Cyber Crime Junkies
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Cyber Crime Junkies
Cyber Traps at Home! How to Keep Your Family Safe Online.🔥
Host David Mauro interviews Dr. Feleks Kravetz, US citizen who migrated from the former USSR and founder of Cuber Security Easy.
We discuss:
- 🎯protecting yourself online,
- 🎯cybersecurity risks for families, and
- 🎯the importance of cybersecurity awareness.
Find Dr. Felix and his mission to raise awareness for all here:
- 🌐 Website: https://www.CyberSecurityEasy.com – Learn more about our cybersecurity services
- ▶️ YouTube Channel: https://www.YouTube.com/@CyberSecurityEasyDotCom – Over 60 free video clips for business training, seniors, and kids
- 📚 Books & More: https://www.felikskravetsllc.com – Cyber safety books for kids and additional resources
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Join the Conversation: 💬 Leave your comments and questions. TEXT THE LINK ABOVE . We'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for future episodes!
Host David Mauro interviews Dr. Feleks Kravetz, US citizen who migrated from the former USSR and founder of Cuber Security Easy.
We discuss:
🎯protecting yourself online,
🎯cybersecurity risks for families, and
🎯the importance of cybersecurity awareness.
Find Dr. Felix and his mission to raise awareness for all here:
- 🌐 Website: https://www.CyberSecurityEasy.com – Learn more about our cybersecurity services
- ▶️ YouTube Channel: https://www.YouTube.com/@CyberSecurityEasyDotCom – Over 60 free video clips for business training, seniors, and kids
- 📚 Books & More: https://www.felikskravetsllc.com – Cyber safety books for kids and additional resources
CLIPS
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to Cybersecurity Awareness
03:03
The Importance of Cybersecurity Education
06:11
Understanding Social Engineering and Phishing Scams
08:49
best security practices for families
12:10
best ways to protect yourself online
14:55
Empowering Children to Recognize Scams
18:01
The Role of Parents in Cyber Safety
21:00
Navigating Online Interactions Safely
24:01
The Impact of Technology on Privacy
26:58
The Dangers of Ads and Malware in Gaming
29:55
Understanding Cybersecurity Risks for Families
32:36
Best Practices for Protecting Seniors and Children
35:29
The Importance of Technology Awareness
39:40
Freezing Credit: A Crucial Step
40:54
Social Media and Privacy Concerns
45:05
The Evolving Nature of Scams
49:17
The Debate on Tracking Technology for Safety
🚨 New Episode Out Now! 🚨
Protect yourself & your family online! 🛡️ Host David Mauro sits down with Dr. Feleks Kravetz, founder of Cyber Security Easy, to talk cybersecurity risks for families, social media privacy, keeping kids + elderly safe, and stopping social engineering. 🎯
#CyberSecurity #FamilySafety #OnlinePrivacy #ParentingTips #StaySafeOnline
🎧 Watch the full podcast for more!
Topics: Protecting Yourself Online,Cybersecurity Risks For Families,Importance Of Cybersecurity Awareness,Best Ways To Protect Yourself Online,Best Security Practices For Individuals,Best Security Practices For Families,Impact Of Social Media On Privacy,How To Keep Children Safe Online,New Ways To Protect Elderly Online,Parenting Tips For Children Online,cybersecurity,social engineering,phishing scams,online safety,gaming,communication,scams,technology awareness
Speaker 2 (00:08.408)
How easy is it for a stranger online to manipulate your aging parents? Could your kids be sharing just enough on social media to put your whole family at risk? Hey everyone, today we're gonna hear from somebody with a wild and inspiring backstory, Dr. Felix Kravitz. He grew up back in the USSR, moved to the United States with his parents chasing freedom and opportunity, and ended up becoming a respected educator, cybersecurity expert, and proud
dad. Let me tell you, this guy gets it. We're talking about something that's hitting families everywhere right now. How online predators and criminals want to harm you and are zeroing in on the elderly and our kids using social media and psychological manipulation that's honestly scary and how effective it is. Dr. Kravitz shares what he's seeing on the front lines from fake grandchild scams to TikTok traps.
and the simple warning signs most people miss until it's too late. Here's the kicker. If you listen through to the end, you'll get practical advice on top ways today for protecting yourself online, as well as your relatives, your loved ones, and your children. You don't want to miss this. It's eye-opening, it's practical, and it could seriously save someone you love. Welcome back to Cyber Crime Junkies, where we dig into the real stories behind the clicks
the cons and the cyber wild west. So enjoy the ride. Let's dig into it. Look, let's be real. Cybercrime is everywhere. Data breaches are hitting headlines constantly. I started cybercrime junkies for two reasons. Because true crime stories are addictive and because leadership can be learned and great leaders need to understand cyber today without all the technical jargon. So do us a favor, smash that subscribe button.
join a community that's done with doing things the way they've always been done. So let's get ahead of the threats and become the kind of leaders who actually stop them. These days being informed isn't optional. This is Cybercrime Junkies and now the show. All right, well, welcome everybody to Cybercrime Junkies. I am your host, David Moro. And in the studio today is Dr. Felix Kravitz, a social engineering expert.
Speaker 2 (02:38.29)
a teacher, professor, and entrepreneur committed to raising awareness about phishing scams, social engineering threats, and the like. Been in the industry for 25 years or longer. The first generation American, Dr. Kravitz, brings a bilingual background and cultural awareness to all of his training.
programs he moved to the US back when he was a child from the former USSR. It would be interesting to get that take moved back in the early 90s and we thank you for all you do. And is it okay if I call you Felix?
Thank you for inviting. Great. Felix, perfect.
Great. Excellent. Well, welcome to the studio. share with us a little bit about your, uh, about the education that you provide, the, uh, security awareness training and your approach to it. And then we'll get into kind of how you got here.
Sure, thank you. Thank you for introduction. Being in education for over 25 years, I noticed various groups of our population need more in being able to better recognize, specifically social engineering and phishing scams. I'm sure that corporations have the same need for more structured and more
Speaker 1 (04:02.798)
advanced training on the technology side, but each one of us. It doesn't matter if you are born in the United States, if you recently came, if you speak English well, if you don't, if you have PhD or GED, doesn't matter, everyone is target. Unfortunately, Tucker's are successful at every level. No matter if we highly educated, if we just finished basic education, if we work in, if we are attorneys, if we are doctors, everyone is target from
children to seniors and everyone in between. That basically what brought me to an idea to open cybersecurity easy project to being in communication, trying to help people be more educated and it goes along with multiple objectives of many other highly smarter people than I am. So trying to get my help to be a team member with multiple agencies and corporations doing this internally and externally. That is what this company is.
Absolutely. That's great. And it's cybersecurity easy, which is we'll have links to everything in the show notes. And I'll tell you, the approach is really important, isn't it? I mean, simplifying it down the cybersecurity industry itself uses a lot of acronyms that keep things pretty, pretty complex and it's almost by design. But when you break it down, it's, it's not that complicated, right?
And and and yet so many organizations, so many people are still not aware of what is happening and yet they're getting online every single day.
Thank you. Very good point. Corporations struggling tremendously and attackers are coming up with new stuff as we speak. Again, ecologically, I truly believe if I would be president of United States, I would make it a requirement from daycares to all the way to top of the education to have it as a basic requirement, same as physical exercise or knowing how to write.
Speaker 2 (06:03.566)
Yeah, we throw devices in kids and parents throw devices in kids hands at extremely young ages and there's absolutely I mean generally there's essentially no cybersecurity education integrated into the curriculum right of most schools today and It's a huge void. I mean, there's also there's a lot of problems with our curriculum, but different people have different opinions on that, but I mean look the
We are in a world today where we're more dependent on the technology in our physical world, right? Like the technology that we use affects our physical world. Think of healthcare and education, et cetera. And yet we're not really providing ample education for people of what are common threats, what are things to look for, what is a red flag when you see it, what is an anomaly, that type of thing.
Sure, sure. Great point. Great point. And I'm looking at our kids. know, three and a half years old child went to get an iPad from school. Three and a half years old, you know, he was still not
Three and a half years old, right? And that's what they're doing in schools, right? The iPads are in the very young age groups and then they move up to the Chromebooks essentially. tends to be a national pattern.
Exactly, exactly. Thank you for bringing this up. like I said, the child was not yet party trained. He was still in diapers going to school with iPad in his hands. And at the age of 10, we noticed our kids know so much on the social media on using Roblox. know, this is like a Roblox itself has so much outside of it, which attracts so many scammers and children under influence of YouTube channels running from
Speaker 1 (07:50.048)
outside of the United States, you know, taking credit cards from parents, sharing their login credentials. And even that group is highly targeted. And moving forward, if you look about sextortion for teenagers, it's another biggest issue with, unfortunately, cases where, you know,
Yeah, it happens quickly, right? This extortion that is happening with teenagers, whether it's through social media like Instagram or Facebook or whether it's or, you know, Snapchat, whatever it is, or a lot of it is even originating through some of the games, right? The Fortnites and the the Roblox. here walk us through how how a typical scenario with the ones I'm familiar with is
The kids playing Fortnite or kids playing Roblox, right? Younger kids are playing Roblox or Minecraft. And because of that, it's free, right? And they're playing it, but they want to buy some premium things, right? They want to improve their power, change the way their character looks, buy some more equipment or whatever it is. And there are legitimate ways to do that, but there are so many illegal ways.
And, and, and, and children, especially, but even parents don't even know that they're buying something that contains malware or spyware or info stealers or something like that, because the site looks legitimate. Is that what you're seeing?
Yeah, thank you for bringing this up. It's a great, you know, great point. So with Roblox being having hundreds of people working in cyber safety and the website can be fully secured by the children, not just play. They also want, you know, Robux or those currency which parents can pay for, or children are looking at other players who saying, Hey, you want those bonuses? Click and follow me. Or you want a free money?
Speaker 1 (09:52.354)
to buy stuff or to be your prime member, click right here and you can get it. And links going.
All the different skins, all the different stuff, right? Like the different ways the avatars look like they want to, you know, there's there's elements in the game that allow you to earn certain things. But for five bucks, three bucks, 10 bucks, they can they can really advance their play. when they play for hours and hours and hours, weeks after weeks after weeks and months after months, right, it means a lot to them. the problem is, is the kid, the child oftentimes
We'll say here, here, mom, here's the site, right? Can you buy this? And they'll either give the child the credit card to type in or most often even the parent will do it. But the parent doesn't know the parent isn't playing the game actively. Right. And so the site looks real, but they're putting in their credit card information and a couple of things are at risk. Right. One, you're putting credit card information into a rogue site. So now they're going to have your credit card information. They can obviously use that. But more than that, isn't it is when they
download the premium assets, right? When they download the new skins or the new weapons or whatever it is on the back end of that is a lot of info stealers, malware, things that can record from your camera, things that could listen in all of this stuff, right?
Yeah, thank you for bringing this up. I just want to say no matter how great and how I secure the Roblox system itself,
Speaker 2 (11:25.512)
yeah, I'm not talking about the actual roadblocks, right? I'm talking about scammers that are impersonating roadblocks. That's what you have. Good point. I'm glad. Let's clarify that. We're not talking about the games. We're not talking about the actual, the legitimate platforms. We're not talking about the cyber security on the backend of any of that. We're talking about criminal element that impersonates those because they're dealing with children and parents that aren't actively playing those.
Exactly, So what?
Speaker 1 (11:54.99)
And parents don't. Even at the age of 8 and 10, we have no idea what our children going through. It sounds like a legitimate thing. And people playing, but the player can say, hey, you want to review your role, click right here. And then they click and they're going completely outside of this game website to a website which can be hosted in Russia, in Ukraine, in Canada, in India, any place in the whole world.
No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (12:04.0)
Not at all. It's frightening.
Speaker 1 (12:24.558)
even in the United States, but there is no way to know where children going to. And those folks will say, hey, get a credit card. You put it right here or click right here, downloads free stuff. can get a free Roblox and children will do. And Spy will be installed on the computer, which can be used by parents or whatever the case is. So there is so many YouTube channels specifically designed to educate children and things that is my kids watching, you know, a few folks who...
specifically talk about scams on Roblox. And if you're a parent and if you not really can stop the train and there's no really way to do it nowadays, in many cases, at least talk to your children. Talk and ask, hey, I heard so much scam. Can you please tell me about it? Maybe children should present this topic during the after dinner time and parents will say, you know what, you explain me five scams.
on the Roblox, I will give you five bucks to buy Roblox.
Yeah, I love that. I love that idea. Yeah, and it's important too because we're all so dependent on technology to some degree we talk less we speak less with our families with everybody right everybody sits down at the table, know, everybody's got their phones out etc. And I know there's a lot of initiatives to not do that, but it's still a practical reality for a lot of families, but it's really important isn't it that the
parents say, if you ever feel uncomfortable, no judgment zone, like come to us, come talk to us. And I think that's really important for, for parents to do. mean, there's, there's, there's a lot of advice, especially when it gets into very violent threats of cyber bullying and sex extortion for teenagers. It's, it's gruesome. It's very violent and they're very, very persuasive.
Speaker 2 (14:20.13)
Like they're very good at their jobs and it's sad and it's really important and it happens quickly. The stories of the suicides that have happened with sex extortion, they happen within 12 hours, like eight hours. Like it happened so quick. You need that open door, a true open door of communication where they're like, no matter what you think you did, no matter what you may have done online, just come to us, talk to us about it.
you won't be in trouble where actually the number one job of the parents are to protect those children.
Thank you. Thank you for bringing this up. It's a great point. As a parent,
Well, it's a good topic. Like we could talk about cybersecurity and threats and ransomware all day long, but you know, I do, we do that all the time in our day jobs, right? Like we talk about that stuff all the time. This is really important. This stuff here is really important. And it doesn't get a lot of discussion. There's a few great topics and YouTube channels out there, but not everybody's seen them. So it's important to bring this up.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It's a great point. And as a parent, you know, we know we tell children, don't do it. Don't go online. Stop playing those games. Go to eat, you know, get dressed appropriately, get your phone out.
Speaker 2 (15:38.286)
Go read your biology. Don't go play. Don't go play Roblox. Like, what's the cake gonna do?
As a result, children in their minds, they think that Roblox is something that we should like hide from parents or do it once they don't. instead, I truly believe and thank you for pointing this to parents should say, can you show me how to play it? know, so kind of get closer to children. Like I say, to build up the
trust and say, it's a really cool stuff, you can you show me more about it? Not completely rejected. It's the same with extortion. Children at the age of 12, 14, 16, truly believe they know better than we do. And they will not come to mom and say, Hey, what should I do with this? You know, the daughter will not come to father say, what should I do if this boy said he wants, he wants to kiss me in the cheek, you know, I mean, should I say yes or no, she will go to her buddies and not other girls to ask those questions. So the same way.
Children will ask other children for us parents no matter what we do and as you mentioned we're all working crazy hours and we don't always have time and we try to be strict say no technology no games and or make sure instead like you said it's a great idea to come back and to say show me how to do it I would like to learn more and what about cyber safety? Can it be scammed? What do you think about it? Maybe kids should present stuff to earn those
I love the idea of like, if yeah, if a child wants a new something, right? They're asking for something. It'd be like, you can, you'll receive that reward. Tell me one way that somebody bad could take advantage of this and actually get the kids to start to think like, well, I play it safe and I look, but here's what I've heard. Right? I've heard about somebody doing this, or I've heard about this because I'm telling you they have.
Speaker 2 (17:33.894)
I've raised four kids like they're a lot more savvy than you realize once you stop talking down to them and you ask them open-ended questions, right and you go tell me about this. What about this? How is this work? And all of a sudden all that information comes out you're like, holy cow. Are they aware? Yeah
Right? sir. And even like at age of 10, they ask you for $20 Roblox card for business. You say, hey...
Right, yeah the V-Bucks for Fortnite or whatever it is, right? Yeah.
You present a topic on cyber safety, how scammers can get children in Roblox and we'll give you five. And you earn 50 by presenting 10 topics to me and to your mom together and other children listening, you know, make them go. It's the same like a regular physical scam. You know, if you look at the schools, in many cases, school kind of straightforward say, hey, you know, if the car stopped, the I'll say get in the car, you know, I give you candy, children should run away.
And children get it. But if somebody come in the car say, my God, I got a heart attack. Please help me. Please, please. I'm dying. The children will run because they, the same teacher told them to help, you know, so it should not be like straightforward. Don't do it. You should not click. You have to teach children and make them feel smarter than you are. Make them.
Speaker 2 (18:52.907)
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (18:59.82)
Yeah, mean, yeah, look, we had a whole, we had a massive social experiment in this country back in the 90s with prohibition, right? Just saying, just don't drink, nobody drank. Like, what did it create? Like it created organized crime. Like people want to still, they're still going to do it. It's human behavior. Might not be good, might not be healthy, but they're still going to do it. So let's live in reality and let's provide guidance and safety with
within real context.
Thank you for bringing this up. The same way you can tell children not to connect, not to turn on a camera, not to get a mic, and they might listen, but hey, you go to sleep and you never know. They will go to the computers. go, like say, at the age of 10 today, children more than most of the parents do. So go to social media, connect with them, tell them to show you, not say, I'm going to get you if you all know that you're doing this. It's not working, as you saw with liquor experiments that we had.
Yeah, that didn't work.
Say I've been there too. Let's connect. Let me be on your social media and
Speaker 2 (20:09.836)
You brought up a good point. Yeah, Felix, you brought up a good point. And that is the camera and the and the headphones, right? The microphones being able. mean, it is part of the gaming experience. It would be great if as a parent, one could say, go play, but don't chat with anybody. Right. And maybe at younger ages, that's easier to do. But as they start to get up, you know, six, seven, eight years old, it's really, really tough.
to do that because that's part of the immersive experience. Their friends are playing. These are online games with communities. They're, talking on discord, right? They're, communicating back and forth and they're all getting together and rather than go into a playground and throwing a ball around, what they're doing is they're, they're gaming together and they're talking during that time. Sometimes they have a camera on, but at least the audio is on. And that's sometimes where bad elements enter those games. So
There's some best practices on that or verify who it is that you're letting into your party somehow.
And thank you for bringing this up. It's a highly dangerous because first of all, downloading spyware on the computer will get access to camera and to mic even if the child does not. Second, impersonalization. The criminals put another child and those other adults playing children, playing those games, trying to connect.
And they basically mirroring children's interests. You how old are you? Eight? I'm also eight. You your parents tell you probably not to play, right? All my parents also do it. So they're trying to get connected and then they asking to turn on the camera and they put a child to play those games and most of them outside from United States. So we cannot send their, you know, our...
Speaker 1 (22:05.198)
you know, the police or FBI to grab them in Mexico or in Russia or in Ukraine, you know, in India. Yeah. they basically, and we have to, there is no real way to control what children are doing. The only way like we both agree to try to, and teaching also not always work. Kids sitting in school all day, the teachers teaching them, telling them, listen to me, you know, I know better than you are. So, you know, and if you come home, you tell parents,
I'm not gonna be
Speaker 1 (22:33.762)
Children, same thing. Listen to me. know better, you know, repeat it and go and make sure don't do it. It's not working. You want to make sure you become a friend. You become a social media, you know, connection with them on their social media platform as they're using, you know, you may be open the Roblox account. You ask them to show you 30 minutes, spend 30 minutes, you know, check how is it plays this. And then little by little asking about cyber safety. Say, Hey, what if it's a scammer? What is it want you?
camera, what if they want to listen, everything that happens in our apartment, in our house, you know, by getting into our microphone and let's Google how many children get affected and, you know, try to make them and say, Hey, go do it and teach me. If you tell your children, don't know, you know better, you are there and I'm here. So you become my teacher. You show me you presented and you will get bonuses for this. They will do it. They will.
would like to be smarter, they will make sure to put efforts and to make sure they present it and tell them, hey, open YouTube profile, put it there for other children. Maybe you will monetize it. You will make a few dollars there for daily or weekly or monthly for other kids to learn about it. So make them feel that they and tell them what other schemes do you think happens. You walk on the street, what can happen? So let's do it. Let's do it together.
Like I said, I think the same thing work with seniors. You should do it with your grandparents and maybe children can teach their grandparents and stuff because they are biggest target too.
Yeah, absolutely. And really, really protecting the privacy of the mobile devices, right? Like there's so many different scenarios and things that we've come across where, you know, people don't realize how much these devices, our mobile devices, our iPads track us, they capture things. And I think sometimes like the parents may go to work and at work they may have security awareness training, right?
Speaker 2 (24:35.052)
And they think it's just at work. They think I know how to spot a phishing email if it happens at work, right? Well, it happens everywhere. Like that same tactic of getting somebody to download something or click on something is happening in the gaming environment, right? It's happening in those platforms. Social engineering is happening as well as it's happening on people's personal emails all the time. I mean, it's, it's really
really common and they've gotten very, very good at.
Yeah, for sure. And like you say, parents should bring their information, the learning at work to the level of households to explain this to children and to explain to their parents.
And make it part of the conversation, right? Just make it part of the dinner conversation or the lunch conversation while you're doing something, while you're shopping, while you're talking, just ask those questions.
Yeah. like I said, for me personally, I learned that children want to be better. And if you empower them, telling them you research it, you make PowerPoint or you make video clip or you present it and make a picture of scammer and show it to us. you know, and we will, you know, it will be our training like you had in school. You will be a teacher tonight.
Speaker 2 (25:52.75)
Well, it's empowering them, right? It's letting them because I don't think anybody learns anything better than when somebody asks you to explain it or to teach it, right? That's when you really learn it because all those open questions that you may not know the answers to you go and find out before you're explaining it to someone.
Yeah. And I don't want to tell parents play that you know, because many parents might not know. I don't know certain things that my kid is teaching me or telling me about, about Roblox play or other games that he, he's playing, but yeah, working with children and make children talk to your parents to grant mom and granddad and explain them because they also target and they might not be aware of voice cloning or AI or phishing phone calls.
Yeah, AI and deepfakes are remarkable because even from a short clip, you're able to sound like somebody, look like somebody, and it is virtually undetectable by the human eye today. the other thing that you point out that's a really good point to make here, because our listeners or viewers may not be aware, but you know, there can be an ad in a game or there could be an ad, maybe not within the platform of the game.
For sure, for sure.
Speaker 2 (27:11.31)
but an ad that is advertising, let's say on YouTube or Instagram or Snapchat or wherever. And that ad could be for Roblox or for a Fortnite or some popular game, right? But behind that ad, and it could be a great price and the kids want to buy it, right? But the problem is, is by clicking on that ad and doing that, there could be malware and there often is on the backend, like the
The platforms don't really do that much protection for families on the back end, right? They just want the ad revenue. So you can create the ad, get people to click. And if they go through the steps, they can capture the payment details from you. But even if it doesn't get there, just clicking can activate info stealers and malware and turning the camera on, turning the listening devices on and all of that stuff.
Sure, Very good point. Yes, thank you for pointing this. Again, also going that route, our browsers are monitoring what we're searching for. So if the child is typing the game name, next time child goes to Google or to other search engines, the ads will pop up. So they will kind of lead child to that direction. And as you mentioned, the website can be created and hosted outside of the United States. There is no really way for in some cases.
You know, and they have hundreds of those websites. So even if you report it to Google or other search engines, they will block it. They will generate dozens of more and they put video claims, images everywhere. know, even if you do with, you know, again, bigger bigger company, of course, it's more difficult to make it a hundred percent clean and almost impossible.
Great.
Speaker 1 (28:59.776)
Even just general search websites and companies and the hosting can be outside of the US. There is no way to really know how to get them. And they're children with credit cards, with like you mentioned with spyware installed on the computer, key logger, so every key the child or you will click on if you go to chase.com. Well, now they know. You put username and password there. Now they know, you you go to the union or whatever, they're transferring money.
they've kept you
place paying bills now they can log in there because they see it. So it can cause so much issues. if it's a family with people you're using the same computer device, you know, for multiple reasons. And when you're not there, charge my login. So there's so many other risks there. And the last thing I want to mention that about your cell phone, you mentioned cell phones, cell phones in our hands of our children from really young age nowadays, and we give them to be safe.
and it help us to track maybe using GPS devices where they are and to tell them to call 911 to call you for help if it's needed or have any questions. But again, that comes with playing games there as well, downloading software. it's a device that offer them access to all the whole world, which has some unsecured components. And the same with grandchildren, with grandparents. So they also target and they have a lot of financial resources to
be taken or to be stolen, and I believe 3.4 billion, I think, FBI reported for last year, stolen using cybercrime from seniors for people over 60 years old in the United States. I talking to your children can also, when we talk to children, talking to your parents as well, and to your associates at work, definitely, everyone is a target.
Speaker 2 (30:49.612)
Yeah, I would agree. And I think that, it's the circle of life, right? Things that we're talking about for children absolutely apply for elderly, right? I mean, senior citizens are definitely targeted just like children. And so what are the some of the best practices that we can tell seniors or we can tell, you know, parents and, know, when they're out something or somebody comes to them with an ad that looks really good. Like I've always heard
When you Google something, scroll down because the sponsored ads right at the top, anybody can do that, right? Like any cyber criminal can advertise and it looks like Microsoft help desk or it looks like Roblox, you know, skins available or whatever. And it's not actually from Roblox. It's not actually from, from Fortnite, right? You actually scroll down until you get to the official site and you'll be able to see it because
the URL will say, you know, roblox.com, whatever it is, right? Like it'll actually say the actual platform.
Yeah, very good point. Very good point. And the seniors differently have trust, which many of us aware of not to use it full extent and talking to grandparents as a zero trust approach that I think everyone in this industry is talking about. Talking to children about zero trust, not trusting until you verify.
Until you verify through a regular channel Not whatsapp not telegram like through a regular channel like you go to the website
Speaker 1 (32:25.745)
We're going to go back to web search, but I just want to say you got a phone call and sounds like somebody screaming on the back and voices matching to your children, to the parents or siblings or grandparents or even like a simple sounds. get text message saying, oh, it's your mom. My phone broke. So I'm texting from a different number. So talk to children about it.
Explain to your parents about it. So zero trust until you verify. I have spoken with so many smartest people, with an attorney working for over 20 years in the legal industry, being scammed, like sending hundreds of thousand dollars for scam due to fake phone call from another law firm, but childbearing, being arrested. There is everybody, you can have 10 PhDs and be...
the highly smartest, highly advanced professional in dental industry per se, you know, but again, the scammers targeting everyone. And as you mentioned, seniors is the biggest target. Many people tell me, my grandparents or my parents don't use computers, they safe. I just want to say about this one too, because many parents tell me my child has only access on the cell phone to phone calls and text messages, no internet. So I think he or she is safe. So it's wrong.
does even the phone call.
No, I think that's a great point. So Felix, that's an excellent point. Not using technology is itself a risk because then you're not aware of what is being done in your name, right? Online. There's a lot of seniors that are like, well, I'm just not going to be involved with technology. And meanwhile, their social security benefits are getting rerouted or a portion of them because they're not logging in to check. Right?
Speaker 2 (34:15.903)
And there's a lot of things that they don't say that you can only see by leveraging Tick-Tock.
Thank you. Thank you for bringing this up. So I have friends, they're saying, my grandparents, in the nursing home. Okay. So they use cell phone. Why do they really need even look? Cause they can call from pretend to be from Medicare, Medicaid. The parents will share social security number and they say, they're not going to buy house and in mortgage anymore. They opening credit cards under the names, they opening, you know, they opening the loans, car loans using the parents and grandparents names.
They're not physically, even if you do not use computer. I spoke with folks like the children going to religious schools and said, don't use internet. We're trying to keep them away from, you know, well, look, text messages. They say, only texting, but text messages can have links. It can be scam. That text message can come from the phone number, which is completely fake and spoofing their mom or my, the dead number and say, don't go out. Don't pick up the bus today. Go to another side.
You know, it will be our neighbor who will pick you up. know, text messages don't make anybody safe. Not talking about links and text messages. People say, we'd like to send $10 to support somebody's campaign or whatever. And there is one link will say unsubscribe. People say, oh, I hate this stuff. They keep asking for $10, you know, on which side, what does matter which side you're on. But people click unsubscribe and it's a skimmers by clicking unsubscribe. You tell them line is active.
And tomorrow they're to offer you options to donate money to local sheriffs, know, retirement foundation, which is complete scam. So they, you know, by clicking or by responding, even if you're saying, or they say type, do not call or type unsubscribe and we'll never touch you. People's people send messages back and basically you get what scammers need. can form that it's a wallet number. Somebody's watching somebody's listening and
Speaker 1 (36:14.542)
You will continue doing this. have to have to do the same thing. You have to talk to your parents, to your children and scams on the search engines, definitely URLs. In many cases before you click, you know, you should have anti-virus and anti-malware installed on your computer. Going to website, which is set to install software virus on your computer or malware or any type of technology to scam you will take seconds.
by clicking on just URL, you basically let somebody install and do anything that they want to your computer. So you to be highly, highly careful, especially with the grandparents and with your parents, because they lived in a time when it was safer and trust level were much, much higher. And to survive today, you have to, you know, show, tell them that you have, they have to be very careful. I go to senior facility.
Yeah. I mean, back in the day you had to put yourself in a precarious physical environment in order to reach some of these people. But today you just literally just get online. I mean, before you had to walk down a dark alley, right? And here you don't have to. You just log on like you normally do. And the point you bring up too is it's so important to freeze credit.
Talk about criminal.
Speaker 2 (37:35.182)
Here in the United States, parents need to freeze their credit and they need to freeze their children's credit. Thank you. And the reason is because like what you just mentioned is they can take out loans. We've met many, many children that now come of age that are trying to get student loans or trying to get their first car or whatever and they have a foreclosed condo in Las Vegas. And they're like, what? And I'm like, yeah, they've been using your identity for 10 years because nobody checked.
and that type of stuff. They can't do any of that if one's credit is frozen and it's perfectly free to do that. Let me just freeze it on all three of those credit bureaus. So we encourage everybody.
Thank you. you. Very good point. We don't know. We for sure we don't. know, the people who work in cybersecurity that I know in many cases were scammed and they didn't know. Even so, it's like a doctor who gets sick. Even if you have AMD, doesn't make you, unfortunately. So I believe there is a karma, created karma, which is like as a free option just to connect with your credit cards and banking accounts. Most of the banks have options, you know, and most of the credit agents...
results.
Speaker 2 (38:41.974)
Most major banks can help you do that. Really important.
If somebody opened a call, you will be notified. It's a great point. the same with social media. People put so much information nobody is asking for. I was just making one of the videos. I will put it on our channel on YouTube, which is cybersecurity easy.com.
was about these scams. know, people go to social media, they know when is your birthday. And they say, congratulations, you know, click right here for for the gift card or say, remember me, we were together. Look at this picture. And people click and they download spyware. So everything you I don't want to, you know, like we say, when somebody get arrested, people say everything you say will be used against you. I would like to repeat the same thing on whatever you post on the social media will be used against you. So scammers are there.
Kids don't know about it. Many schools asking us for training specifically for teenagers on social media protection and scams. put, we're going to Florida tomorrow. You know, they have the address, they have birthdays, they know everything about.
Yeah, great great point and we were just presenting on this topic last week and it's exactly right if people are going to be Traveling don't post on social media of the upcoming trip. Absolutely a Terrible decision right the key is go take all the pictures you want, you know Enjoy the vacation when you return then if you want to post it you can post it, right?
Speaker 1 (40:15.682)
Yes, sir.
But the key is you never want to let people know ahead of time where you're going to be. And when you're taking pictures around your home and around your children's school or your elderly, you know, assisted living place, don't take pictures that show the names of those. Right. All those are good, best practice.
Yes, sir. And all information that we share can be used. I say, people put it, oh, first they put first last name on their social media, which is not the best idea. can Google. I would recommend everybody Google yourself, Google your children. And if you have access to their social media profiles, check what they post there. In most of the cases, parents, know, people who are in the social media with the children know much more better about your children than parents do. You know, those, and you wouldn't know who they are.
We don't know if they're pretending to be children or not. We don't know what objections they have and if they're trying to do more harm, if they're collecting data. It's like those stickers, you my child going to, you know, San Francisco Elementary School, or they put like images of two parents and a dog and two children, like on the back window of the car. You know, you're following them, there are two children in the car, know, the dog, parents. What it tells criminals, nobody's at home, you know.
Then they come at home, there's a car in from the garage, there's a garage opener inside the car. know, simple stuff like this. You're going for vacation, take garage opener and put it inside. Don't keep it in a car in the front of your apartment or your house. Like this. And the same with the technology. Unfortunately, it's even more complicated for, you know, people who use technology not to share it. I always tell my clients, Google yourself.
Speaker 2 (41:46.318)
Exactly right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:59.95)
put your first last name in the Google search, not technically Google, I mean any search engine, check what people know about you. Or if they can put your first name, find your address, what information brokers sell for $5 you can find for $3. Nowadays, all the background check, previous marriages, divorces, properties, also tickets, background check.
Anything that's a public record is out there for sure. And then there's a lot of other stuff that you may not be aware of.
and criminals using this. They come, they call, they pretend to be having this information in place and using this. So you have to explain this to your children as well and to your grandparents. know, so much scams against everybody and it's a new world we live in. It should be really advanced degrees, not I want to say degrees, but a lot of courses, you know, offer it to children and all the way to seniors. We do.
all we're going to schools, we do professional development for faculty, how to teach those topics. And we go to senior facilities and train seniors on different topics, one topic at a time, not to overload anybody, talk about specific. And scammers getting smarter and smarter. A year ago or two years ago, those Nigerian Prince who wanted to send you $18 million was a top scam or IRS phone call.
Today, they're getting smarter and smarter. And your voice, voice of your CEO, if you're about business or from YouTube. I also learned that many companies now using passwords. if somebody's sending phone call, voice message to another team member, they have to specify the password for that week or for that month because fake voice mails are requesting printed documents or transfer money.
Speaker 1 (43:50.478)
talking about business, you know, the same with grandparents, voicemail from grandchild who may be in Florida over the weekend and arrested, while it's stolen, don't tell my mom she's going to kill me, you know, transfer $2,000 to help grandma please, bingo, $2,000 going nowhere.
That happens all the time and it works because it creates amygdala hijack. It creates that biological neurological condition that we all have that we can't get rid of. Like it is inherent in us for a long, for thousands of years. And it's that we have a woolly mammoth in our village, right? It is that fight or flight. You know, it creates that emotional thing that drives behavior. And so by pausing and recognizing and verify
right through a legitimate channel before you take any action. That's really
and assuming and remembering when if no matter what you hear what you see can go wrong. You know, like you said websites go to Wikipedia and check if the company is there, check what website listed on their webpage, you know, go to Google and search details about the company asking you or call back. Try to find your relatives, you know, try to confirm prior to call the police call the FBI if it's out of state, but don't just send money.
At least Google, I received a phone call like, what should I do? Use CHEG-MPT to look for before you jump to conclusions. But you start talking about me being first generation American. I just want to say that, you know, immigrants, also people who come to United States from other countries, they're also biggest target because they don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:31.65)
Yeah, they're targeted. Absolutely. Right.
things that we don't know. They don't even know things that we know in many cases. this ESL or English or Second Language programs and the schools offer don't have any of those components about safety to teach people how to speak out, apply for the job. I used to work in a program that was out of one of those nonprofit agencies helping youth out of jail that once they were released to kind of recover, you know, people
coming and they're going back to or good try to maybe leave safe and they open credit card and somebody send them scam and boom you know first $500 they earn stolen and people say my god you know what's going on in this world
Welcome to America. Welcome to America. Your very first paycheck scam.
Yeah, somebody was incarcerated and came out and tried to earn $1,000. They scammed them, the same way everyone else, and people don't know. So everyone is a target. As we mentioned before, I truly believe that it's a time for everyone. believe some microsystems back to, CEO back to 1999 say that, Scott, think, was hidden. And he said that, we have no privacy anywhere.
Speaker 2 (46:32.078)
Yeah
Speaker 1 (46:54.382)
Think about privacy. I truly believe that we should really look into cyber safety and even certain things when you talk about family members. And privacy differently is important, but it should not overload your ideas about safety. It should be taken into consideration for sure. And I was wondering, and please correct me if I'm wrong, please share your thoughts. We have those GPS chips for dozing cats and I think...
It's a even legally advisable or requirement for dogs and pets, other pets to have those chips in the body in many states and counties. And I know children, I mean, you think about crime against children and missing children, you know, why would I have a chip in the children? You know, it's a wouldn't be easier to
You know, that gets debated a lot.
I don't want to sound Russian and try to tell everybody privacy, but I mean, we will logically...
I know
Speaker 2 (47:52.0)
No, but it's deeper than that. It's almost it's interesting. That's a whole other podcast, right? Because like that's a really interesting discussion because think about it. Part of, you know, our health information, all of our private are very, very private information about our own bodies, about our own health conditions. Right. We're leaving it up to these companies or these rural hospitals or or or a physician's office. Right. And they're not.
doing a lot of the cybersecurity to protect our data. It would be nice if we could own the data, like we have it, and then we just share it with the people who need it. And then we revoke it after they get what they needed. Right. But we're the keepers of it. And that goes along with like a chip or something like that. There's a lot of debate around that, There's religious concerns, et cetera. And I understand it, but,
I believe they're
Speaker 2 (48:49.9)
there is a very practical element to it, right? mean, you know, my animals are chipped so I could find them. It'd be nice to be able to find my kids, right? Like, or kids that run away or whatever, right? It's, pretty.
And maybe there's age where we should stop and give children privacy, but until that age, mean,
Right, and then they can take it.
like what kind of privacy your child would, you know, I mean, yeah. And I think even Musk, one of his projects were related to chips in the body. And eventually it will come one way or another, either we'll like it or not. It's like, instead of a wallet was, you know, 15 credit cards. You know, if there is something small can be somewhere. And I believe it might be even less in terms of criminals. And I mean, if there is nothing to take from us and hopefully they will not cut cheap with a
Listen, listen.
Speaker 1 (49:41.006)
But it might also prevent, I know many businesses going out of cash and try to be like only Cracker, but with a scan, with those wireless scans and differently, and hopefully that might also bring some additional security. From another side, I don't know, I mean, if this information is stolen, if somebody stole the copy of the chip, know there's RFID, RFID crime. Yeah, like if somebody's standing behind me in line.
Yeah, that's the challenge.
Speaker 1 (50:09.324)
you know, in this the coffee shop and they have other.
right and they're able to scan your credit card. They can scan you
You know, what if I have a chip and just get my chip with all medical information and with everything. So it should be kind of second layer of identification differently. But, we're getting there. We're getting there. I saw one of the countries, they have a chip in a car plate and the police basically don't stop your car for speeding. They just send you message that appears on your board saying your $1,000 of deposit.
and the CD was deducted for like $500. So they like, people don't even stop the car, they scan it and they deduct.
Well, that's good for officer safety. Yeah
Speaker 1 (50:51.758)
Yeah, like if I don't want to say that we should pay $10,000 deposit, but for speeding, might be, maybe it will prevent them from speeding.
That's excellent. Hey, Felix, phenomenal conversation. I could talk to you for hours, sir. That was really, really good. All of your links will be in the show notes. You have some children's books out there on cyber safety. We will have links to all of this. I encourage everybody to check out your YouTube channel and check out your information, your security awareness, and those children's books. We thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:32.472)
Really good conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:43.15)
Those are boring. Yeah, we don't want those. We want to keep the conversation going. I could have, I could have talked to you for a long time, but unfortunately I've got a meeting coming up. So, but Hey buddy, thank you so much. We, this won't be the last time that we talk. There's always stuff to go over and I really look forward to speaking with you further in the future. Keep up the great work. All right. Talk to you soon.
So will stop. Thank you.
Thanks.
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