watchout money is about!!! (Money)

Member Name: 1st2thebar

Product:	Money
Date:	13/04/07 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: gives you life choices

Disadvantages: it tends to disappear

I like money, as I'm sure you all do. However, the amount of scams that have been in circulation has been quite remarkable. I'm pretty careful when dealing with new customers and I tend to reward companies by giving them repeat custom and loyalty winks. By living my life through the internet and gaging what is hot and what is not. I have a fair idea of what deal IS too good to be true.

The best way of course and it cost nil money; is to do a webcheck with www.companieshouse.org this information can determine whether companies/websites are a fly by night or not. Other good means if you are dealing with a email address/name only is to join a people tracer. This is also free and the results can save you lots of pounds. You can check by simply typing in "people tracer" in the search bar while on Google.

Although I've had many emails stating that I have a $9000 cheque waiting for me in Florida. I have yet to be tempted to payout 65.00 GBP for postage and give out my name in confirmation. Well, you probably can see the flaw straight away. A cheque in my name...I suppose they are being extra vigilant with security and checking that it really is me who has won this nice sum of dosh. For me, it all started doing those long winded Readers Digest competitions, about 20 years ago when we all were innocent about doing all those B***** @~* tasks.

Every week their was a task and every week you were a winner, but to stay in the big money bonanza you had to complete the weekly tasks. Oh yes, all that work....all that damn work and time spent posting and writing and reading.... I did get a prize though. It was a Readers Digest "pen". What else could it be? after all that writing and sending and writing. I did have my hopes on the 10,000 GBP retirement fund. I was only eleven years of age, and I was planning to the future. Readers Digest had a good name at the time and like so many I got sucked in. How I remember those innocent days, the days that I took notice of my Mum saying "Have you sent off all those Readers Digest letters yet? Readers Digest taught me an important "real life" lesson.

Now, I'm constantly on the lookout for more sophisticated scams. Yep, there are a few about, thanks to the joys of the Internet. Yeah, I still think the internet is a good thing and I'm a fan even when I do have those shiny eyes.. getting excited over a get rich scam for a reckless 4 seconds before logic sets in.

What is a big giveaway is their poor Englush. Phrases are put in a weird and backward manner. Nowadays, it is ok to use a "textin" form of dialogue abbreviations during most communications; I feel that there is a time and place and producing this during an email scam is like a 10 foot bunny rabbit sticking up it's fluffy white bum in the air to a farmer with a cocked rifle. Shouting, Here I am!!!

Below, I have dug up some other none 'cosher' money scams that are evident today, and are worth a mention.

The good ol Premium-rate telephone rip-offs.
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We have been bombarded with these money pits since the dawning of interactive TV gameshows in 2000. There have been 100's of these shows, and it's been only recently that they've been found out. I must confess I don't even call banks with these numbers; If I do call a bank I always go into my local branch.
I have a real problem to calling non-geographic numbers, so I stick to calling freephone numbers (0800 and 0808) and UK numbers which start with '01' or '02'. Nevertheless, premium-rate numbers flourish, offering "who to vote off" to "winning holidays" to "win a bid" to "winning a pen" (I suppose it's to write down all of the premium rate numbers) -- at a cost of up to £1.50 a minute for 090 numbers.

This I must say is too get everyone hooked on these services. Avoid at all costs!

Winning bid fraudulent emails.
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I've had a few of these monsters contacting me when I was selling mobiles and laptops on Amazon marketplace. They send a fraudulent email payment for your item and states that the funds will appear after 5 days of receiving the email. It all looks legit, until you see a weird notice saying that the item has to be sent to Nigeria within 1 day. I've had others saying that the mobile phone is for my sick uncle who needs a phone to call for a doctor. It's emotional blackmail. Please avoid at all costs as this at first appears a sale and then you find it is all lies.

Phishing emails and unexpected mobile calls
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This includes ANY emails which appear to have been sent to you by a financial firm or a bank of which you are a customer of, or about to be. These are all hoaxes and has to be reported straight away. No financial organisation sends out emails asking you for this type of data. The same goes for callers who claim to represent your bank or credit-card company. In most cases, these 'phishing' attempts are aimed at grabbing personal or financial details in order to defraud you, these are opportunists and are practically impossible to trace, they can change server providers overnight and then start planning the next phishing hit; So, don't click on links in these emails; instead, delete them straight away. I hasten to add that these links are not viruses or spywares, though it is important to cleanout your temporary internet files and change ip addresses daily. Please contact me if your unclear, and I will help you to do all of above.

For eBanking facilities, please go directly to your bank website via your browser.

There are no guarantees of easy money, it is something I found out thanks to Readers Digest many moons ago. Online activities open us "good folk" up to other unwanted money scams. It is important that the good win through at all costs.

Thank you for reading this money review. I hope it has saved you some money in the longer term.

Summary: online money guide