Are Smart Appliances a Dumb Idea?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Smart devices have been touted as being a boon to consumers.  Smart refrigerators cannot only tell you when you're running low on milk, they can help you place your order for more.  Smart thermostats allow you to change the temperature of your home from nearly anywhere on the planet.  Smart locks will unlock your door without having to fumble for your keys.  What's not to like?  Well, it turns out that there's a hidden dark cloud in the smart silver lining.  What many security consultants now say is that most smart devices are vulnerable to hacking that can compromise your home, your data, and more.  Before you purchase a smart device, here are some things you need to consider.

The Spy on Your Driveway

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Once again the ever-seeing eye of Big Brother rears its ugly head to remove what little we have of our privacy.  If it isn't bad enough that our phones and computers divulge privileged information to government and big business interests, then we have to worry about everything from our TV's and smart devices to health trackers and doorbell cameras ratting us out.  In this all too wired world, is there any place that the average citizen can go where their every move isn't monitored, recorded, and forwarded to the highest bidder?  Or was George Orwell really just an optimist?  Until the past few years, the average American could count on being safe and secure in the confines of the family sedan, provided they turned their smartphone off while they drove.  But I'm sad to say that this is no longer the case unless you drive a classic car.  Like it or not, every late model vehicle on the road today is equipped with spy gear that would do James Bond Proud.

How to Seniorize the Family Home

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

I can still recall having to climb over baby gates and untie cabinet handles that my sister had sealed shut to keep her toddler from getting into anything that could cause harm.  Several decades later I found myself doing much the same to keep my elderly mom from injuring herself.  Only instead of installing devices to keep an 80-something out, I invested a considerable amount of time and money looking for ways to keep mom from slipping, tripping, or burning herself as she navigated the family home.  If you're a baby boomer like me and are facing serious safety issues with your aging parents, the following ten tips could save you some sleepless nights while saving your loved one a trip to the emergency room.

Is Minimum Coverage a Massive Mistake?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Times are tough and money is tight.  We all need to conserve cash.  I understand that.  Most people these days are cutting back on everything from entertainment and eating out to vacations and impulse buying.  Many of us are looking for ways to tighten our belts in order to reduce our overhead.  That's all well and good.  While reducing your overhead is always a good idea, when it comes to insuring your assets you need to crunch some numbers before you pare your coverage to the bone.  To help you decide what to cut and what to keep, below are ten things you need to consider when assessing your insurance needs.

Phroggers: The Houseguests from Hell

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

They say guests are a lot like fish because they start to stink after three days.  At least, that was Ben Franklin's take on unwanted houseguests.  While company who overstay their welcome is an all too familiar nuisance, particularly to those of us who live in sunny Florida, there's one kind of houseguest who's even more annoying than others: Phroggers.  Phrogging is similar to squatting where a tenant occupies someone else's property without their consent.  Unlike squatters, who occupy vacant homes, phroggers are people who take up residence in homes that are currently occupied.  If that doesn't sound creepy enough, the antics of phroggers can cost homeowners to lose sleep at night since these freeloaders can damage their property or disrupt their lives while they're in residence.  

The Perils of Phishing, Smishing, and Quishing

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

The ongoing war being wrought by hackers has been taken to a new level with a triad of tricks designed to make you cough up personal data, financial info, and credit card numbers.  Unlike many of the brute force techniques employed in the past, phishing, smishing, and quishing are meant to kill you with kindness by offering fantastic deals that are never delivered.  Some of them are so intricately crafted that you'll think you're working with a trusted entity only to find out after the fact that you've been had.  Before you fall for any of these false flag attacks, I'd like to take the time to educate you on the latest and greatest e-scams yet to have been invented.

Don't get hooked by these phishermen.

While phishing, AKA being sent bogus emails, isn't something new, this year's bumper crop of offers are tailored to make you think you're dealing with a trusted entity like Geek Squad, Microsoft, or the US government.  Should you fall for these ruses and click on the attached link, get ready to have malware delivered to your device that can harvest credentials and passwords or deliver ransomware that will hold your data for hostage.  Some of the latest lies include lures inviting you to profit from class action lawsuits, employee termination notices, holiday greetings, bank account notices, browser updates, fraud alerts, refunds, and more.  For a comprehensive list of the latest phishing scams, click on this link to the University of California New Phishing Threats page

How do you avoid falling for phishing lures? Phishermen spin you tales designed to make you think that:

1. There's a problem with your account or payment. ( Click or call & you'll be sorry.)
2. We've noticed suspicious activity.  (Never trust the provided number or any link.)
3. You owe money. (You certainly will if you respond to this lure.)
4. If you don't respond to this, you'll be arrested. (The only person that should be arrested is the sender.)
5. You've won!  (The only winners are the con artists who profit from these bogus jackpots.)
6. You're entitled to a rebate or refund. (You'll need a refund if you fall for this scam.)
7. You need to update your payment info.  (Do so only if you want to enrich a hacker.)

In short, never fall for an offer you receive via email.  If you aren't sure if an offer or notice is legitimate, call the customer service number of the entity directly.  Never call the number included with the message.  Also, you need to be aware that the police, FBI, & IRS will never send you an email if they wish to interface with you. 

Image courtesy Pexels

Smishing: The same old scam with a whole new look.

Just like phishing, smishing involves sending unsuspecting victims juicy but bogus offers via SMS text messages.  Short Message Service, better known as texting, was first sent over the Vodaphone GSM network in the UK in 1992.  The service became popular in the US just before the turn of the century.  By the year 2000, the average amount of texts per person was 35 per month.  By 2010, teenagers alone averaged more than 4,000 text messages per month.  By 2020, more than 500 billion texts were sent worldwide every month.  The huge popularity of texting has made it not only popular and convenient for consumers and business owners alike, it has also opened a huge stalking ground for tech-savvy con artists.

Almost as soon as texting was accepted by the public it became a useful tool to hackers.  Back in the mid-1990's the first cases of smishing were reported by some cellphone users who had their login credentials stolen by hackers who wanted to hijack their accounts.  Today smishing runs rampant on many SMS platforms and mobile-messaging apps.  In 2020, smishing attacks were reported by 61% of companies.  By 2021, that percentage had jumped to 74%.  

As with phishing, smishing starts with a message, a warning, or an offer that's meant to elicit a sense of urgency.  Many of the smishes will seem to come from a person you know or a business you use and trust.  If you make the mistake of replying to a smish or clicking on any link provided, you run the risk of giving sensitive data such as login credentials, passwords, credit card information, or social security number to criminals.  Download any attachments included with the message and you risk infecting your device with spyware, malware, or ransomware.

The problem is many smishing messages can look authentic.  Nowadays they're crafted using artificial intelligence that makes smishes messages sound all too compelling.  They're programmed to sift through mountains of social data to determine patterns and craft individualized texts.  No longer is it child's play to detect smishing due to misspellings and obvious grammar errors.  Today's smishes are AI-enhanced.

That doesn't mean you can't take measures to defend yourself.   Here are a few tips from the pros:

1. Never open an unsolicited text message.
2. Scrutinize the name and phone number of the sender.
3. Set up spam filters on your smartphone.
4. Beware of any messages that create a sense of urgency or pose a threat.
5. Be suspicious of messages that ask for personal or financial information.
6. Never fall for offers of prizes, rebates, or refunds.

Image courtesy Pexels

Have you ever been quished?

Quick response codes, otherwise known as QR codes were invented in 1994 by Japanese company Denso Wave to label automotive parts.  It wasn't until 2010 that these 2-dimensional matrix barcodes became a popular way to allow cellphone users to take a picture of one to receive an offer or open a webpage without having to enter a URL.  By 2021, 45% of smartphone users reported using QR codes to access marketing or promotional offers.  

Quishing is a type of online attack that uses a QR code to direct the user to malicious website or tricks them into downloading a virus-filled document.  Just like phishing and smishing, if you fall into the clutches of criminals employing quishing, you're in for a tough time.  Below are some recent samples of quishing scams:

1. A con artist puts a fake QR code on parking meters that tells the public to pay for parking by clicking on the QR code.  Should you fall for the bait, not only will this give the crooks your credit card information, but you'll probably wind up getting a ticket or being towed for failing to pay for parking.
2. You enter a restaurant or retail store and find a QR code that offers you a discount for downloading the establishment's app.  The problem is that a cybercriminal has placed a sticker containing a QR code over the real code.  This directs you to a bogus website that asks you a lot of personal questions, only to tell you to download an app that's loaded with malware.
3. Cryptocurrency or stock investment scams that promise to double or triple your money are popular quishing bait, as are romance scams that employ QR codes that purport to help you find romance.

To avoid being taken for a ride by scammers employing quishing, there are a few things you can do:

• Avoid QR codes altogether.  
• Check for tampering to make sure the code you click on hasn't been covered by a bogus one.
• Verify the URL address you're being sent to is the real deal.  
• Install QR code scanner apps that help you spot and avoid dangerous websites.

Catherine Powell is the owner of A Plus All Florida, Insurance in Orange Park, Florida.  To find out more about saving money on all your insurance needs, check out her website at http://aplusallfloridainsuranceinc.com

The Hidden Menace of Mold

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

There's a fungus among us.  At least there is when it comes to household mold.  A member of the fungi family, mold loves warm, moist environments, which make them particularly fond of my home state of Florida.  Mold has been known to grow on everything from drywall and tile, to wood, fabric, glass, and even paper, sometimes digesting the material upon which it grows.  Unlike the birds and the bees, fungus can reproduce either sexually or asexually by emitting spores that are so minute that the tiniest puff of air causes them to waft far and wide. While most forms of mold are benign, some can cause allergic reactions or even render a home uninhabitable.  Last but not least, the cost to remediate mold infestation in a home can be expensive, and in many cases it isn't covered by homeowner's insurance.  Before you wind up being menaced by mold, there are a few things you need to know.