SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson. And lately it feels like every time you check out the news, there's another story that makes you stop and think, hey, that could happen to me. The situation involving Nancy Guthrie has been all over the headlines. And while it involves an aging parent, what struck me the most is how universal the issue really is. This isn't just about older adults, it's about all of us. How we live, how we move through the world, how much of our lives are even online. Personal security today isn't about just locking your doors. It's about what you click, what you share, how distracted we've all become, and how easily trust can be exploited at any age. This really hit close to home for me. My mom, who's in her 80s, recently fell for a cyberscamp. And not long after she had her personal. She's smart, capable, and independent, and with such a reminder that vulnerability doesn't mean weakness. It just means you're human. Which is why I wanted to have this conversation today. Not from a place of fear, but from a place of awareness. My guest today is Tracy Walter. She's a Highland Park mom, author of The Unexpected Sky, and is a national correspondent with Blues Nation. Tracy has been covering this story and broader security issues nonstop. She brings a perspective that's practical, empowering, and incredibly relevant. Whether you're protecting yourself, your kids, your parents, or all of the above. Tracy, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Martha.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28

It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29

Well, I have been following you on Instagram for quite some time. I've seen you do many videos over the years and specifically about security and safety, and then, of course, most recently, with the news of Nancy Guthrie, all the security and tying in with this case. And, you know, it's just something that was on my mind because we're constantly seeing it in the news, thinking about my own mom who is the exact same age, 84, and just security in general. So I wanted to have you on because I knew you could offer some really good tips.

SPEAKER_02: 2:00

Well, thank you so much. And, you know, when I talk about security, one of the things I just want folks to understand is it doesn't mean you can't continue to live your life. Of course. You know, I never want people to think that I am asking people to stop doing the things that they love doing, but to maybe do them with just more self-awareness and understanding, you know, sort of what's going on around them.

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

Yeah. Well, I with the podcast, I really like to try to educate people ahead of time before they're in crisis mode. So then if something does happen, they can think back, oh yes, on the bubble lounge, we discussed this, this, and this. And these are the steps that we need to take. So that is my goal today is just have people have some really strong takeaways that can help protect them in the future. And Tracy, just for context, can you kind of update us on what has happened with Nancy Guthrie?

SPEAKER_02: 2:49

Sure. The latest today, obviously, is that they have video footage. And the biggest question I keep getting, obviously, being former law enforcement, is why did it take so long to get this footage? Um, I think a lot of people watch a lot of movies, right? And I think as a result of that, we think, well, they can process this within two minutes. It doesn't work that way. If you don't have the hard camera and you they're not paying for a cloud service, there is a whole host of legal tape and all of that that people need to go through to get it. And so that's why it took so long. And so they actually have, I would say, pretty good um photos uh to go after someone. I think the FBI will start looking at how tall is this person, sort of those kind of measurement data. But right now they just have um the picture out. And last before I came here, um, they were searching around the home and the brush of Amy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie's sister. Obviously, still no word on um her mother, where she is and and what her status is.

SPEAKER_01: 3:50

Right. Well, you know, this case is specifically with a lady in her 80s, just like my mom is. But things like this can happen to anyone. These types of crimes and security, cyber security, all the things, they're not really age-specific, are they?

SPEAKER_02: 4:05

No, not at all. For example, just I guess with this case in general, um, because I work for the news and was covering it on the news, I just obviously I knew who Nancy Guthrie was, but I was curious how much of her data is available online. Like how much of a target is she? How easy is she to find? Um, and so I actually put her first and last name and obviously the state and city that she lives in into an open database. There's so many online. It pulled up her name, it pulled up her phone number, it pulled up her email address, um, it pulled up vehicles registered to her, and it pulled up her physical address. Wow. And that was when I kind of was realized that I do a lot about safety, but I'm not wasn't sure that people fully knew and understood how important it is to do what you can to keep that information private and make it difficult for people to find.

SPEAKER_01: 4:59

Yeah, you know, security is no longer about just locking your doors and being aware of your surroundings. There's so many things online, like exactly what you're talking about there. And I have searched myself and my mom before too, and there is so much information out there. Is there anything that we can do to protect that?

SPEAKER_02: 5:16

Yes. So Google offers it for free. Um, it is a little arduous and time consuming, but I thought I should give that to listeners because it's free. Um, so just as you said, you Google yourself or your parents, anything that might come up. So let's say you put Tracy Walter in there. Um, and let's say something comes up with your address in it. There's three little dots on the side of that article. Um, and you can just put remove from Google and you click that. And once you click that, it's gonna ask you for a reason why. And then you could just put personal, like it's a drop-down menu that gives you a whole reason. Obviously, that's time consuming, but that is a way to go uh that is free. I use something called incogni, which is a there's an incogni, delete me, op tree, all these different kinds of sites that you pay. It's a monthly like subscription or yearly subscription. Um, you put your information in. I have a family plan. So I have my parents on it. Um, I have my husband on it, and it monitors for all personal information and then it surveys that service to have it taken down. And so it essentially does all of that work for you. It is so easy to use. I sent the link to my mom, um, you know, to get on my plan. She's like, why was that so easy? It's just it was her and she's, you know, a senior citizen and she put her name, her cell phone number, and her email address and her physical address. That was it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:39

Okay. That sounds so easy. That sounds brilliant because I just think it's so wrong that this information is out there to begin with when you didn't opt in for it, you know. Correct. Like so many things are just magically out there 100%. I like that. I'll try to include links and in the show notes for everybody on that one. But cyber scams are such a big deal right now. Like the other day, my daughter, who's in college, got one about jury duty, and she was panicked and asking us if we received a letter at home or anything like that. And I was like, first thing I said, did you click on it? And she didn't, thank goodness. But there's so many out there and they look really legit. Like, what should we look for on those?

SPEAKER_02: 7:17

So I think one of the things to look for in terms of that, if it's if it's online, if it's an email, you want it to have a legitimate address. So a dot org, right? A dot. You don't want it to have a dot, something that doesn't make sense to you, just to be broad, I guess, about that. Um, so I think that's kind of the first thing that you want to look at. Um, I think the next thing is if it's a text message that comes to you, one of the things you can do that I think frustrates people probably is honestly call the number. Call the number back or text the number back and see what happens. And if you get absolutely no mention back. Um, and then the other thing you can do is I'm I'm assuming if it was your daughter, it was probably for Dallas County. Um, and so you can actually call the county and see if you have been summoned for jury duty, if you want to like go that far. If you find out it's not real, the best thing you can do is to block and report um that that phone number. But she was so right to not click that link. And obviously, we need more people to realize that.

SPEAKER_01: 8:17

Thank goodness. Well, Sean taught me that. Always look at that email address because he's so right. It'll be a really, really long email that nobody would ever have with a strange ending that you're not familiar with. So that's a big telltale sign. But these things look so legit, don't they? They're really sophisticated.

SPEAKER_02: 8:34

You know what I get them for all the time, Martha than people might appreciate is toll tags. I get them for toll. You know, you have a collections balance, or you have, but I have no collections balance. You know, when you log on to the account, if you don't pay, you know, you'll be arrested. Or I get those all the time, but I know it's I know it's fake, so I just delete.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

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SPEAKER_02: 10:02

Yeah, so what I think they're trying to do, and that is an interesting scam. Um, so I've heard of it, and one of the things they're really targeting is people like myself. So like middle-aged women are getting a lot of those. Um, I don't want to say it's just targeted towards them. Obviously, this can happen to anyone. And I think they're preying on women who are lonely, to be completely honest with you. Um, and women who might be willing to once they once they get a rapport going with them, text messaging back and forth. A lot of times what they like to try to do is actually move those conversations to WhatsApp. Um, so a different, if anyone ever tries to move a conversation that you're having to a different platform, that should be a huge red flag. That goes for teenagers. Teenagers really need that because there's a lot going on right now with things like bop houses and stuff for for kids, where they're trying to move them off Roblox, where they're trying to move them to different platforms. That is a huge red flag. And so they're hoping these women can form almost these online relationships with them. And that's where you start to see the scamming and the, you know, giving$100,000 and to my online boyfriend, right? That's kind of how that happens.

SPEAKER_01: 11:11

So it's the same thing as grooming. 100%. Oh my goodness. Well, let's talk about social media because everything has changed since we're all on social media, and it seems so innocent to share different things and you're on this amazing vacation or these little AI things. Like there's a recent one that I've seen that I guess you give them a picture of your family or your work or something, and it does this really cute picture that kind of depicts your life. And I've seen a lot of people posting that. But then I've also heard that's kind of a scam. How do we limit in how can we be smarter about what we're sharing?

SPEAKER_02: 11:44

Yeah, I don't I don't think it's fair to say no social media. And I don't even think it's fair to say that for teenagers or whatever age you deem it's appropriate for your child because people need to be, I guess, literate, right? Literate in the cyber world, literate in the social media world, all the things. It's really important. Um, but I think that in regards to social media, you know, you want to share things with friends and family. So my personal account is is private. And I do not allow people to I don't accept friends requests from anyone I have not met in person. Full stop. If I have not met you in person, I will not accept a friend request from you. That is my like line, I guess. Um, and then also even on that account, which is all people I've met in person, if I'm on vacation, I don't post real-time pictures. So it's always when I get back. We went on a uh vacation with uh my best friends this past summer, and she's like, Oh, wait, wait, I know we don't post intentionally back. You know, so she started to to know that. So I never post um, you know, my location. Got it. Um, I think that those are kind of some big things for really all ages, to be completely honest, because I think teens do it too, um, you know, and post things in real time.

SPEAKER_01: 12:59

Well, what are criminals looking for on social media? Like what what are they preying on?

SPEAKER_02: 13:04

It depends, right? So if you have, let's say, an open Instagram account, which people do, and again, I'm not here to shame people for the choices that they make. I never want to do that. It's just about let's have these conversations about how to be safe. If you have an open Instagram and you're posting real-time vacation pictures, criminals know you're not home, right? And let's say you've posted a picture on that open Instagram account of where your child goes to school. And then let's say you've posted a picture on that Instagram account of your child, very one of the porch, back to school pictures, right in front of your house. And then let's say you've posted a picture with a license display of your vehicle. Well, now someone knows exactly where you live, right? And so you become a target for that, for a robbery, for something like that. Also, you become a target for AI. Um, there was just a situation. I I'll get to speak about it broadly, if that's okay. Um, but there was a situation where I had seen uh and there was absolutely no ill intent. So I want to be super clear about that. But it was someone who had an Instagram account that was was open. Um, I was friends with them. And I noticed that there were pictures that had been taken in a changing room setting of, and this person had taken a picture with their child with people that were uncloth behind and didn't realize that and posted it more than once on an open Instagram account. And those pictures can be taken and used for pornography and all and so right, and so we really have to be careful um about the kinds of things we post.

SPEAKER_01: 14:36

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SPEAKER_00: 14:50

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SPEAKER_01: 15:23

That kind of confidence comes from experience. Visit Cambridge Caregivers.com or call 214-649-9922 to learn more. Well, we talked about how safety is not just locking your doors, but I do want to address like safety when we're out in public in general. You had posted a video a while back just talking about some safety measures that you personally do before you even leave your garage. Like anything and everything you can share with us.

SPEAKER_02: 15:51

So I do not open my garage door unless I am physically in the car. Yeah. You know that that's so strange. Um, and especially if you have, you know, a bigger car like I do and really have to make sure the whole garage is up before you back out. Otherwise, you could have a little accident. Um, so I would say that's one of the biggest things that I do is that I'm not fidgeting around in my car when I get into my car and I wait. I do turn the car on. I'm not like killing myself in my garage, but I turn the car on and I open up the garage immediately. Um, it's just a habit I have always had.

SPEAKER_01: 16:25

Uh-huh. Well, just being out in general, like um a lot of people have their ear airpods in and they're not really focusing. They're looking at their phones. I'm constantly telling my kids, please be aware of your surroundings, which they normally say, like we live in such a dangerous neighborhood. You know, bad things can happen anywhere. Anywhere.

SPEAKER_02: 16:44

Yes. And in terms of of AirPods, there's nothing wrong with them. I have gone with a walk uh with them on before, but one of the things that I do is um I and again, it's probably not the happiest way to live life, but I am I do look over my shoulder. Um, if I'm walking, I will take a look over my shoulder every once in a while. So if you want to have your ear pods in, that's fine. But then you need to get in the habit of looking around. And that means behind you as well. And I think people forget to look behind them.

SPEAKER_01: 17:13

Right, right. Well, I have a story from the 80s. I had my Sony Walkman on. Yes. That really takes us back, doesn't it? And I was walking in my hometown of Fort Worth, and I just sensed something was going on behind me. So I turned around, and oh my gosh, Tracy, you're never gonna believe this. There was a naked man. Oh my gosh, standing on the bike trail I was walking on, like just shaking his stuff. Wow, and I ran. And I was right next to like a river, a little uh little creek that ran through the walking trails and um scared the heck out of me. I mean, gosh knows what could have happened. Yeah. So yeah, you just really maybe have one in and one out. I don't know. You just yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:56

I mean, listen, I tend to not walk with my AirPods, but I just again, I don't want to tell people. I like to give people multiple solutions to different problems, right? So instead of saying never wear them and if you need to wear them and want to wear them, here are some solutions of what you can do with them. And also please don't have them blaring because you can't hear. Yeah, you can't hear a tree rustling. You can't hear. Um, my husband was so excited because he came home with the noise canceling ones for me. And I was like, I'm never going to use the noise canceling function because it's not safe when when you're out with them on.

SPEAKER_01: 18:29

Right. Oh, goodness. So many things to think about, right? Um well, let's just talk about just, you know, being aware. I had a friend who not too long ago had her purse stolen. She left it in the grocery cart and she was loading the groceries in to her trunk and it got stolen. And I found myself being just a little judgmental about, you know, not being on top of things and keeping your belongings on your body and safe. And then lo and behold, like three months later, it happened to me. Now, I was at a charity event, I'm not gonna say which one, but it was one you would never believe anything would happen on. And I was outside doing an interview with um some chefs and no one was outside. So I left my purse on a little ledge and I got so enthralled with the interview that I didn't notice people were coming out. And I kind of think a cleaning person took it because I did see a guy with a trash bag, and I should have grabbed that trash bag right then in there and looked in there, but yeah, it was gone. And then at two in the morning, they started with the charges. So again, I am so protective of my belongings, like overly protective. Always have my crossbody purse on so there's no room for for trouble. And there I let my defenses down.

SPEAKER_02: 19:44

Yeah, I wear always wear crossbody, and I guess in terms of like vehicles, so like the gas station, grocery store. For me, at the grocery store, um, I keep my purse actually on me once I've unloaded the groceries. I then actually lock my car and return the cart and then turn that back to my car. Yeah. Um, but I see a lot of people that don't do that and like leave a door open and like put the cart back. Also, the gas station, I think we don't like think about. So I go to that one on levers and Limo Alto because I'm lazy, it's just close less close. Um, I, you know, I go in there and so many people just get into their car and get on the phone. Well, you need to get in your car and actually lock the door. Yeah. Um, and a lot of people don't. What they don't realize is someone can come on the other side if it's open. And if you have your purse or phone or whatever in there, they can take that. So if you have the feature that you can lock the door while the tank is filling up, definitely do that. Whether whether you're inside or outside the car.

SPEAKER_01: 20:43

Well, I tend to go to the Tom Thumb gas station at uh Lovers Lane across the across Central. And there's been more than enough shady characters coming around that area. So I'm always like just like really on edge when I fill up over there. And whenever I get in, I definitely lock it. Never leave the phone, never leave the person there. I wanted to give a personal thank you to our good friend and show sponsor, Kathy L. Wall State Farm Agency. We have known Kathy for more than 15 years, and there is no person we trust more when it comes to insurance than Kathy L. Wall. Kathy is always available to help you find the right insurance for your family needs, whether it's covering your home, auto, or providing a life insurance policy tailored to the unique needs of families in Highland Park. My family trusts Kathy with our insurance, and we hope you will too. Please visit Kathy Lwall.com to learn more and let her know that Martha from the Bubble Lounge sent you. So most of our listeners are moms, just like you and me. So I feel like that we have to address security with our kids. Give us your recommendations on how we can protect our little ones.

SPEAKER_02: 21:49

Yes. So everyone's probably going to think that I'm some kind of a style cyber stalker, but but to me, knowledge is power and information is power. And so I use uh been verified or truth binder. Those are two, again, it is a subscription. I think it's$35 a month. I can't remember to look up anyone that my daughter has contact with or anyone that I have contact with, quite frankly. And it will show you criminal records, all of those things you can, it's a pretty comprehensive check. It is obviously time consuming and cumbersome, but teachers, coaches, I think it's really important that we just know, is it foolproof? Absolutely not. You know, people can still commit crimes and have absolutely no record, right? But I do think it's important to just have this like picture of information. Now, if you do that in cognizite that I had said before, it takes your data out of there. So, you know, it would depend, um, right. But that is one thing I do because I just think it's really important to have that information. Um, the other thing that I do personally, I again, I don't want to talk about what ages people should have social media, but I don't think that that's fair to pass judgment on here, you know, about that. But if your child has a device, so whether it's an Apple Watch, whether it's an iPad or whether it's you know a full phone, I do think warning them about taking pictures of themselves is a really key thing because all of those devices have a camera function, right? Regardless of whether there's social media on it, um, any of those things, all of those devices have a camera function. And any picture that your child takes of themselves and sends maybe to a friend or just completely innocuously can be used and manipulated at some point. And so my daughter has the fear of God in her um you know never to uh take pictures of herself. And so I think that that's just having that kind of open conversation.

SPEAKER_01: 23:54

A little a little bit of education before they get these devices.

SPEAKER_02: 23:57

Also um and I have spoken about this on my platform before um some other sites uh Lemon 8 is one that kids are kind of liking um it does a lot of makeup tutorials but what some of the things they're doing which similar to Roblox which I know people have heard a lot about is they're uh trying to encourage kids to move off of the platform to continue conversations. That's where the problem occurs. I mean just recently in Florida two girls you know left their home to try to meet up with an adult um from Roblox and it was a conversation that they had taken to Snapchat from Roblox. So I personally just don't allow Roblox but um you know again if you do I think we just need to be checking there is um Bark and some other sites that will actually monitor your child's online activity and give it to you in a summary every month. Because we're all busy. You work I I work we all have children that um you know have different needs and it will monitor it for you um and give you that that summary and will also alert you to any bullying that's going on.

SPEAKER_01: 25:02

Oh wow see that's kind of new since my kids were younger. So I like that that's really good to have well I guess let's close on home security. We all have homes and we have alarms um we used to use ours all the time my family's not using it anymore. It's kind of annoying me. What can we do to protect ourselves at home? Use the alarm why are we not using the alarm?

SPEAKER_02: 25:26

Yeah that seems like a no-brainer especially here because you know it's connected a lot of times to the police and the response time is so great you know in our community we're so lucky um I think sometimes what's so funny is I have asked people before like do you lock your doors and they say no. And a lot of people don't I think at the very because they all want to know what gear they need, right? And sometimes we get so concerned with like this gear and stuff and things we need that we just we need to lock the door. That's like number one like if we could please do that. And I also think too we need to be um our garage is connected to our home. So I know everyone's houses are set up differently but we need to lock that door I think as well because people forget you know about that. But I think the other thing that we need to remember too is we need to be putting padlocks on our fence or our gate doors, excuse me. I think people forget, you know, and just leave it doesn't need to be expensive. It can be you know a$2 lock uh with a key right that you go and get at Lowe's or with a you know combination on it. I think cameras are good and cameras are important if that's something that you can do. But I do think it's really important to pay for that cloud storage if you are able to um because if there is a crime that occurs in your home it is going to be much quicker for people to be able to access that and actually you know do something about it. So I think um those things are really good. I also think too at least um I don't know if UP does this but I know HP will um it to put your home on close watch if you feel um like there are any issues or if you're scared um you can do that and you can do that for months if if that's something that you feel um you know comfortable with also you know you can stop packages uh from coming to your home which is I think um great another thing too uh I never ever ever ever ever post pictures of the outside of my home um you know on social media now um you can pay to have glue Google excuse me blur your home on Zillow and things like that. The only thing to think about with that I'm not saying it's good or bad is that um it really you really can't unblur it and so the problem is is it can can impact resale value if people can't see your home right if they're on Google or whatever. I'm not saying that's bad. I'm not saying that's good. It's just you have to think about like all of the big pictures. Yes. Depending on what you're doing. So those are sort of the the things that I would keep in mind.

SPEAKER_01: 27:51

Yeah well just tying in with that I get the crime report for both HP and UP every week and I have to tell you 98% of it are crimes of opportunity. 100% have left really cool stuff and their beautiful cards in front of their house with the door unlocked the door's not locked it's a Ferrari there's a bag with a gun cash medication that did happen a few years ago that was in the crime report. I'm just amazed at the stuff that people are leaving just right there. Even my own son had a$10 bill on his dashboard and I'm just like what on earth and he's like nothing's gonna happen in our neighborhood I'm like somebody would definitely smash your window for$10.

SPEAKER_02: 28:35

100% as you mentioned everything is about opportunity right and so just something as simple as locking a door if you think about it if a criminal our homes here are close together, right? So you know for criminals going from door to door to door to door to door, your little lock that you just put is a deterrent in a way right for that neighbor next door that didn't game on. Right. And so it's just about really when you look about safety, it's about deterrence, right? And making yourself not this easy target so that they'll unfortunately move on to the next one. But you don't want to be that person that they are honing into you don't want to be the next one.

SPEAKER_01: 29:10

Right. Tracy, this has been so helpful. You have shared so many tips and just recommendations and I know it's gonna help a lot of people out there. Thank you so much for having me Martha well how can people find you? Uh they can find me at the Unexpected spy on Instagram. Instagram and her website and I will include links for those but you've got to follow her on Instagram because she posts videos all day every day and they're just so informative easy to understand and it will totally keep you updated on all the things that are going on. Yes thank you. Well thanks again Tracy for joining us that's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge I'm Martha Jackson and I'll see you next time