Tonight on CEP: We torment some scammers! I have a recording of a Jamaican-style scammer who called me and said I won a new car! I told him I don't want another BMW because, frankly, I had one in the past, and it broke down on me all the time. Wait til you hear his explanation!!

The guy told me that before I can obtain my winnings, I NEEDED TO PAY HIM 10% for "tax obligations"! A...ha.

We did a little tango regarding the proper percentages and bargained over amounts. I take them on a most beautiful dance that leaves him stewing in disbelief.

So I hope you love the episode, and feel free to keep sending in the love letters and hate mail. Get the book at thecomputerexorcist.com

Today on CEP! Retired car dealer, author, and talk show host Dom Genova joins us to wrap up our conversation on avoiding crooked car dealers.

• Having experience as a Big 3 exec and later on owning small-town car dealerships, he's sat on both sides of the desk, and his book shares his insight with you. This parallels my career, where I come at the IT industry from the consumer's perspective, being on your side of the desk.
• Some of them have a "bug zapper" business model! Attract people to the dealership and then zap em!
• Dom's thoughts on Tent Sales: If putting them in a tent down the street lowers their prices...
• Fake Monroney stickers!
• What is an "ad car"?
• When an automaker promises to donate money to some charity, whose pocket does that money come from?
• FREE TV or FREE CRUISE?
• What's the #1 mistake made during a car deal?
• Dom's 4 Corners
• Finally, we read an article exposing what information your car is collecting about about YOU. That data is sold to third parties, who "package" them into "data products" and resell them.

Buy Dom's book at dontbetaken.com and my book at thecomputerexorcist.com !

Today on CEP! I interview very special guest Dom Genova. He's a retired car dealer and currently the host of The No-Nonsense Roundtable Show on WYSL. He exposes crooked car dealer sales tactics and teaches people how to avoid them. We discuss:

• The Agricultural Model - rather than trying to get what you can from people in the moment, ideally you cultivate a lifelong relationship so your clients bring their kids and grandkids to you.
• A hugely scummy tactic where they write "Your Payment is $299" - but is it monthly?
• No-nonsense car dealer means removing all the shady invoice padding. It also means not accepting nonsense from customers!
• Dom's "7% Rule" - now it all makes sense!
• People out there are suffering unnecessarily, at the hands of crooked car dealers and incompetent computer guys. Dom taught me: You can't save ALL the ducks, but you're called to save the ones you can.
• Article: During the chip shortage, Toyota went back to real mechanical keys - and people didn't mind because they're overwhelmed by senseless technology anyway.
• When you open the door, some cars now shine a light onto the asphalt proudly displaying the brand... in case you forgot.

Get his book at: dontbetaken.com

Special thanks to our musicians: Opening theme is Departure by Egzod and closing theme is Cannibals by Youth Medium.

It's our 150th episode! We celebrate by inviting special guest Connor Peters from Rochester's very own Locke Identity Networks. Whether you're a consumer or small business, they deal with password management so you don't have to.

• Privacy vs. Security - is it really one or the other?
• Password Recovery is the weakest link (and everyone's pet peeve)
• Why should some faceless Big Tech firm be in control of your life? Locke's alternative is called Security through Community.
• Complicated passwords vs long passwords
• Skylux - white-glove service because you don't have to log into any apps
• What are passkeys and what are their pros and cons?
• Imagine a seamless experience instead of hassle. Small businesses just want things to JUST WORK!
• Hyundai promises "software-defined vehicles", ensuring that they, and bad guys, can control and modify your car. "Anytime you have a backdoor, there's a front door."
• There's a new form of human treachery called SURVEILLANCE PRICING - you're now charged an amount based on who you are, where you live, how much money you have, and how badly you need a product. What's NY State's solution, and what's the real solution?

Find out more about Locke at www.locke.id and talk to you next week!

Tonight on CEP!

• We finish up our 15,000 download celebration by slaying more articles.
• iPhone assembler Foxconn proposes a new open platform for EVs. Sounds like a great way for EV startups to get going without reinventing the wheel, pun intended.
• California allows digital license plates, a pointless idea fraught with subscriptions and complexity, with no benefit. It brings a whole new meaning to the term "garbage plate"!
• Every time Google is exposed in the news for doing something nasty, business doubles over at Duck. This is an article about such news articles! In this case, Google now wastes their own energy force-attacking AI results before the organic search results, and to their surprise, people aren't happy. "What, you aren't just accepting whatever we foist on you?"
• We also explain the terms I've coined: Anti-improvements and runaway brains. We enter the mind of the relentless perfectionist, and Mike brings up a great point: Rather than nervously guarding your position, just enjoy being on the top of the mountain for a while because someone will eventually knock you off.

Do you have any friends who are frustrated by tech? Thanks for telling them about the show!

Tonight on CEP! Dr. Mike joins us to celebrate 15,000 downloads, and we slay some articles.

• Shout out to Every1Camp.com, a new camp in Rochester for kids with disabilities.
• We discuss the new horror called "ambient computing" - where gizmos all around your house monitor your every move and then collaborate. Most of it will result in preemptive suggestion attacks, in other words the tech makes assumptions about what you want, and then starts doing things you never told it to do.
• Cars that display video ads on their evil dashboard screens.
• We call it "The False Promise of Technology" - the utopia never happens, but instead we see a decline in the quality of life, chaos, anti-empowerment, control, and helplessness.
• Rumor has it, New Orleans just replaced 911 dispatchers with AI dispatchers, which will result in a plethora of miscommunication.
• "We've already seen how restrictive and insanely incompetent ALL of this technology is. Just wait until it controls more of your life. More helplessness is coming."
• "A third of all actions performed by Alexa, it does proactively." In other words, presumptive auto-attacks, or helicopter parenting.
• Of course, all of this will be subjected to the eternal cat and mouse battle of cybersecurity, and your tech will blow false alarms against you. More fear and uncertainty.
• "DARE to keep kids away from technology." What's the antidote to this dystopia of tech-addicted braindead kids?
• 80s dystopian movies like "Chopping Mall" were prescient: They SAW where this was heading.
• What will save us? Smallternatives and good old human apathy. Let the big guys dry up.

Check out my tech tip videos by searching for "the computer exorcist" on your favorite social media site!

Tonight on CEP! It's one big scam call!

• A scammer calls me asking for Foghorn Leghorn by name! Yes, I've been using the name so often, that the name is now reflected in the databases the scammers sell to each other!
• Wait til you hear how they pronounced Wisconsin!
• She tells me that someone from "Consumers Clearing House" is coming to give me a huge "cash awerd"!
• Her false attitude is so saccharine it's disgusting - but I turn it against her at so many points. The awkward laughs are abundant.
• I then twist the knife into her by thanking her over and over again for helping the helpless seniors.
• She then has the audacity to give me a sneaky survey to figure out if I own my home, and ask for the types and amounts of my investments!
• At one point, the "senior attorney" gets on, and warns me not to talk to other scammers! I told her I give money to anyone who calls, and that piqued her interest.
• I then told her some other guys called and offered me more prize money, so I might go with them instead!

Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and stay tuned for the new book!

Today on CEP!

• Companies using zero-trust are still hacked, claim it's because they're not using enough zero-trust. Paranoia ensues, and employees are even more infuriated than ever before. (As if they didn't have enough stress already!) The great irony is, we're so jaded from all the trillions of confirmation popups, so scammers are taking advantage of that.
• The Spectrum Loop Story - Wait til you hear what happened when my client tried to cancel Spectrum.
• When a Tesla's accessory battery dies, you can't roll down the windows, or open those silly electrically-actuated doors. Real physical door handles are there, but they are UNLABELED, so if you aren't a mind-reader, you won't be able to get out of the car. Many people worldwide are stuck in their cars, often in extreme temperatures.
• The AAA finds that Automated Emergency Braking sort of works, but isn't reliable. Designers can't get it right, but they've already moved on to developing full autonomy, because Jenga.
• The "Matter" protocol is developed to allow all of these new cloud-controlled gizmos to be controlled more simply. Hopefully this means the end of each gizmo being controlled by a totally different ultra-proprietary app and password.
• Finally, in good news, a lady invented a Rotary Un-Smartphone. It's a cell phone with nothing but voice call capabilities, protecting you from the frustration of using a touchscreen.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show! If for some reason you like me, check your favorite social media site for my new Mini Tech Tips!