Scams

Texts From a Friend Text Message Scams

by
a texting scam

Text message scams are nothing new, but they used to be really obvious. Like anything else, scammers evolve to keep getting paid. Innocent Texts from a Friend Came across a news story today that finally answers a question of mine. About a year ago, I got a text from “Steve.” Now, I have an uncle named Steve, and although we don’t text, it was not beyond the pale that he ever would. He was friendly, asked how it was going. He asked about “that beautiful wife” and my kids. This was probably a 15 or 20 text conversation when I asked something kind of specific about my cousin that would have been obvious to the real Steve. The scammer didn’t know about that, so he said something like he didn’t know about it (impossible) so I stopped answering and went back through my texts. Just like that scene in Enemy of the State where he asks, “Did he say it first or did you say it?” – I realized that other than the opening question or two, everything cleverly piggybacked off my answers to make it sound like we knew each other. I stopped replying and after another few messages …

Read More

Covid Student Loan Relief Ending Soon

by
covid student loan relief

In March, the government began offering options to help benefit borrowers with student loans during the Covid pandemic. The Covid student loan benefits were to stop collecting on student loans, to charge 0% interest rates on student loans, and to suspend student loan payments. Basically, you could turn off paying on your student loans with no detriment. Or, if you were one of the lucky ones still doing well during the Covid crisis, you could keep making loan payments and get ahead thanks to zero percent interest. The benefits only applied to federal student aid loans, and do not apply to private student loans. One of the downsides of programs like SoFi student loan refinances is that the refinanced loans become private student loans and no longer benefit from any federal student loan programs, even though the Sofi student loans interest rates can be much lower than regular student loans. Private student loans are not regulated by the Department of Education Student Loan Covid Scams Unfortunately, as is often the case, scammers were not far behind the news announcing these student loan aid provisions. They came back out when Congress passed a law making the Covid student loan aid last …

Read More

Real Estate Investor Seeks Trainee Signs

by

Lately, around here, there are a lot of those really cheap signs like you use for garage sales saying, “Real Estate Investor Seeks Trainee.” Sometimes, there is a dollar figure mentioned like $125K per year, or something like that. As you can probably imagine, this is a scam. Making Money in Real Estate Signs Let’s start with the obvious. Do you really think it is hard to find people to work in training programs that pay $125,000 per year? I mean, so hard that you would have to resort to placing out dozens, or even hundreds, of cheapo signs by busy intersections. It’s true that the economy is recovering a little bit, but it isn’t like there aren’t people willing to work for six-figures. Anytime you see signs like this advertising anything other than a yard sale, estate sale, or maybe a car for sale, you can be pretty sure it isn’t a legitimate business opportunity of any kind. There are literally hundreds of job websites, message boards, and real estate forums, not to mention Craigslist, and local electronic bulletin boards where someone who really did need some form of real estate business trainee could find one. There is never …

Read More

Detecting IRS Phone Scam

by

The latest phone scam goes something like this: Someone calls and claims to be from the IRS. They say that you owe taxes and you need to make a payment right away. Otherwise, the scammer says, you may be deported, lose your business license, or even be arrested. This is in addition to the ongoing problems with tax fraud identity theft. How To Tell If It’s the IRS Phone Scam There are a couple of tip offs that can help you detect whether it really is the IRS on the phone. First, off, the IRS does most of this stuff by mail. Mail gives a verifiable paper trail for future legal proceedings if necessary. Also, having a computer spit out 10,000 letters is way faster, cheaper, and more efficient than calling 10,000 people. If you haven’t gotten a single letter from the IRS before you get a phone call, be very suspicious. Sometimes, the scammer gets lucky and maybe you have gotten some letters from the IRS. Maybe you didn’t understand them completely. Now, it’s time to understand how the IRS threatens people. The IRS cannot do ANYTHING at all without telling you IN WRITING that they are going to …

Read More

Cable Bill Scams

by

If you’ve ever seen the advertisements for cable TV, you may wonder why you can’t ever seem to get a good rate like that. After all, according to the back and forth commercials between satellite TV and cable television, it seems like a $99.99 per month cable TV bill would be an easy score, and yet, no one ever seems to pay that much. Is it all part of a big cable TV scam? Real Cable Bill The problem, of course, with those advertised cable TV rates, like those from Comcast and Time Warner, and those from satellite TV companies like Dish Network and DirecTV, is that they have plenty of fine print typed neatly at the bottom of the page where you won’t notice it. So, when you are offered a $99.99 cable TV bundle of some sort, you are actually agreeing to pay far more than the rate advertised in big, bold letters. So, just how do cable companies trick you into paying higher rates than they advertise? The answer, as always, is fine print and long disclosures. That advertised rate is a just a base rate, and there are several add-ons that will jack your final bill …

Read More

Where to Find Legit Work at Home Jobs

by

Many people like the idea of working from home. There is more flexibility. It allows parents to spend more time with their kids. Dads who work from home have more opportunities to participate in events they traditionally miss like afternoon school plays, or soccer practice. Likewise, many moms who have built up great careers are looking for a way to not lose everything that they have built, while at the same time not missing out on raising their children. In order to keep their personal financial plans on track, taking on some work at home sounds great. Unfortunately, the universal allure of work at home jobs makes it a great target for scammers. The idea of someone paying a good wage for working from your own home at a home-based business that requires no experience, no start-up costs, and no set time commitment sounds too good to be true. It usually is. Being aware is the best financial advice you can get. How To Find Legitimate Work at Home Jobs Real work at home jobs that are not scams do exist. However, they don’t come wrapped in rainbows delivered on a unicorn’s back. By taking another look at working from …

Read More

Government Mortgage Help Programs Scams and Deceptive Marketing and Mailings

by

It was with much fanfare last month that Congress and the Obama administration passed laws putting into effect government programs to help American homeowners with their mortgages.  Both The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were front page news all over the country. A lot of this publicity was due to the fact that Americans have started to perceive the government as helping out Wall Street and big banks more than they are helping ordinary taxpayers and homeowners who did nothing wrong during the housing bubble and subsequent market collapse and banking collapse. However, the same publicity also made it easier for scammers and dishonest marketers to take advantage of people’s hopes by pretending to have something to do with the government programs when, in fact, they are either outright scams to steal your money or steal your identity, or they are mortgage brokers or mortgage companies that have nothing to do with the government mortgage aid programs trying to insinuate that they are part of those programs.  Unfortunately, many people are falling victim to these con artists and their tricks. How To Protect Yourself From Scams, Thieves, and Con Artists Using Government Mortgage Aid …

Read More

Credit Counseling Scams

by

Not too long ago, I wrote about monitoring your credit report on the non-blog Finance Gourmet site.  In it I included a warning about the various services offering to “fix” your credit and lower you monthly payment.  Now a much bigger site has an “insider” confession from just such an outfit.  A little independent confirmation always is good.

Selling Your Own Home – Day 4

by

We got our first showing today. It was someone who lives on our block as a renter and walked by the sign. The wife came without her husband because he has a travel job and won’t be back until next week. Seemed like she really liked it. The nice part is that as someone who already lives here we don’t have to explain anything about the neighborhood or why our house is worth more than one about 8 blocks away where the school boundaries change. How cool would that be if we just sold it right away from someone seeing the sign?