photos there, like Eagle Aruba Resort, the logo for them, and uh Meta Meta Glow, I don't know, RSI, and then some random pictures of people that we don't know.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, if you were to look at those photos, those are the cover photos of other companies that they've done this to.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So these are other people that were running giveaways and they've they've like done this.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this page has one post, one post, and that's it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it it It is even, you know, how at the top of Facebook posts it'll be like Ellie Alexander updated her cover uh photo or profile photo.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: This says the two characters, the two like ASCII characters, updated his profile photo.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in it, you know, and that's the one post there.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not sure that that a comment that is you know, a response to your comment on Facebook or or Instagram or any of that, if you're not sure that it's really the person that you think it is or that you hope it is, uh that's that's posting it, you can just click on their profile.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: You just go look at their profile before you click on any links.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get hacked or or give up any information if you just go look at their profile.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at their page, then you'll see things like this where you you only see uh just job.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Other businesses, no comments relevant to me or my books or writing.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It just it doesn't, it it's so easy.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: So just like I I guess the advice here is uh if you think you've won something, uh just take a beat, check it out before you click on any page, and for the love of whatever, never give your payment information to anyone if you've entered a free giveaway.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: So world in which myself or any of my author peers are ever gonna ask anyone for credit card information for a giveaway.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want your credit card information for the simple fact that like I don't want that stored on any of our machines because I you know, and so right now I can already hear a bunch of people that are probably like, oh well, I just like I don't do anything online, so my information's safe, and you know, I just I stay away from all that stuff, and I like and I don't want to freak people out here, but the thing is, like, if you have a bank account, and you should really have a bank account, please don't keep your money in a mattress.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you have a bank account, if you go to the doctor, if you have a library card, your information is available online, it's not open to anybody, but it is in a system somewhere that is in all likelihood hooked up to the internet and is information that can be gathered.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that's not to scare you, that's just to state the reality of the situation.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, uh, it's the same as your house, right?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have we live in a very safe city, in an extremely safe neighborhood.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh uh, you know, an alarm system with cameras and everything and and stuff.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if somebody wants to break in here and steal our all our stuff, they're gonna do it.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't matter.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's not really anything we can do.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you just kind of have to you have to trust that you can do, you can take the steps that you can take, and those are the things that you can control, and you you know, protect yourself as much as possible and reduce the chances that you're going to fall victim to any of this stuff.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and um, I think another key, especially um when you said take a beat, like take a beat, and also then read the fine print.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because like in this case, the giveaway didn't even end for another four or five days.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and it was very clear about like winners will be announced on like the following Wednesday, and the giveaway goes until midnight the night before.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm like I'm always so honored that readers are excited about the possibility of winning one of my books.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing feeling.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I never want to have anyone be in a position where then they're so excited that they, you know, push through without really thinking of the ramifications if this isn't correct.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, like this is so pervasive and it's happening more and more and more.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's just it's it's going to increase.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the good thing about AI is that it can be used for a lot of bad things, just like the internet, but that AI can also be used to detect AI and to detect phishing and and stuff like this.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it, I think it's really it's a it's a good idea for um like a that that's the mantra, right?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the online mantra.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just take a beat.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Take a beat, read it.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: If it sounds too good to be true, what's what's the old adage?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and that it that goes like triple on on the internet.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh don't be so excited about winning something that you're willing to give up your yeah or your family's livelihood um and you know, add a lot of stress and pressure to yourself.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh and the other thing is like in in 2024, right?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: I do hear from a certain subset of readers who are are also afraid of technology.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And to your point, you're like, this isn't this isn't to scare you, but there you do need to be kind of savvy, a little bit more savvy.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: You put a little bit of effort into uh awareness if you're going to engage in the digital culture in which we're living in, right?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm just gonna say right now, I can say it because I'm not the writer, I don't need to sell the books.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm just gonna say like nobody should be afraid of technology.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like I it is the biggest cop-out for people to say uh that, you know, oh well, I I I don't understand that tech stuff.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just like, you know, I I I write all my passwords down in a in a book that I keep next to my computer.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do that, darling.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do that.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you're listening, the tech guys had just construction.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because honestly, like it that whole thing about people breaking into your house and stealing your stuff, you might as well just like be there to log into all your accounts for them because you're just giving them your computer along with all your passwords.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um super bad idea.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: So forever, um, you cooked me up with one password many, many years ago, and it's a dream because it generates, it creates new password passwords for you.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: You I don't have to remember any of my passwords.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: I just need to remember one to log in to the password app.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, I also am using passwords that are very, very involved, not just like I love books.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one uh for for those of you who don't know, like password managers, there are a bunch out there, but the one that that I've used and that I always recommend to people, and they're not sponsoring this or anything.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just love this company and and um have used them forever, but is onepassword.com.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's the number one in the word password.com.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're not getting paid by them, we're not getting sponsor money.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is just we literally have used it for years, and it's a yeah, yeah.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what you do with and this this works the same with uh there are other options out there.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: One password is a paid product, so just know that there are free ones out there.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Your browser can remember your passwords, um, although that's I you know, whatever you your mileage may vary.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um Google and Apple are they put a lot of money into security every year, that's for sure.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they've got a lot of smart people working for them.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: But but one password is a great app.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's available on Windows and Mac.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it essentially lets you remember all your passwords for every website, every service, every everything without having to remember your passwords because you just enter one password or use your um fingerprints or whatever to unlock the one password app.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then you it will fill in passwords for you.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: It creates them so you don't need to worry about it.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can make them whatever length they need to be.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh and then you just yeah, you just don't have to worry about it.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh it's just a it's a great product.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and and it's something that everybody should use because again, I see this a lot, and I've seen this a lot with our families and our friends and everything over the years, like people using the same passwords for multiple websites.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So going back to that whole that story about the 10 billion uh passwords being posted on on the internet for thieves all over the place of download, they will take that, people will take that file, and what they'll do is they they uh they basically grab a password out of, and they have they don't do this physically because they have scripts and bots that do this for them, but they'll take those passwords and they'll just start hammering websites with them to try and find out if you have an account at any of those websites and if that that uh login, the login credentials that they got from this file are still valid.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if they are, they'll get in and they'll immediately change the password to something else and the email address to something to whatever they're using, and you will no longer have access to that account.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they that that could be your social media account, so they could post anything they wanted, they could post as you, they could, they, they could impersonate you.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: It could be your bank, um, it could it could be anything.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's really important.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's one piece that that will uh kind of um prevent them from from information and leaks like this from being uh really as damaging as they usually end up being, and that's uh what's called, and you made reference to it earlier.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really proud of you.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: That was awesome.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh two-factor authentication.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or sometimes it might you might see it sometimes referred to as one-time password OTP.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: So TFA OTP, yeah, you know me.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um anyway, it this is a code, and some of you are probably like annoyed by this and everything because you go to login, and then it's like, okay, you've given me your password, and that matches great, good job.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna text you a code and you're gonna enter that code.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason that's important is because if somebody does still steal your password, they only have one piece of information.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be like if um if someone if you had a lock on your front door and uh the deadbolt, you had a deadbolt and the handle had a lock too, and they used two different keys.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um if somebody stole your keys but they only had the key to the uh to the handle, they could get the door partially unlocked, but they couldn't come in because the deadbolt's still locked.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what two-factor authentication does.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because even if somebody steals your password, they don't have access to your email account.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, remember, you didn't use the same password for whatever service they stole your password for on your email account, right?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they can use your password, but then all they're gonna get is the challenge question asking them to enter a six-digit code, and they don't have that because that will likely be texted to your phone or emailed to whatever email address you had set up.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so that helps.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it really does.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a hundred percent foolproof.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Again, there are some really smart criminals out there.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so but if if your the website or service that you're using offers two-factor authentication, um, that is something that you should turn it on, uh, like every time, 100%, 100%.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, it's super important.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: But but I want to go back to the thing I was talking about, um the being afraid of technology being a cop out, because I think people who say that, um, that's just an excuse.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I am willing to bet every single person that says that they're afraid of technology, or they just can't understand technology, or they just don't get technology or whatever.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I bet I could I'd be willing to bet that every single one of those people knows how to do something that is really complicated.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: They have some skill that they've learned over the years.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know how to do it when they first started doing it, but now they're experts at it.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, anything from sewing to welding to cooking and baking, those are all super complicated things that you have to learn.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the same thing for technology.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're not, I'm not talking about like coding, you don't need to code any websites, you just need to learn about how technology works, how social media platforms work, how website logins work, and not be afraid of it.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can learn this stuff, and you really need to learn this stuff because it's the 21st century and it's only gonna get more techie from here.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that, but I know I know it's scary for some people.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I just uh I I wanna I wanna see and want to help, and I've always helped, like always tried to help people learn about technology and staying safe.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's why you ended up with the nickname the tech guy, because everyone in our not only family, but like sphere of friends, acquaintances will be like, Can you fix my computer?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: How do I keep my email safe?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's just decades of you getting bombarded by those questions.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I think you've said something before like if you can drive a car, you can stay safe on the internet.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Driving, that's uh I didn't even think about that.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Driving, oh my gosh, you know, that's super complicated.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, like the number of decisions and and pieces of data that your brain is processing every second while you're driving, you know, it like the number of variables, every car, every bird that's flying by really low, or every squirrel that waits to the last minute and runs out in front of you and then reverses course, you know, or freezes right in the middle of the road, right?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like they always do.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I just uh think evolution would have taken care of that by now.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I just like if you know how to drive for 100%, there is nothing on the internet or a computer that you cannot figure out how to do with a little practice and a little learning.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: And there is information out, just go to YouTube and and watch a few videos.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's easy.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it really is.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's not scary.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, the more you know, the safer you'll be.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's just just stay informed.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, keep up with things.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and look out for yourself because the big platforms are not looking out for you and they're never going to, you know, that is right.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Facebook doesn't have your back.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Facebook, like we we reported all of this.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: We encouraged anyone who got the message to report all of it, and and they're kind of like, yeah, okay.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, in fact, why are your readers let us know, remember?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: They they reported uh they reported one of the pages.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they reported one of the pages, and they got a response back from Facebook that you know it was one of their tech support people was um doing the script thing, and they they just responded back and said, Okay, thanks for letting us know.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, for our fair use policies and everything, we've got to let people um, you know, set up accounts when, you know, and and it's like, no, no, if you if they had really looked into it, they saw one that they were this this page was impersonating you, which is against their terms of service, but number two, it was asking for financial information, they would have shut it down in a second, but they they just it's you know, they just can't keep up and they're not trying to keep up.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to be your own ally, and that's why it's important, you know, to go back to your point of like the onus is on you to stay safe.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: And if if readers and and writers who are working on like, you know, building their own social media at this stage of the game, like do you have any like key takeaways in terms of other things they should do or resources where you can find more information about that?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, one I mean, one first and foremost is turn again.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot stress this enough.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Turn on two-factor authentication for every single account you have.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the another important thing uh for uh people who have been online for a while is if you have um old accounts for websites and services that you're no longer using, go delete those.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Go every site will have an option to allow you to delete everything.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just say, well, I don't use it anymore, so I'm just gonna leave it sitting there, because that is just waiting to be cracked and your your identity stolen.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and it happens all the time.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you just you have to do that.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I I would say for writers specifically, yeah, because social media is such an important part of um, you know, being a successful writer in this day and age.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just have to be on social media to to grow your audience and and to market uh your books and and everything, um, and build your reader community, right?
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you just you have to anymore.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I I would say don't be afraid of it.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um platforms wisely, like they're they all cater to different audiences, different demographics.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so just you you don't have to be everywhere.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so don't worry about that.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but again, refactor authentication for yourself, and then make sure that you're communicating regularly with your audience so that your readers and your your followers and everybody, they they know you, they know your voice, they know your your tone, they they kind of you know get used to your posting frequency and everything.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and then just be really clear when you're if if you are gonna do any giveaways or anything, um, I would you know giveaways on social media are great.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're actually I'll let you talk about what we're gonna be doing with giveaways moving forward, but um, if you are gonna be if you are gonna be doing giveaways on social media, like you need to spell out a hundred times over uh the the exact process that people need to go through to win something, you know, what steps they need to take.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, maybe even put a disclaimer in there about like making sure that um that the you know any comments or whatever is coming from from you, but but people should know exactly how they're gonna be contacted if they win.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and for us, it's always been, always been that we would send a direct message to those people, you know, that you would and and and then and then we comment publicly after you've made contact with them and stuff.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but yeah, it's it you you I guess as a writer, um, you know, uh uh with social media accounts, you kind of have a heightened responsibility to try and keep your readers safe too.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta be really careful about the way in which you conduct things and and uh the language that you use and and all that.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and from the mystery writing part of me, it was fascinating to see um who some of the super sleuths were who were immediately like, Ellie, this does not seem right.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then commenting on other people who had gotten the phishing post to be like, then don't do this.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is so I love that part of the community too.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yes, let's rally around and be like, uh, no.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think for us, we had already been moving in this direction, but this is really just like a prime example of how we're gonna move any sort of future giveaways to the newsletter because we can control that.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, there's much, much, much less likelihood of anything like this happening um in a newsletter giveaway.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, it just, you know, hopefully the people that are being sent the emails still have control of their email addresses, and you know, then then we're not gonna worry about anybody using their own password.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Although that that actually brings up another point is again, please know what your email address is.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like just just know what your email address is.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: If if and and I say this, and you're I can I can feel the darling's eyes rolling, like, oh, of course I know what my email address is.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you right now, no, not all of you do, and I know it because I get some of your email.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if your last name is my last name, I get some of your email.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: You would not believe.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: So a long time ago, without aging myself, I'll just say that I did some work with Google before Gmail launched, and so I have a very short just my last name at gmail.com.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not gonna say it on here, but um, but uh I get so much email from people all over the city.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: For decades, yeah.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: You get with you get credit card informations.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: We got invited to um an Airbnb in what, like the Bahamas?
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: We were like, we should just show up.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: We got the key cards.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even a yeah, it wasn't even an invitation.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was that we got the the confirmation with the door key code and everything and the people's itinerary and stuff.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Stuff.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: If I and again, this is like this is this is the whole goal of phishing, right?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is for people to get this information.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a I don't do it, and I still get that stuff.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, yeah, I there's a woman who bless her heart.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: I have tried for the better part of a decade to get her to stop having her Chase credit card information sent to my email address.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: We share the same last name, and if I wanted to, I could take that information.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: I could log into her account.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: I could log into her account, I could change her password, I could have a new card sent to me.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: I could add myself as a you know, as a user on the account and have a new card sent to me and go out and buy a whole bunch of cool stuff.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've never done that, I never will do that.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've liked Chase done.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've several times reached out to Chase too, to their department, and they've been like, uh, we don't know how to stop this.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Chase is like, I don't, that's she set the email address, so it must be her email address.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, but I'm telling you right now that I I am not this woman.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know this woman, and I I I need you to know that her account is at risk.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, no, thanks for letting us know.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's one you just you're one of millions of users.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do they care?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's too bad because they could solve this.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: They have all her contact information, they have her phone number, they have everything.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: They could just have a customer service rep call her and say, Hey, just FYI, blah blah blah.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: Gmail.com is not your email address, right?
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: And but they haven't done that.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't done that.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Volsa's gotten some really scary stuff too, like just creepy, creepy stuff that I won't get into.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it just just know before when you're filling out a form, make sure that you're putting the right email address in the form because you might you might be surprised at what happens if you if you don't.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't get a you know, nice tech guy who ends up on the receiving end of that, who you would never do anything with that information.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: I got yeah.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: I uh my my favorite my favorite one is um I got I got an email uh from a university, and it was they they they were they said it was the la basically the last communication they were gonna send to this young woman uh about all this financial aid that they were offering her.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if they didn't hear back, yeah, uh-huh.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if they didn't hear back, they were just that was it.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was done.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I I was like, oh my gosh.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually called them because they had thankfully they included all their information in there.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: I called them and I told them what was going on and who I was, and that I would delete all the information and stuff, but that they really needed to reach out to her by phone because clearly there was some miscommunication and everything.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what happened ultimately, but I'd like to think that this young woman got all the scholarships she was being offered and is like going to be some awesome member of society moving forward with like a brand new shiny degree from this uh really actually prestigious university.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's gonna cure cancer in the future.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks to you.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks to me.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: I that's what I totally put that energy out there, yeah.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I um yeah, so I mean, uh just just learn more, just use you, you know, and the I guess the other piece that we we didn't really touch on, but is the the whole financial piece.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: So just like with with passwords, there's a lot you can do to protect your finances.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, using services like credit karma is a great one, it's totally free.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you can go in there, it'll show you your credit score anytime you want to look at it, it'll show you all the accounts you have open.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a great way checking the accounts that you have open because if you see something on there that you don't recognize, that's a red flag, and you should take care of that immediately, and they'll help you.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um they yeah, credit karma is owned by Intuit now, so they are like 100% legit.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: Intuit has been around forever.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, you can also it's it's it can be a pain, but if you're really, really worried about um uh you know your information being stolen or identity or anything like that, you can um you can lock your credit uh with the the big three um credit monitoring bureaus like Experian and TransUnion and and um I can never remember the name of the third, but anyway, you can you you can go on their website, set up an account, you can lock your credit, and what that means is then you like no new accounts can be opened in your name.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like nothing.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can get a credit card, nobody can get a car loan, nobody can buy a house in your name because your credit is locked.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, every time you want to do one of those things, you have to go and you have to unlock it with every one of those services.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I I choose to do it because one, I don't need to open a lot of new accounts at this stage in our life.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and two, it just gives me peace of mind because it's just another level of security, right?
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's uh that's just one more way you can keep yourself safe online for sure.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're doing in this podcast.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're keeping the darlings safe out there.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: I have been making mental notes about a future plot, though, because there's so much material to mine here that I don't think I've ever tackled yet.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so there is that.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: But um I think this has been great and hopefully helpful information for the darlings because uh we don't want you to get scammed in any way, shape, or form.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, definitely not.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully, hopefully a little bit of this info goes out to help the writers um and and readers.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other the last thing I'll say for the readers, the number one thing they can do to stay safe online is read.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_01: Read.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just just read.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like just read what you're read what you're interacting with before you interact with it.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: We become a society of like instant gratification.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we see a link, we're conditioned to just click on that link, tap that link, go, go, go, go, go.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, don't do that.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: It it seems really like, I mean, unless you're buying Taylor Swift concert tickets, then you have to do that or you just won't get them.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: But uh fair enough.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_01: But then you're in the ticket master too, so you know where you are.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: Ticketmaster free, blah, blah, blah.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: All your money.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: Again, do not go to that website yet.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, thanks for the tech talk.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: And helpful, um, stay safe out there.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: Stay safe.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: Stay safe.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't like stuff.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't like time.