You're listening to Cash Talk. There is so much information that you have on social media. I have stuff on social media, but I try and keep mine private. That's something to be aware of.
It probably is innocent, that one little piece of information about your first car, but to the person that has your check or that's picked up your wallet and returned it to you. So yeah, I mean, it's pretty easy to gather that kind of information. My name's Adrian. Hi, I'm Izzy.
And we are your host at the Cash Talk podcast. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Cash Talk Podcast. OK, so we are entering the holiday season, with all the day season coming shopping, and everyone getting ready for Christmas and everything. And so with all the shopping online and with that comes fraud and criminal activity of the sort.
A lot of times we don't realize what's happening, that it's happened to us, but it's usually on the rise. So while it's not a fun subject to speak on, it's something that's very important. We have a special guest here today. Keep us informed on fraud and how we can stay safe.
And enjoy the holiday season without having to worry about someone stealing our identity or something like that. Having to worry about money. Yes, having to check your account balance and realize you spent $100 when really you spent 700. So Kelly Johnson works for a financial institution for the past decade, assisting victims of fraud and helping them fight crime.
And we're honored to have her joining us this week. Wow, decade makes me feel old. And fight crime makes you sound like a superhero. And she is a superhero.
I am. So it is extremely likely to happen to you. And it's even more likely that it already has, and you don't even know it. Basic definition of fraud is wrongful or criminal deception, intended to result in financial or personal gain.
And of course, the financial fraud is what I see a lot of. And there's all kinds of it. As far as how likely it is to happen to you, actually 46% of Americans have already been victims of card fraud. Wow.
I personally, yeah. Wow. I think it was 46. That's half the country on the list.
Wow. I haven't yet. Knock on wood. But it's probably coming my way.
And really the best thing is knowing it's out there, and it's probably going to happen and how to take care of it. And then, of course, your identity and those types of things being targeted and out there at that information. Now, that's scary to think about in the time of the holidays, because I think you get your card out and you want to buy, you want to spend your money on. And you kind of just assume that nothing's really going to happen, that you go about your day.
So I think that's where if we're not paying attention, we could be victims. So in your line of work, what's the most common way that somebody realizes they've become a victim of fraud? Or what should they be doing to keep an eye? So it depends on what you're talking about.
I do see card fraud, but that's not primarily what I deal with. Card fraud is the most active form of fraud. I think. I like to say people use their debit cards more than anything.
Or credit cards. Yes. And it's really pretty easy to get that information with things out there, like the big companies having their information, like merchant breaches, or malware on computers, fishing emails, and phone calls. And then, of course, the skimmers and the shimmers that are on terminals.
Shimmers. Actually, her skimmers. Ooh. They're not new, but they are new to a lot of people.
Those kind of go inside. And so you can't detect it on that. OK. So a skimmer is something you attach on the outside of the machine, but a shimmer is on the internal side.
Oh. Wow. Those happen a lot more at gas stations. So that's kind of scary to think about, because one of our biggest things that we tell people to look out for is kind of check all of the surroundings on the terminal at the gas station or ATM that you're using.
But with shimmers, you can't really get in that little slide there and pull that thing out. So that's a tough one to get around. That definitely helps if you go to, if you're in some points, rewards gas station, you go to the same one all the time, if something is off about it, you pretty much notice it. But I guess with the shimmers, you probably wouldn't.
You would not. The only thing you could really notice is if they put it in their poorly and it kind of pulls your car to get stuck in there. That's one thing to look out for. Of course, check all your surroundings, the best tips with those types of things.
If you can't go inside, use the gas pump that's closest to the store or most visible by the gas station attendant. Check everything. See if there's anything that can be moved. Maybe even slide, if it's that rewards gas station, you got the rewards card maybe slide it in first.
Make sure it goes in kind of smoothly. Make sure that there's nothing that can kind of come off around there. And I always advise skipping, putting your pin number in. Yeah, just because it is.
Just right as credit. OK. OK. That's a good tip there.
So I usually rush around. And sometimes I just kind of like gather my car close the door and I'll go to the gas pump, swipe my car, move on. What happens if while I'm standing there pumping gas, I notice, hey, that looks a little funny. And I think maybe I have something to worry about.
What should I do? First of all, pull on it, twist on it. Do anything you can to see if it comes off. If it comes off in your hand, tell the gas station, attend it as well as contact the police.
Because what they can do is they can set up like a little sting operation. Because a lot of times, those people that place those there will come back to get it. So that you want to let the authorities know so that they can come in and watch it and keep it on the left. But if you think your car has been compromised, you need to call the number on the back of your card and get it stopped.
Check your account balances. Because things can happen really quick. A lot of times people think, well, if it doesn't happen right away or if it's not, I still got time. I can do that next week.
There's a lot of different thought processes that people have on that. But if your car has been compromised, you want to stop it right away. It can happen as quickly as like an hour or two later, you can get fraud. Or it could be weeks or months later that something actually happens.
I don't know about you all, but I don't have enough in my account where people can just have a shopping spree for days and days. Let me say that. That's going to be gone in a couple days on check account. That's the way you got to be.
A lot of experts say that you should use credit cards for all of your everyday transactions. I agree. I'm kind of tending, I feel like, after hearing it, because I do hear that from a lot of people, people will pay with their credit card and then just transfer from their account for their bills or whatever on to that card. I've been thinking about that.
I hear that from a lot of people. There are so many protections. Why you should. There are so many as far as it's easier to dispute with a credit card opposed to a debit card.
You don't have pin numbers usually with credit cards that you would use. And you can shut that down and they'll move your money to a new card pretty quickly. As opposed to with a debit card, you're waiting to get that money back and checking account. Another reason I use a credit card myself is if something happens to my debit card, it could maybe take, I don't know how long, maybe 24 hours, 72 hours depends on the institution to put the money back.
And that's messing with my mortgage payment. I can't say. It's like two days away from the mortgage coming out. What are you going to do?
I wiped my whole account out. Right. It's actually longer than that. Is it almost every place you go to?
It's going to be a week to two weeks. You get reimbursed, okay? Wow. Almost every place.
That's kind of, I believe that's like Visa's idea of it. Yeah. So you mentioned other types of fraud. What else do you, like what do you come across?
What's more common things that might, that somebody should be looking out for you from day to day? Just good old fashioned scams is the, scams cover so many different types of fraud. From online loans to secret shopper, slash work from home, get up jobs there. There's romance scams.
We're going to need somebody online and everything's really good for a couple of weeks. And then all of a sudden money comes in somehow. Yeah, they need to send them some money or something like that. Yes.
That's one of our big ones. Had you see scams like that that have gone all the way to fruition? Like someone has already sent some money to this woman or whatever that's, you know, the love of their life and they just need $10,000 so they can come to the state, or whatever. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. One of the biggest romance scams is where the scammer poses as a soldier, an American soldier that's working overseas and is trying to come home. And for whatever reason, can't receive their funds. So they need the love of their life that they met online a couple of weeks ago and suddenly trust with thousands of dollars to receive their money for them and send their money to them.
So you're saying after like a week or so, meaning someone you don't exchange routing numbers? I have a first link. No, I'm not going to confess somebody. You can have a running number on the third date.
Can I have your account information then? I mean, it's going for a while. So I want to be a day. I want to be a day.
So they're going for a long time. I want to be a day. I want to be a day. I want to be a day.
I want to be a day. Yeah, so they just give them that information because they're only receiving the money and sending it for them. So they don't see an issue with that. Why not give this guy my information?
I'm helping him. He's not going to do anything for me, you know, against me. So what would make somebody fall for something like that? Well, they it's usually vulnerable.
People already a lot of these victims, romance scam victims are usually the elderly females is what they kind of go for. Maybe they're trying to prey on somebody that's more lonely, doesn't have a lot going on. So they build that trust up and it gets intimate very quickly. So it goes from, hi, how are you?
Where do you live? To building these strong bonds and trust happens really quickly in these relationships. They just connect so easily with each other. Yeah, must be fate.
Exactly. It happens every day. Must be fate. There's $2,000.
Yeah, so they believe this that that here's the money I need it and I can't receive it for whatever reason. So I need you to. But to me, it's like, why can't we step back and say, okay, well, you can have so and so send me the money and you can receive the money from me. Why can't someone so send you the money?
Yes, exactly. That's what kind of gets me. But they don't think about these things because they don't think that logic, you know, process. Yeah, they're helping somebody that they trust, somebody that they have some kind of connection with.
So if I was being scammed and I had some swab person out there trying to woo me, what would happen on my end? Like I get an email and we build this connection. I don't know how they're going to be Facebook or something. Build a connection and then they say, oh, I'm in trouble.
I need you to send me money and I will pay you back. Is it just as simple as me sending money out of my account or what other ways to go? It's not your money though. It's not my money.
You send your money. They're going to have a check sent to you most of the time. That's the most likely. You receive a check in the mail for $3,000 made payable to you and it's from Joe's Body Shop in California or something like that.
You're supposed to cash that because love of your life is saying, oh, my friend owns Joe's Body Shop and I need you. He's going to send some money and then I need you to send it to me because I can't receive it. So you take that check, you put it in your account and maybe there's a hold for a couple days, maybe there's not, but you get access to those funds and you send it overseas to this person. Well then, a week, two weeks later, the check comes back and that money comes back out of your account because the check was no good.
It was a counterfeit item. So that leaves your account. So they got the money. Hand for it.
They got the money, but you're stuck with that bad check. Right. And you're stuck with the whole thing. Yeah.
So. And a lot of people think, well, the money was in my account, so the check must have cleared, even especially if it was on hold for a couple of days. But that's not how financial institutions work. Financial institutions give you funds, access to those funds on good faith that you know where those funds are coming from, you know that they're good.
And so they give you that money and it can take days, it can even take months for a check to return as counterfeit or fraudulent. And then there you are responsible for paying that. Wow. Yeah.
They're doing improvements with the check system, but that's one of those areas that it's not as much, there's not as much technology as people believe. Yeah. So it does take some serious time to actually process the check or just creating your account because it would suck if you got the check from like your mom for something for a gift. Right.
And you deposit to your account, but they are not going to give you that money until the check actually comes in from her account five weeks later. Right. So it's not just saying to have to wait over a month for a check to get those funds, but it's I wish as somebody who sees this type of stuff. I wish that's how it works.
But it's not those financial institutions, they can only keep it for so long. So they if unless they know it's fraud, a lot of people say, well, what did they call and check it right then? Oh my gosh. If that tells you how to call every time they brought in the check, we could help about five people a day.
Yeah. Especially if you're someone who cradings especially, if you've been a member for a long time, they have you know, you've established a relationship with them and they really, they trust you in the fact that up until now, you've not ever deposited a check that wasn't, you know, that was fraudulent in any way. So they probably accepted it because you haven't, you haven't ever deposited anything like that. That's exactly what happens.
Yeah. They just positive like any other check. They assume, you know, based on the relationship that you've had with them that that's going to be a good check. So that's another reason why I guess why I don't check.
I mean, because you're right, it would be like five people a day. Right. And I mean, there's so many, it doesn't even have to be a check those. These scammers are, they're smart.
They think about a lot of things. It can be a lot of times people down on their luck, needing the loan, maybe their credit is bad. They can't get it from a cash place or paycheck advanced place or even a credit union or bank. So they go online or they'll get a pop up or an email saying you're approved for $15,000.
They'll sign up given author information and be contacted and say, all right, well, you're approved for $15,000. We just need your online banking information, sign in information. You hand that over to, and I say, okay, we're going to deposit some money in your account. And then we need you to send it back to us.
That way we know that your account's able to send and receive funds for the loan and payments thereafter. So you get that deposit in your account. A lot of people that don't use online banking don't know that it's an actual check that there's been a picture taken of. That goes into your account.
They just see that the money was deposited. They take it out and they send that money through Western Union or Money Graham. Yeah, it was like Green Dot cars or what? Yeah, the loan.
So money like that, then there again, that check returns weeks later and they're left having to pay that. And of course, then there's of course cash, like you were saying, sometimes they might ask just for you to send them money. Those are like the low small town scammers. Yeah, they're not in a big yet.
They just want some money. Yeah, they're not very great at it yet. So you might send cash or like those would be more like the more sophisticated ones that would get your cash would be. You just want a lottery or sweepstakes.
We need you to send some money for taxes and fees, processing fees, legal fees. That's not a thing. You have to pay. You just have to pay.
Yeah. What about in-person scammers? Do you ever run into a situation where someone has maybe gone into a bank or in a financial institution and they are using the identity of someone else? Do you ever maybe get a loan or something like that?
Do you ever run across that? So right under debit card fraud, there would be what we call friendly fraud. Friendly fraud. Yeah, it sounds a little bit like I don't see more on.
It sounds like something not so bad, but it's actually kind of the worst. And that's where somebody is close to you and they're posing to be you maybe a sister or a daughter or something like that. Brother, what have you? And they come in and they have your ID or maybe they don't.
They just know all your information and they try and get approved. Like maybe, oh, I forgot my ID and could you verify me this way? Maybe something like that. Oh, yeah.
I forgot my ID. Can you verify the last word? Yeah. My social.
Something that I can memorize that I can just fit out. Right. And I'll easily know my sister's mother's made a name. Yeah.
Okay. Okay. So that happens a lot. Of course, there's caregivers.
That's another big one. Elderly or disabled people that have caregivers in their home who can also get their card or their checks, those types of things. That's where my I went my heart and my sleeve when it comes to elderly people and people that have advantage of them. That is my that just makes me so sad because that's so it's just so awful.
It's awful and it happens so much and it doesn't even have to be a caregiver. It can be the grandson. I always say it's like Cludes. It's like I'm always going to guess it's the grandson in the study with a checkbook.
Yes. Yes. I love that so much. I love that so much.
I'm going to be the most paranoid grandma ever. I'm going to be like, I know you're taking my money and I'm going to send you a check on your birthday. I'm going to get a check in the birthday card to your house. That's it.
So check. Oh my gosh, though. That's anybody who touches your check can steal your information, take over your information. So easy.
Oh, yeah. You have your checking of course account number, the routing number, your name, your address, your phone number a lot of times. Some people put their drivers back in this number. Lots of people do that.
Yes, right. I think so. And then guess what? I probably know you at least a little bit if you gave me a check, whether I'm your babysitter or I'm just at the daycare or I'm the grocery store clerk, whoever I am, I might know you a little bit to where I can look you up on Facebook later.
Do you know what kind of information I can get from you on Facebook? I can find out your family names usually. Who's your mom, your brother, those types of things where you grew up, your school history, your education history, your work history. And town you grew up in, friends.
Even you have a picture on your profile picture, maybe you're worried about putting your own picture up there. So you have your first car or a picture on there. Those are all security questions. That's a big deal.
So then I have your bank account number. Wow. I have your bank information, your home address, all of your security questions. I can pretty easily go on and set up some serious stuff.
There's a channel there I see that goes around online that just spooks me whenever it happens. It's like one of those survey things you're supposed to copy and then paste that your own status and people answers. I hate those. Yes, it's like, so tell me what's your favorite color?
What's your favorite food? What's this? What street did you grow up on? Yes.
What is your stripper name? And it's your first pet's name and the street you grew up on? Those are security questions. I use them as my security questions.
Exactly. Exactly. If you're a close friend of mine, you already know that stuff. That's really all I care about.
That's really all who I care about. Does it know that kind of stuff? But crime or theft, crime of opportunity. I mean, if you gave the opportunity, amazing, harmless to you, you're just doing a survey out of boredom one night, telling somebody deep information about your stuff.
Yes. There's so much information that you have on social media. I have stuff on social media, but I try and keep mine private. If you go to my Facebook, I'm sure you probably could find some stuff out.
But hopefully it wouldn't be too much. So that's something to be aware of because even though you think that it's probably not, it probably is innocent that one little piece of information about your first car, but to the person that has your check or that, or picked up your wallet and returned it to you very nicely, but also saw your social security number or something like that, which please don't carry yourself security card in your wallet. Don't do that. Lots of people do it.
So yeah, I mean, it's pretty easy to gather that kind of information on people. And with today's young people, we've got to sound like old people here for a minute, but young people put everything online. Yes. I'm guilty.
I know. You're very, what's the word, transparent on social media, but on your friend, though, maybe if I wasn't your friend, I couldn't see all those things. Yeah. I mean, if you're not my friend, you can't see it, but I have like 1400 friends on Facebook alone, and I can't say I know all of them intimately.
Do you just do teach us, hear him, throw out, hit him out of friends he has. That's what just happened. I like to say, I mean, I've realized I've kind of been backing down. I haven't deleted much yet, but I know like I'm super goatee being transparent with stuff.
And it's going to get me one day. Yeah. I haven't yet. I know of, but you know, the way I look at it is I try not to add anybody on Facebook that I wouldn't want knowing where I live and when I'm out of town because you're right.
If I'm taking pictures of myself in Disney World and I know where I'm at, yeah, you are so right there. Actually, that was going to be my next question when it comes to social media is are some of the things that we're posting putting us at risk. And for sure, I've seen like what exactly we were just talking about all the friends of the time that will do countdowns and when they're leaving. Yeah.
I had a friend recently, they were going on a vacation and they when they booked it, they said, Hey, on this day from this date to this date, I will be on vacation. And here's where I'm going to be. And it is very evidently hundreds of miles away from where I live. Like, so anybody who reads this, I'm like, I don't know what the key under the mat.
Yeah. We're all going. Yeah. See, I'm lucky.
I've got a crazy little dog in my house. I've got a very, I don't want to call her Snoopy because I'm the same way with her. I'm always checking her out. She's checking me out.
Right next door, checking on my house. So I feel like I'm pretty safe with that. But again, I'm not going to let anybody on my friends list that I wouldn't trust that I'm out of town. Yeah.
You know, and that's a really good point because I think we all have our friends on there. But I think some of us probably have some people and they were not 100% sure who they are. Yeah. And we maybe accepted them just because we have good intentions and we assume they do too.
I know for a fact that you did that. I was going to say, I was going to say, I was going to take all of you part of your life. I was like, Oh, okay. I'm like, I'm just in a room with you.
Yeah. Yeah. Just because I knew you in sixth grade doesn't mean that we were friends ever after that or again now. And I'm not trying to be like, snobby.
I just don't know you. And if I'm like, we pass each other on the street and you don't wait to me and I don't wait to you. Oh, I hate that. We don't know if they don't talk to you in public.
Yes. Exactly. So I recognize you then. Definitely.
Why are you friends? Oh, they recognize you. Yeah, they just choose not to do you. Yeah.
Well, okay. Like if we can't be friends in Walmart or we can't be friends on Facebook. Yeah. That's a good philosophy.
Yeah. So there's obvious stuff like posting when you're going to be going out of town. I know I personally don't try to take photos anywhere in my house that shows anything of value behind me like a TV or something like that. Yeah.
Are there other things that people might be posting that might be put in them in common rising situations? Oh, yes. Oh, I'm so glad you asked this. So my sister sent me something.
It's been a while back. She sent me a picture of somebody's application into I can't even remember if it was like a school thing or a work thing, but it was their application. And she was like, yay, I finally got accepted with whatever it was. Oh, and it had.
She was the person who applied and posted her own application. Yes. Yes. I am not kidding.
It was the craziest thing. Wow. She put it all out there. She was just wanting to show everybody.
Look, I got accepted. Here was my application, but it's like, girl, we know, know your mother's made a name and your marital status. I got it. Yeah.
Yeah. Young people. The other day of my husband showed me a snapchat. I was wondering if he got a phone.
I forgot about it. He sent me a snapchat. I wanted his friends who took a selfie in the mirror. And if you look in the corner of the mirror, he had his debit card number written on a sticky note.
He put on that mirror. What is wrong with him? He's not with the finance background. We were like, hey, you know, you should probably delete that whole picture that you just posted.
He was like, no, nobody can do anything without my pin. Oh, yes. Oh, but you're like, oh. Oh, yeah.
It's called Amazon. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. For some people it takes information to make our fake card with their name on it. You can do some damage. That happens.
It does. Oh, wow. Yeah, debit card information. Like I said, I mean, mail applications.
People just don't really think about these types of things. So street address. So what should we do? What should we be doing?
You know, it's a holiday season. Unfortunately, I'm gonna be shopping a bunch here. Recently, I actually just started... I got my first gift.
For me? Yes. I got two weeks of Adrian shopping that I included every year. It's real heavy.
It's a heavy amount of shopping. With this being a holiday season, we're all gonna be shopping. It's just inevitable. And we're gonna be shopping a lot.
What can we do to keep ourselves safe? So as far as shopping goes, like I was saying, check all the terminals inside, outside, whatever it is. I even saw a criminal cover over a terminal inside a gas station. Like in the gas station, where you swipe your card, he just set one over it.
So always check it out, move it around. If you're doing online shopping, make sure that it's something that you know is a legitimate business. You've done business with before. Don't click on any pop-ups.
If you go to a website, anything that pops up or any Facebook funny videos, those can be pretty bad. So then later, maybe you look at a video right now, and then later go on Amazon, and it's a legitimate Amazon website, and you buy Adrian his gift and type in your debit card number, or maybe it's Walmart, somewhere that doesn't already have it. But that video had malware on it. So then it picks up your 16-digit card number and kind of runs off with that.
Yeah. I am never getting on the internet ever again. It's okay. You just have to know what to look for and know what to avoid.
Other ways to protect yourself outside of shopping is don't do any kind of business with somebody who don't have a business purpose for sure to do something with. Like if somebody approaches you for a loan, that's a little suspicious. Or Craigslist is a huge thing that we see with buying and selling items online. That's probably bigger right now with people trying to get a big ticket item for Christmas.
Or even people buying cars and stuff. I'm wearing a Facebook marketplace also. Yeah. Selling your car, maybe you're selling something to get rid of something so that you can buy something for somebody else.
But yeah, you sell your car online. You get an email or a text that says, I'll buy it as is, Red Flag. Don't want to look at it. Unseen.
I'm good with it. I'm not going to negotiate. I'm overseas, or I'm out of state. I'm going to send you a check for it and have somebody come pick it up.
You're selling it for $1,500. You get a check for $2,500. You send them an email back. Hey, this is an overpayment.
Oh, well I just need you to send that money on over to my shipper. They're going to come buy and pick it up. Just send that money to someone else. Huge Red Flag.
Any kind of overpayment. My tips on Craigslist would be, meet them in person. If it's somebody from out of state or out of the country, those are big red flags. So meet them in person, somewhere public and safe during the day, preferably because creepy.
I'd add on to that. I sell a lot of cars on Craigslist. I've actually never sold a car to a dealer. But I make a point whenever I sell a car online, I will meet the person in person.
And when they want to give me the money, we go to my bank or credit union. People who deal with money every day, we're doing it right here. Especially if they're going to pay you with a check, go to the Verbing for credit union, so that you can cash it at that institution. You know that you're getting your money right then.
Instead of putting that money into your account later and then it bounces a couple weeks later and your car's gone. Maybe if they're paying you from a cashier's check at their local institution, you can have yours, maybe calling Verify. Yes, cashier's checks can be, of course, counterfeit fraudulent items. However, they are much easier to verify for your financial institution.
So if you go in and say, you know, I just sold this car and I'm about to give it to them, could you verify this check right now before I hand over the keys? It's a lot easier for them to pick up the phone and call the bank that wrote it. That specific place should be able to say, yes, that is a good check and it's not been cast yet. It is made payable to this person for this amount.
They can get a lot more details on cashier's checks. Watch for bills also when you're selling stuff on Craigslist. Check your bills out. All of us have been in the financial institution we know what to look for.
But those counterfeit bills can be really, really good. Check for like extra glossy bills or even really extra soft bills. If it feels almost like cotton, like a t-shirt or something. There's some good counterfeit bills going around that say motion picture use only on it in the top right corner.
They look great except for that. And the nose looks a little like cartoony. Wow. That's amazing.
It's not a foolproof thing. But one thing I always do is I'm pretty sure every bill has this one security feature. If you scratch on the lapel or the collar of the president or whoever's on that bill, if it's rigid, that's a good sign. If it's flat, then hey, it's not supposed to be.
You probably saw it from there. Yeah. There's websites you can go on to check those types of safeguards in cash to find out what little things. You'd be surprised all the little things that they add into bills so that you know that they're legitimate.
It's pretty clever. But yeah, so protect yourself for Craigslist. Any other, I guess, online marketplace like that. Like, mainstream Facebook marketplace, things like that.
Where you individual to individual type sale. Yes. So I guess that's easy to do. Because you're just buying something.
That's the only thing you've got in your head. If it is a car, you don't have a car and you need a car. That's the only thing you're thinking about. You're not thinking of, okay, it's just person trying to scam me or whatever.
You just want to buy a car. So it's easy to get caught in that. Yeah. If you've never been scammed or you're not used to seeing people get scammed, you're not usually thinking about that.
So also we wanted to talk about what to do if you are the victim, though. How to take care of that situation. So at the victim of fraud, it can lead to losing cash, having your account taken over, having your credit score affected and ruined. Maybe they take out a loan in your name, I guess.
If they just don't pay it or whatever. If they have your personal information, social security, date of birth, those types of things. They can do some serious damage to your credit. So if you are the victim of fraud, thanks to do the steps to take to fix that.
Of course, if your card is involved, you need to get it stopped. For checking account information has been compromised, close it, continue one. Personal information, you're going to want to contact the credit bureau. There's three main credit bureaus, and you can call one of those and put a fraud warning on it, and the other two will pick it up.
So it's kind of a one-stop shop there. And then of course, also a lot of people don't know that you can get one free credit bureau. I think you guys have actually talked about this before. Each credit bureau will give you a free credit report each year.
So we suggest, especially if you're the victim of fraud, get not spread out. Get one now, and then in a few months, get the next free one. That's what we suggest with your everyday, you know, if you have fraud and you think something bad happened, you can get them all three. One time, if you don't usually get them, and you have those available to get, I would suggest checking that out, and then regularly keeping an eye on it after that.
Because say you get a letter from your insurance saying, hey, sorry, but all your stuff has been compromised. We're going to give you free credit monitoring for a year. Those things are great. Take advantage of that.
We all know about the recent credit bureau, actually. That was time to reach yes. And even if your name wasn't on there, you need to go sign up and get that free credit monitoring for sure today. You're looking at me like you haven't done any of that, Missy.
But yes, keep an eye on your credit. And then lastly, I want to talk to my hero, Frank Abigail Jr. Oh, God. Anybody seen Catch Me If You Can?
I love that movie. Leonardo DiCaprio. I love that movie. I love that movie.
I love that movie. I love that movie. I love that movie. I love that movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio. Yes. I've not seen that movie. You've not seen that movie.
You need to. I just thought I hadn't seen Pretty Woman because I've seen that a thousand times. I don't watch movies, but I've seen Catch Me As You Can. Catch Me When You Can't If You Can't If You Can't.
That's it. You got it. He saw all three of them. I don't watch movies.
He really doesn't watch movies. That's why this is funny. He's seen it. It's really good.
You should check it out. It's so good. And it's based on true events. I mean, it's a little made up a little bit.
If you read his book, Catch Me If You Can. I'll give you some more detail to it and leaves out kind of the theatrics. But basically in the 60s, Frank Abagnale Jr. at age 15, for the next five years, five, six years, he assumed at least eight identities.
Wow. Some of those being a pilot, a physician, a lawyer, without any kind of actual pilot license or education. Yeah, he dropped out of high school and kind of took off and became this huge fraudster. And in those five to six years, he actually wrote over $2 million worth of a bad checks.
Oh my gosh. As a child, he wasn't even old enough to drink. Wow. And that's not why he's my hero.
I was going to say it was a great thing. Good thing. He got caught. He didn't do much time in jail.
He actually did less than five years in jail. He spent more time being a fraudster than he did paying for those scheme of ways. But so the FBI caught him. He went to work for them and created some really good financial fraud prevention programs that actually over 14,000 financial institutions and law enforcement agencies use his programs now.
Wow. He's the owner and runs Abagnale and Associates, which is a financial fraud consultancy company. That's so weird though, right? I mean, you would know best.
Oh, and he does. So you got to meet him. I met him a couple years ago. He was 2014, 15, 15.
And he came and did a talk through the FBI and told us he talked a little bit about his past, but mostly about how you need to protect yourself. Frank says that all of our information is pretty much out there, that your identity has already been compromised. An important thing is knowing how to keep your information or actually how to keep your finances safe and how to protect yourself moving forward. Those things have some sort of monitoring program in place, whatever, you know, like that keeps an eye on it.
You can actually go to his website, Abagnale.com, and he suggests some ways to stay on top of those types of things. Yeah, and you spell your thing. Abagnale, A-B-A-G, don't put me saying it. I'll put the link in the show notes.
Abagnale, A-B-A-G-N-A-L-E.com. So check him out. Listen to his, you can go on actually YouTube and watch some of his. I think he talks.
Yeah, that sounds great. Can we have him on here next week? Let's do that. I'll be honored.
We don't have a type of budget here. Oh, was I supposed to get paid for this? Yes. Our person was paying you.
I mean, I'm an old guy person. We're going to take a new office. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, so I'll send a fee back.
I know we didn't. My legal fees back. I didn't. I like that.
And we've come full circle. That's fair. That's fantastic. Well, Kelly, thank you so, so, so, so, so much.
This is really, I mean, I feel like I already knew a lot about fraud, but I learned so much more and I don't really watch the movie and I'm really interested because that's amazing. He was a criminal, but he turned, you know, when he was doing it into something that's going to be helping 14,000 companies. That's really crazy. Yeah.
So he says that what he did in the 60s is a hundred times easier to do today with your checks and counter-takes. That's so crazy. So that's why you got to stay on top of it. And he's something to remind us that those fraudsters are always 10 steps ahead of us.
We got to stay on our game and keep an eye on our credit, on our finances. I'm going home and locking the door. I know. I'm locking the door.
Get rid of the inner node. I know we're always literally sitting here thinking at one point. You know, I have some stuff. I know exactly where it is.
I have to go delete that. I'm probably going to. Yeah. I don't know.
I have to take it the same. I'm listening to this too. So thank you so much. You were incredibly informative.
This is a smart smart lady, you guys. So thank you so much. And we really appreciate you coming up with the show today. I'm honored that you joined us.
Yeah. I'm glad that I got to come out and talk about the exciting world. Exciting and scary world. Yes.
Yes. Although we are self-titled money experts, everything you hear on the show is for general education and entertainment purposes only. You shouldn't take advice from people you don't know. So consult with an industry professional before you make any financial moves.
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