Power Up Wealth podcast – Episode 95 – Allow Us to Be Your Financial Bodyguard
James Derrick 0:00
The threat of cyber attacks, scams, and just simply being taken advantage of continues to be a major concern. I’m James Derrick, and today I’ll be joined by Mikal Aune to discuss allowing your financial advisor to be your financial bodyguard.
Sharla Jessop 0:24
Welcome to the SFS Power Up Wealth podcast, where we provide impactful insight and expert opinions on timeless financial principles and timely investment topics, preparing you to make smarter decisions with your money.
James Derrick 0:47
Thank you for joining me today, Mikal.
Mikal Aune 0:49
Glad to be here, James.
James Derrick 0:50
Mikal Aune is our Vice President of Wealth Management at Smedley Financial. He has a CFP CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNING designation. And Mikal, I love this topic. Every time I hear about this financial bodyguard, I’m very intrigued, and I don’t think we talk about it enough. Why don’t you jump into what you like about being a financial bodyguard for other people.
Mikal Aune 1:12
The biggest thing is I like to help people, and we see way too many people that are getting taken advantage of through scams and emails and other attacks, and they’re getting, they’re losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, and these are our real clients, and a lot of times that problem could have been prevented if they had reached out to somebody. They can reach out to a family member, they can reach out to us. And so if, if you don’t feel like talking to a family member or somebody else, come talk to us like we have experience. We’ve been through it before. We can tell you if we see red flags, and we can be your bodyguard and help protect you.
James Derrick 1:47
You have to say, like, when it comes to an email, like, when in doubt, don’t click on the link, right?
Mikal Aune 1:51
Yeah, we have way too many stories. So email is one big one. So here’s, here’s a story from a while ago. One day I’m sitting at my desk, I was on a phone call, and an email pops in that’s like, Mikal, are you there? It was with a client I’d been dealing with recently. So I just replied, I’m on a phone call. I’ll call you when I’m done. Well, I get an email back that says we’re on vacation in Mexico. Our cell phones don’t work. Kindly, email us the balances in our accounts. And when I was done with my phone call, I was like, that is really weird. They already know about how much they have in their accounts. And then I started looking closer at the email, and there was some spelling errors and punctuation errors. And I was like, this doesn’t smell right. And so I reached out to both clients, and I couldn’t get a hold of them. We had other clients that knew they were clients, because we can’t contact anybody that doesn’t already know, right? We can’t tell somebody that we know somebody’s a client. And so we contacted the friends and said, Hey, we got this notice that they’re on vacation in Mexico. Are they? And they said, Well, they’re on vacation in Cedar City. And what had happened is they had clicked on a link and allowed somebody to get in and actually have access to their email. And that person had watched and waited for them to go on vacation, and when they’re on vacation, then they reached out. Now we had some fail safes in place, so nothing ever happened or became of that other than the client had to go through all the hoops to, you know, get a new email provider, you know, create new passwords, a bunch of other things, make sure that all their finances were protected. But email is one big area that we see lots and lots of issues.
James Derrick 3:26
Yeah, I think there’s all kinds of red flags. I mean, you mentioned spelling errors, I know also one of the things we don’t look at a lot is the email address, where’s it coming from?
Mikal Aune 3:37
And the criminals are getting more and more sophisticated. So a lot of times you’ll see something that looks like it’s coming from microsoft.com and really you have to hover over the email and all of a sudden you see some weird, bogus email address that’s coming from Timbuktu, you know, or something. And you’re like, Okay, that’s not legitimate. And so you have to be more and more wary and cautious about where emails are coming from, and don’t click on any links.
James Derrick 4:02
We had this little pop up on our window on the computer at home, a little window popped up and it said, Oh yeah, you’ve got a Microsoft Update problem. Call this number, and my wife gave it a call. And luckily, as soon as they said, well, we need to take control of your computer, she was like, uhh oh yeah, this is a red flag and and caught on to it. But, I mean, luckily she did, because you can just imagine.
Mikal Aune 4:25
She’s not alone, like we’ve had clients, and they’ve authorized us to share the story. They had that exact same thing happen. Popped up on the computer. They called the phone number, they trusted the people, and that those are the things that you have to pay attention to, right? What are the things that the criminals are going to do. They want to make themselves credible so they seem trustworthy. They’re going to create some urgency, like, you need to take care of this right now. They’re going to try to create an emotional connection with you in a lot of times in certain circumstances, they’ll also promise unrealistic rewards.
James Derrick 4:57
Could be like, Oh, this is Amazon.
Mikal Aune 4:59
Uh huh.
James Derrick 4:59
And we’ve got a big package for you.
Mikal Aune 5:01
Yes.
James Derrick 5:02
And we’re unable to deliver it.
Mikal Aune 5:04
Yep.
James Derrick 5:04
So you’ve got credibility, urgency.
Mikal Aune 5:07
And just click on this link and just put in your personal information, and then we’ll get you the package. These clients that we had window popped up said, contact Microsoft, and it had a phone number right there, and they called it, and the people said, oh, okay, to fix it, we need to log into your computer. And so they gave them their username and password for their laptop. And as soon as they did, the criminals just locked it down like that, and they were able to get all their personal information that was on their laptop, like even banking information, and they were able to log into their bank account and wire $100,000 out.
James Derrick 5:44
Wow!
Mikal Aune 5:45
That’s painful, because once it’s wired, it is really hard to recoup. So yes, it was a good thing that your wife caught it. Like she’s not alone. This is happening all over the place, and that’s why we’re like, we need to make sure people understand. Like, if you have any doubts, any concerns, talk to somebody you know, talk to a family member. Be like, Does this sound right? Some that we’ve had before, you know, a client gets a call grandpa. Grandpa, I’m in Mexico, and they won’t let me out unless you send me some money, and you can’t give me any money, money other than sending me gift cards. So send me gift cards and send me to this address, you know, and grandpa is really worried about it and worried about this grandson, and runs off to the store and gets gift cards and mails them off. And you’re like, well, grandpa, where which grandchild was it? Well, I don’t know. They were just so worried, you know, and so busy, I didn’t even stop to ask. And you’re like, Okay, red flag, right? There were a number of red flags there, but like that literally has happened to clients. And you know that the scams have gotten more sophisticated over time, because I think we have the proverbial Nigerian prince that we used to get emails on all the time. I’m a Nigerian prince, and I have, you know, I’m worth $10 million but they won’t release it to me until I get money. So if you send me just 500 bucks, then I’ll be able to release the 10 mil, and I will give you a million dollars back, right?
James Derrick 7:05
Those were the good old days, because you just the red flags were everywhere, you know, like, I mean, I’m sure that some people fell for those, and that’s sad, but there were so many red flags. I most of us recognize that for what it was.
Mikal Aune 7:05
And for now, I think we’ve heard about it so much that everybody’s like, it’s a Nigerian prince. No, don’t believe it, right? Don’t go down that rabbit hole. But they’re getting a lot more sophisticated, and it’s no longer just a Nigerian prince, right? They’re doing the things that are mimicking other websites or mimicking other credible companies so that they can try to make themselves look better and more credible. So you believe them.
James Derrick 7:42
Shane and I have done, Shane Thomas, who does our IT here at work. He’s really helpful. If I ever have any questions on an email, I just go right to him. And he’s very, very kind to look at it and tell me whether it’s safe or not safe and what, what he thinks. And he pointed out as well, you know, if you think you’ve got an email or a text that is legitimate from your bank, your credit union, your you know, Amazon or Costco or wherever you like to do your shopping, you can just go to the website. Don’t go to the link. Go there directly and see if there really is a problem with your account, your delivery, your credit card, etc.
Mikal Aune 8:22
Yeah, it’s the same thing when a phone number pops up on your screen that says, Call Microsoft. Don’t call that phone number that pops up on your screen. Find a way to look up Microsoft independently and find a good phone number for them, and then call them directly and be like, did you do this?
James Derrick 8:37
Yeah. I love how this time of year too, the IRS starts running advertisements, and they say the IRS does not call you on the phone. Yeah, that’s we do not. So then you know for sure, like they don’t do it, yes, and my guess is, is that probably applies to those pop up windows from Microsoft or from Best Buy or whoever else, fill in the blank company.
Mikal Aune 8:59
Yep.
James Derrick 8:59
That’s not how they roll.
Mikal Aune 9:01
No, that’s not how they roll. And so you have to be wary of everything that’s out there. And if you have questions, find another way to look up the email address or the phone number and make sure that it’s legitimate before you actually click on something, that it’s happening more and more, too with text messages, it’s no longer just emails.
James Derrick 9:18
It’s driving me crazy.
Mikal Aune 9:20
Yeah? So with emails, they call it phishing, but phishing with a PH, P, H, I S, H, I N, G, right? So phishing is, I send you a link and I’m hoping that you click on the link, and so I can download some bad stuff on your computer. Well, smishing is when they do it through text messages. And so you get a text message with a link. I’m starting to get these all the time that are like, Well, hey, you have a package detained by USPS, and you need, you know, click on this link to validate your information so that you can come get your package. And you’re like, that’s just that’s smishing. Somebody’s trying to give me a link that I click on that’s going to download something bad onto my phone.
James Derrick 9:58
Yeah, no package that you’re ever having delivered is worth the risk.
Mikal Aune 10:02
Exactly, it’s not worth the risk. The other thing you have to pay a lot of attention to is all the online stuff, and they can get into love scams, romance scams, affinity fraud, things like that that we’re seeing a lot of, because, again, the scammers are going to create urgency. They want to appear credible. They’re going to create an emotional connection. So we’ve known of a number of people that they’re connected with other people online. We’re humans. We’re built for emotional connection. But these people are finding somebody online and they seem to click, they seem to be compatible. And they’re like, I just get along with this person really good. And you’re like, that’s great. I’m happy for you. And they’re like, but they asked me to send them money because they wanted to come out and visit me. Should I send them money? And we’re like, no, no, no, no. Right, if they’re asking you to send money and you haven’t met them first, that’s a red flag, and so you have to be careful and be wise and be like, Okay, this is somebody that I’m interested in getting to know, maybe we should do a zoom call first, and we can talk face to face, right? And be like, so let’s see if a connection really is there. Anytime that they start asking for money or asking you to invest with them. And hey, I’m not asking you for money, but I’m asking you to invest in this cool thing with me, and if you help invest, then, then it’ll make it twice as good, and I’ll make a lot of money, and you’ll make a lot of money, we’ll be happy, and you’re like, let’s do a little deeper digging and try to find out and get more information about somebody’s real personality and get to know them first before we start sending money to them.
James Derrick 11:33
I think this is so critically important for people to always be aware of. I mean, just top of mind at all times, so that when the moment comes, probably almost every single day, that there’s an attempt, that you’re aware, that you don’t fall for it.
Mikal Aune 11:49
You have to be aware. And even just, not just online or emails, but there’s phone calls that happen. There’s even just people that you meet, and I’ve had people we call this affinity fraud, where it’s like, hey, we go to the same church. And so we do this investment is really cool, and it has these returns that are incredible, and you should invest with us. And people are like, Oh, well, we go to the same church. I’m going to do it. And you’re like, okay, just because you go to the same church or the you see them at the same place, at the Little League games, whatever it is, you know, it’s like, you still need to keep your eyes open and look out for red flags. And if you have a promise that’s too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true, even if they’re telling you, oh, some people will say that this is too good to be true, but you got to get in on it, or you’re going to miss out. Well, okay, there’s they’re trying to create a sense of urgency. Another red flag should go off in your mind. You’re like, I gotta be careful. I gotta watch out.
James Derrick 12:40
Yeah, Mikal, thank you for making us aware of this and coming in and talking all about it.
Mikal Aune 12:45
Yeah. Well, our biggest hope is that we can help protect our clients. So if you ever have any questions, if you want to reach out to family member, great, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, or you want to talk to an expert, please call us up. We’ve seen too many things, and we know the red flags, and we can give you a good idea and be like, hey, no, this sounds legitimate. You can keep going down that road, or, no, just be careful. You know, I had a client the other day that got an email that was legitimate, but she’s like, I don’t know. Is this a legitimate one? Should I click on it or should I not? And I went through it with her, and we looked at it, and she sent me a screenshot, so I didn’t have any malicious links or anything, but we were able to verify, hey, this came from a legitimate source. It’s okay. Click on it. So use us as your financial bodyguards. That’s what we’re here for. Is just to help protect you and your money going forward.
James Derrick 13:32
Thanks, Mikal.
Shane Thomas 13:39
Thank you for joining the Power Up Wealth podcast. Smedley Financial is located at 102 S 200 E Ste 100 in Salt Lake City, UT 84111. Call us today at 800-748-4788. You can also find us on the web at Smedleyfinancial.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The views expressed are Smedley Financials and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities or services mentioned herein. Investing is subject to risks, including loss of principal invested. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. No strategy can assure a profit nor protect against loss. Please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information should only be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice. Securities offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Smedley Financial Services, Inc.® Osaic Wealth is separately owned, and other entities and/or marketing names, products, or services referenced here are independent of Osaic Wealth.
