All Episodes

April 25, 2025 39 mins
  • What is identity theft and how do you protect yourself from it? We’re joined by Ian Bednowitz, General Manager of LifeLock, on this week’s Tech It Out
  • If it was a pain getting all your receipts together for tax time, you’re not alone. Epson drops by to talk about its award-winning RapidReceipt scanners. I catch up with Stacey Tieu, Product Manager of Scanners at Epson America.
  • Speaking of money management, if you’re single and looking to meet someone, learn about ‘Luxury Dating’ with Seeking.com’s CEO and Founder, Brandon Wade. Do you need to be wealthy to use this app/site?
  • Thank you to Visa and SanDisk for your support!
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Can Check it Out? Can help make some
sense of it all. Breaking down geek speak into street speak.
Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer
technology each week for every listener, Mark tackles the latest news, reviews,
and how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's

(00:21):
not and why.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey everyone, welcome to check it Out. It's episode three
ninety one. Hope you're all doing great today. Some of
you may be listening right now who are not so
into tech. I get that. And you just happen to
be in your car, maybe in your hometown, and you
turn on your favorite talk radio station and here you are.
You're listening to a show called Tech it Out. But
don't touch that dial. You may have heard the announcer

(00:47):
say that I break down geek speak into street speak,
so you're not going to get so much inside baseball
on this program. But on the other hand, you may
be listening to Tech it Out as a podcast, which
means that you subscribed to it or are you tapped
to listen to it, and so hey, I'm not going
to let you down either. You're not going to roll
your eyes, so I try to drive right down in
the middle, and I hope you enjoyed the program. We

(01:10):
have three great guests for you this hour. We're going
to start off learning about receipt scanners from epsyn. If
getting taxes ready was a real pain this year, we'll
explain what these can do whether you work for yourself
as I do, or you need to file expenses to
your company for things like travel and all that. After that,
what is luxury dating and do you need to be

(01:30):
rich in order to use these dating apps these matchmaking websites. Well,
we're going to chat with the founder of Seeking dot com,
a popular dating platform, and he'll explain that it's not
just for the wealthy. And finally, identity theft is a
huge issue in this country, and AI is making it
easier for these cyber criminals to defraud you. And so

(01:51):
we're going to be joined by LifeLock on how to
fight back all of this and more on an all
new tech it out powered by Visa. Securing the world's
payments is priority one. I'll tell you more about Visa's
anti fraud efforts shortly, but let's efficiently kick off a
brand new show with our first interview, what do you
work for an organization and need to provide receipts for

(02:11):
expenses like travel, or you work for yourself as I do.
Receipt and invoice scanners can make it super easy to
digitize important documents and then get them into the hands
of those who need them, like in my case a
bookkeeper or an accountant, especially this time of year. Right
and AI is helping as well. Epsin is a leader
in this space, and so I invite it onto the show.

(02:33):
Stacey Too, product manager of scanners at Epsoin, to share
what's new with the award winning rapid receipt line of scanners.
Welcome to the show, Stacy, Good to chat with you.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Hi, Mark, good to be here.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Now, before we talk about the solution, i e. Rapid
receipt scanners, let's identify the problem. We're just coming off
of tax time, very stressful for many. What was wrong
with the old way of collecting receipts?

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Well, what we hear from our customers end users is
kind of horrifying. They would have boxes and box of
receipts everywhere laying around and it's just so difficult to
organize them. They could be in a corner somewhere, they
could be in a shoe box, and it just piles up.
And then there's the issue of in putting all that
data into the appropriate software. There's human errors, there's time consuming,

(03:21):
it's just not fun. So we saw that issue and
we felt we could provide a solution. Hence the Rapid
Receipts line of scanners.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
All right, so let's hear about them. This is certainly
better than gosh. I had a friend who had a
garbage bag of receipts every year, and then every March
you would go through them all and try to digitize
them or even manually and put them into software. So
this is obviously a much better way to handle it.
So tell us about the rapid receipt family of scanners,

(03:50):
which I would argue our ideal all year round, not
just tax time. But tell us about them.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yes, So our goal is to create a scanner lineup
Taylor to helps all businesses to efficiently manage and organize
those endless receipt invoices or any other financial documents. Our
EPs and Rappery receipt scanners are engineered for high performance
and design to tackle large volume of data and includes
a lot of unique features. First and foremost is our

(04:19):
scan smart AI pro technology. This is a proprietary technology
that powers our receipt management software. What I mentioned before
of having boxes of receipts and then manually inputting them
into whatever financial software you need, our receipt management software
automatically extracts all the key data from your receis and

(04:42):
invoices and this includes the date, vendor, currency, total, tax, tip,
even payment method and allows the consumer to automatically export
to financial software like TurboTax quick Books. So it really
streamlines the process and eliminates human error. I mean it
makes it somewhat more enjoyable. I mean it skipped a

(05:04):
lot of step so we're able to provide that to
the consumer. It solves a lot of problems. In addition
to the scan smart AI Pro technology, our Rapper Receipt
lineup also includes our true feed technology. Another issue folks
have with scanners, this paper jams. Staying by your scanner
to like feed in one paper at a time, you

(05:26):
don't need to do that with our Rapper Receipt lineup.
Our top of the line scannered our R six hundred
W has one hundred page robust auto document feeder where
you could stacks invoices, receive paper up to one hundred
pages and automatically feeds through and with our ultrasonic sensors
it reduce this paper jams, so it's a very easy flow.

(05:48):
We also have scan way technology where if you have
one drive, Dropbox or even Microsoft three sixty so you
can easily archive your data into these cloud drivers. And
our line up includes mobile, so if you're a real
estate agent and you're traveling around and you need a
mobile scanner, we also have that solution, or you have
more to scan, we have compact desktop and desktop models

(06:11):
as well.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
So for receipts, often there are little tiny slips of
paper that you get from a restaurant or whatever. They're
not always like a full page that you may get
from a hotel when you check out, So can these
rapid receipt scanners also handle small little receipts Like how
would you stack something like that?

Speaker 4 (06:29):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Absolutely, that's where the true feed technology comes in. You
could stacks all different sizes could be smaller, one medium,
and large one into the autodocument feeler up to a
hundred sheeees and it would feed it nearly perfectly. The
ultra sonic sensors reduces paper jams, and it could accommodate
all those little bitty different size receipts.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Awesome, would you say, Stacey, this is more ideal for
employees for a medium or large organization like an enterprise
grade organization or someone like me, a solo preneur, so
I have no employees, it's all me or for both
both camps.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Actually it spans multiple end users. I've had coworkers who
borrow the wrap and receipt to scanner taxes and receives
and I can't quote this. She'd called it life changing.
Or it could be you owner operator and you don't
have any employees to help you out and you need
it helper the rapper receipts scanner to do this for you,
and it can in a very cost effective way.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
We are chatting with Stacey to you. She is product
manager for scanners at EPSYN. We're learning about the award
winning rapid Receipt line of scanners. You mentioned one model.
I think it was the six hundred W Is that right?

Speaker 5 (07:41):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (07:41):
And it looks like it's not as big as a
computer printer, but it is something that you would keep,
say in a home office. And does it wirelessly scan
to a computer or do you have to plug it
in like the old school printers.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
You have both options. It comes wireless, you could set
up as wireless, or you could set it up scanning
via USB to connect to your computer.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
It's accuracy. I think that some people may be concerned about.
This is your financials here. Nobody wants to risk getting
audited from the IRS. So this is using I guess
what's called ocr optical character recognition, so it identifies those
numbers and puts them in the right cells, so to speak. Correct.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Absolutely, And we are definitely very sensitive to the accuracy
and we know that our end users are concerned with that.
As the sister tax return that we're talking about. This
software allows the consumers to check the data before it saves,
so there is a check and process there, and it
is very data driven, so the more data you feed it,

(08:41):
the more accurate it is. So so far we've seen
very positive reviews on it.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Great, and I guess that's where the AI comes in,
because it would be cool enough if it just scanned
everything and digitized everything. But I love that it extracts
the information the words and the numbers more importantly, perhaps
during tax time, and puts it in the right area,
so it automatically identifies all the key parts of a
say or receipt or an invoice or something. I think

(09:05):
there's also an app as well.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Oh yes, there is definitely an app that companies are scanners.
The AI piece is actually twofold. I talked about the
data extraction, but it's also getting all that information onto
your computer. So you could take advantage of all the
AAI tools out there. You could have all your CSV
ORed EXCEL file of all your tactics invoices, and you

(09:29):
could go on Microsoft Copilot and ask tell me all
my expenses from so and so restaurant in twenty twenty
four and the AI program can do that now. But
the key is getting all that information onto your computer,
so you could take advantage of all the current AI tools,
and our Rapper receipt scanners can help consumers to do that.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Love that. I love the generative AI applications as well.
And before I let you go, tell us please what
you think separates rapid receipt from other document scanners in
the market. You talked about the software you can load
up to one hundred pieces of paper in the input
tray and it doesn't get jammed. You may have already
answered this, but there's obviously other solutions out there. Why

(10:12):
appsin well, it's.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Our proprietary technology. We have four proprietary technology that's included Wrapper,
Receipt scan Smart AI Pro which I mentioned automatically extracts
the data from all the receipts and text forms, and
also our true fee technology with our ultrasonic sensor to
really minimize those paper jams. There's also scan Way technology
that automatically archives and data into cloud services like one Drive,

(10:37):
Dropbox and more. And of course you mentioned accuracy. Accuracy
is key, and our hyperclear technology provides scans dot are
true to form and acrid.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
All right, great, and then finally where can we learn
more for things like pricing and availability?

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Is Epson dot com for slash scanners.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Great Epsen dot Com slash scanners, And we should clarify
there's other types of scanners as well, like the fast
photo ones for images. So you're going to see an
assortment of scanners, but you'll quickly identify the rapid receipt
ones Epsom dot com slash scanners Stacey. Thank you so
much for your time and to your expertise. Great to
chat with you.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Thank you, Thank you for having me Mark.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
We talk luxury dating when we return on check it Out.
You're not going to want to miss this.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to Check it Out whenever you want to find
the check it Out podcast, did I Too, or wherever
you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Welcome back to Check it Out. We cover cybersecurity a
lot on this program and how you can best protect
yourself in the digital age, even if you're not super
tech savvy. One part of the solution is securely shopping
online and so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa
on Tech it Out as they've made some significant investments
in fraud prevention the past five years, as much as

(12:02):
ten billion dollars, Yes that's billion, with the b to
support Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information of
individuals and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind when
you shop online using your Visa card. There can be
no half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which is
why the company takes an aggressive and multi layered approach

(12:22):
to combating the rising threat of malicious software and other
threats by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read more
about Visa and how securing the world's payments is priority
one at Visa dot Com slash security. That's Visa dot
Com slash Security. Not all dating apps and sites are
created equal, and so how does Seeking dot com differentiate

(12:46):
itself from the pack? And is it working? Are singles
flocking to Seeking dot com? And if so why? To
answer these questions and others. Joining us on the line
is Brandon Wade, founder and CEO of Seeking dot Com.
Thanks for your time, brand did good to chat with you.

Speaker 5 (13:01):
Nice to be on him, Mark, thank you for having
me excellent.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
All right, so before we talk about Seeking dot com,
what is luxury dating? Is it just as it sounds,
It really is.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
But I think there's a lot of misconception over what
luxury is. I think people think luxury means having a
lot of money and being able to spend it freely.
But it's more than that. Luxury is actually a timeless concept.

Speaker 5 (13:25):
If you think.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
About luxury, the sort of the royalties of the European cultures,
they sort of they sort of brought luxury into sort
of the mainstream sort of mindset, right, and luxury means
having the time to enjoy things. It's having the resources
to be able to take sort of lifestyle and life

(13:46):
into the fineness sort of experience.

Speaker 5 (13:49):
So that is what I would call luxury.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
And luxury dating is for the people who are actually
looking for that as a lifestyle with the partner that
they end up finding and spending their life with. And
that's the way I would define luxury dating.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
And why do you think this is such a popular
trend today even in the dating world.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
I think everyone aspire to have the luxurious experience, so
to say, I think.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
If you fly a specific airline, you want to be
on the business class or the first class because the
experience is just so much better. But that's sort of
looking at.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
It in a very simplistic way. I think social media
has a lot to play with that as well. I
think people look at social media and they look at
the sort of lifestyle that some of these influences are
showing off, right, and people look at that and say, well,
I want that for myself. So that's the aspirational aspect
to luxury, the luxury lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
I think you're one hundred percent. So now let's talk
about the dating part of that and specifically what seeking
dot com is all about.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, when it comes to dating, it's not as simple
as saying, well, I want a luxury lifestyle, so I'm
going to find somebody wealthy, because the success mindset, which
is what leads someone to get to the point of
having the capacity to live a luxurious life, is actually
more intricate. It is about ambition, It is about having

(15:15):
the drive. It is about having the right mindset to
believe that you can and therefore deserve to live a
life like that, and then going out there to achieve that.
And of course, when I'm talking about a dating site,
you're really talking about matching people who have a similar
sort of thinking, same mindset, the same type of success mindset.

(15:36):
Because when you match two people who don't have don't
share the same mindset, it's the relationship is probably not
going to work because one person's goal is a specific way,
another person in another way. So the importance of having
two people thinking a lot, wanting the same thing, having
the same goals is extremely important, and hence a need

(15:57):
for a website which matches people who want this sort
of lifestyle and has the mindset to achieve it.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
And so is Seeking dot Com more of a web
platform than an app.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
It is more of a web platform for a number
of different reasons. Most of the dating apps out there
these days, whether it's Tender or Bumble or Hinge, the
number of users you can actually see or the profiles
you can actually see depends on how many times you
can swipe.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
Alternatively, some platforms actually.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Dole out maybe four or five profiles a day to
to sort of help you focus your search.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
Seeking dot Com works differently.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
It's you know, we actually expose the entire database to
our members, so you have access to the millions of
users all at once, allowing you to search and filter
by all types of all types of.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Criteria that you have.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
So that's that's one of the core differences between our
platform and say most of the apps out there today.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
But you could use your mobile device on the web
version of Seeking dot com. Correct, it's not an app
at all.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yes, well, it's actually available on the Android app, so
it is an app as well.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
But I think the web platform.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
Has much more of the filtering capabilities and the such
capability which gives you a greater access to the membership base,
and that is available on your mobile phone.

Speaker 5 (17:20):
To your web browser.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Got it all right. So, whether you use a mobile
device like a phone or a tablet, or a computer
a laptop desktop, seeking dot com is a matchmaking site.
And please correct me if I'm wrong. It's a matchmaking
platform that focuses on luxury dating. And you've explained what
that means to you and your company and one of
the other key differentiators. Is not just an app that

(17:44):
you swipe left or right or what have you. And
so when we return, I'm going to ask is it working?
Are people flocking to this site? Is it all gold diggers?
People looking for a sugar daddy, a rich cougar, or
whatever whatever phrase you want to use. I would love
to know is this working? And so I'm going to
ask our guests, Brandon Wade, he's the founder and CEO

(18:05):
of Seeking dot com, if this is indeed working. I
want to hear more about it when we return. I'm
sure you do too, so stick with us. We'll be
right back with more. Check it out.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I want to follow Mark Google Mark with a CNE
and Saltzman.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
With a Z.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Breaking down geeks peak into street speak. This is check
it out to check it out with technology columnist author
and TV personality Mark Saltzman.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back to check it out. We are chatting with
Brandon Wade. He's founder and CEO of Seeking dot com.
Apologies for my allergies. It's s like sam E E
K I n G like you're seeking something or in
this case someone, and Brandon is explaining the key differentiators
between Seeking and other platforms. Before the break, I told you, Brandon,

(19:02):
I was going to ask you is it working.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
The website was launched in two thousand and six by me,
and I was really looking to solve a dating problem
I have, which is, you know, I'm shy. Like most
of the people in tech, I focus a lot of
my time on education and then obviously on my career,
not putting a lot of attention on my social life,
which led me to a big disadvantage when I'm using

(19:27):
a regular dating app or even a site, because when
it comes to the dating game, fortunately or unfortunately, it's
quite superficial. Initially, it's about the mutual attraction, the physical attraction,
or even the attributes that people see within your profile.
So to make things better for myself, I developed Seeking,

(19:48):
which focuses more on people who are educated and more successful,
and it was very successful, almost instantaneously because because we
were able to attract more female users then we do
the male users.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
So the female to male racial on Seeking is.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Much higher than on most other dating platforms out there.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
So it works from that perspective.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
But then, of course love is it's actually a random process,
much like the quantum process.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
It can happen to anyone at any time, and you
really don't know when it will happen.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I'm just curious to know
how well it's working. Can you quantify how seeking dot
com is doing well?

Speaker 4 (20:30):
I would say the website has over time since it's launched,
accumulated about fifty six million members. Now that's the total
number of users who have signed up over the last
fifteen years. So when you sign up, you have to
answer a set of questions which then classifies you as
either somebody who's already successful able to provide that specific

(20:53):
type of lifestyle, which which is what I call a
luxury lifestyle, or somebody who's ambitious who's on your way
to its success. Now, those who are already successful, clearly
they pay a higher price, and and and a lot
of people would say, well, do you verify people's income
or even network. While the self verification happens. Because of
the prices that we charge, it's it's higher than most

(21:15):
other dating sites. As a successful user you would be
paying more, and as an ambitious user, you would you
could actually use the website coffret.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Oh. Okay, that's good to know. I understand there's some
new features that have recently rolled out.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
Mm hmm, there are new features. A lot of the
newer features.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
That that that we're actually rolling out happens on the
back end. We have decided as a dating site or
dating app that we no longer want to tolerate, you know,
scammers and fraud, which is actually quite prevalent in the
dating space.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
I think you have.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Seen many of the documentaries about you know, people swindling
each other. There's there's the people who pretend to be
who they are not on dating platforms.

Speaker 5 (21:58):
So one of the key features that we launched earlier
this year is a.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Lifeeness check, which is an AI powered system that makes
sure that the person on the other end is actually
a real person, not a fake EI generated image or
even a fake photo for instance, and then we match
the look of that person to the look of.

Speaker 5 (22:19):
The photos that they upload.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
So not only do we know the person is actually real,
we also know that they actually do look like who
they say they are.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
That's great, Well, it's good to know because you know,
catfishing is a problem and other associated romance scams. I'm
using that in air quotes. And do you support same
sex relationships as well?

Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yes, we do not discriminate any type of relationship configuration
is well supported. Instead of actually launching more new features
like a lot of the other dating apps out there,
we are actually doing the opposite.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Now.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
One of the things that the users or your listeners may
not know is that my wife is actually my co
CEO ever since she sort of ever since we got married.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
One of the things I realized when I got married is, hey,
I'm ready to retire.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
I want to be out there really enjoying life and
experiencing this luxury lifestyle I talked about with my wife.
But when I looked at the way the websites are run,
I realized that, hey, we really need to do something
about our platform to really transform it into what it
needs to be to solve the dating challenges that I

(23:28):
now see and know because of my own success. That's
that's actually played in the entire sort of dating space
earlier this year. In fact, last year, you read a
lot of news articles about how gen z is tired
of dating dating apps, specifically they are jaded.

Speaker 5 (23:45):
You know, there's.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
Too many relationships that are just going by too quickly.
A swipe and you're onto the next person. People are
missing on that genuine connection, which is ultimately what true
lovers is sort of springs from. We want to give
people an opportunity to tell more of their story because
at the end of the day, honesty is what gets

(24:07):
you to a perfect match. If you can be completely
honest about exactly who you are, what you want, all
your kinks, then you are going to attract people who
are actually open to who you are and accept.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
You for who you are, which is the basis.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
For that communication I'm talking about where you can be
vulnerable and actually talk about what you want openly. On
too many dating sites, they tend to put themselves out
there as who they are not really and then they
have to protect or even defend that lie that they
tell others, which leads to very unhappy sort of relationships

(24:42):
or relationship that ultimately don't work out. So once we
understand how relationships work, my sort of mission is well
as my wife's mission, to transform the dating app into
one that actually helps people make that genuine connection great.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
And then finally, how do our single listeners get going?
So it's Seeking dot com and then you just sign
up from there.

Speaker 5 (25:03):
It is Seeking dot com. You just sign up from there.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
All right, awesome, Seeking dot com. Brandon, thank you so
much for your time, wishing you continued success with the platform.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
Thank you, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
You are listening to tech it Out, I'm your host,
Mark Saltzman. If you want to reach out on social media,
perhaps you've got tech questions for me, or you've got
suggestions for upcoming guests or topics for tech it Out.
You can find me on all the major platforms. I'll
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Blue sky, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and a few others.

(25:40):
So just do a search. Mark Saltsman, M A R
C s A L t Z M A N Mark Saltsman,
Mark with the C Saltsman with a Z. If you
prefer email, you can simply go to my website Mark
Saltsman dot com. You'll find how you can email me
from there and can reach out that way if that's
more your thing than social media. Money seems to be

(26:04):
the theme this hour, a receipt scanner than a luxury
dating website to attract wealthy mates perhaps, and coming up
next to how to fight back against identity theft, we'll
chat with LifeLock when we return on Check it Out.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Breaking down geek speak into street speak. Check it Out,
hosted by Mark Saltzman.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Welcome back everyone. You're listening to Tack it Out. As
you likely know, identity theft is when someone uses your
personal info like your name or social Security number, or
maybe bank account details to commit fraud or other crimes.
You might think that you're helpless against these tech savvy
cyber criminals, but there are some things that you can
do to significantly lower the odds of becoming a victim.

(27:00):
This is what we're going to cover now with Ian Bednowitz.
He's general manager of LifeLock. Welcome to the show. Ian,
good to chat with you.

Speaker 6 (27:07):
Thank you, Mark, it's great to chat with you as well,
and happy to be here and talking about a very
important topic.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
It is an important topic. I agree with you, but
it's something that, as I alluded to, off the top,
a lot of people don't think they can do anything about.
So before we get to some tips, let's first hear
about LifeLock at a high level. Tell us about the
organization and the services that you provide.

Speaker 6 (27:28):
As a company, LifeLock has been the pioneer in the
identity theft protection space for many, many years. We've been around.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
Before people really knew what identity theft was.

Speaker 6 (27:39):
And at the core, our service is around protecting people
from losing money due to identity theft for the things
that you highlighted, for people taking your personal information, taking
our loans in your name, taking money from your account,
taking out credit cards in your name, etc. And then
we also provide white glove support help members fix any

(28:01):
problems that happen. And that's back by up to three
million in insurance in our product.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
All right, So we'll get to some of that in
a moment from now, but let's unpack some of those
initial features that you mentioned, starting with identity and social
security number monitoring. How does LifeLock work exactly in this regard?

Speaker 6 (28:20):
Yeah, so, identity and so security number monitoring are just
a fancy way of saying that we are covering all
potential accounts that could be opened in your name without
your knowledge. So these, in particular are things that would
not come up on your credit report, so things like

(28:41):
your phone accounts, that utility accounts, things like that that
we monitor. There's a more core feature which is credit monitoring,
which monitors all of your everything that comes up on
your credit report, and so that's credit cards, personal loans
are the most common. Mortgages would be on there as well.

(29:02):
So basically between our full feature set, we are monitoring
any and all accounts that could be opened in your name.
We also monitor for new checking or savings accounts being
opened or changes to those accounts. That's usually a sign
of money laundering. And finally, we monitor less regulated forms
of credit like payday loans or find out pay later loans.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
All right, thanks for that. Now, is it tied to
a particular service like say Equifax for credit monitoring or
do you work across the board. Maybe you can pull
the curtain back a little bit on how it works.
How does LifeLock manage to keep an eye on your
credit score and your financial accounts?

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (29:42):
Absolutely, so it depends on which plan you have, Like, Yes,
for credit in particular, we do use one vendor, and
that vendor provides both your core credit score and your
three bureau credit score as well if you have our
higher tier plans. But for those other alerts, we use
a variety of services vendors as well as our own

(30:05):
proprietary information in order to monitor all your information. So
we're not reliant on any one data source. We monitor
millions of data points, some of which are proprietaries, some
of which are through vendors, in order to keep eyes
on any place that an identity thief could take advantage
of you.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
All right, thanks for that. Now, is this the same
as dark web monitoring, which I know LifeLock offers as well,
or at least in one of the tiers of the
subscription service.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yeah, mark dark web.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
I haven't really talked about dark web, and it is different.
That's in all of our services.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Now.

Speaker 6 (30:39):
Dark web monitoring is a service. It scans and searches
websites and forms on the dark web. Now that term
is kicked around a lot. A lot of people don't
really understand what the dark web is.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Now.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
The dark web is kind of a shadow internet that
can only be accessed by special software. So it's not
like you can type in a certain address on your browser.
You have to download specific software to access this. And
generally everything on the dark web is anonymous and it's
a hotbed for the trading of illicit information illicit transaction.

(31:14):
So this is where people will transact with personal information
that's been stolen in breaches or directly from individuals and
monetize that before they take advantage of you. So we
notify you if any of your information is found in
its dark web, and that could be as simple as
there is a breach in a particular company and your

(31:37):
username and password were found on the dark web, or
could be in a fortunate situation where your social Security number,
data birth or driver's vices number was found on the
dark web.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Got it? And I know some web browsers they'll notify
you if I want to use a password to log
into my online accounts like my bank, for example, it
may say, hey, Mark, your password was found to be
breached and it was found on the dark web. You
should not use this password. You should change it immediately.

Speaker 6 (32:05):
Yeah, that is absolutely the case, and we will monitor
beyond just your passwords for all of your personal information.
As I said, but if you get that notification from
your browser, then you absolutely need to change that information immediately.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
So Ian, let's say you're a LifeLock subscriber and I
will ask you about pricing in the different tiers in
a moment and your info or your financial accounts are compromised.
What happens next? Is there reimbursement? Is it like an
insurance policy?

Speaker 6 (32:34):
Yeah, in many ways, it is an insurance policy, but
with a lot of extra support built in versus traditional
insurance policy. First, we will alert you have suspicious transactions
in your account. If you say, hey, I don't recognize this,
our specialists will work with you and the bank and
they'll guide you through the entire process to determine and
resolve the issues, and as needed, we will actually hire

(32:56):
lawyers on your behalf. You don't have to pay a
cent out of your pocket. We do that for you,
and we have coverage up to a million dollars in
those legal fees.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
If the situation isn't resolved. Of course, very cool. More
with LifeLock when we return on tech it Out. Stay
with us.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen
to check it out whenever you want.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
If you're just tuning in. We're joined by Ian Bednowitz.
He's GM of LifeLock, talking with us about identity theft,
highlighting the long tail of refund fraud and IRS fishing
long after filing your taxes and Ian, can you tell
us a bit about home title monitoring?

Speaker 6 (33:45):
Yeah, Home title monitoring MARK is a critical feature. It's
to stop scammers from taking out loans against your home,
your most valuable asset, or even having it sold out
from under you. You may or may not be aware.
There was a recent high profile case of attempt at
home id effect of Graceland. This is Elvis's former home.
This is one of the most iconic properties in the US,

(34:05):
if not the world. And what happened is that fraudster's
forge document showing that there was a loan against the
home from millions of dollars, and then they attempted to
foreclose on the home. They said that loan was unpaid
and therefore they needed to claim the home as collateral.
And the family said, hey, this is this is fraud.
But they had to invest a tremendous amount of time

(34:26):
and legal resources to get this resolved in the courts,
and it was a very public fight. And if this
can happen to Graceland, this can happen to anyone's home.
So it's really important that people are aware that this
type of fraud can happen and if they have this
monitoring in place.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
All right, I'm going to ask you what kind of
LifeLock tier would cover that kind of protection. But first,
any other tips you can impart on our listeners on
ways to protect yourself.

Speaker 6 (34:52):
There are very common things too that you can do
to protect yourself. First and foremost, I always tell anybody
you need to be skeptical of anyone reaching out to you.
You should use two factor authentication. You should use a
password manager, change passwords on all of your accounts. You
should limit the sharing of your personal information anytime that

(35:12):
you can a lot of times different call it doctors, dentists.
There can be many places where you get asked for
details like your social Security number, your data birth and
you don't always have to give that information out, and
you can challenge these organizations.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
Say do I really need to give this to you?

Speaker 6 (35:30):
And oftentimes I'll say no, don't, I don't need that
or they can come up with an alternative and then
finally underlies all of it. As we've been talking about,
get an identity theft protection service. And you should always
be checking your credit reports on your own if you
don't have it for any attempts, any potential fraud. But
if you have a service like LifeLock, we do all
of that for you. You can have peace of mind

(35:51):
and rest easy at night.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
And I so tax time pretty much come to an
end now, but you've got some advice post tax season.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
Yeah, absolutely, scammers ramp up their efforts after people filed
their taxes. People think that they can relax now, but
this is the time. Because people can relax that scammers
exploit that fall sense of security. So some of the
common scams that we see are phishing emails and fake
IRS calls. Fraudsters impersonate IRS officials, which seems more credible.

(36:20):
They'll claim issues with your return or refund to try
to get personal information from you. You can get unsolicited
tax transcripts. A tax transcript is a record of your
filing that is only available through the IRS. But you
might get an email saying, hey, here's your tax transcript
that could pretend to be from the IRS or someone else,
and if you click on that, what will happen is

(36:42):
there is malware that will infect your machine. And then
the final scam that we see is for people who
haven't filed their taxes yet. Scammers will take advantage of
that and promise fast service. They'll be marketing. Any legitimate
tax service during this time is completely back up, so
it's very hard to get your taxes done, but they

(37:03):
may promise very fast turnarounds a quick results, and so
you should ideally work with known tax preparers, but if
it is someone new, make sure you always ask any
tax prepare for the Prepare Tax and Identification Number PTI
in every tax repairer has that to verify their authenticity
before you send them any personal info.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
All great tips and then finally, how much do the
LifeLock plans start at and where do we get going?

Speaker 6 (37:28):
Yeah, so you can start with our protection. Our entry
level protection starts at ninety dollars per year or twelve
dollars per month. You can learn more at LifeLock dot com.
We of course have more comprehensive protection that can cover
your entire family that would be significantly more than that,
but very basic entry level or your entry level coverage
that covers a lot of your primary needs is ninety

(37:50):
dollars per year, twelve dollars per month.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
All right.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
And then also, Ian, something we really didn't touch on
is that your sister company is Norton, very well known,
respect and trusted cybersecurity software suite of products. Is there
a bundle where you can get LifeLock and Norton protection together?

Speaker 4 (38:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (38:09):
Absolutely, you can get it through both Norton dot com
and LifeLock dot com. We have the identity to protection
from LifeLock that I talked about, together with security for
your devices, scam protection VPN, a full suite of services.
So if you want the most comprehensive protection, absolutely getting
the Norton plus LifeLock bundle is the best option.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
All right, Ian, great to chat with you, Thank you
so much, of.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
Course, thank you.

Speaker 6 (38:35):
Marcu's great to talk about this and I appreciate you
having me on.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Speaking of protection, thank you to Visa one last time
for protecting both consumers and businesses. And on a related note,
make sure to back up your important files on a
regular basis. I always trust sanddisc drives like SD cards,
USB thump drives, solid state drives sanddisk dot com. Have
a great rest of your day, everyone, and I look

(38:59):
forward to catching up with you next weekend for another
brand new episode of Check It Out. Bye bye for now.
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