Episode 021: Protect Yourself From Fraud
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Last week’s challenge: Create a Small Business Succession Plan
Welcome to another set of show notes! I hope you enjoy these notes more than I enjoy writing them!
In our previous challenge, we took up the task of creating an outline (not a fully formed plan, mind you) for what you want to happen in the event of your untimely death.
Natalie and I had similar thoughts: Pay off bills, perhaps making donations to a charitable organization. More than anything we wanted to minimize the impact on our loved ones.
Ultimately, you’re going to want to sit down with an Estate Attorney who can hook you up with a will and setup the estate during your lifetime and outline what happens after you die, particularly with your business’s assets.
This week’s challenge: Protect Yourself from Fraud
Fraud. According to the Federal Trade Commission, roughly 25 million are affected by fraud every year. They go on to state…
We learned that how people get product information and choose to pay relates to the likelihood they’ve been defrauded. People who made a first time purchase by internet or telephone after getting a telemarketing call, watching a TV ad or infomercial, or opening a spam email, were three times as likely to be victims of at least one fraud as people who didn’t buy in those circumstances. — Source
With that in mind, this week’s challenge is a little different. This week you need to work on educating yourself about online fraud but also find ways to further tighten your personal/online security.
Firstly, I’ll give you a list of security checks you can go through to ensure you’re more secure (and this isn’t exhaustive at all mind you).
- If you use any of Google’s products and services, consider doing their security checkup. Click the previous link and simply click on the ‘Get Started’ button to go through a series of steps to verify account activity, logins, and more.
- Consider updating all of your critical passwords. Having easy to remember passwords is convenient but ultimately a piss-poor practice for security your personal data. I use a password manager (1password) to manage my passwords. It’s secure and generates strong passwords for all of my accounts and makes them easy to retrieve with their apps.
- Additionally, for your critical accounts (bank accounts, email etc) consider setting up two-factor authentication for your login. Learn more.
Take some time reading up on recent online scams and note the top tips for keeping yourself (and your data) safe from prying eyes.
Bonus
A recording that I did with so-called IRS Scammer. I had them on the phone for 24 minutes. If you have better things to do with your life you can skip to 22:00 and catch our signoff. It’s heartfelt!
- Scamming a Scammer (audio file)
Show Notes:
- 4:15 — Natalie and I talk about last week’s challenge and what we did to tidy up our spaces and how we reorganized things.
- 09:50 — We hop into this week’s challenge where we educate ourselves on fraud and scams.
As always, don’t forget to leave us that gushy 5-star review on iTunes and what not. And remember, kids, keep it simple and most importantly Keep it Doable!