New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark F" data-source="post: 1948819" data-attributes="member: 301631">Hi Rod,First, thank you for your thoughtful reply.In January of 2024 my adult son sent a frantic email  at about 11:00pm in a panic. He had begun receiving emails on his laptop from his phone carrier, bank and brokerage firm acknowledging that his passwords had been successfully changed. He couldn't even call because the hacker had taken over his phone account and his phone was now useless.  Fortunately I was still awake and on my computer to see the email so I was able to contact his bank and broker and freeze his accounts. He did not lose any money but it took months to straighten things out. All his passwords were stored on his phone. We still do not know how the hacker was able to obtain his phone's password as he is very careful with this.About two years ago I received a notice from the Internal Revenue Service that I owed several thousand dollars in taxes. When I investigated it turned out that someone in a different state had somehow obtained my tax identification number (Social Security number) and had been employed using that number without paying tax. It took me a year + to straighten that out, including filing court papers. I am retired and rely on savings kept in bank and brokerage accounts. While I agree that it is unlikely that these could be hacked, it is not impossible. Others have already suffered losses this way. For me it would be catastrophic. In my view, you do not gamble what you cannot afford to lose. No matter what the odds, if you cannot afford the loss do not gamble. Someone always wins the lottery, despite the odds. So perhaps others will see me as overly cautious, maybe even paranoid, and security is a nuisance. But it lets me sleep better. Mark</blockquote>

Verification: Name this item 🌈