10.14.19 Is texting or email safer?; Concert promotion scam; SEC opens an investigation into 403b's

Published: Oct. 14, 2019, 9 p.m.

b'There\\u2019s\\xa0 increased interest in protecting privacy. We forget how things we say aren\\u2019t private in this electronic era. Text messages aren\\u2019t really private. But there are things you can do to protect privacy. When both parties use an encrypted third-party texting app \\u2013 only the recipients get your text. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook \\u2013 is a secure texting app so far, used by \\xbc of the world\\u2019s population. For business and other proprietary transactions and for consumers, Signal is used for privacy protection as well. ProtonMail is great for protecting email communications.\\xa0 For Apple users, iOS 13 is coming with a variety of privacy improvements. Tech writers are recommending waiting a few weeks before download, as they\\u2019re still working out some bugs.\\xa0 Apple\\u2019s iOS 13 will provide auto burner-email addresses when you sign up with a company to prevent email spam. This allows you to hide your real email address.\\nCon artist Andres Fernandez has been convicted for wire fraud, after stealing $31M claiming he had an opportunity to produce and promote concerts. There were no concerts. This Ponzi type scheme has been around for a century, but there\\u2019s been a great acceleration recently. Be very skeptical when you\\u2019re promised a private opportunity to score big money. \\xa0\\nPolice officers, fire fighters, teachers and other state and local government workers get ripped off on their retirement savings. It\\u2019s common that 403b and 457 plans these workers are shunted into, cost 100 times the cost of a corporate 401k plan. Inexcusable that those working for the public good are taken advantage of in their retirement plans. There\\u2019s no excuse for this. Federal workers enjoy the TSP, costing about 1/50th of what state and local gov workers pay. Thank Congress for not caring about workers who earn less by serving the public. FINALLY \\u2013 the SEC has launched an investigation of the insurance companies that rip people off in these plans. For affected workers, instead of putting your money into these plans, fully fund a Roth IRA with an ultra-low-cost company. Only contribute to a 403b or 457 plan proven to be low cost, only up to the match. Past that, open a low-cost Roth.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'