Oh, really? But obviously, I don't take it to the

end.

Well, see, you prove the point here that it scratches an itch for folks.

It gives you the thrill of shopping without the bill.

That's why this thing caught fire.

You know, the people who created it didn't think it was going to be a thing, and now it's become a thing.

And in some ways, we talked to this financial therapist.

How widespread is this trend? Are these sites?

Will you talk about what inspired you to write it now and what you hope families gain from it when they read it?

Well, it's so nice to be here with you, Sissy and David.

Thank you for having me.

And Boat Baby really is a story I think so many people can relate to because we all have a family history.

Our parents and grandparents have all made sacrifices for us in some way, and what really inspired me to write it was the fact that a lot of Vietnamese Americans have a similar experience coming to America on boats, escaping Vietnam, escaping communism, and I just felt like it was important to put this down on paper to chronicle my own family's history, but also as a love letter to my parents and to this country because so many people here in America also helped raise me once I got here when I was two years old.

But the book really starts out talking about my parents and who they were, and when the Vietnam War happened, my dad was a medic in the South Vietnamese Army, and my mother was working for an American contracting company.

She, you know, just ...

[laughs]

It's an

expensive ticket.

7 p.m., right? Okay.

So we pick the same seats.

We all search at the same time.

We're all on our computer.

What happens when we look for the seat? So the price of the ticket, which is set by the reseller, came up the same for everybody.

Okay, so how do I, how do we, how does one, how do we protect against this?

Tell us more about what you learned.

This one really hit close to home for us, because it happened to involve one of our younger producers at NBC News Daily.

Her mom was on Facebook, and she saw a page under the handle @jaydenknots, and on this account, what appeared to be a young man, Jayden, began posting videos last April promoting what looked like a small business that he was running.

He was selling these hand-crocheted bags.

The video really appealed to her because he was getting, allegedly, bullied for being a Black boy who was doing crochet.

The boy on the page was saying, "I'm being bullied for pursuing my passion.

It would be great if you all would support me."

But in this case, Jaden looked real.

Tell us more about what you learned.

This one really hit close to home for us because it happened to involve one of our younger producers at NBC News Daily.

Her mom was on Facebook, and she saw a page under the handle @jaydenknots, and on this account, what appeared to be a young man, Jayden, began posting videos last April promoting what looked like a small business that he was running.

He was selling these hand-crocheted bags.

The video- Really appealed to her because he was getting, allegedly, bullied for being a Black boy who was doing crochet.

The boy on the page was saying, "I'm being bullied for pursuing my passion.

It would be great if you all would support me."

But in this case, Jaden looked real.

Tell us more about what you learned.

This one really hit close to home for us because it happened to involve one of our younger producers at NBC News Daily.

Her mom was... on Facebook and she saw a page under the handle at Jaden Nuts.

And on this account, what appeared to be a young man, Jaden, began posting videos last April promoting what looked like a small business that he was running.

He was selling these hand crocheted bags.

The video really appealed to her because he was getting allegedly bullied for being a black boy who was doing crochet.

The boy on the page was saying, I'm being bullied for pursuing my passion.

also the location, right? It says that he's located in Washington, D.C., but the page manager is nowhere near Washington, D.C.?

I want to explain my complaint to someone.

Yes, and then the first thing you get is that automated message, and you're trying to get through, get through, get through, and you're punching so many keys on your keypad to get to a person.

And also, we talked about this in the intro, right? Chatbots.

Companies want to save money, and so it is much easier to have that first line of defense be automated.

It's frustrating for you as the human being.

... and even find the number to contact.

Yes.

So the first thing to do is maybe you can help yourself and avoid all of it.

Mm-hmm.

If it was going to the movies, "No." And so I think that was their thing.

They didn't allow me a lot of freedom.

Also, I was an only child, so they, I think, were a little more, like, eyes on, we gotta make sure, you know, we know where you are at all times.

With my kids, I think I give them a lot more social freedom.

Mm-hmm.

And it just was such a mixed bag of, like, she was hurting and really didn't wanna continue this thing, and I was willing to let her.

And I am glad that I didn't have to make the decision by myself.

Tell us what happened.

This is a bonkers case.

Earlier this year, 25-year-old Tyler Makorsky, who millions of people actually know online as Vookem, he's a luxury watch dealer.

He was on his way to the airport for a family vacation, his first trip ever to The Bahamas, when right as he was boarding, police arrested him on a felony warrant out of Florida.

According to court documents, a 65-year-old man believed that he had purchased a $6,000 luxury watch from Tyler through Facebook.

He wired the money, but that watch never arrived.

What are some warning signs that consumers should look out for before sending money online?

First thing is just to slow down, take a beat, pause, really investigate that account, because scammers are relying on you making a rash decision.

We need to do some things before we turn it on.

Yes.

It's important because Dylan, this year, energy experts say we're going to be paying about 8.5% more for our cooling bills.

Average $778.

America didn't like it when I said set your thermostat at $78 or 78 degrees to save dollars, right? They didn't like that.

So here's what else you can do.

Clean your filter.

You got your patio and your grill.

For those who don't know, tell us a bit more about that case, because it must have been another moment where you really felt like your reporting made a tangible difference.

Yes, that was a deeply satisfying investigative series with my dear friend and a colleague I respect so much.

His name is Kevin Nias.

He and I worked together in local in the Bay Area, and now he works for the L.A. Bureau of NBC News, the network.

So it's been great for us to, like, have our careers sort of mirror each other and, you know, go from local to the network together.

But we did a series exposing the violent attacks that bus drivers at AC Transit were facing.

That's a bus line that serves Oakland Bay Area community.

yeah absolutely well reflecting on your career has there been a mistake you've made on the job big or small that taught you something really important

I'm so happy

that that was the experience and Boat Baby got to travel back there with you because I haven't been back for about eight years now.

The last time I was back, I was pregnant with my third daughter, and I know that she's almost nine, and she really wants to go back.

My two older daughters have.

Vietnam is a magical place, and I have always said anecdotally that how much I think that Vietnamese people are genetically built to be enthusiastic, optimistic, resilient.

And then a recent New York Times article was published on April 30th, the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the end of the Vietnam War.

And, you know, one of the things they mentioned in the article was that Vietnam is an optimistic country based on data, like surveys that they do, asking the population, that Vietnam typically ranks among the top in terms of a country full of citizens who believe in the future, who have hope, who are optimistic.

So for you, how did you find your communication style? And this is kind of like that secret sauce that I want to try to get because I think this will resonate with a lot of folks who are listening who are really struggling in finding their voice.

I wanted to understand it." Uh, tell me, uh, how you made that turn to say, "I matter enough to share this story."

You know me, and I think we share this, we let the work speak for itself.

We're not out there tooting our own horn all the time, but I think when I took a moment to say, wow, think about this journey from Boat Baby refugee to network correspondent and anchor in one generation, it happened in America.

My story is an American story, and people sometimes want to poo-poo the American dream or get real cynical about things, and I just think this story is full of hope and it is inspirational and it is a reminder of what America is, what it can be, and truly, what it has been for someone like me.

I'm living proof, my family too.

And so that moment, that light bulb moment of let me tell this story not just for me but for my parents, for the millions of refugees, not just Vietnamese people, but people who came here to work hard and to realize a dream for themselves and to provide a better life for their children.

It is about your kids, and I think that is something that unites all of us across the world.

When you're watching what's happening in the world today, how does that connect to you?

How do you think an immigrant story is landing in these divided times? What are the haters saying? This is such a good

question.

First of all, thank you, audience, because all the questions have been fantastic.

This is like the best part of writing a book is when it's finally out in the world and people have read it or they've reacted to it or they have thoughts.

So, yes.

People have asked me, did you plan this? It's this month, March, the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, April 30th, Black Sunday.

That is when Saigon fell, the North Vietnamese took over, communists.

What do you look to your job as to give back to contribute to the Vietnamese American community? This book is part of that.

about from a life perspective i mean i did a couple things that like really jumped out to me there one was today and today and today that leads you to your big tomorrow i think you know if if more of us could just take that to heart and recognize that there will be steps and and they'll be small at times and they'll feel like they're not going someplace at time but they they they open the door and and from a work perspective it's cool to hear you talk about kind of the story that like planted the seed how about life was there any life seeds that were planted for you that were really important

I love this question so much and you forced me to kind of look back and reflect.

But in my book, Boat Baby, I talk about being 11 years old and going back for the first time to Vietnam.

That's the country where I was born and I had never been there.

And there were cousins and aunts and uncles and two of my grandmas who were still alive, people I had never met because my parents escaped the country when I was eight months old.

And we were sponsored to the United States, but I'd never gone back.

So in sixth grade, my parents decided to take me back so I could meet all of our extended family.

And I almost just want to dig into some of your takeaways and I'm curious what's been what's been popping up for you for your work do you mind if we kind of dive into a little bit of some of the stuff you've been uncovering through your work I think this is just fascinating stuff that a lot of people are interested in you've you've done some inquiry around kind of what do we need to know about raising the next generation can you give us some tips on that

Okay, Vicki. So most of the time, if a vacation offer seems too good to be true, you say it probably is, right?

That is so true. In fact, there's a brand new scam I want to tell you about, Andrea, that I just heard about. It was through a friend of a friend who said she was working with what she thought was a legitimate travel agent. This person would say, "Book your travel through me. I will put it on my," quote, "corporate card and that's how you get the discounts." And this victim told friends, they told family, and over the course of a year or so, people were booking vacations that were extremely discounted and they were paying via Zelle to this travel agent.

Oh.

Now, this is something I am in the process of investigating. I had never heard of a scam like this before, but I have talked to multiple victims who say they're kind of left holding the bag because what the banks will say is, "You willingly transferred this money to someone." So, my first piece of advice is if the price is too good to be true, be very, very careful. But it's not just price. It's also how are they asking you to pay? Are they asking you to pay with a gift card, with Venmo or Zelle or Cash App, some kind of peer-to-peer payment system that may not have the kinds of protections as a credit card? I would be very, very wary.

Tell us how the scammers pull this off.

It's called smishing, which is a riff on phishing.

So phishing is when you get an email from a scammer that says, "Hey, click here.

Do this or that." Smishing means the scam is coming in through your text.

You get a link, and they say, "Click on this link because you have an unpaid bill.

You're gonna get late fees," and there's an urgency to it.

What they really wanna do is get you to click on the link and get your personal information, your credit card details, your banking information, and download something called malware onto your devices, which is software that is designed to invade your computer or your phone.

So Vicky, these scammers, do they know that we use these passes or we use tolls, or are they just casting a wide net to as many cell phone numbers as they can, hoping that it resonates with someone?

I- if you wanna donate, how can you be sure the money is actually going to the people who need it?

GoFundMe actually has this centralized hub for all of its fundraisers related to the wildfire, and their trust and safety team has verified that.

So you can go to that hub to make sure the fund that you're trying to donate to is legitimate.

They do have a money back guarantee for your peace of mind, but they also say, "Please, use your common sense," not just for this disaster, but for all GoFundMe accounts that are set up.

So some tips.

Donate to fundraisers where you directly know someone, or it's a friend of a friend.

That way, at least you have a connection.

What can people do who are looking for help right now as they start thinking about the long process of rebuilding?

Yeah, so Vicky, explain artificial intelligence and, um, how it is all around, uh, us, even when you might not know it is.

At the most basic level, Andrea, think of it as technology that allows computers to do the kinds of tasks that would normally require us to tell them, and require some sort of human intervention and decision-making.

Now the computers can do some of this on their own, and then they can predict what they're supposed to do next, and that's considered learning, which is where the intelligence part comes in.

AI is used all the time in things that we take for granted, like when your phone unlocks using your face, or when you're sending an email and that predictive, uh, texting comes up saying, "Is this how you wanna finish your sentence?" That's all AI.

And of course, as you mentioned, there's really sophisticated types of AI, like what we saw with the chatbot, where you're entering in conversational language and it seems like this computer is responding to you in a human way.

In December, the FBI issued a public service announcement warning that criminals are using AI to generate scams on a larger scale that are more believable, and that AI actually cuts down the time and effort it takes, uh, for criminals to come up with scams.What kind of things are they talking about?

I was just talking to the cybersecurity experts at Human Security about the holidays, where a lot of online shopping sites pop up that are totally bogus.

They're just designed to tell you, "This is where you can get the hottest item at the lowest price," hoping that that's gonna be enough bait for you to enter in your credit card or your banking information.