Dec. 16, 2025

Would You See These Minor Differences That Have Huge Consequences?

This is going to be a short but very important episode. Join us as we share a scam email and scam text where there are minor differences with huge consequences.

Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.

WEBVTT

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This program is designed to provide general information with regards

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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with

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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station

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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,

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professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services

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of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.

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The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational

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purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional

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legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted

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sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the

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elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to

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a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen

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show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their

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loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday at am Pacific time

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on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,

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and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips

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on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And

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now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.

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Hi, everyone, welcome back. Joyce Petrowski, founder and board president

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of Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly, where we

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have a scam prevention through education platform focused on the

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older adults. You can find more information on our website

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at Roseadvocacy dot org. On the homepage you'll find all

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of our social media links and if you scroll down

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to the bottom, you'll find where you can sign up

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for our newsletter. We have one that we send in

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the mail at the beginning of the month, and then

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we have one that goes out within the first week

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of the month via email that has a lot of

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information on there, and then every two day morning, so yes,

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that would be this morning in about ten fifteen minutes.

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It happens at nine to fifteen Arizona time. You get

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a Tuesday tip on the email. And the nice thing

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about that is one is it might be something new

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that you didn't know, so you learned something. The other

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thing and probably just as important is going to be

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even if you already know it. What it does is

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it reinforces scam prevention in your mind. So the next

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time you're contacted, your more app to pause and think

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about scams and do your research and due diligence before

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you interact with the email, the text, the phone call,

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you know, whatever the messaging, whatever the contact was. And

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it also gives you a conversation starter, so you can

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talk to your family and friends, especially your older adult

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family and friends. You know, when you see them, if

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you go visit them once a week, you talk to

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them on the phone. It's a conversation starter where you

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can have a conversation about scams and how to protect

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yourself without seeming without making the other person feel defensive

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by always telling them don't do this, don't do that.

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It just talking about it in regular conversation, and it

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builds your relationship with them and they will be more

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apt to come talk to you when they do encounter

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something or maybe if they've accidentally clicked on something they

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shouldn't have, they're going to be more app to come

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and talk to you. So sign up for those newsletters.

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So today this is going to be a short show.

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I'm going to share my screen. We were given some

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information on a couple different scams that were out there

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and it actually was pretty clever. So I'm going to

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share my screen right now and show you what I'm

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talking about. Here, I can get to the pdf. So

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look at this one. This is quite interesting. So this

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was a text that someone received and you know, it says, hey,

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with a wavy hand, you know normal, can you help

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me with this YouTube? Short video? Could you please check

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whether I can promote this one or not? Now, look

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at the link that's there, and then it says, okay,

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thank you. But look at the link that's there, and

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I probably should have circled it, but it's right here.

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You've got the https, and you've got the two slash marks.

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But where's the colon? If I'm not mistaken, it's https

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colon backslash, backslash. And then you start with the you

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start with the the website name. Okay, it could be

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YouTube dot com or Roseadvocacy dot org. But it's missing

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the colon in here. Now, when your eyes look at that,

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you know that it's https colon backslash, backslash. So you

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might not see that that colon's missing. It's that slight

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little change that to your naked eye you might not

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see it, Which is why it's so so important to

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look at every single letter that's in there and write

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it out. You know, if if you're not looking and

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seeing every little thing, you know, uh, write it out,

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put your cursor over it, and go okay, that's a

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y oh you you know, but start here and go

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h because it should have the HTTP s and the

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S means it's secure, but the colon is missing. So anyways,

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that's something that was texted to, uh, to someone and

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I'm sure hundreds thousands millions of people are getting this

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type of text or a text very similar with this

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type of website where it's not this is actually the

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whole website, the whole domain name is including this HTTPS

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in it, So just be careful of that. And then

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the other thing that we saw. And if any of

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you have been to our presentations that we do, this

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is one of the things that we talk about and

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we suggest to people, especially if they're not familiar with

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the website, or they get an email and they're not

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familiar with who it came from, or you know. And

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I've always used Amazon as an example, but Microsoft fits

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as well, and this one happens to be. I don't

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believe this was an actual email that somebody received, but

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somebody put it together if my understanding's correct, or maybe

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it is an actual email. But anyways, the good thing

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is is it's here to show you and that we

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talk about this in the presentation. So Microsoft, it's a

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big company, it's a well known company. Just about everybody

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knows or has heard of Microsoft. And yeah, when they

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send you emails, a lot of times it'll come from

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a no reply because it's an informational email. You might

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have to click on a link within the email, or

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they have a phone number that you call, you know,

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whatever it is. But and this is something we say,

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look at everything after the at sign because that's the domain.

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So you look at this and you you look at

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it and go, okay, well it's Microsoft dot com. That's

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the right one. But if you look at it really

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really closely, look at that M right there, you think

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it's a lowercase M for Microsoft. It's not. It's a

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lowercase R and it's a lowercase N. And is your

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naked eye going to see that little space between the

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R and the N and that right there makes it

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a totally different domain. It's not Microsoft. But if you

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clicked on a link in here in this email, it

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would take you to that fake domain that I am

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guessing is impersonating Microsoft. So you want to be extremely careful,

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and even now when I'm looking at it and I

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have my glasses on, I have to blink a few

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times because when I first looked at it, I'm like, no,

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that's an M. And then I have to get my

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eyes in focus and really look at it. And you know,

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the thing is is, you know what, if you want

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to go to the Microsoft website and you know it's

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Microsoft dot com, don't worry about clicking links in a

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text or an email. Just go to the Microsoft dot

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com website. So if you already know what the website

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is and you have ordered things from the website, you

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have a subscription with the website, so it seems reasonable

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that you would be getting an email from them about something.

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This one specifically was a password reset request. You know,

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if you've not reset your pat if you have not

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initiated a password reset on one of your Microsoft accounts,

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then you can just ignore it. But if you did, right,

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go directly to Microsoft dot com and go into your

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settings to change your password there. Because it's hard to

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see it, and like I said, before, my eyes, you know,

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when I first started looking at this, it looked like

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a lowercase M. And you really have to look at it,

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and I had to blink a few times and you know,

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make sure my eyes were open wide to look at

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it and go, yep, no, that's a lowercase R and

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a lowercase IN. So be very careful with that. Some

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other things that can you know, happen is what about

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a lowercase L. Does that look like a one? What

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about capital O? Is that really close to a zero?

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Look at Microsoft again? Here the C and the R,

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the lowercase C and the lowercase R. Does that look

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like a lowercase A. So there's a lot of different

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things that you know that can be just tiny little

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changes that a scammer makes. And the domains available and

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they buy the domain and they're impersonating another company just

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by switching you know, those letters around or a letter

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for a number, and it makes it so close and

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so similar that your mind's already thinking Microsoft. So your

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eyes are looking at it. Your mind's thinking Microsoft, So

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your eyes are telling you it's Microsoft. Well, no, I

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really have to look at it and go, am I

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looking at a lowercase M? Or is that this? Or this?

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And you really have to look at it to determine

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what the letters and numbers, capital, lowercase all that are

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and it's always good to write it down. Yes, it's

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going to take you a few extra minutes, but it's

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going to protect you. It's going to help protect you

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from getting onto a malicious website, because that can cause

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a whole lot of damage. You get onto a malicious website,

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and it can cause a lot of damage. You're clicking

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on links, it can capture your information, maybe it puts

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malware on your device, and now the scammers are sitting

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in the background on your device and you have no

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idea that they're there, and they're watching everything you do.

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And you log into your bank account, Well, now they

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see what your log in is, right, So you got

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to be careful. That's another reason why you need to

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have very strong antivirus anti malware protection on all of

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your devices, even your cell phones, because your cell phones

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are mobile computers, they're connected to the internet, they're mobile computers.

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And have that strong antivirus anti malware on your phone

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as well, because especially on your phone, it's so small,

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you try to scroll up, you end up clicking on

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a link you didn't want to click on. And there's

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a lot of great antivirus anti malware software out there.

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If you have a trusted tech support person, talk to

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them and find out what they recommend. They might have

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one that works really well with Apple. They might have

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another one that works really well with Samsung or Android products,

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or maybe they have one that's just really good all

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around for desktop laptops, iPads, notebooks, mobile phones. They might

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have one that you know, well, there's this little thing

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in here that you have to be okay with, but

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it's really really good and very easy to use, right,

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So do your research and find that and make sure

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it's on all your devices, because if you clicked on

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something in one of these malicious emails, there's a good

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chance that your antivirus anti Maowa is going to recognize

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it and it's going to warn you. It's going to

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say this is a malicious site. You shouldn't go there,

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and then you can say okay, and then not go

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there and then get into the actual legitimate website on

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your own. So that's all I have for today. I

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told you it was going to be short and sweet today.

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Got a lot of work to get back to, so

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looking forward to talking to you guys next week. I'm

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working on having a guest next week to talk about

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their scam experience and the following week. It'll either be

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next week, which I realize is a couple days before Christmas,

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or it'll be the following week, which is right at

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the end of the year, but we'll have that guest

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on and share their experience. So until next week, don't forget.

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You're going to want to click subscribe so you don't

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miss an episode. You can also find the shorts and

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the live videos on our YouTube page, which the links

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are on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org. And don't

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forget to sign up for our emails. We have one

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in the mail and one via newsletters. I mean we

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have one in the mail and one via email. They're

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at the bottom of the homepage. You can sign up

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for them. We're really trying to get our YouTube channel

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up over one hundred subscribers, so please if you can

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click on that to subscribe. My understanding is you're going

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to get a notice when a new one's coming up

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and you can be ready for it. So thank you

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and we will see you next week.

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Well that's all the knowledge for this episode. Julian Every

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Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOAHD Radio at

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00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:08.039
KFORAHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge,

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00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:11.679
so you have the power to make scam protection your

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00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:15.480
healthy habit, and until then, feel free to reach out

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00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.080
to Joyce and let's talk about scams.

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