The Only Thing We Have To Fear...

In 1938, Orson Welles' Mercury Theater On The Air broadcast their infamous War of The Worlds Halloween episode that left many, many people scrambling for safety, believing that we were under attack. At the time Hitler was expanding Germany, the fear of war was hovering in the backs of many minds. In it's presentation as live news reporting it was in essence a form of a con job.

Cons work by preying on human emotion and frailty. I see four main categories: those that play on greed, those that play on empathy, those that play on desperation, and those that play on fear. Any number of those e-mails we receive from over seas promising rich rewards if we help them - oh, yeah, and all we have to do is make a small monetary transfer...those fall under the greed category. Empathy? Apparently homeless man with a sign that he hasn't eaten if a few days...I once told a guy that approached me at an ATM that I would be happy to go around the corner and buy him a sandwich...suddenly he wasn't as hungry as he thought he had been. On a grander scale, numerous scams popped up following the earthquake in Haiti, for example.

The cons that prey on desperation anger me the most. In my opinion "Quick Cash" store front loan operations are a legal con that preys on desperation. Others, especially in this period of high unemployment, promise new careers or job opportunities. What is really occurring though is a manipulative attempt at getting folks to part with their dwindling remaining dollars. They are conned into buying the book or audio course or kit that will get them back onto the road to financial security.

Lastly and my topic for today are the cons that play on fear.

I have often touted Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine as a must see film. When I first watched it I expected a diatribe against guns. I was intrigued to find that his real point is to hammer at our culture of fear. We are constantly kept in a state of fear - it sells products, it rallies political support, it keeps us in our place.

Recently on Facebook a number of my "friends" began passing on a link to a website ReclaimPrivacy.org which claims to scan your Facebook privacy settings for your benefit. I put up a post asking if anyone had validated the claims made to ensure that this was legit. This in turn triggered more fear in those who had followed the instructions blindly without question, as well as a snarky response from one of the individuals pushing the site, "If you're too paranoid to use a tool that checks Facebook, you should be too paranoid to use Facebook in the first place."

Both responses missed my point. I simply was asking if anyone had verified the claims made. Cons work by making all kinds of promises. Cyber cons in particular play on computer fears about privacy or viruses or identity theft. Many worms are downloaded by gullible folks who are responding to ads for FREE (just a bit of the greed factor) software that will scan your system for spyware...oops there goes your hard drive.

On the one hand, most of the "personal" information is freely available...has been freely available for years. There's this thing called a "Phone Book," for example. Furthermore, nearly every action we take that involves electronics is being tracked by someone. Your cell phone calls, your credit card purchases, your library selections, your web surfing, your e-mail (if you use a work account)...all of it.

At some point you need to stop and question whether you are really that interesting that someone would want to know what your likes and interests are and then decide how having that personal knowledge would be used against you.

On the other hand, if you are frequently giving out your social security number and/or credit card number, if you use overly simplistic passwords like 1234 or your name, if you download everything your friends send to you in e-mail, if you don't maintain good and current security software on your computer...maybe you SHOULD be a little bit afraid...but the problem isn't Facebook.

I make the following suggestions to achieve a sense of balance in protecting yourself and/or worrying about your privacy.

1. Eyeball your store receipts when you make a credit card/debit card purchase. Does the slip still include your entire account number? Consider paying cash at any stores that still generate copies of credit receipts that have your full number on them.

2. Stop using multiple credit cards. Combine your accounts to a single card and review your statements.

3. Only purchase on line from reputable stores. If you followed some link to Joe's Cheap Merchandise...remember you get what you pay for.

4. Stop downloading all the cute photos, power point slide shows, video, etc. that are spread by friends via e-mail. The key word here is "downloading." My own rule is if I can't enjoy the e-mail up on the web, it's not worth dragging the unknown file down into my system (even with following rule 5 below).

5. Maintain a good, reliable security software system on your computer. Ensure that it is updated frequently. Once again, you get what you pay for...if you rely on cheap or free downloads, well...good luck and God bless.

6. Avoid giving out your phone number whenever possible. If a website demands your e-mail and your phone, use a fake phone number.

7. Have a set aside e-mail account that you can plug in to the box when a website demands an e-mail address. I only use my main e-mail address from sites that I know for certain I want to receive info from and that have some reassurance that they won't pass it along to spammers.

8. Fight the urge to believe that everything you see or read on the Internet is true because it's on the Internet. This will help you develop a healthy skepticism and proper sense of caution.

I welcome any other ideas or suggestions that folks may offer up in the comments. There is much about Facebook that irritates the hell out of me. However, it remains an amazing tool for connection, enjoyment, and the sharing of information. One simply has to learn how to Play Safe. Peace.