Talking on your phone in your Lanai.
 

Sadly we have many who are hard of hearing in TV. We just had 3 new neighbors moved in two of which spend hours, yelling into their phone.

This week our neighbor 4 houses down, who is retired IRS, mentioned how clear he could hear their conversations. We have ponds, and prairie behind houses, so sounds really can travel. Today he made a visit welcoming the two new neighbors.

Then politely gave each of them a paper with their social security numbers, and credit card numbers. They were shocked, their voices carried so far, and clearly that anyone could have written down their personal info during phone calls, they made in their lanai.

Fair warning, be careful while outside when giving out your info during a phone call, someone may not be so honest.

They call them "kissing lanais". Don't seem so lovely in hind-sight.

We don’t have kissing lanais, we have open prairie and ponds. Ours is so dense with trees and plants you can’t see any houses across the prairie. The new neighbors are across the prairie 600 to 1000 plus feet away. I can’t tell where houses are it’s so dense

Did you go down tell neighbor you could hear conversations? They might not visit TOTV?
what’s get when move in area packed in like sardines.

Read the first post.

scary

I like it!
 

What an excellent way to educate and redirect behaviors....
WIN-WIN
Tell Mr. IRS he rocks!!!

So that’s how the IRS does it! :1rotfl:

Kudos to your neighbor. Instead of complaining, they were trying to be helpful.

One would think if they wrote it down it most likely happened more than once since I would not have paper and pen handy and poor memory to boot, LOL

That's not just the Villages, at our FIL in Palm Beach, you could overhear a neighbor making drug deals...

We back on to two lanai's that are around 60 feet away. We have shubbery directly behind our lanai and short trees in our backyard. It definitely makes the sound travel less than when we first moved in. We can't really make out what anyone is saying very clearly.

He plays in our golf group, really nice guy. He said both couples were devastated he had their first names, CC# numbers and both their SS#.

He gave them sites to monitor SS#, and to contact their CC companies to add alerts.

He said in the year he has been here, he is amazed how many people just blurt out private information in restaurants, grocery and just walking with their phones.

His explanation is diminished hearing equals loud conversation, that is not healthy for your financial safety.

In today’s world you hit record on your phone. That why the warning, anyone with a phone can record personal info from a conversation.

I love the solution, that is the most creative one I have ever seen. Fortunately, our lanai faces a street, and the house next door is angled, so we cannot hear each other, but the comments about blurting out personal info in public places is spot on. I have heard a few things that if I knew the people would have been very embarrassing.

How do you know they are hard of hearing? There are a lot of inconsiderate people that use their speaker in a crowded area and when using speaker, they have to speak louder.

Common sense and courtesy seems to have disappeared
 

It seems that courtesy is something that does not exist anymore. Too many people in the villages think they’re the only person here and have no consideration of courtesy for other people.

In addition, I find that those with the loudest, most annoying and most shrill voices live right next to a teeing ground when I'm hitting. :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

When is the last time you gave someone your social security number over the phone?

Great neighborly justure. Most people don't think about their voices traveling when outside in their lanais for sure.

Side note, as a former irs agent, perhaps he could call the social security head-quarters and remind them that allowing 2 billion social security numbers to be breached isn't exacly responsible (a little published headline). Bring back the days of old when corruption wasn't rampid. It's so sad.

I was told kissing lanais is the number one reason for at least one move in the Villages.

Use the approach I use when people talk on their phones in the bathroom. Start answering any questions that they ask.

:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

I thought they were called kissing lanais because it's a good place to make out.
I guess my neighbors know more than my SS# now.

Medical facilities (doctors, dentist, testing facilities) when you make a new appointment. I always decline until I am at facility with written paperwork. But many don’t.
The only facility that does not require full SS# is “VA” facilities, and then is only “Last Four”.

Most commonly you will hear in TV more CC# blurted out while in public talking on a phone. Maybe it’s a certain older age group, that doesn’t think it could be a problem. Then at that age group is also ripe for the phone scam “your grand______ is in jail send money” or you just won $100,000 send gift cards to claim.

This post was just a heads up on even though TV feels safe, one really needs to keep up their guard, even in your own lanai.

No that my friend is intentional… I own this house and you are invading my privacy…:D. That why I choose a prairie, lots of trees and no tee box

I ignore line asking for ss number and nobody has asked for it.

Sadly the government still uses full SS# for their medical policy’s, ID# outside of the VA. So my health care, and dental SS# is required or no treatment.

It is a known fact that people with hearing deficits do tend to speak louder in conversations.

From the headline and the story it seems the breach had nothing to do with the social security headquarters and involved 2.9B records, not 2.9B SSNs.

Perhaps you could describe the corruption that led to this breach?

Why we moved!
 

Exactly why we moved less than one month in house (had a pool so sold FAST!!!)

Could not stand neighbor out on Lanai talking on cell phone..... do people just not get it....???.... Same with people in Restaurants.... I go up to people and tell them to either go outside or tone it down.... SO ANNOYING!!!!!

I will probably get shot one day for doing that.... but I don't want to hear your conversation.... ESPECIALLY if I am way across the room. SMH!!!!!

An excellent warning about something that is often done and never thought about. Thank you from everyone.

Is he retired military? I still give my SSN over the phone when making an appointment

Or perhaps your IRS retired neighbor has access to the new neighbors info via his previous occupation. How many hours did he have to listen to get a full SS or credit card # ? Then he wrote the info down on a piece of paper and handed it to them. I cannot recall the last time someone asked me for the full #'s VS the last 4 digits over the phone. Story doesn't pass the smell test for me.

So old school writing stuff down…who does that? Voice to text very accurate. 5 minute phone call is all it takes. Ok my mom in law write everything down on newspaper or envelopes, but she can’t figure out cellphones, so at 97 it’s expected.

Friday at Havana, for lunch, a lady probably in 80s on her phone gave her CC# making an appointment for HVAC that wasn’t running. One worries about your CC being duplicated, at restaurants. This would be easier for anyone, no CC in hand.

Think any person could press record on their phone, all info captured clearly. This was a post to make people aware of how easy one can make this information public.

We have trees and shrubs all around our patio. Yet I can hear the guy one house down from us burp or pass gas. If you are having a conversation on your lanai you are being heard by anyone with normal hearing. The conversation doesn't have to be loud. I say nothing I wouldn't be ok to share with the world when I'm on my lanai. I had a sound expert tell me that if water can come through a barrier so can sound so landscaping doesn't stop sound; it's more of a psychological barrier. Be aware what you say when outside or in public places.

My neighbor talks super loud and smokes weed on her lanai.

Stinky.

Doesn’t it make you wonder why we have PIN numbers for bank accounts, credit cards, & even @IRS for taxes but we have no PIN for our social security. The number could simply be expanded from 9 digits to, for instance, 13 digits to allow the each person to assign their own choice of 4 digits.

Some car’s cell phone calls can also be clearly overheard outside of the car when talking hands-free over the car’s radio. We used that to sometimes play embarrassing tricks on our teenagers. For example, when picking them up from school we loudly say something fantastically fabricated that we knew they wouldn’t want their peers to hear like “yeah Grandma I’m picking up Johnny right now. ok. I’ll tell him to be sure to wear clean underwear tomorrow :0

I'm surprised by all the talk of giving out SSN for doctor's appointments. Is this unique to FL. I live in NY and I've never had to give out my SSN for a doctor's appointment. They do ask for my Medicare Number and any other gap insurance. If you pay on-line or through the mail, CC#s over the phone are not needed. It is very rare when I would give a CC# over the phone. Some of the more common points of CC# thefts are through doctor's office receptionists and in restaurants. When they walk away with your card you give them the opportunity. It happened to me. Fortunately, I frequently check my CC accounts and caught it before any serious damage was done and immediately ordered a new card. It's the world we live in.