It’s time to cleanup your digital ‘financial house’
It’s time to make some changes online-please read and share
What are your 2026 resolutions? Do they include doing some type of digital detox? With the trends among younger generations to have ‘dumb phones’ instead of smart phones, and with all the hype about artificial intelligence, I was already thinking of making some changes. But then something happened that has helped me move forward with making some changes.
I recently had an experience that I want to share with you, and I want you to share this with everyone that you know. A friend of mine who is over 70 years old recently had her email hacked by scammers. The way that it happened was that somehow they got into her yahoo email account and sent out an “save the date“ Evite invitation that had a link in it that presumably had some type of spyware or malicious virus on it.
So that if someone were to open the invitation or click on the link, to the untrained eye, nothing would happen. But then a virus would be installed on their computer. Fortunately, I am close with this person and I knew that she would not be sending emails at 3:30 in the morning, and she would also not be inviting me to a party with champagne less than a week away!
Unfortunately, now it has become quite a large project for her to work to unwind everything and take actionable steps to prevent any further issues and also to keep her money and investments safe. It was an eye-opening experience for me too, and I am also taking extra steps personally and inside my business so that nothing further can happen. Here is what I can recommend to you and I hope that you take time to consider this as a big project but that it’s totally necessary.
First you need to understand that if your email program is free, then you most likely do not have any type of security as it relates to your data being leaked or sold. Your social security number, email addresses, telephone numbers, and so much more are readily available online now and there’s no way to get them back. There have been major data leaks in the past few years and many of them go unnoticed because they don’t stop your daily life, unless you are a victim of this type of cyber crime. So yes, I am telling you that you should seriously consider switching from using free email services such as Yahoo, Google/Gmail, Apple mail and Outlook for all of your online banking and so much more. Here is an article that I read, and I will recommend to you, proton mail as the easiest way to switch over to something secure. I do not make any money off of this suggestion.
The other thing I can recommend to you is to create aliases and or separate email accounts for separate types of accounts that you hold. Believe it or not the grocery stores are the biggest data leakers and biggest security risk to you. Think about it-when you do curbside pick up at Walmart, H-E-B or Kroger, they have your email address, telephone number, and sometimes even the make and model of your car and your license plate. These types of things have been proven to have been leaked in the public domain to the dark web where scammers thrive, and therefore put you at risk.
So I can recommend that you create different categories for logins and passwords so that you are not mixing your banking information with these known data leaks. So the separate categories that you can think about are: 1. banking 2. medical/doctors. 3. shopping 4. social media. You are essentially treating different email accounts or even aliases for the different categories.
Now I know this can feel overwhelming and I know that at this point some people have around 500 logins and passwords due to all the online shopping and social media, but consider how fast this has all gotten out of control, and how fast you could be a victim of some type of financial scam.
The people who are running these scams are oftentimes slaves in places like Myanmar, China and Russia. They don’t have any personal issues against you, but rather are working to try to get out of a terrible situation. As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent, so do the complexities of these scams. So please don’t take it personally when you get scammed or hacked. You should really just take it seriously and take immediate action.
The other thing that I can recommend to you is that you should stop using browsers such as Chrome, Safari and Firefox. I highly recommend DuckDuckGo. They do not store your information nor scrape your data and sell to 3rd parties. This includes the browser that you are using on any of your devices, whether it be your cell phone your iPad or your PC or laptop.
Another item that you should be aware of is when you download an app on your phone such as Instagram or Facebook, many times you are giving it permission to track your location and have full access to your contact list. Consider this if you are using your contact list to store anybody’s telephone number that doesn’t want their phone number on the public domain and also if you are using your contact list to store passwords. A program like Proton will also do a password reminder service for you if you feel like you have too many to remember. I know it’s crazy to think about all of these changes, but like I said if I could go back to the days of driving around and paying bills with checks or mailing the checks, I think that would be safer at this point! I personally removed these social media apps from my phone a few years ago when I realized how much they were tracking my whereabouts and trying to take my contact list. That is why you don’t see me on Facebook very often, because I only login via DuckDuck Go and a VPN!
You can also consider using a VPN or ‘Virtual Private Network’ when surfing the internet on any and all devices. I have used Express VPN and I know that Proton also has this in their suite of services.
I highly recommend paying for LifeLock and keeping up with the notifications and action items. They can help you from time to time if there are issues.
My last bit of advice is to find someone who can help you with this, whether it be your significant other or your child or even grandchildren who can understand this and help you with the technology piece. You also need to set up a succession and backup plan for other people to have access to your accounts. Suze Orman has a great article about this.
As it relates to how this affects my business practices with you, it has really given me the push to do all these things for myself and my business. I think it is also a great reminder that working with me as an independent broker means that I am not selling any of your data to any third-party. I am in constant communication with you throughout any type of real estate transaction, and my partners in title and mortgage are also very aware as we move through the process. If you are working with a broker or agent who is with one of the larger firms or a firm that is not aware of the security issues, then you are putting yourself at risk. Just be sure to keep a very keen eye on these types of issues and raise the issue with larger firms when you need to work with them.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope that it helps.
References and resources:
https://cyberpress.org/instagram-data-leak/
https://termly.io/resources/articles/biggest-data-breaches/
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/world/asia/myanmar-scam-center.html