A lot of numbers cross my desk — er, computer screen — every day, like these: 10,400 people monitored Taylor Swift’s flight to the Super Bowl in real time, 13,000 folks had their Wyze camera footage leaked, and Americans lost $10 billion to scams last year.
A new report from the FTC paints a pretty scary picture using — you guessed it — some pretty scary numbers. In 2023 alone, 2.6 million people were victims of fraud, and around 1 million were targets of identity theft.
“Kim, that could never happen to me.” I hear this all the time. Maybe you heard about the New York magazine columnist who got conned out of $50,000. Her beat? Personal finance. Oof.
Before we leave that grim FTC report
About 416,000 of those identity theft victims only found out something was wrong after they got an alert from their credit card company or they tried to apply for a new card. By then, the damage is done.
So, who’s a target? Sorry, friend, but it’s just about anyone. Some cybercrimes are large-scale — think ransomware targeting huge corporations — but in the wild world of fraud, everyone with a bank account, credit card or, heck, even a mailbox is a potential victim.
Hey, you, smarty-pants
I hear so many of these stories. There was the man who called me because Apple’s Security Department (there is no such thing!) told him there was porn in his iCloud account. Yup, to get rid of it, he paid them $150,000.
One woman called my show because her brother had been conned three different times, losing a total of $400,000. Another caller, a super-smart Air Force retiree, was tricked by her online boyfriend (they’d never met in person) into handing over $1 million!
It’s not just older folks or the easily tricked. Studies reveal well-educated people with good jobs are just as vulnerable. A recent FTC report showed those in the Gen Z and millennial brackets are 34% more likely to report losing money than those over 60.
Part of the reason spotting attacks like these is so hard is the sheer amount of information scammers have access to. That’s why I wanted to tell you about Incogni. I am so glad I found this service!
For a few bucks, anyone can buy a whole dossier of data on you — your workplace and role, your family members' names and contact info, where you live, and how much you paid for your house. The list goes on and on.
There’s a way to shortcut the process
I’ll tell you from firsthand experience, you can remove yourself one by one, but it’s a major pain and more frustrating than you’d believe. Then again, remember these sites want you to get lost in the confusing steps, to just throw your hands up and say, “Whatever.”
Think of Incogni as your personal privacy service. They find all the people-search and data broker sites your info is listed on, then they submit requests to remove you. It all happens automatically after you set up your Incogni account.
I regularly get emails from Incogni about its progress. So far, it's cleared my info from 151 of these creepy databases — saving me an estimated 113 hours. That’s almost five days! Even better, they make sure my info stays off for the long haul.
✅ Right now, while you’re thinking about it, let Incogni do the work. I negotiated a deal just for you: 60% off. Stop waiting and take back your privacy. I’m sure glad I did. I love not getting any spam texts and calls! Silence really is golden.
