It’s Fake News!!! How Social Media Has Turned into a Weapon

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A lot of people just want to follow the crowd. You might not be one of them, but you have surely heard of some calling others “sheep” or cattle,” because they want to be led by another. I say it all the time, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! There isn’t anything inherently wrong with this on the surface. The problem arises, however, when the people doing the leading are doing it for personal gain and when the followers blindly follow because they want to be lead and/or because it’s convenient and/or because they are stupid. In this day and age, the most common way to do this is via social media.

social mediaCambridge Analytica actually did this to win elections and do other things. For instance, it was first used in first world countries, and then with Brexit. It was also used in the 2016 US presidential election.

Here’s how it can go down and how social influence can be used to change the minds and hearts of others:

Company or country leaders began to realize that they could use social media to influence people. They could manipulate facts and post information that is just not true, and people began to believe it supported by confusing data and just plain wrong. This is often accomplished by using clickbait headlines, viral memes, and videos just filled with lies and emotion.

At a basic level, spreading this type of misinformation is called a confidence scam or confidence trick. When someone is confident in another person, they trust them. Trust is an inherent human trait required as an interdependent species. Without trust, we as a species would cease to exist. If women had no confidence in men and did not trust them, they would not allow themselves to be received. We wouldn’t be able to function unless we trust each other. The conman’s motivation is to influence the victim enough so that the victim is confident in the message. The conman wants to be trusted, of course, and when they are, well…it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Of course, the outcome of this is that the conman wants to divide and conquer, or even rule the people who fall for this manipulation. When we try to define “divide and conquer,” we can say it is the practice of maintaining control of victims by encouraging them to disagree amongst themselves. In other words, the conman can tell both sides, “don’t trust them, trust me.”

People used to share disinformation by speech. However, when the press came into play, decades and decades ago, in the form of leaflets and pamphlets, books, political cartoons, newspapers, and magazines. Now, it generally spreads via social media, which is great for the conmen, because they know it is spread like wildfire.

When we look at the word “disinformation,” we find that it comes from a Russian word, dezinformatsiya. Joseph Stalin actually started using the word in 1923 within the KGB’s “Special Disinformation Office.” At the time, the word was defined as “false information with the intention to deceive public opinion.”

Remember, disinformation is meant to confuse the target and instill fear by blurring the lines between what is fact and what is fiction. The purpose is to spread conspiracy theories that isolate targets from other viewpoints, which ultimately creates a cloud of paranoia and confusion.

Disinformation on social media is born as a lie, and it is a lie that you believe to be true…and you agree with it, like it, and then share it with friends. Once you take on this role, you are just as much a perpetrator and that of a victim of everyone else who falls for it.

The Five P’s of Persuasion

When it comes to persuading others, there are five “P’s” that you should keep in mind:

Persuasion

When you have a particular belief, or a persuasion, it means that you already have made up your mind about something. One example of this is political persuasion. You might be under the Republican persuasion or the Democrat persuasion. You can also define persuasion as the act of influencing someone else to change their mind or to do something that they might now do without influence.

Psychographics

The word “psychographics” is the study of people based on criteria including their attitudes and aspirations. This especially comes into play when looking at market research. Psychographics is often used to describe someone based on their psychological attributes and it can be applied to the study of personality, attitudes, values, interests, opinions, and lifestyles.

Psychological Operations (PSYOPS)

PSYOPS, or psychological operations, can be used to explain information and indicators to an audience in a way that it influences their reasoning, motives, and emotions. Ultimately, it can affect the behavior of entire governments or organizations as well as groups and individuals.

Psychological Warfare

This is the practice that some use during a war or during a time where war could be a danger. It is made up of propaganda, threats or other non-violent techniques. It may also apply in times of political unrest in order to intimidate, demoralize, or influence the thinking or behaviors of an enemy.

Propaganda

You can define propaganda by saying it is information that is not objective and used to either further an agenda or influence a target audience. This is generally done by only presenting facts that can encourage a particular perception or using language to create an emotional response, not a rational response, to particular information. There are a several different types of propaganda:

  • White propaganda is a type of propaganda that is put out on purpose by a transparent source and credited by the source. Basically, it is a valid opinion of someone or something. A good example of this is a political ad that is created to discredit an opponent. The conclusion of this ad would say, “My name is Candidate Name, and I approve this message.”
  • Grey propaganda is a type of propaganda where the information is not credited nor expressed, and the source of the propaganda is hidden. The information doesn’t have to be accurate or inaccurate, as it might be true, or it might be false. One example of this is a small company putting an ad out about a competitor claiming said competitor uses poor quality materials. The information might be true, but the creator of the add doesn’t want to be known as the one who released the ad.
  • Black propaganda is totally false information that is created to seem like it was created by the entity that it is intended to discredit. For instance, you might see a video or meme that looks like it comes from Black Lives Matter that shows a black man attacking a white man. Obviously, this is something that Black Lives Matter would not want people to see, but if the video says, “The video brought to you by Black Lives Matter,” and it is spread from one person to another on Facebook, ultimately, this discredits the organization.

Now that you have all of this information available, there is one question that you have to ask yourself: Are you someone who is area of the disinformation that you is out there, or are you a sheep? MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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.

Creating Passwords that are Bulletproof

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It can be a real hassle to keep track of the passwords you use. So many people use the same combination of username and password for every account. However, this isn’t a good idea. In fact, it’s terrible. You see, these days, many data breaches could be traced back to people using the same password across multiple accounts. And once the bad guy finds his way in, especially logging into your email, it is game over. From there, it’s easy to reset the pass code for almost all of your accounts when the bad guy controls your email too.

All it takes is a cracker to find this password, and now every account you have is compromised. And finding that password is even easier. Some studies show as many as 40 million records were compromised in 2021. Many of those records are passwords. At ProtectNowLLC.com, we have a tool that has access to over 12 billion compromised records where you can search your username aka your email address to find out if your username and associated password have been compromised on a variety of breached accounts.

Thankfully, there is an easy solution: use a password manager. I’ve had a password manager in place since 2004. At this point I probably have close to 700 different online accounts. And I might know the password for maybe five of them. The rest, only my password manager knows the password which I can easily look up. But I’ve never committed them to memory. Most people say “what if the password manager gets hacked” while this might be a valid concern, it’s not a concern of mine.

The low hanging fruit isn’t a password manager getting hacked, it’s people reusing the same passcode across multiple accounts and those credentials being available on the dark web. But, if you don’t want to use a password manager because you’re afraid the password manager is going to get hacked, you can also do the following:

Creating a Unique Password

Research shows that the best passwords are 14 characters long. Those that are shorter than that are easier to figure out. If a site doesn’t let you create a password that is 14 characters, it is possible to adapt it. Password managers do a very good job of creating/generating long strong unique complicated passcodes.

First, make a list of all of the sites you have a username and password for, and then put those sites into categories. For example, all of your sites for social media would be in a category, all of your email sites together, all of your banking sites together, and all of your shopping sites together.

Then you want to create a password that is eight characters. This will serve as the first part of any other password that you create. For example, the first eight characters might look like this:

CM&@t*yZ

Next, remember your categories? You will create a three-character password that is significant to those. For instance:

  • Social media sites – SM#
  • Email sites – &eM
  • Shopping sites – $h0
  • Banking sites – 8aN

So, this gives you 11 characters of the recommended 14-character password that you want to use. Now, you need three more characters, and that would be specific to the site.  So, let’s say you are creating a password for your bank. This is made up like the following:

Eight-character + three-character password (category) + three-character (site)

So, for your bank, it would look like this:

CM&@t*yZ8aNp$X

This is a very difficult password to guess, and for many people, easier to remember. But it’s not easy for everyone to remember. There is a solution, but first, keep this in mind. When you have to change your password, you can keep the final six characters and just change the first eight.

Now, how can you remember the first part of the password? One way to do this is to simply write it down and store it in a safe place. However, don’t keep it near your computer. Another thing you can do is to create a phrase that will help you remember.

Here’s an example. Let’s say our phrase is “My brother asked me for bread and salt.” If you take the first letter for all of the words, it would be this:

MBAMFBAS

This could be your eight-character first part…and you can make it more secure by making some swaps:

M3@MFBA$

This still makes the password very difficult for a hacker to guess but makes it easier for you to remember. You can use the same method, of course, for the smaller parts of the password.

Honestly, if you’ve got even this far in this article, congratulations to you. You must be some weird math savant with an elephants memory. Frankly, the above gives me a headache. Like I said in the first three paragraphs, it’s best to just use a password manager and forget all of this work, but if you don’t want to, this method works pretty well.

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.

Keep Your Parents’ Computer Secure: Remotely

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If you are like many, you are more technically inclined than your parents. So, they might want to rely on you when they have computer issues. But you can alleviate many of these issues by keeping their device running smoothly, and you can do this all remotely. Here’re some tips:

Teach Them to Fish

Digital literacy might be one of the single most underappreciated aspects of technology. And the more digital literate you and your parents are, the easier your digital life and even your physical life will be. As they say, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

So whether you are working on their computer remotely or on site, require them to watch. But be patient, because you can’t expect him to embrace tech the way you do. Nobody is wired the same.

Install Tools Remotely

  • Use a program like Teamviewer, which allows you to connect to your parents’ computer remotely.
  • You can do the work yourself and stop having to give them direction over the phone.

Back Up the Data and Schedule Future Backups

  • It’s best to create more than one backup. In fact, create three.
  • Put these backups in different forms. Save one in a flash drive, one in DropBox or other cloud-based back up. PolarBackup is a very cost effective option. And one on an external hard drive. A Western Digital one terabyte drive is very inexpensive on Amazon
  • Set future backups to occur automatically once a day using a syncing software such as “Goodsync” google it.

Update Operating Systems

  • Set up an automatic update for the operating system. Set this for the middle of the night.
  • Do all updates, even if you think you won’t need them.

Ensure the Computer has Antivirus Software

  • Every device should have antivirus software.
  • Update this software regularly.
  • Run a system scan when you update the software.
  • Free software isn’t great. Pay a little to ensure absolute safety.

Uninstall Any Program They Don’t Need

  • What programs don’t your parents need or use? Uninstall them to speed up the computer.
  • You can download programs like Decrap for Windows, which will remove “crapware” that you don’t need.
  • You can also download Revo Uninstaller if they use Windows or AppCleaner if they use a Mac. They will get any residual things out that Decrap didn’t get. CCCleaner works pretty good, too.

Update All Extensions and Browsers

  • Modern browsers automatically update, so it’s better to make sure there is a good, updated browser on your parents’ computer. Chrome is a good option that automatically updates. Brave is good too, but it sometimes gets hung up on certain websites. Which can be frustrating.
  • Delete any plug-ins or extensions that are not necessary. Make sure that the ones you leave are legitimate. If they are old or outdated, update all of these extensions.

Automate Anything You Can

  • If you can automate something on your parents’ computer, you should.
  • You can automate backups, so do it.
  • You can automate a lot of things, so look into as much as you can.

Improve Speed

  • Run a bandwidth test online at SpeedTest.net
  • This will give you a good idea of what the baseline speed is, which is good to know in case Dad calls and says his computer is running slow.

The best thing to do is to do all of this on your own computer first. It’s even better when your parents devices are running the same operating system as yours. It just makes things more familiar to you and easier.  Have all your backup software on a thumb drive. This way, you have the software readily available, and you know how to do it when you go to do these things on your parents’ computer. You can also set up a Google doc with all of the software keys and passwords. All of this can help you, too, and by taking these steps, you can help to keep yourself and your parents safe from ID theft.

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.

Monitoring Tracking or Spying on a Cell Phone

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Do you think of yourself as a spy and wonder how you can monitor another person’s cell phone? Well, we aren’t going to tell you that here, but we will give you some information about cell phone monitoring:

phone scamTracking Cell Phones: The Legal Stuff 

In most cases, it is not legal to monitor another person’s cell phone. However, and this is NOT legal advice, if the account is in your name, or if you have some type of written permission from the person owning the phone, you can track it.

Why Would a Person Monitor a Cell Phone?

There are certainly situations where it is perfectly legal, and maybe even useful, for someone to monitor a cell phone. One of these reasons is to monitor your family. This is generally the case if you have a teenager, for instance, who has some freedom.

Another reason why you might want to consider monitoring a cell phone is if you have a person in your family who is elderly, and they use a cell phone. For instance, if your loved one has the onset of dementia, it can be a very good idea to track their phone.

It is possible, too, that a company could be tracking a phone. It is very legal, for instance, for a company to track cell phones that they own. The main reason this happens is not only to monitor employee communication, but to also locate a device if it is stolen or lost.

Sometimes Spying on a Phone is Malicious in Nature.

In a Good Morning America spot I did years back, victims speak out about how their mobile phone being bugged made them paranoid. The perpetrators acted like the puppeteers and the victims their puppets.  Check it out.

The Main Ways Cell Phones are Tracked

There are four main ways that people use to track a cell phone:

  • Via a Carrier – Most major phone carriers have a feature that allows an account owner to track a phone that is on their account. There is usually a fee for this service, and it is definitely legal. This is a good way to track a family member.
  • Via a Computer or Smartphone – You can also track a phone via an app like Find My or Find My Friends. Just remember that the phone must be connected to GPS in order for this to work.
  • Via a Third-Party App – There are also apps that allow you to trace a phone, but to make it legal, you must have access to the phone you want to track, and even own it and/or have written permission from the person who owns it. In general, both the devices used in this tracking must have the app installed for these to work. Some of these apps might have free limited features, but others only are available if you pay a fee for the service.
  • Via a Link – This is likely very illegal, and it can even get you put into jail. Hackers often put these links in emails, texts, or social media posts. To do this, the device has to be infected with spyware and malware, which is installed when the link is clicked. Hackers buy this software from the dark web.

Remember, it is not legal to track a cell phone unless you have permission from the device owner. However, every state has laws pertaining to this, so you may want to look into the laws in your state if you are considering doing any of this. That way, you know what the consequences might be.

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.

This GUN Website is a Fraud. How to Determine if a Website is Fake or Real

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There are many scammers out there, and one of the things they like to do is to create fake sites that are meant to trick people into giving them personal information, commit identity theft or wire fraud or they’re designed to facilitate a P2P payment like Venmo or PayPal or they’re designed to siphon money via a wire transfer.

One such site is https://empiregunshop.com/ Empire Gun Shop is set up specifically to scam users via a wire transfer. I stumbled upon the site via a Google search looking for a specific part for an old firearm that was provided to me. Google index’s the site, which is scary, and people are being scammed every day. The site has been in operation since March 2020. They also have a Yelp and a Yellow Pages listing which furthers their “legitimate” presence. What also makes this site so effective, beyond the quality web development, is the fact that the URL has HTTPS meaning the “S” designates it is a “secure site” but that doesn’t mean it’s safe.

The site also has a “Live chat” feature that allows visitors to immediately connect with a live operator. And if you do, and feel free to try it, they will respond directly to you. And what is likely to occur is they will set up a wire transfer either via email or via chat. All communications with the scammers are done via a Google voice phone number. I’ve talked to them, engaged in email communications and text. Based on their thick heavy accents and they’re utter brazen attitudes, it’s likely they are from West Africa or Nigeria etc.

Their “Contact us” page provides both a phone number and an email address. And as soon as you contact them they will respond. They will convince you that they have your product in stock, and they will work with you to set up a wire transfer or a peer to peer payment. And once you do, that’s it it’s over Johnny, you lose that money.

When I engaged them to purchase a part, I became immediately suspicious when they were unable to answer a single question that I had asked. Firearms are a certain specialty, and there is a specific language that one needs to speak in order to understand the world of guns. These scammers have no idea what they’re talking about. And if you’re a new gun enthusiast and don’t understand the language of firearms you are likely to get scammed. And that is their edge. Newbies are their mark.

So for laughs, I engaged them via text. I asked if I could buy a “Bazooka” which if you didn’t already know, a Bazooka is a common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army. It’s a grenade launcher.

And I told them that my intent was “I am declaring jihad against the infidels.”  Which for any normal company would set off red flags. But not these guys. They’re all about the jihad! And they asked for the FFL which is the Federal Firearms License. And I provided  “Youra Sheethed” Get it? You’re a Shithead. He He.

And I gave them the physical address of the ATF and Boston. And they responded with their PayPal identification number. Feel free to send them some money. Or report them to Paypal. Whatever you wanna do.

Once I started to see this was a scam, I quickly researched the name of the company and found numerous online forums that enforced my belief that it was fraud. Here are those links below:

https://www.bbb.org/us/pa/danville/profile/gun-shop/empire-gun-shop-0241-236059607/complaints

https://www.scam-detector.com/validator/empiregunshop-com-review/

https://www.glocktalk.com/threads/empire-gun-shop-anyone.1883574/

https://www.ar15.com/forums/hometown/Is-Empire-Gun-Shop-in-Danville-legitimate-/14-652483/

https://www.yelp.com/biz/empire-gun-shop-danville

https://www.yellowpages.com/danville-pa/mip/empire-gun-shop-6086596

Here are some of the ways that you can determine if a site is real or fake:

You Aren’t Sure How You Got to the Site

 Have you found yourself on a site and you don’t know how you got there? Did you click on an email link? This is one of the most effective methods that a scammer uses to get a victim to go to a fake site. This is also the case with links on social media sites. Whatever you do, do not click these links. Instead, if you know you want to go to a site, either use a bookmark or type it directly into your browser.

Do You See Spelling or Grammar issues?

 Another sign that a site might be fake is a lot of grammar and/or spelling issues. Many of these fake sites are created by non-native English speakers, and they often make mistakes with spelling and grammar. Some also use translation software, which is notorious for making mistakes like using “there” instead of “their.”

Is the Site Endorsed?

If you see that a site is endorsed, you might believe that it’s totally safe, but just because you see an icon that looks like an endorsement, it doesn’t mean it’s real. A person creating a fake website can add information saying, for instance, that it is endorsed by a news outlet, but that doesn’t mean it actually was. The same can be said for authenticating badges. You should be able to click on these badges and be directed to a site explaining what it means. If you can’t click it, it’s probably a fake.

Look at the Address

Another sign that a site is a scam is if the website address is incorrect. For example, let’s say you want to do some online shopping, and you get an email coupon from Kohl’s. You click on the link, but instead of going to Kohls.com, it takes you to K0hls.com. This is a fake site. You also want to pay attention to the beginning of the address, too. You should only be doing shopping or entering information at a site beginning with HTTPS, not HTTP.

How to Make a Purchase

Almost every website out there takes credit cards. This is a good thing, because a credit card gives you protection. If a site doesn’t take cards, and it only wants a check or wire transfer, you should be suspicious. Empire Gun Shop doesn’t take credit cards.

Are the Prices Too Good to Be True?

Are the prices on a site too good to be true? If the prices are much lower than other prices, this could be a sign of a scam. For example, if you want to buy a new designer purse, and every other site has them for $400, but this one has it for $100, this is a red flag.

Read Reviews

Finally, you can determine if a site is real or not by looking at reviews. You can do this by searching on Google, or you can look at the Better Business Bureau listing. There is also a scam tracker on the BBB website, too. And as I did above, seek out the name of the company and its domain on various forums that specialize in that product or service. Keep in mind, however, that some of these reviews might still be fake, so spend a little time on this and don’t always give these landing pages or splash pages too much credibility.

And hey, feel free to mess with those scumbags at Empire Gun Shop and make their life hell.

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.