Dollars and Sense, a News is my Business podcast · News is my Business

Phishing! Smishing! Scamming!

·32 min·2 clips

A job search led to $3,000 in fake money orders sent through the mail.

Black Friday is the pressure point. The host sets up the episode around the day before the official holiday shopping season begins, when online purchases start piling up. The threat is familiar: fake emails, texts, calls, and other scams that have been around for years but get more chances during the shopping rush. Wilton Vargas brings the technical footing without burying the conversation in jargon. As editor of Tecnético.com, he explains how people can protect accounts in practical ways. Password managers get a central role. He describes using one master password, then letting the manager store account credentials and create safer passwords. Authentication comes up as an everyday habit, too. Face ID, fingerprints, prompts, and trusted devices all become ways services check whether the person asking for access is actually the account holder. Smishing gets its own moment. The host lingers on the funny name while keeping the scam itself plain: common, annoying, and persistent. A USPS message becomes the example. It says a package reached a warehouse, claims the address is incomplete, and pushes the recipient to confirm details through a link within 12 hours. The sender gives itself away. The host reads the odd email address and dryly points out how bad it looks, which lands as the kind of clue anyone can learn to spot. Still, the problem is not simple. These messages show up often enough to feel like a daily nuisance. Blocking sounds satisfying, but Vargas explains why it does little now that scammers can spin up another number or email address and keep going. The useful work is preventative: better account hygiene, careful authentication, and suspicion toward urgent delivery messages asking for personal information.

As heard by us

A practical scam warning that stays focused on prevention.

The piece treats Black Friday phishing and smishing as a plain warning about scam texts and emails that try to steal personal information during a busy shopping stretch.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Before Black Friday, sanity-check the scam texts in your inbox.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Dollars and Sense, a News is my Business podcast