What's your favorite Beatles song? Where did you get married? What's your dog's name? Whenever you answer a question on a random person's or company's post, you're giving up information to exploit you.

See what social media sites collect about you

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How do you find out what social media platforms know about you? Bet you didn't know you can grab your data anytime, all of it. In this episode, we talk about how to get all your data from a social media platform so you can see what they've stored.

• Get your data from Facebook
• Get your data from Instagram
• Get your data from LinkedIn
• Get your data from Snapchat
• Get all your Google emails, photos, YouTube videos

For any other social media platforms, search for "download my data from [platform]" to find out how.

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What is an NFT, and why would anyone want to buy one? There are lots of reasons why someone might buy a certified JPG or other NFT, but there's no guarantee your NFT will increase in value or even retain the value you paid for it. In this episode, host Michele Bousquet talks about different kinds of NFTs on the market, how they compare to physical art items, and how fraudsters have found a rich source of free funds in NFT theft.

Sources:

• Joey Mars website
• Investors sue Sotheby's, Justin Bieber, Hilton among others as NFT prices crash
• Seth Green’s Bored Ape NFT Got “Kidnapped"
• NFT Price Floor - Bored Ape Yacht Club

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The story of Silk Road, the underground website where you could buy and sell anything, is now part of internet lore. Customers could order everything from pot to meth and have it delivered to their door. Then came fake IDs, unregistered guns, poisons, and murder-for-hire. But wherever there's illegal activity and lots of money, violence isn't far behind. This episode takes you on a very quick tour of the rise and fall of Silk Road, which met its demise in 2013 when founder Ross Ulbricht got caught.

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Well, it finally happened: I got scammed! I bought a high-end projector at a price that was too good to be true, because it wasn't true. Don't fall for the White Van scam!

White van speaker scam on Wikipedia
The Art and Math of Cryptography at Amazon.com

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In October 21, 2021, Josh Renaud, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, privately alerted a government authority that their website had vulnerabilities. In response, the governor of Missouri, Michael L. Parson, brought charges against the journalist for "hacking." This story would be hilarious if it wasn't true. Update: In July 2022, Josh Renaud was awarded The National Press Club press freedom award for his work.

• Get the "F12 IS NOT A CRIME" T-shirt
• Original St. Louis Post-Dispatch article: Missouri teachers' Social Security numbers at risk on state agency's website (requires subscription to view)
• Arstechnica article: Emails show what happened before Missouri gov. falsely called journalist a “hacker”
• Governor Parson's Facebook post - Enjoy the comments.
• Missouri State Highway Patrol report
• Fundraising video: Gov. Parson holds fake news accountable. Enjoy the comments.

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You get an email telling you you've been billed for a product you never ordered, and when you call for a refund, you somehow you get an excess refund and have to send back the difference. Find out how scammers manipulate people into sending them "excess refund money" from a nonexistent refund, and what you can do to keep it from happening to others. Shout-out to YouTuber Kitboga for showing me how this scam works.

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What is Tor? In this episode, we demystify the Tor browser and how it relates to the Surface Web, the Deep Web, and the Dark Web. Maybe you want to use Tor, and maybe you don't. But in any case you'll know what it is, and will be able to decide if it's right for you.

Download the Tor browser at the official site
A great read about the dark web at Wired.com
Get the T-shirt! Fly your Tor flag.

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Visit us on Patreon for bonus content and special offers! But only if you hate scams too.