Sean Pyles

Okay, a mega backdoor Roth is a super clever way to save a ton of money for retirement, but not everyone has the option to do it.

Let's get to it.

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds.

I'm Sean Piles.

But first, it's everyone's favorite made-up holiday by the Federal Trade Commission, Identity Theft Awareness Week.

This is one of my favorite topics because we are all susceptible to scams.

And also, it's the beginning of the year, so we are all due for a refresher about how to stay safe in this precarious, scammy world we all live in.

Oh, Elizabeth, what happened?

I need to hear all the details.

I'm here for you.

Did it look sketchy or old or what was weird to you about it?

Yeah.

A little more legit.

That is such a classic move of scammers is they will take something like an email address from a company or in your case, a website and have one letter or a number off.

So if you're not looking super closely or if you're in the holiday spirit and your guard is down, like you said, Elizabeth, you just put in your information and then they have access to, in your case, your gift card balance.

It's so frustrating.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah.

I'm so sorry that you felt embarrassed about this too.

That's a really common feeling that people have when they are scammed.