Protect Yo (Digital) Self
8 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | NOV 2017
By Margie McLellan
Remnants of Irma
Unless you have been a victim of Hurricane Irma and/or Hurricane
Matthew (in my case both), you have no idea how it feels when you
return from your evacuation and open the door to your beloved home,
only to discover that not only is your home ruined, but also most of your
possessions. It’s such an overwhelming feeling of despair.
When you finally get your senses together, you begin the process of
going through everything you own. You save what can be saved and the
rest of your worldly possessions go curbside to the trash.
I’m not going to spend my time ranting about hurricanes. Been there
(twice). Done that. What I want to talk about are the unthoughtful
people who waste no time in driving down your street, stop in front of
your (and your neighbor’s) house and start foraging through everything
you own, load your stuff up and drive away. I’ve seen truckloads of
stuff – furniture, appliances, knickknacks, clothes, etc. – hauled off
right in front of my eyes. I’ve seen people on bikes stop and check out
my stuff and take what can be hauled off on a bicycle. I’ve seen people
with their golf carts loaded. In fact, one lady on her golf cart had so
much stuff packed in her cart that half of her butt was hanging off while
she was driving! Then there are those people who have no respect
for your stuff or your property, tear open trash bags of clothes and
miscellaneous items, go through and take what they want and leave
the rest of your belongings scattered all over your yard.
Now I love free stuff as much as the next person. But come on people,
have a little respect for the people who just had to throw out everything
they own, only to watch it snatched up as quickly as it is put out. I’m
reminded of Hurricane Harvey that hit the Houston area right before we
got hit with Irma. Those Texans didn’t take too kindly to the people who
came looting in their neighborhoods. They even made signs, “You loot,
we shoot.” Now we on Tybee don’t go that far. We are pretty easygoing
here. But unless you’ve gone through the trauma of losing all your
worldly possessions, you don’t know what it feels like to watch the
stuff you have spent your hard earned money on being hauled off.
They say that ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,’ but keep in
mind next time (God forbid) a hurricane or flood hits our beloved island
that ‘the trash you are picking up WAS your neighbor’s treasure.’
Then there is my friend, Joey. His house got flooded too. He’s tired.
Tired of talking about his house. Tired of talking about hurricanes. He
knows that people mean well, but when you get asked for the one
thousandth time about your house, you just don’t want to talk about it
anymore. He’s come up with a new line next time someone asks how
his house is: “Why don’t you just ask your sister how my house is?”
Haha! Love you Joey.
Social Media Etiquation By Jenny Ellis
Last month I talked about how to get rid of those annoying ads & search
results that follow you around to every website, and if you remember, all the
way to my parent’s house. Yikes. Ads are one thing, but protecting yourself
digitally is another! I have a lot of baby boomers ask me about social media
& how to stay digitally savvy to avoid scams. Scammers target this age
group and older because it’s more difficult for them to detect a scam over
the typical digital norms. If you are a savvy senior, then we applaud you! I
have a friend who is an international airline pilot and he recently told me that
there was more technology in a current iphone than there was in a plane’s
navigation system. As scary as that sounds, we’ll chalk it up to actually being
rocket science! Each day 10,000 baby boomers turn 65, so if you are one of
thousands of baby boomers who love to use your phone to shop, facetime
with the grandbabies, or check the weather & scores, you need to make
sure you have an understanding of what’s out there and what you can do to
protect yo self.
Passwords! This is one of the biggest problems for some of my senior
clients! Yes, every site wants you to have a username and password. You
are probably one of two kinds of password people. 1.) You use the same
password for everything or 2.) You use a different password for each site,
never remember it, and change it every time you log in. Am I right? If you are
a #1 person, please change your password today if it involves your name,
address, or is less than 6 characters. The process of how hackers get your
password is long and boring so just make sure you have a good one with
some random #s, or !&$@ symbols. If you are a #2 person, use a password
manager that promises to encrypt, store, and update passwords for you.
I don’t like public potties and I don’t like public Wifi! Unsecured public
Wifi is a cesspool for hackers & scammers. Connecting to an unsecured Wifi
network is like sitting on a port-a-potty bare ass after a 3 day outdoor festival
in the middle of July. So hopefully that sensory overload will prevent you from
ever connecting to an unsecured Wifi again. When connecting, the Wifi will
say open and you will not have to use a password to get in. Because there
is no privacy setting to get in, you act as a middleman between the hacker
and anything you do while connected. Checking your bank account, email,
or anything you do on an open wifi network is vulnerable to cyber-attack.
Airports are the most dangerous of all open wifis. Just don’t do it.
The Email from Hell. Whatever your email scenario is, the fact is that
everyone will be face-to-face with some sort of scam via email. Some of the
emails will be from people you know! Some will be from companies you do
business with or owe money to. Here are some major clues you should look
for when questioning authenticity of an email.
1. Social Security, Credit Card #s, or passwords will NEVER be asked for
over email. EVER! If you have recently given this information out via email
or phone, you should immediately report it to Federal Trade Commission at
spam@uce.gov.
2. Emails from a foreign prince or mothers asking for a check wire
transfer. I can’t even believe this still exists. It was one of the 1st scams
and the fact that people still fall for it, sad. This scam targets your financial
information
3. Emails from people or companies you know with a single clickable
blue link. Sometimes the subject of the email is, “Hi! Check this out!” And
when you see that from someone you know, it’s natural to want to click on it.
A general rule of thumb is double check with the person who allegedly sent
it to make sure it’s legit. If you accidentally click on this link, change all your
passwords immediately, starting with your email.
Additional & preventative information about how to avoid scams can be
found on any tech savvy website. So on that note, protect yo digital self and
keep your butt off the seat!