Knowing how to prevent fraud is an essential step in protecting your finances. You need to gather the tools and a mindset if you want to be effective in fraud prevention.
When was the last time you used an Amazon gift card? Unless you did for special occasions, someone likely asked you to use it as a payment method. Gift cards as payment? The intended use, of course, is to buy on Amazon. Gift cards work great when you don’t know what to give your friends and family for birthday. But a $50 gift card, they can buy on Amazon anything they want up to that price. Until recently, however, …
Imagine the situation. One day without warning, Amazon reaches out by phone. It could be confirming an order, renewing a subscription, or checking for account security. Then, they mention some charges you don’t remember ever allowing. “If you recognize this transaction, hold on the line. If you want to cancel, press the following numbers.” If they charged you for services you don’t remember buying, would you cancel? Of course. People who got this robocall would press the number to cancel …
As a regular shopper, you may have stumbled at an Amazon survey promotion. The ad promises to reward hundreds of dollars to the first people who complete the survey of the day. When you first find it, you may wonder why Amazon would want such programs. If you’ve tried to make money with online surveys, you may have joined sites like Swagbucks or Surveyjunkie. But none of the mainstream platforms ever mention Amazon surveys. Amazon is one of the biggest …
Selling on Amazon has its challenges. When you first launch a product, you may need to do deep discounts and giveaways. When holidays are around the corner, you need twice as much inventory as you’d usually have. When sales go down, you try to lower the price to compensate for it. Yet, no matter how you adapt, it always seems you get the worst timing. These results aren’t coincidences. If you’re selling a high-demand, high-competition product, there’s a lot of …
Imagine this week your store made more sales than usual. Naturally, you feel confident about your brand: people love your products! Next week, you check your sales to see if there’s any new clients: you’re selling as much as you always did. But what about the sales spike? When you check, it still shows as a pending order. “Well, everything should be fine once the product ships.” You assume. When it’s finally the day to deliver the product, clients cancel …
Why buy when you can rent? You don’t need to buy everything you own, especially if you want it temporarily. Renting becomes convenient for both the renter and the tenant. If you rent, however, someone else has control of the asset: nothing wrong with that if you trust the person. In the worst-case scenario, this control could lead to multiple scams: Since the client doesn’t own it, he’ll look for the lowest price possible. Scammers will respond with prices that …
At some point, a stranger approaches you with good news. He presents as a law expert who worked with a millionaire client with the same last name as you. He explains that by using some legal tricks, you could inherit his fortune. Perhaps they say you’re already entitled to the whole sum. But unlocking the funds, however, makes a different challenge. Here’s a man trying to make you invest time and money to reward far more money. You don’t know …
We all experience unpredictable events in our life. From time to time, you may need more money than you have to respond to those events. Get fired at work? Relationship issues? Medical emergencies? For your convenience, many helpful lenders will offer you generous amounts. Right at the right time, these people reach out and come up with an offer that’s too good to be true. Money may solve problems. But how much does it matter Who you trust to help …
When you least expect it, you may find a surprise letter in your inbox. Perhaps you find an email message, or a collector calls to your phone number. “We are this institution. You still owe us this amount of money. If you don’t pay it back by this time, you’ll be in serious trouble.” That’s a message worth paying attention to. What do they want from you? What happens if you don’t listen? “If you don’t want to deal with …
Many of us have a “bad” habit. We know we need to refuel the car, but because we have somewhere to drive, we want to spend as little time as possible at the gas station. But this busyness can lead to overlooking frequent gas station rip-offs. Machine not working? Overpriced gas? Not a big deal; pay those extra dollars and keep driving. Unfortunately, a careless behavior may cost you more than $20. Your credit card. Even your car, if you …
All for nothing. Is it possible? Could you get all the money in the world, the healthiest body, or the best relationships overnight? Believe it or not, there are still people who want to believe it. But why? Isn’t it evident that greatness takes work and effort? You have to do what others won’t do, so you can get what others can’t: minority mindset. But what could be better than joining a secret group? After all, wealth isn’t always about …
Does it sound too good to be true? Can you really make money from home doing nothing? Almost nothing. Only answer some questions, press some buttons, or fill some checkboxes. Although businesses won’t pay you for no reason, they may pay you for your opinions. Doesn’t it make sense? Advertising is expensive, and you don’t know whether people will respond to your ads (plus potential click fraud attacks). If you’re going to spend money on lead generation, would you rather …
Who isn’t busy these days? As you drive near the parking space, the game starts. “I have no time for this.” – You say to yourself. You pay to the closest attendant, find a spot, and walk into the building. Later you realize you may have paid a fake attendant money for free parking. Are they common? Yes. Can’t businesses do anything about it? They can, but they can’t do it all the time. Is it a big deal? No. …
Who says no to money? What if you could get it for free with no catch? Most people would believe it’s a scam. Although it’s unlikely to happen, you may find any of these cases: What they have in common is, you first need to participate to have a chance to get unclaimed money. If you have never participated, then any claim of you having unclaimed money should be viewed as highly suspicious. Think about it: why would a stranger …
Aren’t you tired of collector calls? They won’t let you breathe until you paid the last penny you owe. Whether you pay or not, they may take all kinds of legal actions against you because of your vulnerable condition. If you don’t pay back borrowed money in a while, a 3rd party collector may become your new lender. Once the lender believes you’ll never be able to pay it back, he’ll look for help. It doesn’t matter how they punish …
Who would you choose to lend money? Someone who can pay it back. Preferably, someone who also pays an extra for the time you were without the funds you lent. It’s possible to forgive a loan if you’ll never pay it back, although that may stop you from getting further loans. The idea of getting rid of debt overnight sounds too good to be true. Every year, hundreds of thousands of honest, hard-working people apply for the forgiveness program. Less …
You got three missed calls. It appears urgent and you are tempted to call back. What do they want? Many make phone calls by accident, so you ignore them. The caller, however, keeps calling you at random times of the day, always stopping after one ring. If it’s so important, why do they hang off the call so quickly? You end up calling the number, engage in a fruitless conversation (if there is one), and forget about the issue. Later, …
Buying the newest car isn’t always the best option, especially if it’s your first one. There’s a car model out there for each driver, based on how you want to use it. Sleek? Economic? Reliable? Your dream car could be waiting for you for a much lower price on a private owner deal. The question is: are used cars so different from the super-new? It depends on the way you drive, and what model you buy. Some high-mileage vehicles look …
“Give me $1 to receive $5 later. You pay first.” Are you familiar with the “419?” A naive person gets blinded by the huge reward, trusting a stranger more than they should. They give money for a promise, and the con man runs away. Believe it or not, these schemes still profit over $700K a year, many of which come from, well, Nigeria? Stories have endless variations: charities, inheritances, get-rich-quick, romance, or e-commerce. The Nigerian Prince Letter or 419 name …
Why is coronavirus dangerous? Why does it spread so fast? When will all of it end? Are there any virus tests? What does it do to your body? How to stay safe? You’ve likely stumbled with some of these topics since the virus outbreak that was proclaimed to be at the end of 2019. By the time you get to this article, there are dozens of thousands of blogs talking about it. Anything you need to know has already been …