Are You Addicted to or Distracted by Your Phone? Here’s How to Stop It

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I love my phone. I HATE MY PHONE. No really, I love my phone. Actually, I HATE my phone.

Phone addiction and what you can do about it

This post might be a bit off-topic from my usual security stuff, but dealing with one’s phone addiction does help with your security and privacy as well. All of these pop-ups, bells – whistles, and distractions emanating from our devices make it hard to tell what’s legitimate and what’s attempted fraud. Turning off all of the unnecessary alerts we get, will facilitate our ability to focus on what’s real and fake. Read on.

Phone addiction and how to quit

Most of the people out there know about the tricks that an advertiser or app developer might play when they try to get the attention of a consumer. What you don’t realize, however, is that our phones and digital devices are doing things like this automatically, even insidiously and you are probably engaging with them more than you want to, and definitely more than you should.

It’s distracting, it affects our attention to others, relationships, connecting to others, our sex life, our sleep, our job performance, and even our wallets. Frankly, upon understanding what’s happening, this should upset you.

One of the things that phone designers do is use certain colors for notifications: like red or blue. Why? Because certain colors are known to create an emotional response, and this makes us want to click or swipe. This emotional response also can make us feel like we suffer from phone addiction, or feel like we are attached to what our phones give us.

Don’t get caught up here, though. Here are some tips on how to quit phone addiction:

Turn Off Notifications

There is no doubt that notifications can be helpful, and in some cases, they can actually be very important. However, the majority of notifications are not. These are all designed to get people to interact with the app. For example, many people notice that when they get a Facebook notification that someone has posted to their wall, they immediately want to check it. But you could be interrupting something important. So, turn off notifications and check the apps when you have the time.

I suggest turning off everything. And slowly turn on notifications only when you believe you really, absolutely, positively need them.

Unsubscribe and Delete

Delete every app you don’t need. Unsubscribe from every email coming in that is not a necessity. Be ruthless. All of these apps and unwanted emails are another reason to turn your head left or right, up or down requiring the use of your hands and fingers to do something that you shouldn’t be doing. Your focus is sacked every time these communications come in.

Look at Screen Time

This will definitely upset you. You can look at your settings and see how much time you are spending on certain apps. You can easily set this up to be notified. Now, this is an additional distraction, but it’s also going to tell you what activities you do on your phone are helpful and which are not.

Change Colors

We have mentioned that color can play tricks on our minds, and app developers know this. So, think about removing the colors from your phone and changing it to grayscale. You can do this, for instance, on the iPhone, in the settings app.

Clean Off Your Home Screens Apps

You also might want to think about cleaning up your home screen. The only apps you might want to keep on your home screen are things that you really need, like your map app, your email, your banking app, and your calendar. Everything else (even email) should be put on another screen.

Stop Tapping and Type Instead

Try this. Try to get into the habit of typing what you are looking for in the search box of your phone. It is easy to simply tap an app to open it; it is much more difficult to type in the name of the app…and this gives you a second to really think about if you want to open the app or not.

Take Social Media Apps Off of the Device

You also might want to delete the social media apps off of your phone if you have a problem there. You might be shocked if you look at how many hours per week, or even day, you are spending on these apps. DELETE FACEBOOK AND TIKTOK. NOW! In my PodBroadcast “The Security Guy and CIA Spy” Peter and I discuss how social media is messing with our mental health. Social media and phone addiction are no joke.

Charge Your Phone Away from the Nightstand

Finally, utilize the “focus” settings on the iPhone, a.k.a. “Do Not Disturb”. For you android users figure it out HERE. Most of us charge our phones at night, and in general, they sit on our nightstands. This makes it very easy to grab it at any time, especially when you wake up in the morning. So, consider charging it somewhere else.

Written by Robert Siciliano, CEO of Credit Parent, Head of Training & Security Awareness Expert at Protect Now, #1 Best Selling Amazon author, Media Personality & Architect of CSI Protection Certification.

Movers and Shakers: Watch Out for These Scammy Conference Invitation Traps

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Finally we are back to booking a ton of live-in-person security awareness training at conferences! It’s about time! Business is getting back to pre-Covid days here in the States and any non-in-person training is being supplemented with live-online and e-learning. It’s all good! However, we are also seeing more of one of the weirdest scams out there: Conference Invitation Scams.

Conference Invitation Scams are on the rise

This is when a scammer sends out invitations to an event, like a conference, with the sole intention of scamming the people they are inviting to attend or to speak at that event. These events might be real, or they could be totally made up. The targets of these scams include CEOs, business owners, lecturers, philanthropists, researchers, and more. The goal of these scammers is to steal the identities of their targets and ultimately get Credit card numbers, checks or money wire transfers by scamming the victims.

And that’s not all, these same scams are usually piggybacked with “conference attendee lists for sale” scams. That means companies that might exhibit or market their products and services to attendees of specific conferences are targeted to buy lists that are either lame or simply don’t exist. Conference managers have their backs up against the wall fielding communications from victims who accuse the legitimate conference hosts of bad service and of course worse, fraud.

Identifying a Scam

There are a few signs that you should look out for when you get an invitation to a conference or an event. They include:

  • The invitation is random or a surprise
  • The invitation is filled with bad grammar or typos
  • The invitation asks that you pay a premium price to attend, which includes both transportation and accommodations
  • The name of the conference sounds like one that is real, such as Tech Crunch, but spelled like TecKrunch
  • You cannot pay by credit card, they might require a check, wire transfer, peer to peer payment, or cryptocurrency.
  • The invitation is extremely flattering
  • The greeting on the invitation sounds strange, like “Salutations”
  • The invitation creates a sense of urgency about getting your personal information
  • The conference is in a different country
  • The invitation seems too good to be true
  • The invitation asks for personal information and covers your accommodation, transportation, or conference cost
  • The landing page of the site doesn’t have a phone number or address listed
  • Or none of the above. The invitation or list for sale email is perfect. There are the absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Beware of the Conference Invitation Scam targeting speakers

Generally, the scam works like this: the scammer starts the scam by sending an email to the victim, which invites them to speak or attend a conference. The scammer often uses the victims’ social media pages in order to get info about them. This helps the invitation seem more personalized.

The victim is then asked to register for the conference, which gives the scammer even more personal information. On top of this, the scammer could ask the victim to pay a fee in order to attend the conference, and pay it fast, because they also create a sense of urgency to attend the conference, such as saying “spots are limited.”

If the victim that is targeted falls for the scam and sends their info, the scammer could have enough to steal the person’s identity. To add more, the scammer can even add the name of the victim, if they are well-known in the industry, to promote the conference.

When the victim goes through all of this, they will soon find that they have been the victim of a scammer. You even have to be careful when attending a conference that is legitimate, because a scammer will send out fake invites to real conferences, too. Since a victim knows about these conferences already, they are usually more willing to give up their information.

How to Protect Yourself from a Conference Invitation Scams

There are a few tricks and tips that you can start using if you commonly attend conferences. The include:

It’s entirely likely your email address as a username, has been part of not just one, but multiple data breaches. And because of this, you are likely

  • to be targeted in scams related to that organizations product or service. Right now, check if your email address has been part of any specific breaches by utilizing our “Hacked email Checker” and then change your password for those accounts.
  • Do your research about the event and try to match up the information you find with the invitation you received.
  • Contact the event organizers directly. While a website can be created from scratch or spoofed, there is still value to looking up the event and the contact info of the organizer, report your findings and find out if it’s legit.
  • If you see an email that is similar to what is described above, don’t even respond.
  • If you get an invitation that seems strange, look into it more.
  • Don’t give any personal info, including your Social Security Number. There is no reason a conference organizer would need that.
  • Copy and paste the full email into Google to see if others have reported it as a scam. You are likely not the only person to be solicited in this way.

If You are a Victim, What Should You Do?

Do you think you have become a victim of a conference invitation scam? If yes, there are some steps that you should take right now.

  • First, get contact with your credit card companies and banks, and make sure they know about it. Refute the fraudulent charges.
  • Next, you should contact your local police and file a report which might be needed to get your money back.
  • Consider contacting the police in the area where the conference was supposed to be held.
  • If you are inclined to do so, you may want to get in touch with the Better Business Bureau and report it.
  • You can also report this online by using the BBB Scam Tracker on the BBB website, to the FBI at the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or the FTC’s Online Complaint Assistant.

The most important thing is to pay attention. We’ve never seen more scams or more variations on existing scams in our entire lives. It’s funny to us, we here experts saying “criminal hackers are more sophisticated than ever” and they are not. What they are, is organized, more than ever. Scammers treat fraud as a business, they have a hierarchy, they punch a clock, they have employees, and it is that “structure” that results in a sophisticated profitable business that leads to huge profits.

Written by Robert Siciliano, CEO of Credit Parent, Head of Training & Security Awareness Expert at Protect Now, #1 Best Selling Amazon author, Media Personality & Architect of CSI Protection Certification.

Be Aware of These Safe Travel Security Tips

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Covid seems to be on the downswing (hopefully). Airlines are reporting record-breaking bookings. There are a number of travel security considerations to be made when traveling domestically and even more when internationally.

Rental Cars

Be Aware of These Safe Travel Security TipsIf you are planning an upcoming vacation or a business trip, you might be thinking about renting a car. “Smart Cars” are all the rage, and they connect to the internet. You get Bluetooth, navigation, hands-free calling, live-streaming, and much more. In fact, if you have a fairly new car, yourself, you probably already have some access to these features. You probably connect your devices to your car, too, so that you can stream music, text, make phone calls, etc. This is no issue because it’s your own car, and only you and your family are using it.

Now, think of this. You have your devices, you are on vacation, and you have a rental car. So, you connect, just as you do at home. But what you don’t realize is that your personal information is now on the car, and the next person who rents it might be able to access it.

I travel a lot, and I rent a lot of cars. There has not been one car that I can think of that hasn’t had information about previous renters in it, and that’s pretty scary. I could even access their address book information in some cases.

Even if all you want to do is listen to Pandora or something, connecting to the rental car might still store data onto the car, including where you are driving. This might not seem like a huge deal if you are on vacation, but what if you have a rental car at home? The person who rents the car next can access your home address, your workplace, where you shop, etc.

The vehicle can also store your phone number and your text logs, too. Again, this can get into the hands of the wrong people unless you know how to delete them.

As you can see, there is more to auto safety than simply putting on your seat belt and refraining from texting and driving. If you are connecting to a smart car, the person who drives it next could learn so much from you; information that you certainly don’t want people to know.

Do This, Not That 

Here are some tips you can use the next time you rent a car:

  • Don’t use the USB port on a rental car to charge your phone. It can transfer data to the car. Instead, buy a cheap adapter and use the cigarette lighter.
  • Check up on the permission settings of your devices. If the infotainment system allows you to choose what is sent, only give access to things that are necessary.
  • Before you turn the car on, make sure to delete your phone from the car’s system.

Will your identity get stolen as soon as you connect your phone to a smart rental car? Probably not, but by connecting it and not deleting the data, you could run into some security and privacy issues down the road, including identity theft. Be smart, and don’t put yourself in a situation where someone else might get access to your personal information.

Everything Else

Some thieves specialize in hanging around tourist spots to spot the tourists and make them victims of hands-on crimes such as purse snatching or a mugging. But don’t wait till you’re aimlessly wandering the piazza with your face buried in a huge map to take precautions against less violent forms of crime.

  1. Before traveling, make copies of your driver’s license, medical insurance card, etc., and give these to a trusted adult. Have another set of copies in your home. Scan them and email them to yourself.
  2. Never post your travel plans on social media until you return. You never know who’s reading about you.
  3. Before departing from home, make sure your credit card company and bank know of your travel plans.
  4. Clear your smartphone or other devices of personal data that’s not essential for your trip.
  5. Travel on a light wallet. Take two credit cards with you in case one is lost or stolen. Have with you the phone numbers for your bank and credit card company, just in case.
  6. Avoid using Wi-Fi in coffee houses, airports, and other public areas other than just catching up on the news. Use a VPN. Google it.
  7. When traveling internationally, read up on the safety of food and water and get whatever shots you may need.
  8. Never give your credit card number to the hotel staff (or at least, anyone identifying themselves as hotel staff) over the phone in your hotel room. The call could be coming from a thief posing as hotel staff telling you they need your number again.
  9. Never leave anything out in your hotel room that reveals personal information, such as a credit card receipt, passport, checkbook, medical insurance card, etc. If the room does not have a safe, then have these items on you at all times.
  10. Use only an ATM that’s inside a bank, never a free-standing one outdoors somewhere. Cover the keypad with your other hand as you enter the PIN to thwart ATM skimmers.

Written by Robert Siciliano, CEO of Credit Parent, Head of Training & Security Awareness Expert at Protect Now, #1 Best Selling Amazon author, Media Personality & Architect of CSI Protection Certification.