I tried to get my bank, Wells Fargo, to eliminate Zelle from my account but they have so far not done it. Of course I have not installed it on my cell phone but I want to kill it permanently.
1 Like
As with every other article about Zelle, the problem is someone falling for a scam by doing something they’re not supposed to, like sharing secret information, like a 2FA code, over the phone with an unauthenticated caller (i.e., you don’t actually know who you’re talking to).
But I think you’re probably safe with Wells Fargo if you’ve never activated Zelle. When I had their checking account (for the sign-up bonus), I couldn’t activate Zelle easily. They needed either a post-paid cell phone number, which I don’t have, or for me to get a YubiKey or FIDO dongle or whatever they use for $25.
1 Like
I’ve got a business account, personal account, and know the the local branch manager pretty well socially. There’s nothing they can do to remove the Zelle “option” from the website. I’ve been assured that it’s not active until, as @scripta noted, a bunch of links are “accepted.” Sadly, I take this assurance to be the same as the assurance that they take our privacy very seriously.
I suspect that they’re pushing Zelle so hard because they are part owners, along with other banks. Consequently, they will do everything possible to encourage usage, and will do nothing that makes it hard to use.
4 Likes
That is also my impression. I keep my online account locked down as much as possible with two factor authentication as text messages to one of my Google Voice accounts. I also set up account alerts, but interestingly I could not find one for zelle transactions. They will probably claim it’s because I do not have it enabled. 
1 Like
This is making a lot of news locally
2 Likes
Does Oakland have any money to pay a ransom? Oh wait - maybe that could offer to trade free ebonics lessons in lieu of cash/bitcoin. 
The new Mayor freed up some money by firing the police chief.
Not because of the record crime but for some woke made up charges. Even though the mayor is ABC, that is American Born Chinese, she is getting strong pushback from the Chinese community because the chief was at least doing something about the black on Chinese violence.
3 Likes
You may want to protect your privacy from the Feds’ illegal spying, but the courts aren’t going to help you.
2 Likes
I understand their quandary, but wish the Chief Justice spent half the effort squaring this circle that he did on legalizing obamacare.
2 Likes
US Spooks and Biden officials lobby for extension of their right to continue legally spying on Americans online. If they can’t convince the Congress to vote for an extension before year end they’ll just have to go back to the old way - of illegally spying on everyone.
1 Like
That means the Republicans in the House. After all the abuses by the FBI there’s no way this should pass. It will be interesting to see whether McCarthy comes out against it and is able to hold Republicans together.
Edit. The Democrats will probably try to pass it as part of a gigantic spending bill at year end.
1 Like
I’d like to learn more about VPNs, their operation, and how they can be used to camouflage one’s geographic location. Any suggestions on a good article or website that has truthful information about VPNs? I’ve seen several but don’t think they’re believable.
Good luck. I’m sure those are articles are somewhere, but you will have to wade through a ton of advertisements disguised as articles to find the right ones. I only scanned this one, but it looks fairly decent. If you’re looking for access to Netflix, HBO, etc. from other countries, many media companies have blocked VPN IPs.
3 Likes
Thank you. It isn’t to connect to Netflix or any other similar service. Nothing related to bypassing paid sites either.
BTW, how does a company identify VPN IPs?
You’re implying that companies care. Do they?
IP addresses and address ranges are owned by specific entities. This is public information. I don’t think it would be difficult to figure out whether the owner is a VPN provider.
Any decent VPN provider will have servers all over the world. You pick the country you want, and it assigns your computer (or rather a virtual network adapter on your computer) an IP address reserved for that country. Anything you visit from that point forward only sees your assigned IP address, and that makes it look like you’re located in the country you selected. The sites/services you visit are not supposed to know anything about your actual IP address, because that’s not how TCP/IP works. But they could find out your actual IP address if there are bugs in your software, like this one for example.
3 Likes
Yes! If you’re looking to “hide” your true location, be sure to read up on DNS and WebRTC leakage.
If you’re looking to do something illegal like passing state secrets, I’d forget it. VPN providers don’t have a great track record of protecting their users’ privacy. By law, some have to keep logs of your activities. Others may require a court order to do so. It would probably be easier, and apparently safer, to let the Big Guy get a relative to sell them. 
1 Like
For this you’d need a no-logging VPN. They’re registered in a country that does not have such laws. They are not difficult to find. But I would combine that with other technologies (like no-logging proxies) to prevent being discovered, but it’s definitely not easy.
3 Likes
We haven’t talked about AI / GPT / ChatGPT in this thread yet, but I feel like something I wrote in the wiki is more relevant than ever:
Your face, if public, or even not entirely public (Facebook leaks your data via friends and via bad code or poor policies ala Cambridge Analytica) is already being used to train facial recognition software, but it can also be used to generate fake, unbelievably good photos and videos.
The same goes for your voice. The financial institutions appear (in my experience) to be making an even bigger push towards voice authentication, where they record your voice on the calls, then use it to authenticate you on future calls. This is a terribly dumb idea. The cost to emulate someone’s voice using recordings is only ~$30K now (so only worth it for high value targets), but I expect it’ll be very cheap very soon.
5 Likes
Vanguard is pushing this hard. Every time that I have to speak to someone there, they want me and/or my wife to record our voice for authentication purposes, and are semi-flummoxed / irritated / argumentative when I explain that voice authentication is insecure. I’ve finally decided to follow Nancy Reagan’s advice and just say NO. She was a smart lady, despite any predilection toward Dionne Warwick’s friends.
2 Likes
LOL. You can’t explain quantum physics to plebs. The people who can do something about this don’t answer phones. My guess is nothing will change until something really big and bad happens and it goes public. Like someone impersonating a big bank CEO via voice to drain his accounts.
2 Likes