Identity Theft, Phishing, and Hacking: BE CAREFUL!

Hello there. Who am I? I'm here to get your information. I'm a cyber criminal.

You'll never see me, and you'll wish you had never responded to my emails. I'm

here to warn you about phishing. And not the kind of where you get fish, but the

"p–⁠h" kind: "phishing". Cyber criminals. I will send you an email, or

a text message about your Amazon delivery that you've been waiting for,

or I will be your bank telling you that somebody has used your access card, or

your credit card company telling you that there have been some strange

activities on your account. But I'm not really your bank, I'm not really Amazon

— I am a cyber criminal. This is how I do it. I will send you an email or a

text message. And I will get you to open the magical link that I send with my

email. Once you open that link, you will enter in your information, and I will

steal it from you. Or I could be a sexy boy or girl on Facebook, and I could

want all of your love and attention. We could have chats. You could send me some

pictures. I could send you some pictures. I could also look into your

Facebook profile, and find all of your brothers, and sisters, and moms, and

dads. And I could send those beautiful pictures to them, unless you pay me

money. If you pay me money — don't worry, naughty boys and girls — I won't

send those pictures to your beloved family, but you're going to have to pay

me a lot of money. Empty out your bank accounts. I'm on Instagram. I'm sending

you fake things about paid partnerships. Oh, if you give me your information, I

will send you links and money; you can have free products. If only you give me

your information. Give me your bank account number. Let me deposit something

into your account. Did I say: "deposit"? I meant: "withdraw". I will send you

attachments. In these attachments, you will have to re-enter your login

information. I am Facebook, and I say: "Oh, can you please re-enter your

Facebook password and account information for me? Just one more time;

it's fine." And then I steal it all. I have all of your Facebook access. I know

everything about you. Everything you've put on Facebook; even the things you've

hidden. I know everything. Why? Because you gave me permission to do it.

I am the government, and I'm calling you on a very important matter. I am

pretending to be the government, and I'm telling you that you have done something

very wrong, or someone has used your information and done something

illegally. But you are the one that's going to go to jail. Please press number

one on your phone to speak directly to a government agent. Give them your

information, and everything will be okay. You won't go to jail. Oh no. Your

bank will call you and ask you for your bank account number; and just for

verification, your password. That's not your bank. It's me. I'm here to steal

your identity. I'm your grandchild or part of your family. I've had a car

accident. And I need money. -"Mom, please! I'm in a car accident! I... I...

I need money. I need to pay for the car. I don't... Can you please send me money?

Please, please, please, please, please, Mom! It's terrible!" -"Oh, okay. Just

give me, you know... Just... here." Don't be fooled. If your family calls

you, make sure it's the number they're calling you from. You never know what's

lurking behind this mask. You never know who's calling you. Is a computer company

calling you because you have a virus or a problem, and they want you to take

over your computer? Don't be fooled when the phone rings. (phone ringing) "Hello?

Oh, the Canadian Revenue Agency. Yes, the taxes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Oh, I'm sorry.

Hold on. If I don't tell you information now, I'm... I'm... I'm going to go to

jail? Someone has used my... my social? My work number? Someone's used my... my

identity. Yes. Wow, okay. I'll press one. Okay." Oh my god. So, hold on. I'm

just on hold now. So, it seems that the government's calling me because

somebody's used my identity. And then that they... "Oh, hello? Hello. Yes,

yes. Yes. Name. My name's Ronnie. 'R–o–n⁠–n–i–⁠e'⁠. McCracken, last name:

'M–⁠a–⁠C–⁠c–⁠r–a⁠–c–k–⁠e–n'. Yeah, Ronnie McCracken. Yeah, my bank number,

yes. My bank account number is: three, eight, seven, nine, three, eight, two.

Yeah, the password... the password for my bank account is..." Ha-ha. Not in

your life, buddy.

Be careful! Don't give out information on the phone. Don't be stupid. If

somebody's pretending to be the government is calling you on your phone,

and they ask you for your name — give them a fake one. This happens to me a

lot, and I kind of get a little bit excited when I see this fake call coming

in. And it's always a computer: "We are calling you from the Canadian

government. Your SIN number" — which means your work number — "has been used

against you. You will go to jail if you do not respond to the call. Please press

one", so you press one. And they want your... they need to check your

information. So, they check your name and your postal code, but they have your

postal code. And I... I... my job, my hobby is to see how far I can get them

until they hang up. If you give them the fake name, like: "Ronnie McCracken",

they're gonna hang up. Or if you say bad words to them, or you give them fake

information, they're gonna know and they're gonna hang up right away. The

longest I've gotten them was he told me his special ID number, and I didn't

write it down. He knew I didn't write it down and he hung up on me. But let's

make this your new hobby. And you can practice your English. It's great. So,

if somebody calls you and pretends to be the government because, you know what?

The government doesn't call you; they'll... they won't even email you

because they're so slow. They'll send you a mail. A letter in the mail, which

is ages, so don't worry about the government calling you. And they will

ask for your bank account number, o stuff like that. Don't give it to them.

Come on. Don't be stupid. No.

Surprise! I'm here to tell you about how to protect yourself. I'm Ronnie. I'm not

a cyber killer of your information. I'm not a cyber criminal. I'm here to help

you. So, three easy things you can do to protect yourself against these terrible

people: Don't answer the phone, get off of social media, and go live in a hole.

Nah. First, you should update all of your software. Why? When you update your

software, it's going to give you the latest security fixes. So, if there was

a problem and hackers were able to get into something, companies update their

software, and they fix the problem. So, these updates should be quite frequently

— once a week, maybe once a month — every company is different. The next

thing is — and I see this all the time on my phone, and I'm going to do it when

I've finished the lesson — it says: "Enable two-factor authentication". What

this means is you have a password, but also something like facial recognition,

or a fingerprint, or a pattern to help identify yourself. So, even if the

hackers get your password, they're not going to have the other thing that you

need to keep your account safe. So, two things are stronger than one thing. And

the last one is... Oh, those passwords. How do you remember them all? But you

should create unique passwords. That means that each account you have should

probably have a different password. Don't use: "Password123" for all of your

accounts. You can use my password, which is www.Englishwithronnie.com if you want

to, for your bank accounts. They recommend 12 characters. That's a lot.

Characters can be numbers, letters, and symbols. They all have these funky

symbols. So, they recommend a mixture of both; not just www.englishwithronnie.com

for your private lessons — my password — but a mixture of everything. Maybe

englishwithronnie.com6970. I'm not too sure what that would be, but protect

yourselves, people. Be very careful what emails you're opening, who you're

talking to on the phone, and just generally protect yourself and all your

savings. Be safe out there. Bye-bye.