The business of selling fear

[HemiEd]

Heck, it is the offseason

I have noticed more and more lately adds trying to instigate fear to sell you some peace of mind.

The one that triggered this thread was a new one I saw yesterday about losing your home to a scam. I only watched it for a few minutes but remember seeing a fake bill of sale of a persons home for $10. Holy crap, how would that stand up?

This morning in my news feed one add was for SSN protection and the other Identity theft.


Have you had any personal experience with these issues or purchased these products?
What say you?

Personally I have avoided TikTok and have purchased an antivirus protection for my laptop.

Our Citibank card has been compromised at least a half dozen times in the last couple years, but none of the others have.

[Womble]

Any company that makes a commercial featuring Patrick Mahomes is selling fear.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Our Citibank card has been compromised at least a half dozen times in the last couple years, but none of the others have.

This happens way, way too often, and it's totally unacceptable.

I've had a friend have his local bank debit card be comprised like 6 times.

The last few haircuts I've had to prepay via PayPal. I've asked her if there was an option to bypass that and use cash. Not currently and probably won't happen. That's ok I guess, just don't like using my CC for online transactions. Her reason is way too many no shows, no calls of notifications of such, and lost money out of her pocket. I completely understand that so I guess I'm OK with it, and she has worked me in a few times when she didn't have to.

[Saulbadguy]

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

[DJay23]

I subscribed to Lifelock for a few years. I cancelled because the only benefit I was seeing was my credit score was easily accessible.

There is a feature where you can link your credit cards and they monitor the activity on them. The site was constantly losing the connection to the credit card account. I was always having to re-input passwords and usernames. It got to be such a pain that I stopped doing it. That seemingly important feature was worthless.

There were some other features that I'm not remembering off the top of my head, but I decided they weren't worth the $35/month price tag I was paying.

I have not yet had any situations where I have been affected by a data breach. I've had new cards sent out to me as a precaution, but I've not lost money that I had to try to recover.

I have had people try to access various accounts of mine including streaming services, e-mail addresses, etc. This was happening before, during, and after having Lifelock. I don't remember getting any notifications from Lifelock that anything fishy was going on. In fact, most digital account providers send you an e-mail when there is a new login or new login attempt on your username.

[Straight, No Chaser]

Not sure how it happens/ed, while on vacation a few years back someone tried to use my credentials to get a loan in Indiana; someone else applied for credit cards, etc. The next year it happened again. Pretty sure me, myself, and I’s stuff is in the dark web. Was thinking I should just publish everything and see what happens.

I live now with my cred locked with the 3 credit bureaus. NOT really a hassle unless you’re consistently applying for credit. It’s easier than a post here to unlock them all for 24 hours.

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

We got scammed last year, and it was by a phone call from our "bank". Now, before you start talking about how stupid we are, the problem was we had just had an issue less that 6 months prior, and they caught us at an off guard moment. Got a lot of information before we hung up...felt stupid as hell after that. Ended up having to cancel all our shit and go in to the bank to fix it. They never got any money, but they would have.

Afterwards, I was thinking...we know better. We are not idiots. Yet, this bitch was so good it seemed natural.

Don't do shit over the phone. Ever. Unless you are calling them I guess.

[Couch-Potato]

Companies market to pain points.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

^ This. I would also say to never answer your phone if you don't recognize the number as legit people will leave a voice mail.

Also don't answer random texts that ask if this is you.

Lastly I know many banks offer free credit monitoring, so if yours does then sign up for it.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Couch-Potato

Companies market to pain points.

Yup. It's up there with the "Buy Gold!!!!!!!" commercials that pop up a lot.

[Marcellus]

You been to the bird flu thread yet?

[Why Not?]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Freeze your credit. (thaw when necessary - financing a car, home, etc)
Don’t use debit cards.
Don’t answer your phone unless it’s from a known party (even then, follow the next rule)
Don’t act on anything anyone wants you to do over email or phone.

Follow those golden rules and you are good to go.

Edit: I’ve been an IT Security professional for over 15 years. I use TikTok regularly, and do not subscribe to any identity protection services or otherwise.

This. Freezing our credit gave us total peace of mind on anything "big" scam wise happening to us. We don't have debit cards so GTG there. I barely answer the phone for people I do know. lol

[lewdog]

Have had frozen credit for years, even for my son after he was born. Kids identities/credit can be just as susceptible to fraud. Had a girl I know “purchase” a house when she was 12. Found out about it when she applied to use credit to buy a car at 20 years old.

Never even activate our debit cards. CC gets “stolen” every few years and it’s really no big deal anymore.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by InChiefsHeaven

We got scammed last year, and it was by a phone call from our "bank". Now, before you start talking about how stupid we are, the problem was we had just had an issue less that 6 months prior, and they caught us at an off guard moment. Got a lot of information before we hung up...felt stupid as hell after that. Ended up having to cancel all our shit and go in to the bank to fix it. They never got any money, but they would have.

Afterwards, I was thinking...we know better. We are not idiots. Yet, this bitch was so good it seemed natural.

Don't do shit over the phone. Ever. Unless you are calling them I guess.

It can happen to anyone. My dad (almost 80) was 100% going to fall for one a couple weeks ago. He got a call about someone accidentally depositing money into his account & needed him to refund the money. Had screenshots that looked 100% legit. He went to the bank to withdraw the money and THANKFULLY his banker overheard him withdrawing the cash & pulled him into his office to verify.

[scho63]

Negative emotions drive action: Fear, Greed, Jealousy, Hate, Failure, Losing, Selfishness, Criticisims

Positive emotions create passivity: Love, Satisfaction, Comfort, Happiness, Success, Winning, Sharing, Compliments