Latest news with #SeanFrank
CBS News
09-05-2025
- CBS News
Pittsburgh-area leaders share scam warning signs
With advances in technology, it's becoming easier than ever to fall victim to a scam. On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and other leaders joined the Shaler Police Department in describing the warning signs to look out for. How to protect yourself from scams "It's much more sophisticated with AI, computers and things," said Robert Cessar, who retired after working 38 years with the U.S. Department of Justice. "The most important thing is don't act irrationally. Stop, pause and think." Scams come in the form of phone calls, text messages, emails and letters in your mailbox. "These scammers are very good. That's the word to use, they're very good, very convincing," Shaler Police Chief Sean Frank said. Some of the most common scams happening right now include "grandparent" scams, fake tech support and gift card scams. The goal is always the same: to steal money or personal information. "If it's gift cards, nobody collects debts with gift cards except scammers," said Chief Frank. "If you get a call and you think it's a grandchild, verify that with someone else in the family." The bottom line: don't believe everything you hear or read. Take time to verify the information before reacting. "If you get a call and you don't know the number, don't answer. If you get a text, don't reply," said Cessar. Law enforcement urges people to verify information, avoid suspicious links and question anything that seems off. Because once the money is gone, it's likely gone for good. "In most cases, the money is out of the country. It's gone," said Cessar. And even if you think it's a small scam, report it. Officials say every report helps track fraud and prevent future crimes.
CBS News
25-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Saturday is National Drug Take Back Day. Here's where you can dispose of your expired and unused medications
Take a moment to think about this: what medications do you have right now in your home that you don't need or that are past their expiration date? Perhaps it could be something like pain pills that you got prescribed after that minor procedure, but you never used them. Now, this weekend is the time to get rid of them, as Saturday is National Drug Take Back Day. Call it spring cleaning light because there's no heavy lifting or cleansing, just a culling of things that could be harmful. "You know, [a lot] of us have children, grandchildren, we don't want anybody to get harmed by these," said Chief Sean Frank of the Shaler Police Department. "There are some very potent pain medications that people take, and we just don't want them getting into the wrong hands." It's not just those little hands, they might be harmful in your own hands. "There are some medications that become more potent, and they may actually interact with your body or with your other medications," said Dr. Neha Vyas of the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Vyas said if they have expired, the efficacy of the medications may actually be less than when they were originally prescribed. That said, don't flush them down the toilet like your parents might have done back in the day. "We don't want to do that," Chief Frank said. "We don't want to introduce that into the water system, even though there are some systems that can purify that. We just don't want to add anything more to it." That is why police departments have been providing you with a place to take your drugs for years. "Drop it in, just like a mailbox," Chief Frank said. "You open it up, drop it in, and it's gone. We just box it up and send it for incineration. We've had a box since 2016, and we've had over 5,000 pounds of medications that have been discarded in a proper way." For tomorrow's take-back day, Chief Frank said they'll be next to the Shaler Middle School at the Shaler Library. "It's a real simple drive-through," he said. "You just pull up in your car, we have a tent, we have the boxes, you just drop it in the box, and you can go on your way." They'll be there from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, but Shaler is far from alone with this. There are collection points all over the city, and you can find those sites at this link. One last thing: when it comes to privacy, it's recommended that you remove the labels from the bottle or mark out any personal information with something like a Sharpie. If you don't want to take that risk, you can also pour the pills into a Ziplock bag and take that to the drop-off and dispose of the bottles separately.
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Lessons From A CEO Who Spent $10M On Influencers
Young adult vlogger shoots a video with a camera in the city, influencer In his first-ever YouTube video, Sean Frank—the CEO of wallet brand Ridge—unpacks what most CMOs would consider proprietary gold: exactly how he's spent over $10 million on influencer marketing, what worked, what didn't, and how other brands can copy his playbook. 'Influencer marketing is the closest you can get to scaling word of mouth,' Frank says. 'That's why it's so powerful. That's why we spent $10 million doing it.' Unlike brands blindly chasing CPMs or optimizing creative based on Facebook ad dashboards, Ridge has built an entire marketing flywheel around creators—and more importantly, around creator trust. Here are the deeper lessons every marketer should steal from Ridge's playbook. Most marketers treat influencer pricing like media buying: pay more, get more impressions. Frank sees it differently. He argues that your brand's 'base CPM' depends less on math and more on psychology—how creators perceive your trustworthiness, your product category, and your risk to their audience. 'Ridge can get deals done for $10 CPMs all the time… Crypto [brands] spend $500 to $1,000 on a CPM.' Why the gap? First, Ridge is in a non-controversial, high-trust category. Second, Ridge is what Frank calls 'influencer-safe.' 'We aren't a scam. We won't steal money from their audience. We're not going to hurt their credibility.' That trust acts like a discount. And in an industry still haunted by scammy supplements and vaporware brand deals, Ridge becomes a safe, even relieving partner to creators—especially those who've been burned before. One of the most surprising insights in Frank's video is how CPMs peak not at the top, but in the middle of the creator landscape. 'MrBeast has the same CPM as a creator with 100,000 [subscribers]… The highest CPMs actually peak in the middle.' That's because: The result? Many brands are overpaying for competitive mid-tier creators while missing deals on massive-scale or micro-influencers with underpriced reach. If you're a beauty brand, it might seem logical to sponsor beauty influencers. Frank says think again. 'I think there's more alpha to be had in a non-endemic sponsorship approach… We work with Linus Tech Tips. We are a wallet trying to sell to guys. So it makes a ton of sense.' Why does this work? Non-endemic sponsorships are often seen as 'off-topic,' but for Ridge, they're a smart way to buy underpriced attention in less saturated audiences. What stands out most in Sean Frank's approach is how creator trust becomes the competitive advantage—not just performance data, not just creative iterations. 'When somebody buys something from me, they're getting exactly what it says on the product page… The wallet has a warranty. I've serviced probably 100,000 warranties.' That consistency builds brand equity not just with customers, but with creators. And that leads to better deals, longer-term relationships, and smoother execution across campaigns. For creators, working with Ridge isn't a gamble. It's a guarantee. Here's the part of Frank's breakdown that should shake every CMO: MrBeast has more reach than the Super Bowl—and a lower CPM. 'To run a Super Bowl ad is $7 million… You get 120 million eyeballs. That's a $60 CPM. MrBeast will typically get 200 million views on a video… You can do a deal with MrBeast for $2 million.' That's a third of the price for more reach—and in a format that's native, trusted, and host-read. It's not that MrBeast is cheap. It's that the rest of the market hasn't caught up to his value—because most brands still view influencer marketing as a niche line item rather than a core media buy. Sean Frank's most important lesson is a philosophical one: influencer marketing isn't a side tactic. It's a media channel, and creators are your publishers. So treat them like it. As Frank says at the end of his video: 'I'm my own influencer. Being paid to post—that's the future.' And for forward-thinking brands, that future is already here.
