Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
Boomer mom calls me yesterday and says, you know. I ask her what she means- details please. She says someone got into her Facebook and is sending messages to all her friends asking for their personal info. I ask her if she clicked on any weird links lately.
“Yeah, there was this survey that I clicked on that was about living in my town. On the third question it asked where I live. That seemed weird so I clicked out of it.”
“Who sent you the survey?”
“I don’t know”
“No- who’s profile did it come from?”
“Oh, it wasn’t from Facebook. It was a text to my phone”
“So some random number texts you and wants you to click on a link to take a survey about living in your town?”
“Yeah, so how did they get into my Facebook?”
“Facebook is the least of your worries. They used your phone as a gateway to ALL of your personal data. Do you do any banking on your phone?”
(Proudly) “nope! I still go to the bank for all of my transactions.”
“Okay, what about online shopping or credit cards or any of that?”
“Hardly ever”
“Okay, let’s try this. Is there ANYTHING you do on your phone that requires a password?”
“Not really. Just my 401k and social security stuff.”
“…”
“Oh! Could that be problematic?”
“Hang up and call your fucking bank right now.”