Tuesday, October 17, 2017

There is no privacy; There is very little security


The Equifax hacking scandal clearly illustrates three important issues for U.S. consumers.

First, what we used to call credit bureaus are now data miners and data sweepers. These firms sweep the entire electronic world for your data, collect it, collate it and sell it.

Those long, almost unreadable “terms of service” statements we routinely click – we surrender most of our rights to privacy and often our rights to due process (via mandatory arbitration clauses).

So unless you live in a log cabin in the wilderness and live by barter you are in the system and you are vulnerable.

Second, cybersecurity is not really effective when lots of people receive large paychecks for being incompetent. Even well run organizations are subjects to hacks. There is no escape.

Third, once the breach happens it is difficult to “unscramble the eggs.” No one really knows how to fix the problem?

 Equifax failed to disclose the breach in a timely manner, set up a useless website to suck you in, and then wanted to sell you data protection services. No ethics in that company.

You are on your own – be very careful.


Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Gift Card Scams - Email Version



Free Amazon Gift Card! Click on the link.

Check the email. It probably has a very weird address, and is not from Amazon.

The Sender might just be hustling your personal information for a mailing list.


Or something much worse. HIT DELETE. 

Monday, June 12, 2017

Scams, Scams and More Scams



A steady stream of scams are aimed at U.S. citizens from all over the world.

Tax agent scams
Overseas lottery scams
Overseas sweepstakes scams
Collection agency scams
Summer contractor scams
Caregiver scams


It never ends.  Be careful, especially with phone calls.

And remember....

 IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Troy (Michigan) woman loses $703K in online swindle



No comment necessary.


http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2017/03/22/troy-woman-fleeced/99510120/






Monday, March 6, 2017

HIgh Quality Health Insurance Starting at $49!


Really? Can this be true? It is on the Internet........ It is in my email.

No, absolutely not true. It is either a scam or the insurance is worse than nothing.

If the currently proposed health care reform is passed in Washington you are likely to see a flood of mail and Internet sales pitches - and most of all of them will be worse than nothing.

Buyer beware!

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Now What?


The federal government is in a state that can best be described as chaos.

So is it time to panic? No. We will return to some sort of routine, although a different routine.

The government has three branches so no single branch can do anything too crazy or too quick. Things will eventually calm down.

The biggest danger right now is a quick, dramatic and not very smart overhaul of health care. Any "reform" of Medicare though will likely come later. This "reform" could be something good or something horrible.

Stay tuned.