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Jim Wasserman

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    • We are pretty sure the breach was at Walmart.com. We read that others had the same problem. It's not just Walmart. The unfortunate situation nowadays is that wherever one stores one's card info, we have to hope they do not get breached. We started deleting stored CC info on sites. Better to have to re-enter it each time than have others get their cyber fingers on it.

      Post: Aftermath of a Scam

      Link to comment from March 10, 2023

    • I'm sure it varies by manager and on another day, we might have been absolved. I think what threw the system haywire in our case was confusing disputing a charge, which is technically ordering goods (to your address) and then being unhappy with them, and a fraud complaint regarding something you did not order (usually to another address). We had a fraud complaint that looked like a dispute because of the address.

      Post: Aftermath of a Scam

      Link to comment from March 10, 2023

    • Thank you, Chazooo. I am a big believer in pre-familiarizing yourself with something so that then your gut-grabber can set off the alarm based on something you can't specifically put your finger on but in your gut you know it's off. Back when I practiced law we asked if the witness' story passed the "smell test" before we even looked into details. I used the same gut sense when I became a teacher. Often my first signal that a student's paper was not theirs was my gut that said I don't hear his/her voice as I read it. Be well.

      Post: Getting Good Counsel

      Link to comment from February 25, 2023

    • Thanks, Edmund. I once gave a homily at my school talking about timeless humor. I pointed out that Aethelred the Unready was a 1,000 year joke as his name translates as "Well-advised the Poorly-advised." I laughed. The history and English teachers laughed. The kids stared. Jonathan Clements, I believe, is descended from British royalty. My mum was British, her family from Liverpool, so I would happily settle for a relation to one of the Beatles! Be well.

      Post: Getting Good Counsel

      Link to comment from February 25, 2023

    • Thank you for the kind words, Linda. I agree that the small choices often aren't worth the mental energy, especially if you have a backup plan or general flexible outlook that can adapt to fill in gaps on the fly. Jiab is better at pre-planning, so we often do a strategy for get-aways where Jiab does the pre-set (books the plane tickets and hotel) and then I do the adjusting/filling in gaps as they come along (look around for what to do when we get there). Be well.

      Post: Getting Good Counsel

      Link to comment from February 25, 2023

    • Thanks, Richard. We know someone who Googled "Facebook customer support" and the top hit was a phone number (FB has no customer support telephone number). They called and followed the instructions to find themself locked out of his own computer as the scammers hijacked it!

      Post: There Be Monsters

      Link to comment from November 23, 2022

    • I appreciate the feedback, Dick. Of course not every group is blanket ignorant and gullible, whether "seniors," "boomers," "millennials." etc. Each group has savvy and vulnerable people. That said, the big picture statistics indicate that people over 60 (and I am in that group) have seen a tremendous upsurge in being taken advantage of, especially from internet scams. See a report on official FBI warning here There are many possible reasons, whether because they are less "native" to the internet, a higher percentage incidence in cognitive decline than younger age groups, or that more within that group turn over financial matters to others to manage. None of these justify disrespect to you or other members of this or any group. I think it is good to warn everyone to be wary of scams, but the numbers indicate that this demographic is particularly getting taken, regardless of individual member's acumen, and so extra heed should be taken.

      Post: Bad Guy on Line One

      Link to comment from August 4, 2022

    • Thank, Dick. I appreciate the different perspective. I think that, when it comes to perceiving a different group of people, by location, beliefs, or age, it's like the blind men and the elephant. It depends on what part you inspect and how much of the total you get to examine (and that's just the elephant's physical build, not its temperament). I tell the same thing to young folks who tell me what all of us boomers are like (and always were like, as if we have never changed). If I'm feeling teacher-y, I use that to discuss sampling errors. Be well.

      Post: Buy and Hodl

      Link to comment from July 7, 2022

    • Well said, Richard!

      Post: Course Correction

      Link to comment from June 4, 2022

    • Thanks. OK, so your comment got my behavioral econ mind to wondering what are the male:female ratios on dating sites and are there any patterns (like if there are trends depending on how much the site is geared toward casual hookup or long-term relationship). Here's one article on it. I'll ruminate on the data while working out: https://www.datingadvice.com/online-dating/dating-site-male-to-female-ratios

      Post: Course Correction

      Link to comment from June 4, 2022

    Articles

    Aftermath of a Scam

    Jim Wasserman   |  Mar 10, 2023

    IT ALL STARTED WITH a purchase alert. With so much account hacking, we have alerts on our phones for every new purchase, so we can immediately respond if there’s an unauthorized transaction. What we didn’t know was that disputing charges can be so Kafkaesque.
    My wife Jiab asked if I had just purchased anything online from Walmart. I had not. There were two suspect charges, each for about $50, simultaneously charged to our Chase and Capital One credit cards.

    Pay to Play

    Jim Wasserman   |  Feb 27, 2023

    EVEN IN OUR consumer-driven society, some things are looked down upon if bought. One of those things is companionship.
    I’ll leave the topic of sexual intimacy for another day. What I’m talking about here is paying—directly or indirectly—for social interaction. We might buy a younger colleague lunch simply to have somebody to dine with. We might continue therapy long after we’ve finished exploring the issues that prompted us to sign up. We all have a need to connect with others and thereby have our own existence validated.

    Getting Good Counsel

    Jim Wasserman   |  Feb 25, 2023

    IN OLD ENGLISH, to be “ready” for something meant to be well counseled. The English King Aethelred the Unready earned his nickname because he was ill-advised. His tumultuous reign ended with invasions and revolts, including one by his son.
    When we feel we have “extra” money or even just a hankering to spend, there’s a host of outside voices to counsel us. Most try to influence our actions out of self-interest—for their commercial benefit.

    There Be Monsters

    Jim Wasserman   |  Nov 23, 2022

    I’VE BEEN AWAY FROM the HumbleDollar community for a while. Jiab and I are working on a new book about media literacy, examining the effects of social media influencers on youth consumerism. It will teach kids about responsible web use and how to avoid the traps of the online world.
    I’ve learned a lot myself, including lessons that apply both online and IRL, short for “in real life.” As part of our research,

    Bad Guy on Line One

    Jim Wasserman   |  Aug 4, 2022

    GOOD PARENTS WARN their children about predators who look to take advantage of them. By the same token, good adults should warn and safeguard their elderly parents, as well as the other seniors they care for.
    We all use our electronics for accessing information. We sometimes forget the information highway is two-way, and nefarious people use those lines of communication to get to the vulnerable. And it isn’t just about hacking online accounts. Often,

    Divide and Conquer

    Jim Wasserman   |  Jul 29, 2022

    IF WE GO TO THE movies and buy a mega-tub of popcorn, we’ll eat a lot, probably too much. If, however, that same amount of popcorn is packaged into four bags, we won’t eat nearly so much.
    Why? With the four bags, we keep arriving at a decision point—that moment when we have to ponder whether it’s worth opening a new bag. This is the insight of behavioral economist Dilip Soman of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management,

    Buy and Hodl

    Jim Wasserman   |  Jul 7, 2022

    I’M A FAN OF SLANG and newly coined words. Think of all the names for money we’ve had over the years, like cheese, clams and cabbage. New words catch on not only because they allow a new generation to put their stamp on the world, but also the words reflect changing attitudes.
    That brings me to “stonks,” the name many millennials use for stocks—and one that reflects a different view of investing. No one’s sure where the word originated.

    Too Clever by Half

    Jim Wasserman   |  Jun 9, 2022

    I WAS EDITING a fellow graduate student’s paper. She’s in her mid-20s, less than half my age. She’s bright and communicates well in class discussion, but her paper—frankly—was a mess. Great ideas, but she expressed them in overly pretentious language. One bloviated sentence was more than 60 words.
    When I asked her why she did this, she said she wanted to “sound smart” by not using the same old words she normally uses. She worried that no one would take her seriously unless she adorned her ideas in the polysyllabic jargon of academia.

    Under the Radar

    Jim Wasserman   |  May 23, 2022

    RESEARCH SHOWS HOW subtle sales pitches, called nudges, can influence our buying. Think of tricks like putting the more expensive potato chips on eye-level grocery-store shelves. Over time, such nudges create spending habits. Those habits become ingrained, nonthinking ways of dealing with money.
    A collection of such poor habits begun in childhood can result in a hard-to-alter lifestyle of poor saving and foolish spending. Even worse, nudging sends a stealth message, especially to children,

    Talking Money

    Jim Wasserman   |  Apr 22, 2022

    APRIL IS FINANCIAL Literacy Month. If that doesn’t excite you, imagine how your children feel.
    Still, consider this an opportunity to begin or reinforce your kids’ financial education. Many of my students told me one of their parents was into “finance,” but when I asked how the parent handled the family money, students would just shrug and say that was all they knew.
    Children don’t like a straight-up lesson, especially from a parent. The trick is to make it seem casual and as blended into everyday life—theirs,

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