Anyone who’s tried using the Internet to rent an apartment knows it’s a cesspool of scams and fake listings. But Kelly Kane found out this weekend that con artists are getting aggressive and vindictive. After she called out a would-be con artists on a fake ad, her cell phone number [Keep reading]
The Internet can be pretty weird, but “digital kidnapping” is about as weird as it gets. Internet “kidnappers” pilfer photos of other peoples’ kids, then share them acting as if the kidnappers are the parents. It’s called babyrp, short for baby roleplay. It can range from bizarre and arguably harmless [Keep reading]
I’ve received a couple of emails recently that made their way into my inbox (and away from my spam folder) that I think are troubling. They are well-drafted attacks designed to convince the recipient that their Gmail or YouTube account is about to be deleted unless he or she clicks [Keep reading]
As if on cue, the Internet exploded yesterday with a vigorous debate involving millions of people around the globe, celebrating the arrival of Net Neutrality. The debate was about the color of a dress. Thank goodness for Net Neutrality. So before I get to Net Neutrality, let me get this [Keep reading]
After we all did Big Brother stories last week about Samsung’s ominous Smart TV privacy policy, more alarming information was found. The biggest “Doh!” — Samsung not only collects what you say in your living room, it uploads the content in the clear, without encrypting it. That means anyone who [Keep reading]
Elder financial abuse is a big problem that’s getting bigger. Back in 2010, MetLife released a report estimating that $2.9 billion is lost by America’s elderly each year, based on published accounts of fraud, but most observers believed that figure was low. A new survey released last week might be [Keep reading]
Looking for love this Valentine’s Day? Remember: safe online dating requires good hygiene. Digital hygiene. A new study released this week by IBM found over 60 percent of leading dating Android mobile apps they studied are potentially vulnerable to a variety of cyber-attacks that put personal user information and corporate [Keep reading]
Facebook has added a thoughtful feature today that will make things easier for folks using social media to grieve the loss of a loved one. It’s called “Adding a Legacy Contact,” and it allows users to name a person who has can make limited adjustments to the deceased’s Facebook account [Keep reading]
Just how bad is the tax ID theft problem? About half of all filers seeking refunds in the state of Ohio now must answer a series of challenge questions just to prove they are who they say they are. Ohio has already intercepted nearly 60,000 returns seeking an astonishing $250 [Keep reading]
As a leader of the oft-paranoid-sounding-privacy-sensitive crowd, let me be the first to congratulate Samsung for its honesty. Plenty of my friends in paranoia have pointed out the language included in Samsung’s new SmartTV privacy policy. Because the gizmo uses voice recognition to let owners change the channel and do [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan