0:00 unfortunately it's never been more
0:02 important than it is right now today to
0:05 protect believe it or not the phone
0:08 number for your smartphone because
0:10 unfortunately hackers are getting access
0:13 to our phone numbers they're able to
0:15 pretend that they're us and they're
0:17 stealing tens of thousands of dollars if
0:20 not hundreds of thousands of dollars
0:23 from unsuspecting victims I don't want
0:26 to see that happen to you so so let's
0:28 jump in we'll talk about what the scam
0:30 is and how you can protect yourself from
0:33 it okay let's jump to Consumer Reports
0:36 and they they have an article titled
0:39 prevent Sim swapping attacks so prevent
0:43 an attacker from stealing your Mobile
0:45 account information this will stop them
0:49 from receiving calls text and data tied
0:52 to your phone which can be used to gain
0:55 access to personal and financial
0:57 accounts so what's happening many of the
1:00 important websites the financial
1:03 institutions that we're working with now
1:05 require something called two-factor
1:07 authentication right so we we put in our
1:09 username we put in our password and then
1:12 that institution sends us a text and the
1:15 scam used to be they would try the
1:18 scammers would try to to fool you into
1:21 giving them that that number that was
1:23 texted to you but you know what they
1:25 found it was a lot easier to just steal
1:27 your phone number and then that that
1:31 code gets sent directly to them and it
1:35 it sounds impossible to happen but yet
1:37 it's happening each and every day and
1:39 it's costing people tens of thousands
1:42 hundreds of thousands of dollars so how
1:44 do we protect ourself right this
1:46 multiactor
1:48 authentication was supposed to be the
1:50 protection for us so first off how are
1:53 these scammers getting our phone number
1:55 the first one unfortunately sometimes
1:57 there's insiders at the phone compy
2:00 that is is porting your number to
2:02 somebody else's phone and unfortunately
2:05 there's not much you and I can do uh
2:07 about that the way you'll know if your
2:10 phone number's been P ported to somebody
2:12 else you'll look at your cell phone
2:13 you'll say you know why do I have no
2:16 sell service and and those you know how
2:19 many bars do you have do you have four
2:20 bars do you have five bars you'll have
2:22 zero bars and that is your warning so
2:25 that's one way that scammers get get
2:28 your phone number but the other way
2:31 is is through through things that we can
2:33 do to make it harder for them to get
2:36 access to our phone number let's go
2:38 through this consumer report and see
2:40 what they recommend they they say first
2:43 to set a pin or a passcode and security
2:47 question with your cell provider so if
2:49 somebody calls a scammer calls and
2:52 pretends to be you and now remember with
2:54 artificial intelligence they can sound
2:57 just like you and they do all of this
3:00 social engineering they look at your
3:02 Facebook profile to maybe see where you
3:04 went to high school and when you
3:06 graduated from college so be sure with
3:09 these security uh questions that you
3:12 pick something that people can't easily
3:14 get off of your social media profile or
3:17 through other sources right maybe the
3:19 the first name of your dog when you're
3:22 five years old that would not be
3:24 anywhere in social media something like
3:26 that okay so the first thing they do
3:29 Consumer Reports recommends and there's
3:31 three of them here the first one is to
3:33 set a pin or a passcode and security
3:36 question with your cell provider so the
3:39 let's go through the the various uh
3:41 carriers they they talk about four
3:43 carriers here let's start with Verizon
3:45 it's one of the more common cell phone
3:48 providers uh self-service providers
3:50 Verizon lets you set up a number lock to
3:53 protect your mobile number from an
3:55 unauthorized transfer that's what we're
3:57 talking about you can set this up by
4:00 your phone through the app or on the
4:02 website or you can call customer service
4:04 at 61 at star 611 and request a number
4:09 lock on your phone or on your app you
4:11 can go to settings um number lock and
4:14 select the number you want to lock or
4:16 you can go to their website look up
4:18 number lock okay AT&T they call it
4:22 managing extra security on your settings
4:26 and um it may require you to enter your
4:29 password your passcode which I would
4:31 hope that it would uh and you can sign
4:33 in to manage your wireless account by
4:35 going to my AT&T and your profile you
4:38 log in then it's my linked account
4:41 manage extra security account and then
4:44 turn on extra security for T-Mobile
4:48 account takeover protection you can add
4:50 it to your account they don't say how to
4:52 do that I can tell you I know people
4:54 have gone physically to the T-Mobile uh
4:57 store to set this up and then Google
5:00 file lets you set up a number lock to
5:02 protect your number from unauthorized
5:04 transfer Consumer Report says the follow
5:07 Google's instructions okay so that was
5:10 number one is to set up this security
5:13 question set up this this passcode
5:16 number two is consider moving away from
5:18 text message based multiactor
5:21 authentication we always have to try to
5:24 stay one step ahead of these F uh these
5:26 scammers these bad guys and so one thing
5:30 we can do is instead of having the
5:33 service provider send you a code by text
5:36 they now make authentication apps um and
5:40 you can find these on on the uh App
5:42 Store I know Google has one it's called
5:45 authenticator and then oftentimes the
5:48 password managers this is not sponsored
5:50 by a password manager but companies like
5:53 one pass companies like uh last pass um
5:58 and not only is a password manager
6:01 important for this authentication these
6:04 authenticator apps tend to be free uh
6:08 it's also important when you switch your
6:10 cell phones if you upgrade to a new
6:12 phone make sure you know how you're
6:14 going to pass that authentication app
6:17 over with all of these authentication
6:21 protocols that you've set up uh
6:23 otherwise it can be difficult me a
6:25 couple I made that mistake and I was in
6:27 some pain for a couple weeks until
6:29 everything got transferred over okay so
6:32 that's Consumer Reports number two is
6:34 consider using one of these uh
6:37 authentication apps and the third one is
6:40 to set up a pin code for your physical
6:42 SIM card in our in our smartphones we
6:47 can put on a passcode to protect that
6:51 physical card right now you know if if
6:54 you're at a coffee shop and you go to
6:56 use a restroom and you leave you forget
6:58 and you leave your cell phone on your
7:00 table somebody doesn't you know they
7:02 don't necessarily have to steal your
7:04 cell phone they can just steal that SIM
7:06 card and if you don't have this
7:08 protection once they have the SIM card
7:11 they and if they know more information
7:13 about you they're going to get these
7:15 text messages to you they'd need more
7:17 information because they'd need to be
7:19 able to log into your your bank but
7:22 maybe you know you you were recently on
7:24 your bank's website on your phone and
7:27 and they could get to it um so we need
7:30 to be careful because that physical SIM
7:32 card if you still have one I know uh the
7:36 latest Apple phones don't have a
7:38 physical SIM card anymore um so that's
7:41 the third one is to put this code on um
7:45 and they say you know anybody with your
7:47 your sim card would need to enter this
7:49 pin often times you need to put in your
7:52 PIN code in order to to add protection
7:55 and they say don't try to guess it
7:58 because too many failed attempts can
8:00 lock you out of your own account and the
8:03 last one is to protect yourself to guard
8:05 yourself from fishing attempts we all
8:08 know what this is It's when scammers
8:09 send us texts it's when scammers send us
8:12 emails and in this case they're looking
8:15 for information that would help them
8:17 impersonate you to the bank or an
8:20 employee or another company in order to
8:23 be able to obtain personal information
8:25 on you so this is critical to protect
8:28 ourselves you've worked hard for your
8:30 money and unfortunately as we get older
8:32 we have we we become a bigger Target
8:36 because we're we're not as sharp as we
8:38 were in our 20s and 30s and and our bank
8:41 account balances are typically larger so
8:44 not only uh do we have a larger net
8:46 worth but it's important we think about
8:48 when we're going to retire and that's
8:50 why I made this video here why waiting
8:52 to 65 to retire might be a big mistake
8:55 I'll see you in that video byebye
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