Phishing scams using emails, texts, and websites have been around for years. Telephone-based phishing scams have been around for years, too. The phone phishers have some new tricks that are making it harder to detect the scams. What these scams have in common is that they use caller ID spoofing and have some of your personal information.

Hurricane Florence caused a lot of flooding. Flooding has also occurred in the Northeast and other areas this year due to torrential rains. Flooding damages large numbers of vehicles every year. Consumers need to be aware that flood damaged vehicles can appear on used car lots far away from where the flooding occurred.

Your data is a hot commodity. It's not just Facebook that is collecting your data. Many other sites, companies, and advertisers do, too. Whether it's information that you provide directly or that's collected by tracking you, there are steps that you can take to reduce its collection.

How often do you check your Facebook privacy and security settings? With the recent revelation that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica acquired profile information and "likes" on about 50 million Facebook users, it's time to review your settings.

Peer-to-peer payments are becoming a very popular way for friends to split the bill for a dinner, gift, tickets or other items. These services can be very useful, but should be properly checked out before you use it. The following questions can help you evaluate the various services.