Spies want in on your router

This episode delves into digital security vulnerabilities, specifically focusing on how outdated routers can be exploited by international spies and hackers.

1. Outdated routers are prime targets for spies and hackers.
2. Neglecting firmware updates can lead to severe security vulnerabilities.
3. Personal anecdotes and real-world examples highlight the consequences of digital security negligence.
4. The episode emphasizes proactive measures for digital protection.
5. Practical advice is provided on maintaining digital security in everyday devices.

1: Introduction to Digital Threats

Kim Komando and Andrew Babinski set the stage by discussing common digital threats faced by average users, focusing on router security. Kim Komando: "Old routers that don't get firmware updates are like open doors to hackers."

2: The Real-world Impact of Neglected Digital Security

This chapter dives deeper into how outdated digital security can affect personal lives, illustrated by stories from listeners and historical data. Andrew Babinski: "It's shocking how many people ignore their router's security."

3: Listener Interaction and Q&A

Kim and Andrew answer listener questions, providing practical advice on how to secure digital devices from potential threats. Kim Komando: "Always ensure your digital devices are up-to-date to avoid vulnerabilities."

1. Regularly check for and install firmware updates on routers.
2. Replace routers that no longer receive manufacturer updates.
3. Use strong, unique passwords for all digital devices and change them periodically.
4. Implement two-factor authentication where possible to enhance security.
5. Educate yourself and family about phishing attacks and other common digital scams.

Is yours at risk? Hackers' new side hustle is charging Chinese and Russian spies and scammers for access to old home routers so they can launch denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Plus, Google blocks romance writer, worst airlines for luggage, and Microsoft gets hacked.

People

Kim Komando, Andrew Babinski

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today, your daily podcast to keep you up to date with all things digital and beyond. And I'd love to have you be a part of our podcast. You can make an appointment to speak with me. Just head over to commando.com. And on the top right, there's a button that says, email, kim, fill that out, and that's it. Have you ever lost a piece of luggage?

Andrew Babinski
No.

Kim Commando
Really?

Andrew Babinski
Knock on everything around here. Never. Never had luggage. Lost you.

Kim Commando
Oh, yes, of course.

Andrew Babinski
Really?

Kim Commando
For as many times as I travel, you know, of course, I'm, like, gonna be in the odds.

Andrew Babinski
I would figure you'd be more of, like, an efficient packer that you only take a carry on.

Kim Commando
Absolutely not.

Andrew Babinski
No. Are we, like, checking five or six bags?

Kim Commando
So we were going to Paris one time and. Texas.

Andrew Babinski
Paris, Texas?

Kim Commando
Yes, Paris, Texas. And so we get down into the baggage claim, and wouldn't, as luck would have it, I have my bag, and Ian has his bag. But guess what, of course, your husband, Barry.

Andrew Babinski
Nowhere to be seen.

Kim Commando
And so we had a layover in Heathrow. So British Airways, I call them up, and they say, we can't find the baggage. We think it's somewhere in London, at.

Andrew Babinski
Least it's in this right continent.

Kim Commando
Okay. And this is before airtags. So three days go by. The poor guy has no clothes, so we had to, like, buy underwear and socks and everything that he needed. So on the third day, I'm looking at the Daily Mail newspaper, and on the front page of the Daily Mail, they're talking about the big luggage snafu at Heathrow, okay? And they have a photo, and on the first row is Barry's bag.

Andrew Babinski
Are you serious?

Kim Commando
So I emailed that off to British Airways, and I said, found it.

Andrew Babinski
It's just an international publication.

Kim Commando
They actually have an acronym, bmph. Bmph. Bags mishandled per 100.

Andrew Babinski
Buff bumph.

Kim Commando
Yes, bmph. Here's a fun fact. All airlines lose at least one bag for every 200 bags handled.

Andrew Babinski
That's one flight.

Kim Commando
Okay, so here are the top three airlines. Okay. That.

Andrew Babinski
Lose them.

Kim Commando
Yes. Okay. Coming in at number three, Alaska Airlines.

Andrew Babinski
Which I'm flying in about a month.

Kim Commando
Okay. United airlines comes in at number two. All right, and who do you think number one is?

Andrew Babinski
I want to say southwest. I don't know why I want to, but I do. I want to say southwest Airlines.

Kim Commando
American Airlines.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, okay.

Kim Commando
Okay.

Andrew Babinski
Good job, southwest.

Kim Commando
Nearly one in every 100 bags. It handles and loses.

Andrew Babinski
How is that even possible? Just like number 99 and take number 100 and throw it over their back. Did you see that viral TikTok video of the woman who is filming outside of her airplane window? And she's just like, look at the trees. And there's the guys working on the plane. We're about to take off. And then she sees her bag, this unmistakable bright red bag on the cart. She's like, oh, my gosh, there's my bag. And then they take it off the cart, and they put all the other bags in, and then they drive away, and it's just sitting there.

Kim Commando
No way.

Andrew Babinski
On the Runway right next to the plane. And she's like, stern is my bag. And the plane starts backing up, and she's filming her bag just sitting there.

Kim Commando
Oh, my gosh. Wow. Talk about emotional baggage.

Andrew Babinski
I loved it. That's a great one.

Kim Commando
And on that happy note, welcome. It's Kim Commando. Today it's your three times a week podcast about all things digital, and we like to have some fun here. I'm, of course, guess what, Kim Commando.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, that's merchants.

Kim Commando
See how that works? And then, of course, we have. Andrew Babinski is here. Yay.

Andrew Babinski
Hey, Kim.

Kim Commando
What are you gonna be talking about?

Andrew Babinski
Microsoft. They have figured out a way, and I actually agree with them. I think this is a foolproof strategy on how we will have our data protected.

Kim Commando
I think it's going to work. It's a good one.

Andrew Babinski
Yes.

Kim Commando
Do we not use Microsoft products anymore?

Andrew Babinski
That's. That's part you could. I mean, obviously you could. Now they already have your data. They'll just lose it then. No, they've figured it out, and I think it's going to work.

Kim Commando
So if you're listening to Cam Commando today as an audio podcast, we totally love that. But just a reminder that you can actually watch us do Kim commando today, Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, which is 02:30 p.m. On the east coast. And if you are anywhere, anywhere between Los Angeles and New York, it's up to you to figure out what time zone that is.

Andrew Babinski
It flyover country.

Kim Commando
1230 or 130.

Andrew Babinski
Yeah, one of those two.

Kim Commando
One of those.

Andrew Babinski
It's on demand.

Kim Commando
Watch it whenever you want and win from kim.com. That's right. We're giving away a dollar, 799, iPhone 15. And you want that?

Andrew Babinski
Is it doing better than the other one?

Kim Commando
Oh, of course. The Amazon gift card. That was just, what?

Andrew Babinski
A flop.

Kim Commando
It was a total flop. It's like three people entered all from the same household. Yes. And one of them was Barry Winfromkim.com. Once again, that's winfromkim.com. Oh, we have a great video at the end, too. I haven't seen it. No. You're gonna love it. Okay, here are the top five things you need to know. It's happening about tech right now. And how old is the router in your house?

Andrew Babinski
Not that old. Probably three years old.

Kim Commando
Okay, that's good. Otherwise, it might be time to get a brand new router because they're saying, like, chinese spies and russian spies and scammers, they are tapping into old routers that don't get any more firmware updates.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
So that this way they can do denial of service attacks, send out their spam, you know, all kinds of bad stuff.

Andrew Babinski
Now, I have one of those, like, mesh networks.

Kim Commando
Yes.

Andrew Babinski
If this was older, would it still be as vulnerable?

Kim Commando
Right. Okay, you need to make sure that you have an up to date router.

Andrew Babinski
How often do you recommend someone redoes their router?

Kim Commando
Oh, you know, every couple of years. Okay. Every couple years.

Andrew Babinski
More often than probably people do. I mean, you just set that thing on top of a shelf.

Kim Commando
It just keeps working and working.

Andrew Babinski
Why replace it?

Kim Commando
You know, if it's not broke, why fix it?

Andrew Babinski
Exactly.

Kim Commando
The FDA just named the Apple Watch. This is actually a big deal as an official medical device. Developmental tool.

Andrew Babinski
That's cool.

Kim Commando
You know what that means?

Andrew Babinski
They can develop medical things on the watch. Cause it's a tool.

Kim Commando
You're so smart.

Andrew Babinski
How did I figure that out?

Kim Commando
Well, they're gonna really be using it for. To detect Afib, and they're going to do a whole bunch of clinical trials because right now, it already will detect afib, but they say they probably can do more. And they're going to test the accuracy of the watches, EKG, ECG, whatever you want to call it. But if this passes the FDA, there's a whole other side benefit, which is maybe you get your insurance to pay for it.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, that would be awesome.

Kim Commando
Yes.

Andrew Babinski
Go and get a new watch and just use my HSA account.

Kim Commando
That's it.

Andrew Babinski
Love it.

Kim Commando
This is really interesting to me. This gal is a romance writer, and she has her book all inside of Google Doc. 220,000 words.

Andrew Babinski
That's a lot.

Kim Commando
Okay. That's a lot of words. So Google sends her a note and says, you know, we can't have this on our servers, and it's inappropriate. They use the word inappropriate. So she thinks, like, you know, it's kind of like maybe soft erotica. She thought it was, like, maybe a little too spicy.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
For Google Docs and they just wiped it out.

Andrew Babinski
They deleted her book?

Kim Commando
Yes, because they said that, again, it was inappropriate. So then she did some investigating and said, like, well, what's going on with my Google Doc? It turns out that she was sharing it too many times. And because she was sharing it so many times, she was probably, like, charging people for it or something like that, because she was just sharing too many times. Google said, oh, this must be like a scammer or a spammer. So we're just gonna go ahead and delete the whole account.

Andrew Babinski
Did she have a backup?

Kim Commando
No, no, no. That is heartbreaking, isn't it?

Andrew Babinski
Now, did they delete it on everyone else's accounts that she shared it with?

Kim Commando
It's gone.

Andrew Babinski
It's totally gone. Forever.

Kim Commando
Done.

Andrew Babinski
And then just like that, boom. Well, that's. I guess that's a backup to using. I mean, a problem with using, you know, cloud backups. They own it. They own a partner.

Kim Commando
I was trying to do some research. I was trying to figure out, like, how many times she actually shared the Google Doc.

Andrew Babinski
Right.

Kim Commando
It must have been just a crapload. I mean, it's.

Andrew Babinski
That a technical term?

Kim Commando
It is, it is, it is.

Andrew Babinski
Well, you know, because it's a megabytes, gigabytes. Craploads.

Kim Commando
Well, because this is a family friendly podcast, so we can't really say what we want to say.

Andrew Babinski
Look, in the terms and condition, you may not share this a crapload of times.

Kim Commando
Could you imagine? Speaking of Google. Oh, Google's so dead.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, you've been calling this for months now.

Kim Commando
So dead.

Andrew Babinski
It's like you're putting your heel in and now you're just turning it. Why are they dead this time?

Kim Commando
Well, this week, OpenAI, makers of chat, GPT, the, I don't know, $60 billion company, said they're coming out with their own way to search the web.

Andrew Babinski
Wasn't that what you really do now?

Kim Commando
Yeah, I mean, you are, because you're getting answers, but if you actually really wanted to, like, search the web, that they're going to be rolling out their own search tool.

Andrew Babinski
Is it going to be free?

Kim Commando
Well, it's always free, but the older.

Andrew Babinski
Version is always free.

Kim Commando
The slow version that doesn't give you everything you want, that's free.

Andrew Babinski
Well, that's what Google is now, so I guess it would be equivalent. Ooh, wow, I'm just piled on.

Kim Commando
You are a fan of the Cybertruck coming in at number five.

Andrew Babinski
I do, and I got a huge Cybertruck fight over the weekend.

Kim Commando
What happened?

Andrew Babinski
We were driving to breakfast. We pull in and Jennifer looks over and she's like, oh, my God, there's that ugly truck of Jennifer. Dead on impression, by the way. And I'm like, it's different. It's cool. Every car looks the same. How many black and white small suv's do you see driving around? It's at least something different. I think it's cool.

Kim Commando
It's ugly.

Andrew Babinski
No, it's. And we just went. Started going back and forth.

Kim Commando
You know what? She doesn't sound like that.

Andrew Babinski
No, no. Much deeper voice. But it was orange, and that was her big thing. And I had. This is the first time I had seen the cybertruck in any color.

Kim Commando
But they must have wrapped it.

Andrew Babinski
Yes, because you can't paint it, right, but it was. It was dark, like burnt orange. And I just think it's cool. I think it's different. I like the fact that they went out and they did something different.

Kim Commando
Okay, so who won the argument?

Andrew Babinski
I lost, obviously.

Kim Commando
Well, there's a guy on YouTube, of course, always looking for more views. His name is Jeremy Judkins.

Andrew Babinski
I think I saw this video, and.

Kim Commando
He wanted to test the safety sensor on the Cybertruck's front trunk, otherwise known as a trunk.

Andrew Babinski
Okay, but we already know that the sensor doesn't work.

Kim Commando
Well, you know, Jeremy decided after seeing, like, carrots getting smashed and zucchinis and all these other things getting smashed into two, when we see what happens, there's a sensor so that when the cybertruck senses that there's something there, it shouldn't close.

Andrew Babinski
Is he saying, well, it's going to cut a carrot, but it obviously won't cut human body.

Kim Commando
Let's look at the video. There's a line on it. Not nothing too bad. That's his hand. Everybody's been the finger. Without further ado.

Andrew Babinski
Holy smokes, dude.

Kim Commando
I feared from my finger for a second.

Andrew Babinski
So did I.

Kim Commando
That's kind of bad. And you can see my finger shaking. I know.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, what a dummy.

Kim Commando
Okay, would you do that?

Andrew Babinski
Not in a billion years. I mean, I saw all the videos last month where people were putting in there and it wouldn't stop.

Kim Commando
Okay.

Andrew Babinski
It was slicing carrots, like you said.

Kim Commando
Now, apparently, when you try to close the frunk multiple times, it thinks that you're trying to shut it and slams it even harder.

Andrew Babinski
Okay, so it's trying to help you, but it's not helping at all.

Kim Commando
This is not a safety feature. Isn't really working. So just as a PSA for anybody who's listening and watching to the podcast. Don't be adult. No, no. Okay.

Andrew Babinski
I really thought he was gonna lose his finger.

Kim Commando
Okay, your finger's gonna get. And your hand's gonna get crunked up.

Andrew Babinski
You can't point at someone and say, my truck is not ugly if you don't have your finger.

Kim Commando
This is fucked up. Hey, it's Kim Commando. Today, it's your three times a week fun podcast about all things digital. Just a reminder, this is not the Kim commando show. If you wanna get the Kim commando show, well, that's what you got to get. It's called the Kim Commando show. Okay? You can find that on Apple podcasts as well as Spotify. And it's also a perk of your Kim commando membership as part of, like, that whole community that we have of really just wonderful people, like Attora Torres. I love Otto Toros and Gary.

Andrew Babinski
Do you think he's part of the community? Oh, do you think he's at his computer and goes, I've got to log in to the Kim Kamanto community so I can listen to Kim Komanto today and Kim Kamanto shop.

Kim Commando
I'm telling you, our tours. He's like, hey, you know, I'm a tour. All right? I mean, what do you want?

Andrew Babinski
We're not gonna ruin it. I love the romantics.

Kim Commando
So just, you know, sign up for the show. We love you for that. And that's the. Each hour without commercials. Cause it's commercial free is about 40 minutes or so. And so you get all 3 hours. And then we throw in the bonus hour. You know the bonus hour?

Andrew Babinski
Yes, I do.

Kim Commando
That's the WLS hour.

Andrew Babinski
Correct.

Kim Commando
So Microsoft, what are they going to be doing?

Andrew Babinski
So, Microsoft has been under attack. The Chinese tried to hack into Microsoft. The Russians successfully hacked into Microsoft. And the stockholders and the shareholders, they're upset. So are the board members. And they're trying to figure out a way. How are we going to be able to keep this secure? The people trust us with their information.

Kim Commando
Lots of it. Yes, and lots of people.

Andrew Babinski
Billions. How? We have to figure out a way, because we cannot let this continue to happen. I even said it on the show last week. I was like, why doesn't the government step in? And if these companies can't protect our information, we just won't allow them to save it anymore.

Kim Commando
Right.

Andrew Babinski
If you prove that you can't protect it, then you're just not going to be able to save it. Well, they have a solution. Pay. Pay the bonus structures for CEO's managers and all high ranking officials. In the Microsoft company will be tied to security.

Kim Commando
Oh, so if they get hacked, they.

Andrew Babinski
Don'T get their bonus.

Kim Commando
Oh, that's ruthless. That is ruthless.

Andrew Babinski
Now, if you're the CEO, if you're in charge of, you know, Instagram reels, should your bonus really be tied to the security of the company? Obviously not. But Microsoft is trying to prove how important it is and how much they want to protect your data, and they're tying it to compensation.

Kim Commando
Did they give you any idea, when you read the story, anything about, like, how much a bonus is?

Andrew Babinski
No. It's only going to be a portion, a percentage of the bonus, obviously. You know, these managers and these tech companies have huge bonuses annually, but it will be everyone, according to what is being leaked. And they're not, they're not saying, you know, what actually has to happen for them not to get their bonus if it has to be, like, major words, you know, money.

Kim Commando
Cause, I mean, I know two guys in their, like, late thirties, early forties, and they're both, they work for Microsoft. They're both making, like, 400, $500,000 a year.

Andrew Babinski
After bonuses.

Kim Commando
Before bonuses.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, wow. Okay. So the bonuses are gonna be huge.

Kim Commando
Pretty substantial.

Andrew Babinski
And I don't know if it's gonna work, but it's definitely sending a message to your company and sending a message to the consumer that this is important, and the people that are responsible for keeping your data secure won't get paid if they don't do it.

Kim Commando
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is sitting in the corner saying, does that have to do with my $56 billion package? I still can't believe he wants to make $56 billion a year.

Andrew Babinski
What's wrong with that?

Kim Commando
I would take the job for 4.2 billion.

Andrew Babinski
Look at that. Oh, my God. It's not even 10%.

Kim Commando
I know. So, you know, so if anybody is listening or watching and you're on the board of any of Elon Musk's companies, I just want to let you know that it would be a struggle for me. It would be.

Andrew Babinski
You'd make a sacrifice.

Kim Commando
I would.

Andrew Babinski
But don't you think you look cheap? You're coming in so low.

Kim Commando
No, because I would say, you know what? We could take the extra 10 billion. I'll take 4.2. We could give a 10 billion to. Why don't we just give it to, like, charities?

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
Okay.

Andrew Babinski
Fair enough.

Kim Commando
We could help.

Andrew Babinski
How did you go from 56 to four? Where did you hit the 4.2 billion number?

Kim Commando
I just felt like a good number to me.

Andrew Babinski
Yeah.

Kim Commando
You know, it had like that. Nice. Like feng shui.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, okay. It's. It's not that your value is. This is your life goal to have $4.2 billion.

Kim Commando
No, my life goes have 56 billion. But I think. But once I get in there.

Andrew Babinski
Yeah, we start. It's a lot easier to get to 56 once you have four.

Kim Commando
Exactly. Exactly.

Andrew Babinski
All right. So if you're hiring, if you hear this is her plea. She is. She's saying only 4.2 billion. That's a 90% savings.

Kim Commando
It's huge. Come on over.

Andrew Babinski
Sign her up.

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today. Be sure that you like comment share. I forgot to tell people to do that.

Andrew Babinski
Yeah.

Kim Commando
Why the heck could we stop that?

Andrew Babinski
Cause you're trying to sell the giveaway, the iPhone and sell the show. The podcast needs people to help the algorithm. Yes, by sharing with someone you know.

Kim Commando
That's true.

Andrew Babinski
If you're watching us on YouTube, YouTube.com kimcommando is the best. Easiest way to share is just hit the little share button. If you like the show, someone you know is going to like it.

Kim Commando
Just one person?

Andrew Babinski
Yeah, just one.

Kim Commando
That's all.

Andrew Babinski
But you also got to like it, and you got to comment. Say hello. We read every single comment that you guys send in through the chat in all platforms. But also, you can go ahead and follow. I mean, if you don't want to look at your clock and figure out when we're going live, just let YouTube do all the work for you. Simply follow the. Follow the show.

Kim Commando
They'll do that. So, speaking of reading, everything I do read, you know this. I read every single email.

Andrew Babinski
Everyone.

Kim Commando
Everyone.

Andrew Babinski
You personally. It's not like you have your staff do it.

Kim Commando
No, I look at everything.

Andrew Babinski
Cause I'll just get a text out of nowhere of you. Screenshotting. I'm like, Kim, you're screenshotting. That means you're on your phone reading all the comments and letters. Not even sitting at your desk.

Kim Commando
No. So every once in a while, a good one comes across.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
And this is from PW in Oklahoma. Kim. I've been cyber stalked for three years. I recently discovered it was my roommate. I moved out, and he's launched another attack. He's on my and my fiance's phones, wi fi, bluetooth, everything. He's stolen our financial data, photos, erased accounts, taken over emails, and harassed us through VYP. I get disappearing messages. I've had my phone wiped. Texts don't reach their destination. He has rerouted our contact phone numbers. Could you imagine the hell this is for this person?

Andrew Babinski
And the fact that he's your roommate.

Kim Commando
Okay. He had now has admitted to sitting outside our house all night. I thought he was spying on me, but now I know that he's gaining access through our wi fi. Years of my life have been ruled by fear, anger, sadness, and confusion. I can't take it anymore. I don't have the resources to hire somebody. I really can't do this. I need your expert advice and help terribly. In Oklahoma. I don't want to say who the person is.

Andrew Babinski
Sure.

Kim Commando
It's awful. So I know where to start, but what do you think?

Andrew Babinski
First thing I would do is go get a new SiM card in my phone.

Kim Commando
For sure.

Andrew Babinski
I mean, because if he's getting access to all of your information, pictures, contacts, he's probably in there through the sim card. Or the sim card would at least block his path, and that's free. You could go to your Internet, your phone provider, and say, hey, this is going on. They'll just switch out the sim card.

Kim Commando
It's not a big deal.

Andrew Babinski
You can change your phone number. Not a big deal. So that was the first thing I would do. Second thing I would do is I would replace my router. He's in on your wifi.

Kim Commando
A lot of people don't do the router.

Andrew Babinski
Right.

Kim Commando
They forget about that.

Andrew Babinski
And if he's in through the Wi Fi, he's in on the router. That's going to give him an. He might be able to break the new router. He might be able to still have another way in, but at least these are two paths that you know for a fact he's getting access to you. And those are points I would change.

Kim Commando
Now, you could reset the router.

Andrew Babinski
Sounds like he's smart enough, though.

Kim Commando
Yeah. And see, with the router is that you can always set up remote access. So they could have gotten in there and then set up the remote access, which basically gives them full reign.

Andrew Babinski
Right. They're living in there. No matter how many times you change the lock on the front door, they're living in the house already.

Kim Commando
You want to change all your passwords, change all your passcodes, your pins. Right?

Andrew Babinski
But so far, we haven't. Except for the router. I mean, nothing's really cost any money yet.

Kim Commando
Yeah, it's just time, effort, energy, tons of time. All your smart devices. You know, think about smart thermostats, printers, appliances.

Andrew Babinski
No, we got to replace all of these. Or just change the security on them.

Kim Commando
Change everything. Change everything. This is. This poor person been going on for. This has been going on for three years.

Andrew Babinski
That's a long time.

Kim Commando
And then, you know, I would also recommend being a liar. Being a liar when it comes time for you to, like, maybe answer certain questions. If this person might know the answer to security questions.

Andrew Babinski
Right.

Kim Commando
You know, or have. Because they might have access to two fa. I mean, you got to. I would change all my bank accounts.

Andrew Babinski
Well, if they have disappearing messages, they absolutely have two fa access.

Kim Commando
Yes, that's true.

Andrew Babinski
Absolutely. They'll probably have your phone cloned somewhere and they're watching every single thing you do on it. It's a nightmare.

Kim Commando
This is a complete nightmare. And what's sad about it is I get these notes. I don't know, I bet you a dozen times a week this bad, where.

Andrew Babinski
It'S this bad or even any degree of it is bad.

Kim Commando
No, there's one that I'm hoping the guy's in Kentucky, and I'm hoping that he actually calls into the show this week. It's that the person across the street, he thinks it's a person who lives right across the street. Brand new to the community.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
They live in a really small town. Everybody knows everybody. And he's having similar type of things.

Andrew Babinski
That are going on now. We haven't brought up the authorities, like the police. They're not gonna do anything, but what, a protection order?

Kim Commando
Well, you know, you might wanna file police or just police report just so that it's on the record.

Andrew Babinski
Right. So you have. And if you get a protection order and it includes digital access, I mean, then it may lead to some sort of charge. Right?

Kim Commando
Yeah. But I'll tell you, the problem with the police department is that they have so much going on. Okay. And that there are people who are being stalked 100%. But then there are people with mental issues that they think they're being stalked.

Andrew Babinski
And they're not hard to differentiate.

Kim Commando
Yeah. And so, you know, and I've heard from both. I mean, there was the guy who called into the show and he swore that as he was walking across the street, the kids that were looking at him and making fun of him, that they were actually able to see what was on his phone.

Andrew Babinski
Just with their blind eyes.

Kim Commando
Yes. They could see. Well, they in there. Cause their phones were tapped into his phone.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
Okay. He didn't know them, had never seen them before, but was convinced 100% that they knew everything that was going on. They knew his name, they knew where he worked, and. And they were making fun of him. And then he went into the store, and the clerk in it was like a hardware store. And the clerk in the hardware store, as soon as he walked in, said his name. So he thought that the kids had told the store clerk everything about what was on his phone. So that's why the store clerk knew his first name. And I said to him, I said, well, I find this really hard to believe that all this is going on. And the store clerk, when she said, hey, buddy, how are you? Your first name is Buddy? Okay?

Andrew Babinski
Yeah. It's like your first name being dude. Hey, dude. We've met.

Kim Commando
So.

Andrew Babinski
So did you help him realize that this was, like, extreme paranoia? Did he have a guilty conscience of the things that was on his phone, that they would have reason to laugh at him?

Kim Commando
I don't know. I have no idea. No idea. You know, just. And then, you know. And then. So I told him that he needed to go to a higher authority therapist. Yeah. And that, you know, that I. There's only so much that I could do.

Andrew Babinski
Right.

Kim Commando
He needs to go to someplace.

Andrew Babinski
But I'm sure three years ago, the person who sent in this letter, they were, thought it was illogical that all their stuff was being accessed. There's no way that they have all this access, but turns out they do.

Kim Commando
So if you want to send me your question, you can do that. Head over to commando.com. And there's a link that says, I know we make it really hard. It says, email Kim.

Andrew Babinski
Who came up with that?

Kim Commando
I know, it's genius. And I know that people like to leave me their questions all over the world. I mean, all over social media. It's like, you know, I get DM's. It's like. But this is like, I know it's old school, but it's just like one place where I can focus. I can get it right there.

Andrew Babinski
We read everything. But your best odds is to send an email.

Kim Commando
Yeah. Cause that's where you know that I'm actually gonna see it. Not somebody who's just like, you know, handling our social media. Hey, it's Kim Commando. Today it's your fun podcast. I'm Kim. And that's Andrew.

Andrew Babinski
Hi, I'm Andrew.

Kim Commando
And if you're not already getting our free newsletter, you can sign up over@getchem.com dot. That's get Kim.com, or I'm going to give you one. Better go to winfromkim.com, because if you do that, you're going to sign up for the free newsletter, which, by the way, over a half a million people get every single day.

Andrew Babinski
Even Yahoo and AOL users.

Kim Commando
Yes, even though, you should probably go to Gmail. But that's just, it's kind of a sore point with me. I know that they just like, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, she's a spammer blocked.

Andrew Babinski
But it was only a couple people.

Kim Commando
It was like 125,000. I mean, of my closest friends, but get the newsletter. Yes. You're gonna love it. Winfromkim.com dot so TikTok may be going away, right?

Andrew Babinski
We may be a year away from TikTok not existing in the United States. A lot of things could happen that could change that, but right now, that's the path we're set. So Instagram wants to make reels and Instagram more like TikTok. So in case they go away, Tic Tac users have a place to go, and they're actually helping us out. They're literally helping the consumer out, especially someone like you, Kim. Remember, like a couple of years ago, maybe it was like six or seven years ago, you were in a bad mood. And I was like, what's going on? And you're like, we posted a video last month, 50,000 views. We posted another 150 thousand views. Now we post one, 2200 views. They're not even showing my videos to the people that follow me unless I pay them.

Kim Commando
Can't stand it.

Andrew Babinski
And you were so upset. That's going away, really. Instagram is going to have reels and videos and posts go to your followers. That's why people follow you. Cause they wanna see your stuff.

Kim Commando
They're not gonna put something up and say, you can promote or boost this post.

Andrew Babinski
You still have the ability to promote and boost.

Kim Commando
There we go.

Andrew Babinski
But your followers will see. It may not be all in the first day, maybe not be all in the first 5 hours of posting, but they are going to push the content of your followers to your followers. They're also going to get rid of these fake accounts, these bot accounts. I hate those that are reposting over and over and over again other people's videos, my stuff. Absolutely.

Kim Commando
I hate it.

Andrew Babinski
So what they're going to do is if one of these, they call them theme pages, I don't know why they call them theme pages. It sounds like a nice name you give to a crook. But someone who steals a video off of Instagram, Instagram's algorithm and their AI software is going to be able to notice that they're their exact same videos. They're also going to be able to know which one was posted first, who was the original creator.

Kim Commando
Yeah, they should have all that, all.

Andrew Babinski
The likes and shares are going to be transferred to the original video.

Kim Commando
Nice.

Andrew Babinski
These theme accounts, these repost accounts, it's going to take a while, but they're slowly and surely going to stop getting any attention and they're going to die.

Kim Commando
Nice.

Andrew Babinski
One other thing Instagram is doing is that if you're a small poster, if you only have 80 followers, 50 followers, you're still gonna have a chance to go viral. They are going to show everybody's video, really, to some of the audience, and if it gets traction, they're gonna push it. They're not just gonna push the big accounts, the paid accounts, the big name accounts, they're trying to copy, tick tock.

Kim Commando
And then they'll go back to saying, you have to pay to boost.

Andrew Babinski
Only if you lose money. Yes. If this, if they lose $1, this will all go away.

Kim Commando
That's it. All right. Speaking of videos. Okay. You know, it's pretty hard as a salesperson to get through to a prospect.

Andrew Babinski
Now, did you know that salespeople is the number three position in the United States that is understaffed?

Kim Commando
Yeah, I know. We're hiring.

Andrew Babinski
I didn't even realize that. I thought there were salespeople everywhere.

Kim Commando
Well, and it's, and it gets really difficult because, like, let's say you, let's say we're looking for somebody to advertise in the newsletter. Okay? So we have to, we find a company, and then you have to go to, you go to LinkedIn, and maybe you'd figure out, like, who's in charge. You can pay for a service like Zoom info, and that's like $5,000 a year. So you get somebody's name and their email address and maybe a cell phone number. People don't answer their phones anymore, okay? People don't respond to emails. Okay? They're tired of getting DM's.

Andrew Babinski
Right?

Kim Commando
Okay, so how do you get your pitch in front of a prospect? How can you do that? Listen to this video. Watch this video.

C
This is the most brilliant, cold emailing hack you will ever see. Take a list of email addresses that you want to sell to and attach your sales pitch. Upload them to PayPal and send them all two cent each. Even better, if they don't have a PayPal account. Now, PayPal will remind them every two days with your sales pitch attached to log into PayPal or create a PayPal account. So PayPal is acting as your salesperson without you having to lift a finger. Follow me for more sales hacks like this.

Andrew Babinski
I mean, that's hilarious. But I'm gonna think it's a scam.

Kim Commando
And I'm gonna get so pissed off that you did this to me. I fell for it.

Andrew Babinski
And every two days, Kim commando wants to send you two cent log in to make sure you get your two cent every two days.

Kim Commando
I got one the other day.

Andrew Babinski
Did you really?

Kim Commando
No, no, not from this. Oh, okay. But I got one the other day that said, you need to read this now. Of course. And I was like, I opened it.

Andrew Babinski
It works.

Kim Commando
It's awful.

Andrew Babinski
They got the click through.

Kim Commando
Okay. Speaking of sales, you know William Shatner? He has a new line of women's lingerie.

Andrew Babinski
Really? Does he now?

Kim Commando
But the sales are not going so good.

Andrew Babinski
What happened?

Kim Commando
Maybe Shatner panties wasn't the best name.

Andrew Babinski
I'm using that one.

Kim Commando
That's great. Can I call that one in?

Andrew Babinski
Oh, so, yeah, no, we can't air that. That one on hazy. It's a good joke. We only take bad jokes on bad joke. Friday.

Kim Commando
Shatner panties.

Andrew Babinski
This program is a copyrighted production of.

Kim Commando
Westar multimedia entertainment and protected by the copyright laws.

Andrew Babinski
Any rebroadcast or use of this program.

Kim Commando
For commercial, business, economic or financial purposes without the written permission of Westar multimedia.

Andrew Babinski
Entertainment is strictly prohibited.