Were going to hear from attorney author professor and ace scam buster steven j. J. Wiseman hell be here in a few minutes with a scam alert you wont want to miss but 1st cabin fever setting in youre not alone how to cope lets ask the author of among other books the power of off the mindful way to stay sane and a Virtual World psychotherapist Nancy Collier usually joins us from our studios in new york but she too is working closer to home nancy its great to see. It continue even to imagine living. That see the pictures were seeing of new york make the city seem eerie give us some other adjectives how does it feel to be there now. You know how its charnel english is quiet. And its are so incredibly beautiful when i walk my dark at night and i look down the avenue thats normally you know car its everywhere and people no one is out so it has this incredible our beauty beauty and us a very odd very odd but you see spring blooming in a way that ive never seen and ive been here many years you see there nature is delighting in this stillness thats good to hear during this crisis home exile a lifestyle telemedicine has become a big deal its something that used to seem very futuristic but it is now mainstream are you using the phone and video chat the counsel of the folks that you work with and if so is that something youve done all along. While in a part of therapy or long at least for the last 5 years i see people all over the world. So thats not so new and certainly its a wonderful resource for people to have that you can talk with your therapist you can get grounded with them no matter whats going on but thats been something that i and my colleagues of our hearts for a long time. Because new york city is the heart spider governors daily briefings of captured the National Attention and here in rhode island the ratings are through the roof for our governor jeanne are among those daily broadcast and she recently did a whole briefing answering questions emailed by the children of rhode island from some 13000 emails she got one tot asked are you going to quarantine the easter bunny. And she said i would never quarantine the easter bunny he is essential matt see how should we talk to our kids about whats happening. Well the most important thing is to stay calm are sour and be age appropriate when you touch your kids they dont need a whole story that is takes a certain level of maturity that we have to hold intermission that we know perhaps washington will get mentioned well and well call somebody that maybe years alone in their place and we want to empower our kids through this calm down and give them only the relevant information and also. Help children that this will pass you know human beings have been in very difficult situations and this is one of them and we will figure out. Through this there are there are citizens that we can count on and they are doing something and so we want the message to be positive it doesnt need all the facts it doesnt need to be scary. No matter what we want to put outright and what can we do to be of service. Someone i work with who has a tot at home just brought home a puppy to keep the kiddo focused on something other than what was going on outside that seems like a good idea. Well. How many is interesting in it which is a kind of parenting shouldnt police have shown up where. We were shooting ourselves to death about what parents we should be through this you know we should be teaching our kids 14 language is we should be homeschooling them at a level theyve never been at we should be their best friends we say we should we should we should and a lot of shaming ourselves for the way they were parenting were supposed to be our childrens best friends their teacher is not time to say im going to do the best i can and come in imperfect parent am i a good enough parent right am i showing up for my child that its not a time to shame ourselves you know didnt you teach your child had a you know be a sourdough bread. If you need to shout it from your child and close the bathroom door or whatever version of that is its put your oxygen mask on 1st time to the demands on parents right now are in terms of the home schooling added on to Everything Else that babysitters dont show up right the grandparents still show up there is no relief so you can with yourself there is that is profoundly morton is that how you walk through this right now is going to be a scene that you plant in your children for all time youre teaching them right now. How do we uncertainty how do we handle the and now is it pops mommy look at daddy there ok in the middle of a situation that is pretty eerie. Nancy im sure harried parents will appreciate your advice to give yourself some slack because now theyve got their home schooling and theyve got dad home all day and i was really appreciative of an article you recently had in psychology today about coping with cabin fever give us some of the other bullet points that you brought out in that article. Well i was talking about yes not shaming for sure and doing the best that you can the 1st thing is put your own oxygen mask on and that means we have to get some time away from our children and so as much as im out there talking about some of the dangers of technology now is a time where if you have to hand the device off to your child for an hour thats ok thats ok this is a time where if the babysitter is television for a little bit thats ok and this is a time good enough parent and were not setting. The typical erect. Time jobs at the very same time so thats really important and also theres this idea though of who do we want to be in our lives this is profoundly important at the same time that im saying have yourself a break and say no to the inner critic it or the perfect parent the competitive parent. Who wants to do is pandemic perfectly. Is this who i want to be as a parent we are now given this Incredible Opportunity to model can i be ok in the face of uncertainty can i stay in the present moment not go out into a what if what if catastrophizing can i stay with were ok right here were working on what we need to do for a plan for the future financially but can i stay right here and show my child that you can have fear and also be ok this is a moment to plant that seed in our chat up at that will last will go into their way of dealing with life. We will always remember this moment and as recently as several weeks ago even with the economy so hot we were reading that many families would be on the able to confront even just a 400. 00 surprise now the game has completely changed how much are you hearing the folks you counsel with and about money issues this is the big one holland this is the one that really frightens people a stereo and people dont have a backup plan we dont have a safety net and as people are saddled with debt and potentially no income for n. And forseeable future and so its very real and what we need to do is to get whatever we can in terms of what the government can offer and also to make a plan and i encourage my my clients to ask for help you know theres so much him around and asking for his culture but i mean if. We live without a net as a and so go to relatives to to go to people who still have jobs to rely on each other one thing thats coming clear in this is in adversity at we. We really step up its the citizen or now savings day now its at the local governments and its really the citizens that go fund me campaigns and so trust this rely on each other this is a time were realizing how much we do get each others back and you may not be able to make it right now but add reach out and drop the shame. Its great to see that and this is the wrong time to be proud its wonderful to see people supportive of each other and thats a collier thanks as always for joining us here on the big picture. Mike coming up the bad guys are working overtime to rip you off and were going to give you a corona virus pandemic scam alert from stephen j. J. Wiseman when we come back this is the big picture on our t. V. America. Yes it is but i. Just let me see yes. I was on the floor some things in my back you know trying praying. Its time for us to work i was having children fever i didnt have any sense of the source now and most you. Would you. Please tell me she you know sometimes you just used to. Have to. Push myself to do this for me in the face. Is youll be via reflection of reality. In a world transformed. What will make you feel safe. Isolation or community. Are you going the right way or are you being led so. Tightly. What is true what is faith. In the world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. For a mate in the shallowest. Recently we mourn to bill withers whose voice was part of the soundtrack of the seventies and whose words are certainly pertinent today. Were not. Be your writing. Turn down and eat. Food. Those singing selfies by walmart employees and the t. V. Commercial echo sentiments we see every day perhaps youve seen the video of the new york city firefighters lined up across the street applauding Health Care Workers leaving exhausted at the end of shift change at the hospital or new yorkers singing the National Anthem in unison its very heartwarming but while bad times can bring out the good in ice the bad guys are busy and right now the wise guys are using the coronavirus pandemic to try to rip you off how lets ask the author of a stack of books and if you can read only one make it Identity Theft alert 10 rules you must follow to protect yourself from americas number one crime and hes got your back with daily alerts at scam aside dot com where you will find a special page on coronavirus scams author pro fessor attorney stephen j. J. Wiseman welcome back to the big picture always good to be with you i just dont know if it it stick. Steve during this crisis people of goodwill who are in good shape will want to help others and any way they can and youre warning us that as they do even in normal times the wise guys are posturing charities to rip us off how does that work. Yeah you know its a sad commentary that the scam artists theyre taking advantage so much. Coronavirus the fear is that concerns all of our emotions and one of the in the works here is deals with charity so there are a lot of phony charities that will be contacting you by email by text message by follow and heres one thing you know even if youre on the federal do not call list you can still be call by charities however you can also be called by scammers posing as charans so heres a key thing because as my motto is trust me you cant trust anyone whenever you get contacted on the phone text message or email you really arent sure whos on the other side so if you are contacted about a charity or you go online and you see something about it charity thats helping people in this time of great need what you 1st do is you ignore that and go who is i call Charity Navigator dot org theres a great site its free and you go there you put in the name of this charity that youre considering giving to and Charity Navigator dot org will tell you a couple things 1st of all theyll tell you if its a legitimate charity theyll also tell you if its a legitimate charity how you can donate to it and theyll also tell you how much of what you donate actually goes to the real charitable purposes and how much for this particular charity goes to their own these in administrative cost so youve got to be careful on this were all in this together. Be careful with charities. Charity navigator dot org steve the most vulnerable among us are seniors and youve told us all along that they are the most vulnerable to scams as well and now youre reporting on something you have called the coronavirus grandparents scam and old gag with a new twist correct. Yet the grandparents kim has been with us for a long time and were all familiar with the gist of it which is the senior the grandparent gets a call very often in the middle of the night when they mean you know not be quite as alert and its from their grandchild and theyre in trouble theres a Health Emergency illegal emergency and they need money to be wired to them or give us give me your credit card number over the phone right away now obviously this is a scam or and what you need to do particularly because now its taking advantage of the coronavirus im sick im in the hospital ive got some problems where i need this support right away so the thing to do is 1st of all if that happens to a senior you are learnt the senior ahead of time to be aware of this the 2nd thing is you tell them not to give in response to that kind of a phone call what youve got to do is call the child on the cell call the parents on the cell find out what the real situation is and hear part of the problem you know there was it all go cart 200 years ago that said you know we have met the enemy and he is us part of the way that the scammers get information on these grandparents is because too many of us put too much personal information on social media so you get a call grandpa and how do we know that you call grandpa because the grandson Social Security and social media refers to as grandpa and has other names in there so again you have this. Slow the process down the scammers always want you to act quickly be aware of this never respond to that phone call without checking 1st to the cell phone of the child or the parents. This is how facebook can backfire on you with Many Americans now instantly impoverish uncle sam arrives to the rescue of a check is in the mail and the scammers are already working the phones on that you say. Oh yeah this is going to be one of the biggest and it is just hitting a high gear now heres the thing these stimulus checks in the programs a little complicated so sometimes people are raw a looking for more information about it so you can get a email from the i. R. S. Explaining what it is and you click on that link you just downloaded malware the i. R. S. Is not contacting anyone by email by text message by phone about this and heres the thing you dont have to do anything to get your check you dont pay a fee you dont and parole theyre going to be sending you checks and theyre going to be wiring d money to your bank account if you had money wired to your bank account in response to your 2018 or 2001000 federal income tax return if you got your refund of by mail theyll be sending it to the mail you dont have to enroll you dont have to do anything so all all of these email messages Text Messages phone calls that appear to be coming from the i. R. S. Or the Treasury Department about this are here is the one way that the i. R. S. Is going to contact you once you do once they do send out the checks 15 days after that you will get a regular snail mail letter informing you that right check is beneath hired or mailed and then thats the only Constant Contact youll get. That is so cool that they have back. Stop it that way so you get that mail but you havent got the check you know you got a problem those stimulus checks are really just one way the government is trying to help us i had to chuckle when i read your report about U S Emergency Grants Federation tell us that one. If its a Government Agency that has never had a problem because its a Government Agency that does not exist so thankful it has been and other still actual media real place of this hackers hack into one of your friends on facebook insulting then since you. Message telling you hate there is this new Government Program for grants you got to pay a small fee and then you can get and get this anywhere from 1000210000 extension 0 dollars that for a grant there are no such grants going out to individual people there will be Government Programs but youve got to be really really chair. When you how do you respond to notices about these Government Programs and none of them will require you to pay any kind of a fee to be eligible and as far as on these grants they dont exist. Every time you talk to us about phony baloney you warn against clicking on links you warn against what could come by the phone but steve these jokers are actually now going door to door as well. Door to door and on websites you go to without even clicking on anything so heres the deal there there are people will show up at your door looks like halloween youre in it has met suit and theyre offering free tests or sometimes theyre charging you for these tests will they say that from the c. D. C. 1st of all under the federal legislation no one is going to be charged for a test so anyone there are for you a test for a fee is scamming but the c. D. C. Is also not sending anyone door to door so anyone who comes to your door are for a News Services that you have to pay a fee for or provide personal information like your Social Security number theyre bogus the other place now and this is really scary im sure youve seen the Johns Hopkins web site that is didnt ask to as far as showing whats going on in the world there are bogus websites like this you will even get as you mentioned a link there is an email with a link to the Johns Hopkins website except it isnt one of the real john top of site it looks real you go to the website you dont even have to click on anything and you just download malware thats going to steal your information make it a victim of Identity Theft. Were talking with attorney author professor and scam buster stephen Jay Jay Wiseman steve about oh a minute but i got to ask because states are scrambling to amp up the cove of 1000 testing for several weeks here in rhode island a National Guard has been manning tents and were reading now that there are pop up test sites that are bogus some rules of the road for not getting tricked to bear. Yeah and its a simple thing this started the 1st reports came out of louisville kentucky and a church was contacted by the c. D. C. About setting up mobile testing there except it wasnt the scene of the crime to. Acting than the church allowed them to use their parking lots people got in and they got scammed there were no tests they were charged for tests and so heres the thing we have this. Scam aside dot com the net new section on corona virus scams who we have the real links to the c. D. C. And local Health Bureaus which will provide you with Accurate Information about where you can go for d a real test and it can no test will be charged. One rule of thumb that our gov here keeps reminding us is that you cannot just show up at the test site without a referral from your doctor and beginning more recently c. V. S. Which is based here in rhode island says you can go to c. V. S. Dot com if theyre set up in your state and you can drive right up and youll get your test results in a matter of minutes but you cannot just drive in anywhere without an appointment and im glad we had the time to make that point steve shelter in place keep watching your hands and thanks so much for allowing us into your quarantine and stepping into the big picture i appreciate your time be well and be safe. And i appreciate your time too thanks as always for watching the big picture if you have somewhere else you can find our ti america on direct t. V. Channel 321 the pluto t. V. App were channel 279 and if youre feeling cabin fever crazy there are hundreds of free movies on pluto t. V. If you have the dish dish were channel 280 there and you can see our t. America live at youtube dot com slash our america if you havent yet you got i got i got a download our new portable t. V. Yeah its in google play or the apple store its free and it is super cool and you can see all of our big picture episodes on demand anytime anywhere youtube dot com slash the big picture r t m holland cook in rhode island happy passover happy easter and be safe. These. Were google who keep bird. Shit out. Going to get it but youre definitely walking into the words we not theyre not what were working until. March. Which if you need. To chase possible sensible stuff. Welcome to redact to deny this is a comedy show where americans in america covering American News are called foreign agents hope everyone is hanging in there through these weird times i finally snapped i couldnt i couldnt put it off any more i finally saw my dentist my therapist and my favorite prostitute all. Calls so me though it worked out better than others in hindsight i did remove a nasty molar that needed to come out so that was good but that was actually in the call with the prostitute and i had performance anxiety with the therapist i just couldnt get my super ego to stay a racked anyway lets get to the news as america shoots