security

Texts From a Friend Text Message Scams

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a texting scam

Text message scams are nothing new, but they used to be really obvious. Like anything else, scammers evolve to keep getting paid. Innocent Texts from a Friend Came across a news story today that finally answers a question of mine. About a year ago, I got a text from “Steve.” Now, I have an uncle named Steve, and although we don’t text, it was not beyond the pale that he ever would. He was friendly, asked how it was going. He asked about “that beautiful wife” and my kids. This was probably a 15 or 20 text conversation when I asked something kind of specific about my cousin that would have been obvious to the real Steve. The scammer didn’t know about that, so he said something like he didn’t know about it (impossible) so I stopped answering and went back through my texts. Just like that scene in Enemy of the State where he asks, “Did he say it first or did you say it?” – I realized that other than the opening question or two, everything cleverly piggybacked off my answers to make it sound like we knew each other. I stopped replying and after another few messages …

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What the Equifax Hack Really Means For You

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equifax-hacked

There is a lot of misinformation out there about the Equifax security breach, or hack. I wrote up a quick blurb the night I heard about it to try and help, but now it’s been a few days and it’s clearer what is happening, and what people are thinking. What Can I Really Do About the Equifax Hack? About the only thing that might punish Equifax is if tons of Americans put a freeze on their Equifax credit reports and then refused to take them off when lenders ask. Unfortunately, the answer is really that there is nothing you can do about the Equifax security breach. Unlike your usual credit card number theft, or username and password theft, the information the hackers got from Equifax isn’t able to be cancelled and replaced. This is your life, your addresses, employers, banks, cable company, cell phone company. It’s a master key for identity theft, and it exists out there forever, now. There is nothing you can do but watch and wait. Let’s start with what won’t help you stay safe from the Equifax data breach. Changing usernames and passwords – The hackers didn’t get usernames and passwords. Assuming your usernames and passwords …

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Online Banking Security Internet Privacy

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When it comes to protecting your privacy online, nothing is more important than a good browser data clearing tool. Deleting your cookies through a web browser’s interface hasn’t been good enough for a long time. Fortunately, utilities like CCleaner and Glary Utilities as well as Firefox add-ons and Chrome extensions fill the need to completely clear your private data from browser cache, flash cookies, and so on. What we need now is a way to manually and selectively protect certain cookies from cleaning. A lot of banks and financial institutions are requiring users to take an extra step when accessing their account information from a new computer that has never accessed the site before. For example, Chase Bank, which handles the Amazon Rewards Visa Card, requires users to get an authentication code via text message or email to one of the numbers or addresses on record with the account in order to log in from a new computer. Bank Login Register Computer First Online banking customers at ING have to answer one or more of their extra security questions in order to access their high-interest online savings account or online checking account. This extra layer of security helps prevent hackers …

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