#1 Cybersecurity Expert Reveals: 5 Ways to Protect Yourself Online (Starting Tonight)

Caitlin Sarian (00:31:05):

It's harder to do banking because there's so many banking frauds out there. I don't want to tell you to do one thing when they do another thing. So for example, I don't want to say, Hey, you're never going to get a text from the bank because a lot of people get text messages. That's true. So if you're getting a weird message that you didn't anticipate every single time I've ever gotten that, which hasn't happened a lot, it's happened once. I immediately call my bank, I go to my bank card, look at the back on the phone number and get the phone number from my bank, and I call them immediately and say, Hey, I don't know what's going on. I just want to make sure. Because even the fake text messages, right, that you then click through into something look real. They look real. So anytime, first of all, this is a separate thing. I never answer phone calls from people. I dunno. And my voicemail does not have my name. It does not have a greeting because if people are calling me, they know it's me. Hackers use that same thing, and they say one, okay, we are confirming that that's her number now.

(00:31:58):

And two, they're getting your voice to potentially use for voice scams or getting your voice to potentially use to authenticate you into banks so they can record your greeting saying yes or no. A lot of times if you answer the phone and they say, Hey, is this calin? And I say, yes, that yes can be used to authenticate into a banking phone. So these sounds scary again, but if you don't answer the phone for people that you don't know, and if you don't have a voicemail, you're avoiding it.

Mel Robbins (00:32:27):

It's so true. So many of us, I'll speak for myself and I'm sure as you're listening or you're watching this on YouTube right now, that you're doing nothing to protect yourself online. You think you are. But as I'm listening to this, I'm just thinking of the huge digital footprint of all the information and the fact that they can then probably spider it to my son's information and my daughter's information and my husband's information and my parents' information, and just like one giant family tree, it's now one giant digital footprint. What do you say to someone like me and the person who's listening right now, who feels so overwhelmed by the idea of needing to protect themselves online?

Caitlin Sarian (00:33:15):

I would just say again, if you start implementing these simple routines, you'll feel so much more empowered

(00:33:21):

In the future. It seems very difficult, but like I said, okay, so don't answer the phone and don't have a voicemail that solves your problem right there. Done. Check that out. Do that for the one thing for the week, and then you're moved next week, you can do something else. But it's just simple little things that you now know that you're empowered with that information to go out and do it for yourself. Or if you want to keep your voicemail, that's totally fine. Is it likely that a hacker's really going to use your name? I don't know. But I'm just trying to tell you what it is and tell you how you can protect yourself.

Mel Robbins (00:33:52):

I hear a lot about voice cloning scams, and as a family, we have a password, which I am not going to say what it is for the inevitable moment when there is a voice cloning scam that happens so that you can say, what's the password? If you feel like something's weird and we have this weird random word, that's how, if it's family member who's talking or not.

Caitlin Sarian (00:34:20):

So we call it a safe word because you can call it a password too.

Mel Robbins (00:34:23):

A safe word. I like safe word better.

Caitlin Sarian (00:34:24):

So we call it a safe word. So what happens is these scammers are getting so elaborate, and they're literally using our voice from public podcast episodes, TV shows, whatever.

Mel Robbins (00:34:34):

Or your social media account.

Caitlin Sarian (00:34:35):

Yeah, social media. It's not that hard to stitch together a few words and try to scam your loved ones and saying, they pretend to be you and say, oh my gosh, I'm stranded on the side of a road. Can you please Venmo me a certain amount of money? I just need it to, I left my wallet. Can you just send it to me? And the only way they can tell your family member can tell it's you is if you use that safe word. So let's just say your safe word is green bananas. If my mom gets on a phone with someone that says that they're me, she's going to like, okay, if this is really Caitlin, can you please tell me your family safe word? And if I say green banana, she knows It's like this is a big threat.

Mel Robbins (00:35:10):

Yes.

Caitlin Sarian (00:35:11):

So I would rather it's, again, two seconds. The only way you can really tell with these is to have a family safe word. Or it doesn't have to just be family, but like a loved one safe word.

Mel Robbins (00:35:20):

Wow.

Caitlin Sarian (00:35:20):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:35:22):

I know so many people are following for Venmo scams.

Caitlin Sarian (00:35:25):

Yes.

Mel Robbins (00:35:25):

And can you explain what they are, why these are so dangerous, and how you can protect yourself?

Caitlin Sarian (00:35:33):

Yes. So what happens is that scammers literally send you money.

Mel Robbins (00:35:36):

Send you money?

Caitlin Sarian (00:35:37):

Yeah. Send you money on Venmo, but they're from stolen cards. So they send you money and they say, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I sent it to the wrong person. Can you please send the money back? And you're like, okay. Well I just,

Mel Robbins (00:35:51):

Well, I mean, that sounds reasonable, right? Exactly. So of a sudden you get a Venmo transfer from somebody?

Caitlin Sarian (00:35:56):

Yeah, $200.

Mel Robbins (00:35:57):

Oh, wow. Okay. And you're like, whoa, who's this? I don't know this person. Then all of a sudden you get a message like, oh my God, I sent it to the wrong person. Can you please, please send it back? Oh my God. This is a scam?

Caitlin Sarian (00:36:06):

This is a scam, and it's working.

Mel Robbins (00:36:08):

And so what happens?

Caitlin Sarian (00:36:09):

So then people send it back. They feel bad, and then what happens is, because it's a stolen card, those charges get reversed, but you don't get reversed because you willingly sent them the money. So you are stuck paying these scammers the $200 because the stolen credit card gets reversed, so you actually didn't get the money.

Mel Robbins (00:36:29):

Wow.

Caitlin Sarian (00:36:30):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:36:31):

So they're advancing you money from a card that's about to get declined, and now you're out the 200. That's incredible.

Caitlin Sarian (00:36:39):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:36:39):

Wow. I'm sorry, I'm just sitting here. Holy cow. Is Zelle more secure than Venmo since it's in embedded in a lot of banks?

Caitlin Sarian (00:36:50):

I try to avoid Venmo and Zelle at all costs unless I have to. And then I always try to use a credit card wherever possible credit card over debit card, because debit card's hard. It's the same as Venmo, right? It's like money and money out credit card. They can actually, they're better about reversing charges.

Mel Robbins (00:37:07):

Okay, now I have a question.

Caitlin Sarian (00:37:08):

Yeah.

Caitlin Sarian (00:37:32):

The first thing I would do is update your password immediately. And if it's a really key account, I would turn on multifactor authentication, which means that you are signing in not just with a password, but a code that's sent to your phone or your email or your authenticator app. I'd prefer authenticator app, but we'll get back to that.

(00:37:48):

Then if it's an Experian or type of any type of financial bank situation, they are going to be sending you something in the mail to teach you what to do. And they also offer free credit monitoring for you. Sign up for that. It's free. Why not?

Mel Robbins (00:38:23):

So hold on a second. So if you don't need to take out a loan, and if you don't need to open a credit card, open a new credit card, then you don't need open credit. Correct. You can freeze it,

Caitlin Sarian (00:38:35):

And it's very easy. It takes, there's three credit.

Mel Robbins (00:38:37):

The credit card companies don't ding you if you do that.

Caitlin Sarian (00:38:39):

No, no.

Mel Robbins (00:38:40):

Really?

Caitlin Sarian (00:38:41):

No.

Mel Robbins (00:38:42):

Oh,

Caitlin Sarian (00:38:43):

I didn't know that was a thing. There's three credit bureaus. It takes maybe five to 10 minutes for each bureau. Call them or email them. You can freeze your credit and then you just open it when you need it. And I tell people to do that with their grandparents or parents all the time.

Mel Robbins (00:38:55):

That's a great idea.

Caitlin Sarian (00:38:57):

You'll never know if someone is using your parents' information to create accounts until it's too late.

Mel Robbins (00:39:03):

Let's talk about seniors, because there's so many listeners that have elderly parents or concerned about their grandparents, and we recently had a very scary issue with scamming related to my mother-in-law, and they almost got in almost, and she would've been all of it gone, all of her savings gone, all of her retirement gone, everything.

Caitlin Sarian (00:39:34):

So I would first start with freezing their credit, and I would also start, again, a similar communicating. There are these scams out there. I go to my grandma and I say, grandma, these are the most recent scams. Someone's calling and pretending they're the police. They're going to try to call you. Someone's calling and pretending to be X, Y, z. If they ever ask you to send money, immediately hang up. And even if you think, oh, this could be true, I want you to hang up and call this fraud helpline number. So it's actually a fraud helpline number that can walk you through. You could technically have two phones if you want to, and you can be on the phone with a fraud helpline number, and they can walk you through what you need to do.

Mel Robbins (00:40:14):

But I think we should go to their house and sit on their laptop and their computer and do the settings that you've talked about.

Caitlin Sarian (00:40:21):

Yeah, multi-factor authentication. Make sure their passwords are updated, specifically banks 401k, all their retirement savings, all that. Make sure that is a very strong and unique password, and then turn on multifactor authentication. And if you're a caretaker, take her for maybe have it go to your phone, don't have it. Go to her phone. If you're getting an authentication code, you can call your mom and say, why are you trying to get into your bank?

Mel Robbins (00:40:48):

Great. And I know that there's a person listening or watching right now who is thinking, I got to protect my kids. So what are the non-negotiable settings?

Caitlin Sarian (00:41:15):

Yes. So for your child's phone, I would make sure that you're on the A child account, Instagram, YouTube, they all have children's accounts. So if you're under a certain,

Mel Robbins (00:41:25):

I don't know, they do?

Caitlin Sarian (00:41:25):

Yeah. If you're under a certain age, you can turn on that child's account. You can also block messages. I would immediately block messages.

Mel Robbins (00:41:32):

Okay, so block messages.

Caitlin Sarian (00:41:33):

Yeah. If you're on a child's account, I don't think you can get messages from most of the accounts. But to me, the thing is open communication, and it sounds really, really lame, but if your child knows, hey, there are a lot of scammers out there, and don't worry. But if something feels off, just come to me and talk to me because this happens to so many people. They're not going to come to you if you make this seem dark and scary and that they think they did something bad. But they will come to you if you have an open line of communication saying, I want to protect you. I want you to have fun online, but I also want you to know that these things are happening.

Mel Robbins (00:42:03):

So when you are the parent and you're checking the phone and you're looking at the apps, what are we turning off on the apps?

Caitlin Sarian (00:42:09):

Yeah. Make sure their apps are locked down on private mode. No kid should have an open Instagram account. You should only be adding your friends and friends that you have actually physically met in person and that you go to school with or you met at a party or whatever it is. Then I would make sure that you can't message. There's a lot of issues with ROBLOX and kids gaming too, that people are messaging, that are adults, that are grooming children. And so I would just make sure that you can't message, you turn on private mode and you turn on kids settings. I personally wouldn't allow kids to have Snapchat because they think that message disappears. Nothing disappears on the internet, nothing goes away.

(00:43:01):

I had a friend who is really into cyber, obviously, and her nephew was going to the Olympics world-class athlete in high school, went to the junior Olympics, met someone online that, a cute girl that added him on social media. She said that she went to a town across, she had a mutual friend. She had added his other friend, so she thought it was mutual, and they just started talking. They never had a call with each other, but they were talking for three or four months, and she sent him a photo of herself and he then shared a photo because they thought he really thought he was with her. And it, sex extortion scams are on the rise, and it's really, really rampant in teenage boys or younger. And they specifically target boys because they know that they're a little bit more willy-nilly when it comes to private photos, but there's two reasons why they do that. The first is they want money. So they were basically extorting him for money, saying, I'm going to leak all these photos of you, and you're never going to have a career or be an Olympian because I have all these private photos of you and I want money. Or they say, continue to give me more photos because those photos will then be used for another scam. After a little bit of time. He shared it with his aunt who is in cyber and was able to fix it, but there is a really good resource out there.

Mel Robbins (00:44:27):

What did she do? Call the police.

Caitlin Sarian (00:44:28):

She knew a lot of people in the FBI, but there is an FBI research that is free for everyone. So it's called the Internet Crimes Complaint Center. So I see three.gov, I see three, the number three.gov, and it can help anyone for any internet crime.

Caitlin Sarian (00:44:54):

So I would actually preface that you should do this before you lose your phone.

Mel Robbins (00:44:59):

Okay, what am I doing?

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:00):

So I would turn off the ability to turn on airplane mode when you swipe down,

Mel Robbins (00:45:04):

Wait,

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:05):

So you know how you can turn on airplane mode and there's, you can easily do it if you swipe down. Oh, you can swipe down airplane center.

Mel Robbins (00:45:10):

Okay.

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:10):

Because the first thing that robbers do is they immediately put on airplane mode. So you can't track the phone. But if they can't do that because your phone's locked, then the only way they can do anything is to just turn it off, and they're going to have to eventually turn it back on. So I don't have the airplane mode so easily available on my phone.

Mel Robbins (00:45:29):

Where do you go to do that?

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:32):

If you scroll down to the control center, you hold it down and it starts moving. Similar to when you move apps.

Mel Robbins (00:45:37):

Oh, yeah.

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:38):

You can do the same thing on your control center.

Mel Robbins (00:45:39):

You can,

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:40):

And

Mel Robbins (00:45:40):

Then you can just delete it. And now that way you have to go and manually do it. Okay.

Caitlin Sarian (00:45:44):

Then you just go to settings. Next time you're on a plane, you just go to settings, airplane mode and turn it on.

Mel Robbins (00:45:48):

Gosh, okay, I can do this and I'm going to do this. I personally feel that this is an issue, whether somebody has lost their phone, whether somebody has had their phone stolen, whether they left it somewhere, and just feeling like you've got all of this information on your phone. You probably have one, two, three, four, five as your unlock screen.

Caitlin Sarian (00:46:09):

I hope they don't, but most likely that's still one of the most popular passwords outside of password is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Mel Robbins (00:46:16):

Password?

Caitlin Sarian (00:46:16):

Password is the number one most popular password that is still used to this day?

Mel Robbins (00:46:20):

Password?

Caitlin Sarian (00:46:21):

Yeah. Yeah, password. I wish I was joking, but I'm not.

Mel Robbins (00:46:27):

Wow.

Caitlin Sarian (00:46:27):

So it makes you feel a little better, right? Slightly.

Caitlin Sarian (00:46:38):

So this is definitely, everything is a risk, right? Online. Everything that you do is a risk, and you have to choose whether you want that risk or not. And I'm going to give you a little bit of an example of how AI is working out right now with all the data. So we have a ton of data on everyone, and by I mean the government, any of the apps that you use. I used to use a wearable ring that was tracking my fertility, my sleep patterns, my stress levels. But can you imagine plugging all that into an AI and how much that would actually know about me? I personally don't feel comfortable giving that information to other people. However, my boyfriend swears by his ring and he doesn't care. So again, this is a risk-based approach. Every company has a privacy policy legally, and that privacy policy states what data they're collecting from you, who they're sharing it with, what they're using it for, and why they're collecting it.

(00:47:36):

So what I usually do is I take that privacy policy, I actually throw it into chat, GBT or Gemini or perplexity or whatever, and I say, Hey, can you please tell me the high level issues that might come about? What are they collecting? It's a very legal policy, so it's hard to read. It's made by lawyers, and it's meant honestly, to confuse you. It is meant to confuse you. They don't want you to know all the stuff that they're doing with your data. So I just throw it in and then I'm like, okay, they're only collecting this and this, I feel more comfortable. But with wearables, they're really collecting a lot about you as a human being. And sometimes I just don't want that.

Mel Robbins (00:48:13):

So if I take a privacy statement, which I think I'm probably like 99.9% of people, it's accept all, okay, move on. I didn't do the thing I was here for, and I were to throw it into Microsoft copilot. And that's the platform I trust. And it gives me a summary of what I'm giving permission for this company to do. What are the things I'm looking for? Because I would imagine there's language, as a former lawyer,

Caitlin Sarian (00:48:42):

I know

Mel Robbins (00:48:42):

There's language that's like blah, blah, blah, third party, blah, blah, blah, and then it's just sort of buried in there. What are you looking for? That is a red flag as a cybersecurity expert.

Caitlin Sarian (00:48:52):

So I'm looking at the types of data that they're collecting. So if they're taking biometric data or they're taking really specific, if it's just a name and an email, go for it. But if they're taking,

Mel Robbins (00:49:04):

Well, because fake the one that you gave them no dummy like I am.

Caitlin Sarian (00:49:07):

No, it's not me.

Mel Robbins (00:49:08):

Okay. You're like, you can have my alias go for it.

Caitlin Sarian (00:49:10):

Exactly. But if they're taking my menstruation data and my sleep data for biometrics or anything like that, I'm like, okay, why are you taking it? So I ask, what data are you collecting? Why are you taking it, and who are you sharing it with? That is a big thing. So I'm very concerned with who they're sharing it with. Why do they need to share it with these people? Maybe it's for metrics. Statistics. I have no idea. But some of the recent wearables have been sharing with companies that I don't want to be shared with. So if it's really sensitive data, like your health history nationalities, I would just prefer not to have it. And then if they're sharing it with interesting companies, why are they sharing it with X, Y, Z?

Mel Robbins (00:50:04):

Well, I'm sitting here thinking about the fact that just about everything that I use is now somehow connected to the internet, whether it is the pad that I'm sleeping on and cooling me down at night, whether it's the alarm clock, sunrise that I'm waking up to.

Caitlin Sarian (00:50:23):

I do love that though.

Mel Robbins (00:50:24):

But what I'm wondering is for of these things, is there an option you can look for that allows you to enjoy the benefit of some of this wearable stuff, but that limits what you're sharing back to their general data pool? Do you see what I'm saying?

Caitlin Sarian (00:50:43):

Yes. Yeah. So a lot of times there are options to look and see, I'm turning this on or this on. There are options of saying, Hey, don't share my sleep data. Usually those options come at the very beginning. And so a lot of people just blindly accept and say, yes, because we're excited. We want to use the product, we want to use the platform, whatever it is, we want to use the app. And we're like, yes, yes, yes. But I would go back. Usually they have privacy settings or settings in general, like data privacy settings. And I would start seeing what they do. And there's some toggles on LinkedIn. They're starting to use everything that you've posted for their generative ai. So they're training their AI platform based off the stuff that you post.

Caitlin Sarian (00:51:37):

And it was crazy because it was every time you opened up Instagram, it was resharing exactly where you were to the precise location. If you had precise location turned on Instagram, which I would say probably 90% of the people do,

Mel Robbins (00:51:50):

90% of people have precise location turned on?

Caitlin Sarian (00:51:53):

Well, it's automatic. When you download Instagram, it's automatically on.

Mel Robbins (00:51:57):

Wow.

Caitlin Sarian (00:51:58):

Unless you go into the settings, which I made a few videos to say, Hey, only limit access or don't allow it all.

Mel Robbins (00:52:04):

So is one of the things that we should do is to take a day and go through every app that we've downloaded and all the settings and look at the privacy and the data settings on those things.

Caitlin Sarian (00:52:17):

Yes, there's three things that you want to look at. Does it have access to your camera? Does it have access to your microphone, and does it have access to your location? All three of those things. If it doesn't need it, turn it off. And I guarentee-

Mel Robbins (00:52:30):

Why would it need it?

Caitlin Sarian (00:52:31):

Well, you'd be surprised

Mel Robbins (00:52:33):

If you're using it. Yes. But if not, no. So what should the setting be only while using the app? Never? Once?

Caitlin Sarian (00:52:40):

It just depends on what your preference is. So for example, I ordered Uber Eats last night and they delivered the wrong thing. And my manager got my phone, was like, don't worry, I'm going to return it for you. And she went, and you have to take a picture of the wrong thing. And she's like, oh, you don't give it access. I don't need Uber Eats to have access to my camera roll or my pictures or my camera or my microphone. So she limited access to the one photo that she took, and she put that photo on and she took a picture and we went off. But for me, I'm like, I don't think Uber Eats needs to have access to anything ever. And if I need to add a picture randomly, you can allow access to one photo.

Mel Robbins (00:53:14):

Wait, so are you saying that if you have an app on your phone and I have where I've given Instagram or whatever access to my photo library, that it can be in the background scanning my photos?

Caitlin Sarian (00:53:32):

Oh, it's not can be, it is. Instagram, Facebook and TikTok have new features in the last two months where they are scanning the camera roll that you have not posted to give you ideas on how to generate fun reel or post ideas because they're trying to get you on the platform to post more. So they're literally, if you gave them access to your whole camera roll, they're scanning it and they're putting together their own version of a potential reel that you might want to post after your trip to Boston.

Mel Robbins (00:54:04):

Whoa.

Caitlin Sarian (00:54:05):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:54:06):

So we prevent that by saying

Caitlin Sarian (00:54:09):

Limit access.

Mel Robbins (00:54:10):

Limit access.

Caitlin Sarian (00:54:11):

So for social media, I limit access. I don't say never, because obviously I have to post and I have to put photos on, and I have to go through the app, but I limit access to the photo that I'm actually uploading onto the app.

Caitlin Sarian (00:54:30):

Yes. So unfortunately, a lot of facial recognition software is unavoidable. Nowadays. You're walking through the airport and they're scanning your face. I mean, you have to go through,

Mel Robbins (00:54:39):

They are?

Caitlin Sarian (00:54:40):

TSA pre check.

Mel Robbins (00:54:41):

Oh, okay. You're right. Where are they? Well, actually, I wonder every, because I'm looking up, I don't have them in here, but I'm looking up and there's security cameras everywhere you go.

Caitlin Sarian (00:54:53):

So there's biometric tracking and facial scanning pretty much everywhere. And I have a concern, one, because biometric is very unique to you. Your eyes are, it's like a fingerprint. Your eyes and fingerprint, your face shape is very, very unique to you, and you can't fix it. I mean, you might be able to fix face shape with certain things, but you can't change your eyes that much. Definitely can't change your fingerprint. And so my concern is TSA has our biometric id, global entry has our biometric id.

(00:55:22):

Anything is hackable in my head, anything is hackable. So what happens when people start getting that information? And then the other thing is our phones from a marketing perspective are going to start tracking our eye placements. My concern is how smart AI is, right? If you've been using ai, if anyone here has used ai, if you type in like, Hey, what do you know about me? It gives a whole summary of exactly who you are to a T. Now, I want you to imagine someone on the other side of the screen when you're doom scrolling and late at night and you're watching what you preferably like to watch. It's analyzing every single thing about you. It's analyzing where you're looking, who you're looking at, how long you're staying on this video. It's analyzing the psychology behind what you're watching and understanding who you are as an individual. Hopefully it's going to start doing better ads. That's what they're saying. But who knows what that information can be used for. And so I recently, it sounds a little scary. I recently partnered with a company that has, it kind of shields you from biometric and surveillance, and it is UVA and UVB and blue light blocking, but it really,

Mel Robbins (00:56:35):

Okay, so wait, these are blue blocker red. Well, these kind of have a pink thing too.

Caitlin Sarian (00:56:42):

Yeah. They're also, it's an infrared screen. So the way that surveillance works is usually through infrared technology. So because there's an infrared kind of shielding,

Mel Robbins (00:56:53):

You even had these made for my prescription. That's pretty cool.

Caitlin Sarian (00:56:56):

Okay. Because there's a kind of shielding on it when you walk through the airport, or sometimes when I wear mine, my phone doesn't even register that it's me. It can't even see because it can't really tell where my eyes are. So it's not the end all be all, but it does make me feel a little bit better when I'm walking through security. You're going to have to take that off through airport security, but when you're walking, just in general,

Mel Robbins (00:57:19):

Because it wouldn't be able to scan my eyeballs?

Caitlin Sarian (00:57:22):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:57:24):

Wow.

Caitlin Sarian (00:57:24):

It prevents it a little bit from scanning your eyeballs.

Mel Robbins (00:57:26):

Wow.

Caitlin Sarian (00:57:27):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:57:28):

That's really cool.

Caitlin Sarian (00:57:29):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:57:30):

So the question that I have about biometric scanning though is that if we're using it for global entry, or you're using it for clear, or you're using it for one purchase with you want to purchase with your fingerprint, do you want to log into your Gmail with your finger? Is that a good thing to use or would you not recommend we use that?

Caitlin Sarian (00:57:48):

So again, risk-based approach, right? For me, I have TSA precheck because I travel every week, and if I only travel twice a year, I would opt out of my biometric tracking because it's not that hard for me to wait an extra five minutes for them to check who I am. But unfortunately, I travel four or five times a week, and that is just not likely. So my risk, yeah, I do not want it, but is it worth me to spend all that extra time to try to fight it? I don't think so, but some people don't. Like my sister, my manager, they opt out every time. Everything is a risk-based approach on surveillance, and I just, again, I do my best wherever I think I can help, I try to fix things, and then if not, I've let it go.

Caitlin Sarian (00:58:39):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:58:40):

Uh oh.

Caitlin Sarian (00:58:40):

So this is not to scare you, it's to empower you. So there are two ways that people get into these cameras. One is, again, if you're using passwords, which everyone does, so don't be embarrassed by it, but take this as a sign and be like, okay, maybe I shouldn't have the same password for my baby monitor as my Facebook account. Because if you're using passwords, they just have to get in and they just mess with you. And they can talk through the camera. They can watch the camera.

Mel Robbins (00:59:07):

Oh my God.

Caitlin Sarian (00:59:07):

Yeah. They can watch. There's also a site, there's multiple sites actually, that show every single camera that's on an open network. Wait, what does that mean? They can literally log into cameras that are on open unsecured wifis. So if you have a camera and you're on an open wifi and they somehow decide to connect to the IP address that you're sitting on, they will be able to turn on your camera.

Mel Robbins (00:59:33):

Whoa.

Caitlin Sarian (00:59:34):

Yeah.

Mel Robbins (00:59:35):

Just trying to process processes because you're saying that somebody can hack into my laptop if I'm on an open network and they can turn on my camera on my laptop and be watching me.

Caitlin Sarian (00:59:48):

I had an old boss that literally had, he didn't have a camera cover on his camera. This was like five years ago, and someone had taken pictures. He changed in front of his computer, and someone had taken pictures of him and sent him an email being like, we have some really vulgar pictures of you that we're going to release. And he was pretty high up in the company that I was working for, and he didn't care. He was like, whatever, release him. But people can turn it on and off your camera if they want to just put on a camera cover.

Mel Robbins (01:00:23):

What is a camera cover?

Caitlin Sarian (01:00:24):

There's little covers that you can buy literally $3 on Amazon, and you just cover it when you're not using it, that prevents it. Obviously. They won't be able to see anything. And also just be mindful of where you're connecting. He traveled a lot for work too.

Mel Robbins (01:00:37):

And so this can happen to your doorbell. It can happen to your baby monitor. It can happen to any camera you have.

Caitlin Sarian (01:00:42):

Yeah. Yeah. There was someone that follows me that someone hacked into their baby monitor, but it was because they reused an old password that was leaked. They heard voices in the baby monitor of some random guy talking to the baby.

Mel Robbins (01:00:58):

That's terrifying.

Caitlin Sarian (01:00:59):

Yeah, it was awful. But again, passwords.

Mel Robbins (01:01:02):

Passwords, okay.

Caitlin Sarian (01:01:04):

Passwords,

Mel Robbins (01:01:04):

Password everybody. I have a stack of emails right here from listeners of the Mel Robbins podcast. These emails have come in from around the world and they cover all kinds of scams that people have fallen for. One scam is that people buy a copy of the Let Them Theory that is counterfeit. It looks nothing like the cover or it's being sold on Etsy or even Shien, the fast fashion site, or it's spiral bound, or it's paperback, and there's not a paperback version available in the United States. It's just not written by me, misspelled, but they're falling for it. Lots of emails from people who sadly are getting emails from scammers, posing as employees of my company, and basically they're getting more and more sophisticated. The old scam used to be, Hey, if you pay $10,000, we'd love to book you. We never pay anybody. We also don't require somebody to pay to be on this show. And now they've updated the scam to say, hey, we never ask anybody to pay so they're knowing that they know that we put language up on our website about scams, and they're posing as employees. Can you talk to me about the rise of these kinds of things that are happening?

Caitlin Sarian (01:02:34):

Yeah. So funny story, when we first got hold of your booker, your booker found us. My manager called me, and I was like, this is probably a scam. I would love it if it's not a scam, but you need to get on the phone with this person and see their face and make sure this is legitimate, because I don't trust an email. So the first thing is, if it's not from a verified source like your Instagram, if you are not messaging them directly from your verified Instagram, it's not you.

Mel Robbins (01:03:03):

Well, one of the things that I've also noticed in a lot of scam emails that I get is that people will ask me to click through to schedule a conversation with somebody. And I never, ever do that. And a lot of these, in terms of the scams that people are receiving as because they're very convincing. I'm like, wait a minute. That's the name of a person who actually worked here. Wait a minute, they're saying that we don't pay people to come on this show, and there's never a fee for you to be on this show. What? They've changed this already.

Caitlin Sarian (01:03:34):

They're saying everything, right?

Mel Robbins (01:03:35):

But now they're saying, and they're linking to all the prior experts, so it looks like really legit. And then they're like, but Mel will give you a private strategy session. We'll build you custom stuff. We don't do any of this stuff. Click here to schedule a call. Yeah. So you're basically saying, no, no, no, no. Pick up the phone and call.

Caitlin Sarian (01:03:56):

Yes.

Mel Robbins (01:03:57):

Got it.

Caitlin Sarian (01:03:57):

Yeah. I don't click. My manager knows. Do not click on any links. That is like a blanket statement rule I have. If I need to get ahold of anything, again, if I need to click on a link for a bank, I call them, and I only am clicking on it when I'm on the phone with the bank. If you have to click on something, call the person and just say, Hey, what is this about? Or hover over the link and see where it's going. It will show you the url.

Mel Robbins (01:04:24):

Oh,

Caitlin Sarian (01:04:25):

Yeah. Unless it's coming like mel robbins.com/in in-person interview, I'm not going to trust wherever it's sending me.

Caitlin Sarian (01:04:52):

Passwords. We've talked about it a lot tonight. Go and write down, these are accounts that I don't want anyone getting access to. These are my key accounts. And you'll start thinking about more and more as you move on throughout your day. What apps do you not want people have access to? What banks, social media, all of that. So identify your key accounts and make sure that you have strong and unique passwords for all of them. No reusing of the same passwords, no reusing of the same base password. Have strong passwords. So for those of you guys that aren't myself or Mel, you're traveling all the time probably too. If you're at home using a desktop for my parents, right? I'm like, please, mom, I'm going to get you a book. We'll put it in the log cabinet right next to your computer. You just pull it out when you're on the computer and you can use it that way. You can actually remember and write down your strong passwords for the people that are always on the go. Yeah, have a unique passphrase or whatever you think you need to remember that longer password. When it says, oh, remember this? Usually it's on a phone, and that's just, remember, it's a password manager on the iPhone.

Mel Robbins (01:05:55):

Okay?

Caitlin Sarian (01:05:56):

So you can do that. That's still a password manager. I use the password manager myself. I love it. I swear by it or on your notes and just lock it.

Mel Robbins (01:06:03):

So that's number one.

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:04):

Yes.

Mel Robbins (01:06:04):

So once we got the password set, what's the second thing we're doing?

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:06):

Software updates automatically. Right? When you download the app, just turn it on.

Mel Robbins (01:06:11):

Okay. Because software updates as a cybersecurity expert, you're saying when it says, Ooh, fix bugs make more optimize, they're actually solving and fixing where the hackers broke in.

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:23):

Yes.

Mel Robbins (01:06:24):

So automatic software updates on all apps. I got that. What's the third thing I'm doing?

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:29):

The third thing you are going to do is freeze your credit. Freeze your credit. Super simple. That's like a one and done thing. You can do that tonight.

Mel Robbins (01:06:37):

Okay. Because then if you've frozen your credit, because you're not taking out any loans, you're not opening up new credits, that means nobody else can either.

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:45):

Right.

Mel Robbins (01:06:45):

Oh, I love that. Okay.

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:46):

Can't have identity theft unless you give them extra passwords and stuff with, that's a separate thing.

Mel Robbins (01:06:50):

Okay, so fourth thing I'm doing,

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:52):

The fourth thing you are doing is taking nine seconds before you click on any link.

Mel Robbins (01:06:58):

Ooh, nine seconds.

Caitlin Sarian (01:06:59):

Yeah, there's psychology about the nine seconds of, it's just enough time for you to take a deep breath, think and realize where you are. Got it. So I didn't do the psychology aspect of it, but that's what the nonprofit did. So take nine seconds and I always just say, just don't click on links. I know that that is not as easy for most people, but take nine seconds before you click on any link, and if there's an option for you to just call, I would call.

Mel Robbins (01:07:25):

Well, and also in those nine seconds, you can look at the email address. Exactly. You can look at a lot of things. What's the final thing that we're going to do to protect ourselves?

Caitlin Sarian (01:07:35):

Limit the amount of data online. There's multiple ways to do this, right? How there's deletion services out there that every month go through and manually delete all the information that keeps popping up. Are you kidding me? No, this was what I was going to ask you. Yeah, there's multiple services, but I use this one and I'm obsessed with it. It's called Incogi. It's like the best thing ever. What's it called? It's called Incogi. It's supposed to be like incognito. But-

Mel Robbins (01:07:58):

Incogni?

Caitlin Sarian (01:07:58):

yeah, and I-

Mel Robbins (01:08:00):

They should become a sponsor of this podcast because I'm telling you, as I was sitting here listening, I was thinking, how am I going to get all this shit off the internet? How am I getting my old addresses and my mother's maiden name and my dogs that have died and everything else, and how am I going? You can actually scrub your stuff?

Caitlin Sarian (01:08:18):

Yeah

Mel Robbins (01:08:18):

You're kidding me.

Caitlin Sarian (01:08:19):

No,

Mel Robbins (01:08:19):

I thought once it was out there, you can't get, it's out there.

Caitlin Sarian (01:08:22):

I'm very excited for you to try it. It even tells you within 10 seconds it'll say, it'll start scanning and saying, Hey, we found all this information. We're automatically sending out opt-out requests on your behalf for you. And it's international too.

Mel Robbins (01:08:35):

So the software is certainly something that if it's within your reach to look at, to potentially get a subscription to. But if you want to try to do this manually, what are the big websites you go to and how do you do this?

Caitlin Sarian (01:08:49):

Yeah, there's white pages. True People search people finder. I have an entire series on how to delete it. So usually you have to go and you have to search your own name. Then you have to scroll all the way down, and they make it hard to opt out, but there's an opt-out page. Usually you can find it on their privacy policy. And then you have to have a separate request on that opt-out page saying, this is me. Please remove my data. I want you to remove it. And then this is bonus points, which we talked about. The sixth one is probably going through your apps and your app settings and seeing what they have access to. Again, it seems like it's a lot, but again, the apps, once you've set it, it's one and done. Once you have the auto updates one and done, set your password, you don't have to change it for at least another year unless there is a breach for that account. So all of these things, it's just you're building routines. It's like brushing your teeth, right? Brushing your teeth, washing your face. Did you like doing it? It took extra time when you were a little kid. You just wanted to sleep. But you learn that that was what's best. It's like any wellness routine too. Do I want to spend an hour at the gym? No. It's annoying, but it's going to be better for me in the long run. This is exactly that.

Mel Robbins (01:09:52):

What's the one thing out of everything you've taught us today that you think is the most important thing for the person who is listening to do as soon as they are done listening, other than send this to everybody in your family? Because we all need this information and we all need to be smarter about protecting ourselves. And so what's though, the one thing to do tonight?

Caitlin Sarian (01:10:17):

Yeah, I would do passwords for sure. Get your key accounts, turn on multi-factor authentication, and make sure you have an updated, strong, long password.

Mel Robbins (01:10:25):

Okay.

Caitlin Sarian (01:10:26):

Yeah,

Mel Robbins (01:10:26):

I can do that.

Caitlin Sarian (01:10:27):

You can do that.

Mel Robbins (01:10:28):

Caitlin, what are your parting words?

Caitlin Sarian (01:10:30):

Cybersecurity is not for experts. It's literally for everyone. We use it every day, and it's not supposed to be a scary word. That's why I don't even like saying cybersecurity because people get so detached from it. They're like, I can't do this. It's way too out of my comfort zone. I have no idea what you're even talking about. Cybersecurity is very simple things that you can do to empower yourself and your family and your loved ones to be safe because we are all online. Now, don't be afraid. It's very simple things that you can do, and it's not supposed to be scary. It's supposed to be something that you can feel empowered to and then share this with other people.

Mel Robbins (01:11:04):

I really appreciate everything that you taught me and the person that's here with us today. I have to admit, as we were starting the conversation, I had this really heavy feeling. I have completely screwed this up. The cat is already out of the bag. There's no way that I'm going to get in charge, in control of this. Everything's out there. There's no way to get it deleted. There's no way to protect myself. I've already screwed up. So why even bother on the advice? I feel completely different. I feel the opposite now. I feel very hopeful around both the deletion service and the fact that you can go to the websites and manually get yourself removed. So that does something. And I think all five of these things that you talked about, the password, the software updates, freezing your credit nine seconds and really limiting the amount of information that you are giving online because why do they need your phone number? Why do they need all that information? You're just pouring out online. And so I feel very empowered and excited to do everything that you just explained, and I feel a little bit smarter. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for hopping on a plane and being here.

Caitlin Sarian (01:12:26):

Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Mel Robbins (01:12:28):

Oh, of course. And I also want to thank you. Thank you for spending time listening to this and getting smarter and empowering yourself. And didn't you just love the very specific things that you can do? I have a feeling this is one of those resource pages that everybody's going to be like, link, link, link. Tell me what to do. Also, thank you for sharing this with people that you care about, because we all need the facts and we need to know specifically how to solve these issues and protect ourselves. And one more thing in case no one else tells you. I wanted to be sure to tell you as your friend that I love you and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And there's no doubt in my mind after listening to everything that Caitlin taught us today about protecting yourself online, that feeling safe as you're online, protecting yourself and your family by doing these simple things that she taught us today will help you create and live a better life. Alrighty, I'll see you in the next episode. I'll be there waiting to welcome you in the moment you hit play. And thank you for watching on YouTube and thanks for watching all the way to the end. And if you're wondering, Mel, what should I watch next? Great question. You're going to love this episode, and I will welcome you in the moment you hit play. Check it out.