The Sugar Daddy Podcast
Ready to normalize talking about money? Then welcome to The Sugar Daddy Podcast, where talking about money isn't taboo, and you can leave your past money mistakes at the door! Every episode will get you one step closer to your financial goals. Whether that is learning how to invest, budget, save, retire early or simply make better money choices, Jess & Brandon have got you covered in a way that's easy to understand. Tune in as they demystify the realm of dollars, so it all makes cents, while giving you a glimpse into their relationship with money and each other.
The Norwoods are a married, millennial couple, here to help you build wealth, so you can live the life you've always dreamed of. Brandon is an award winning licensed financial planner, and owner of Oak City Financial, with over a decade of experience and millions of dollars managed for his clients all over the United States.
New episodes published the first three Wednesdays of every month.
The Sugar Daddy Podcast
62: How To Protect Yourself from Scams Online
Scams, Phishing and Fraud are rampant online. This Cybersecurity Month, Jess and Brandon share essential tips to protect your identity and keep you safe in this digital world. Learn how to recognize fraud, safeguard your identity from and keep your family safe. Stay ahead with practical advice to secure your online presence.
Watch this episode in video form on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP55O4Ku4dukHcK0kExhpcA
To apply to be a guest on the show, visit
https://www.thesugardaddypodcast.com/guests/intake/
If you’d like to leave us a question to be answered during future episodes, you can do so at:https://www.speakpipe.com/thesugardaddypodcast
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on socials @thesugardaddypodcast we are most active on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon and schedule a free 30-minute introductory call with him here: https://www.oakcityfinancial.us
In today's episode, you are going to learn about ways to keep yourself safe online With the changing landscape of tech and AI. We will focus on cybersecurity and ways to avoid being a victim of identity theft scams and phishing attempts.
Speaker 2:Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
Speaker 1:It is Cybersecurity Month in October, and so we are going to talk about how to stay safe online and not make yourself or be a victim of cybersecurity crimes, phishing scams, etc.
Speaker 2:I feel like every other day we've received like some type of letter saying that from some companies, saying that our dad, there's been a data breach of their company and that we need to keep an eye out on our stuff so that our identity is not stolen, etc.
Speaker 1:There's literally one on our kitchen counter right now. Like literally every single time we open the mail, there's a data breach. And if you cannot avoid it, right, like I have to pay my medical bills. This one was from a medical, like healthcare, something, something. And like we've been paying medical bills left and right, like I just had surgery you know, our daughter was hospitalized over the summer. I mean, it is nonstop. So it is a timely episode and we want to make sure that you are also staying as safe as possible.
Speaker 2:And after you finish listening to this episode, I would also highly recommend that you recommend it to your friends and also your parents.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Because I feel like every other. I'm thankful that my mom, if anything looks fishy, she asked me about it or whatever it may be, but I know we have friends of ours who have, um, their parents have unfortunately been, you know, got got got, got so I know remember that one time where my mom I guess you traded something and my mom texted you like was that you and you're like hackers, aren't like trading your stocks. Yeah, so I had I had made a purchase of an ETF in her account.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, a purchase, not a trade. Sorry, we're not day trading over here.
Speaker 2:I purchased the fund in her account and she was like is that you? Are you making sure I'm like, yeah, that's not what hackers do.
Speaker 1:They don't hack into your account to make a fund purchase, to make purchases.
Speaker 2:They hack in there to take your money.
Speaker 1:Right, but you know better to be safe than sorry. I 100% agree.
Speaker 2:I will take those questions all day, because I prefer that than the alternative, where our parents think something is okay and then they end up clicking on something and all hell breaks loose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. There definitely needs to be a component of making sure that our parents are aware of the latest and greatest scams, because they are ever evolving. Ai is taking over a whole new facet of online scams, and so we all need to stay vigilant and we need to let the older people in our life know what's going on and what to look out for as well. So, first and foremost we've said it once, we've said it 100 times, we will continue to say it One of the best ways to protect yourself from somebody stealing your identity and or opening accounts in your name is to lock your credit bureaus.
Speaker 1:Yes lock your credit bureaus. We have gotten text messages from friends saying oh no, somebody opened an account in my name. Should have locked my credit bureaus a year ago. Like you said, Y'all, we are not doing this podcast for our health. We are doing it because we want people to thrive and to be taken care of and to have a great retirement and to actually be able to retire, because there's plenty of people who are not going to be able to retire and they're going to work until they're 70 plus. And like we don't want that, Lock your credit bureaus.
Speaker 1:That is Experian, that is TransUnion and Equifax Experian, TransUnion, Equifax. You can go to their website. You can sign up for free, create a login, a profile, and freeze or lock your credit bureaus. They're pretty much. You want to put a freeze on it. It's pretty much the same thing. You can unfreeze it at any point. Really, the only time you would need to unfreeze your account is if you are looking to open a line of credit somewhere. You're buying a house, you're buying a car, you want to open a new credit card. It's also a really great way to not get sucked into those store cards that are trying to get you to save 10% on your $4.16 purchase at HomeGoods. Like you don't need to open these store. Credit cards Protect yourself. Lock your credit bureaus Experian, Equifax, TransUnion.
Speaker 2:That is where you're doing that. And what it does is, in the event that someone does try to steal your identity if they go to apply for a credit card in your name then what ends up happening is that when the credit card company goes to run your credit, it can't go through because your credit bureaus are locked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you'll get a notification basically saying hey, was this you? In the event that you forget that your credit bureaus are locked and you're actually sitting at the car dealership trying to purchase this car, you'll get a notification letting you know that somebody was trying to access your credit. So it's a twofold system, right, the scammers can't actually get in, but you're also being alerted in the event of something fishy happening. One of the other things, along with that Experian, equifax, transunion that's where you're going to get your annual credit reports as well. So if you're not already looking at your credit report on an annual basis, if not twice a year, you should be doing that. I mean, we have plenty of examples of friends and family looking at their annual credit report and seeing oh crap, something was opened and I had no idea, and now it takes time to dispute. It doesn't just like you don't just make a quick phone call and it falls off. So these things take time and again. Try to prevent people from actually opening these accounts by locking your credit bureaus. We will say that until the things take time and again. Try to prevent people from actually opening these accounts by locking your credit bureaus. We will say that until the end of time.
Speaker 1:Have you been listening to our podcast and wondering how am I really doing with my money? Am I doing the right things with my investments? Am I on track to reach my financial goals? What could I be doing better? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time for you to reach out to Brandon to schedule your free yes, I said free 30-minute introduction conversation to see how his services could help make you the more confident moneymaker we know you could be. What are you waiting for? It's literally free and, at the very least, you'll walk away feeling more empowered and confident about your financial future.
Speaker 1:Link is in our show notes. Go, schedule your call today. Okay, you also want to update your passwords. Right, everything takes a password these days. You want to update your passwords on your computers, on your phone, on your apps. Don't reuse passwords. I know how frustrating that is, but you really want to make sure that you're utilizing strong passwords and in a lot of cases now, the apps will recommend strong passwords for you that have a bajillion characters and letters, and then you can save them in your password manager, if that's what you choose. But you want to not use the same password over and over, and over again.
Speaker 2:Another thing I would point out too, is that I have seen now like a feature where it will point out if my password has quote unquote been compromised and showed up in a data breach. So if you you know, I know I normally use Chrome, so on Google Chrome, if that password has been breached I mean has been compromised in a data breach it'll alert you and allow you to let you know. Hey, you need to possibly make a new password because you don't want somebody using people are not getting into your apps, or into the sites that you're frequenting is to turn on that multi-factor authentication.
Speaker 1:I know it can be a little frustrating, right? It's like you're on a website and then you have to enter in the code that you got on your text message or in your email. But again, it's really to keep you safe, because you don't want somebody getting on an app or you know if your computer was stolen or your phone was putting yourself at risk for somebody to again log in as you steal your identity, etc.
Speaker 2:As someone who works in finance, I'm already used to it, because most of the sites that I'm going to and working with clients already have it on there, where basically every time you log in, it's going to send you a text message or some sort of you know double authentication to make sure that it's you that's actually logging in.
Speaker 1:He'll like, log into one of my accounts and do something, and then he'll call me. We'll be literally in the same house and he'll be like what's the code? So what's the code they sent? I mean, again, it's for your protection. I understand it's one extra step, but it really is in place to help keep us safe. We're all working off of a computer, off of our phones, so we need to make sure that all of our security is up to date. Our malware is up to date.
Speaker 2:Is it malware or malware?
Speaker 1:Malware, malware, I don't know, I always call it malware.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's correct or not.
Speaker 1:Well, we can go with yours malware, and then same for your cell phones. Right, there's constantly. We have iPhones, but there's constantly iOS updates. Again, those are in place to help keep us safe. My phone is actually connected to my computer for work, and so I will get notifications saying, hey, you have to update your iOS device by this date, otherwise we're shutting everything down. So you know, again, it seems dramatic, but it's really not. These updates are in place to help keep us safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your computer. You can set it up to run periodic scans to make sure that when there's no malware on there and that all the security features are up to date.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think one of, as we go through some of the rest of the list. I think one of the main things that we need to do as we're all super, super busy is slow down, because what happens is a lot of times these scammers they're hoping to catch us when we're out the door on a Monday morning or we're, you know, in the school pickup line, we're at the grocery store trying to get something done. They're trying to catch us off guard and, unfortunately, we've heard too many stories of people who get a phone call as they're rushing the kids out of the, you know, out of the house and they're like hey, we're your bank and we just need your social security number to confirm XYZ. And in the madness, in the rush of things, we're just like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, right, and then you have a moment of wait, a minute my bank has never called me for that information and the next thing you know your accounts have been wiped and your identity has been stolen.
Speaker 2:I can assure you that no one, from any type of financial institution, is going to proactively call you and then ask for your social security number.
Speaker 1:It's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:No, Normally, if you have to give your social security number, it's because you called in and they're trying to verify you. It's not going to be the other way around.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I mean they are getting really good with these things. Some of them terrible because, like, I get text sometimes like uh, the us postal service has a package for you.
Speaker 1:I'm like right click this link. Uh, usps is not that advanced.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't do that but I have seen really good ones in regards to like oh you know, your microsoft account needs some type of you know update or authorization, whatever it may be, and and these emails look legit. They look like you know they are coming straight from Microsoft. But the one thing that I always do when I receive those is that I look at the sender.
Speaker 1:Where did it come from? What is?
Speaker 2:that email address. If it doesn't end in at Microsoftcom, it's not from them.
Speaker 1:Correct If it ends in a Gmail and they're claiming to be Microsoft, it's not them.
Speaker 2:And whenever you're in doubt. So, for example, let's just say you received an email from your banking institution and it's asking you to click on a link or do something because your account needs something to be authorized. When in doubt, either call the institution yourself or log on through your portal online and normally it would be there as well if that was something that was legit, you would have a message waiting on you legit the message waiting for you that you need to do A, b and C.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say the exact same thing. If you're getting a call from your bank or any any place where you might have an account, asking for you to confirm or verify any of your personal information, maybe it's not as dramatic as your social could be. Your phone number could be your home address A lot of these portals, you know they'll ask you hey, in the last six years, what are the two addresses where you've lived right as a way to identify you? So they're just trying to collect information, even if it's not your social. Don't share it. Hang up immediately. Right? This is the one time you get to be rude. Hang up.
Speaker 2:No one is going to call you from any type of financial institution and ask to verify you. Right that does not happen.
Speaker 1:Hang up and then call that institution. Right, if somebody is calling you claiming to be from American Express or Capital One or your regular bank, bank of America, wells Fargo, hang up immediately and then call that institution and they will verify. You know, they'll probably verify. No, we did not call you and thank you for alerting us. And then within a few days, you'll probably get an official email from them alerting everybody of. You know scams going around and happening. One of the other things that you can do we're in this age of everything's sent via text and via email If there is encryption available right, if you can send an encrypted email, especially emails where you're actually getting personal, where you're sending personal information back and forth. You don't want to just send that willy nilly. You want to make sure that that is coming from or being sent through an encrypted method. I remember at one point we were working with a CPA and the emails she was sending were not encrypted.
Speaker 2:I got so angry.
Speaker 1:Brandon was livid. He was like and we're done.
Speaker 2:Because she sent us our tax return. I sent it to her encrypted, and then she sent us a copy of it you know being done not encrypted with our social security numbers and I'm like what are you doing?
Speaker 1:don't have encryption software or encryption on your emails. You can ask you know if that institution has it and then when you reply, you know it will be encrypted as well. So just be mindful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, normally like, for example, like any financial institutions that require any type of paperwork that may have this type of information on it that you don't want other people to get their hands on, you can normally upload it through a portal on the website, and I say that's the most efficient way to do it, because one is going to be encrypted and it's also just quicker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely One of the other things. In this era of Facebook and Facebook marketplace and selling things online, obviously, stay aware of scams where you're sending money back and forth or if you're trying to receive money. You know there's known scams where, with Zelle, once you send the money, that's it, you know. So, for example and I know this is an older scam, but one of the things that was happening often on Facebook marketplaces you would be selling something. Somebody would show interest. You would basically say, here's my Zelle or here's my Venmo, and then they'll say, oh, my brother or sister is going to come pick it up.
Speaker 1:I got stuck at work. And then they would file a claim saying that they never received the item. They get to keep the money and then you're basically on the hook, right? They never wanted your item to begin with. And so just be mindful. Use I hate to say this but use common sense. If it feels wrong, if you know somebody's being super pushy, if they're not spelling anything correctly, it's a red flag. You know, is it worth you getting $7 for that item to deal with the repercussions of some sort of a scammer? It's probably not. So just be mindful of those situations.
Speaker 2:And, like she said, you know, be aware of the different rules and revolt and for the different types of payment apps, on if you send it to the wrong person, can you get it back? Because I would say most of them you cannot. So you need to double, triple, quadruple check that you are sending it to the correct person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, double, triple, quadruple. Check that you are sending it to the correct person. Yeah, I'm at the point where, unless I'm selling it directly in a neighborhood page and or we have mutual connections, I'm just not going to be posting online. And so, again, this is something you know I always get worried about your mom because she's posting stuff on Facebook marketplace and I'm like is it worth it? You know, like. So just be mindful, be aware, don't click on links. Look at where it's coming from.
Speaker 2:A lot of. I don't click on anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're sending it to me in a text message. Unless I personally know you right A lot of these emails, I keep getting one from PayPal that's like here's your invoice and it's I mean the products are always absolutely ridiculous, and so, again, I knew that they were fake. I blocked the sender and I have since gone to my PayPal accounts and made sure that I've got my multi-factor authentication on, et cetera. You know that nothing fishy is going on there and so, just at this stage, we need to be more hyper aware. We need to not go into our emails and text messages trusting them. We need to be a little bit more skeptical, and I hate to say that one of the last things that I'll say about this is in this era of AI, it would be really good to have a family password that you and your spouse, you and your parents, you and your children are aware of.
Speaker 1:You know I'm sure a lot of you have seen that there's a scam where people are using AI to replicate people's voices and basically black making, blackmailing phone calls of you need to send me this much money, I've got your child, etc.
Speaker 1:Again, in those situations, hang up, call that person, make sure that they're okay. I know that in those moments of panic it's hard to think clearly, but your mind should first go to this is a scam, this is not real. Let me hang up and call that person and make sure that they're okay, and then that's when you can also say you know what's our family password or what's our you know money handling password, whatever you want to establish. Basically, what you're trying to do is you're trying to bring life back into that scenario and ensure that the person you're talking to is the person on the other end of that line that they say that they are. So this episode is not meant to scare anybody. We don't want to instill fear or make you into a conspiracy theorist of any kind, but we do want you to be aware and mindful, because technology and AI they are rapidly changing and evolving and we just need to stay on top of what's going on in the industry and keep ourselves and our families safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would say you know, like I said, once again, share this episode, especially with your parents, because we grew up with technology, so we are a little bit more adept at, you know, noticing these discrepancies as compared to they're not necessarily. I mean, we've had friends of ours who, unfortunately, we have one really good friend whose mother, you know, kind of fell for one of these things and they gained access to her phone and by getting access to her phone they gained access to passwords to all her different bank accounts, stuff of that nature. They started to drain money and she did get the money back, but it was a long, long, scary process because she was afraid that she wasn't going to get it back. So, you know, have these conversations with your parents, tell them like, hey, like if you see something that you're just not quite even sure about let me know, don't keep sending it right, don't hit forward.
Speaker 1:We don't want to keep you know those malware things Uh we don't want to pass those along, but you can take a screenshot, send it to to your child and say, hey, does this, does this feel right? What should I do? You know, when in doubt ask what should I do? Don't reply, don't click on the links and keep yourself and your family safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, worst case scenario. I could tell you this much Like there are just certain places that aren't going to send you, you know, emails or text messages the post office, the IRS. That's not how the IRS works. You're going to receive something in the mail. They're not going to send you an email.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Stay safe out there. If this was helpful to you, please share it with your friends and family and we will talk to you soon. Don't forget Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. You just got paid Until next time to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with your friends, family and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the sugar daddy podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our past, the sugar segments at the sugar daddy podcast at gmailcom or leave us a voicemail through our Instagram.
Speaker 2:Our content is intended to be used, and must be used, for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment, based upon your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial voicemail through our Instagram.
