Barbara Kelley
Executive Director
Hearing Loss Association of America.

In the past three months, I’ve had my email hacked, received a text that said my Facebook account would be suspended if I didn’t take some action and had a trickster tell me my Amazon account was hacked and he needed to get access to my laptop. The last one really motivated me to push back, especially with my son telling me, “No, mom! This is scam!” So, I challenged the man who kept going at me until he finally called me a nasty name and hung up. I admit, that was a new experience. And besides, don’t mess with my Amazon account, that’s my lifeline to shopping!

Please beware of these calls, texts and emails. We sent you some information a few weeks ago on how to protect yourself.

While you’re busy protecting yourself against the fraudsters, don’t forget to protect your hearing as well. If you have hearing loss, protect the hearing you have. Noise-induced hearing loss is 100% preventable and 100% irreversible. Remind your kids that loud noises do damage that will come back to haunt them.  It’s tough to get through to our young ones on this issue. They sure can spot an internet scam though!

Did you know? 1 in 5 American teenagers now has some kind of hearing loss — and loud noise is the most common cause. Protect your hearing. Learn more at HearWellStayVital.org.

Barbara Kelley is the executive director of the Hearing Loss Association America.

For questions or more information, email HLAA at inquiries@hearingloss.org.