My new business opportunity

Let me start off by stating that I do not like MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) schemes.
I've been there and done that, with a lighter wallet to show for it.
By request, I recently looked in to Power Mall. The idea of not spending any money and receiving something for just signing up is tempting.
Friends, remember, nothing in life is free - other than love from family and friends :)
When you sign up and give your personal information - this can and will be used against you. By selling this information or sharing the info w/ other companies that advertise to you. Thus increasing our junk mail. We take this risk every time we create a new account on-line or entering prize drawings or any other "entry" slip that requires our information! That's just one of the ways for others to make money off you. So, check the privacy policies (if available) before signing up.

When I did the MLM thing - Quixtar(by Amway) online mall was my snare - you had to constantly recruit and buy from your own store. They had a few nice products and most was low to decent quality. I did my product research after I signed up, since I didn't have access to the product prices before hand. What I found was that I could buy the same/similar products, online and local, for cheaper than what I could at my own store! Even though their prices were "competitive", they were inline with the high dollar stores (think Macy's vs Nordstrom). Even after my "profit", the price was comparable to local stores.

So, the real way to make money was to recruit others, place them in your "down-line" and get them to buy from their store AND recruit others for their "down-line". As I understand it, MLM's usually work best...*ahem* you can profit from an MLM if you are near the top tiers - less than 8 up-line people. Most likely you'll not be in any one of those tiers. If you are, congratulations. I would love to hear from your experiences in the comments.

There's much more to say, but I'll summarize.

If you are thinking about joining an MLM, keep the following in mind:

1. How do I make money? (get details)
2. How do I receive my money? (get details)
3. Do I need to spend any money to get started?
4. What products or services will I be involved in?
5. How are the products or services marketed?
6. What assistance is provided to me for marketing and administration?
   
7. How much time will the marketing, administration and other business related activities take?
8. Do I need to be trained to sell or recruit others?
   
9. Does the training cost money? How long is the training?
10. Do I need to attend seminars or lecturing sessions (where you "learn" from high flying associates)?
    
11. Do these sessions cost money? (if yes, run away! These sessions can be a huge drain on your time and money. This is also a big source of income for the speakers - you're usually pushed to attend them and buy motivational tapes/cd's to keep you going in your business goals - unfortunately for you it all costs money!)
12. Do I need to attend regular business meetings? (see lecturing sessions)

I hope this helps in your search for a business opportunity or source of revenue.
Please keep in mind, time equals money. If you value your time highly, you may find your self making better choices for you and your family.

So, what's an hour of your time worth?
$10?
$20?
$40?
$80?
$- much more!
$- my time is sacred!!

Internet Fraud Losses Reach All-Time High

FBI Reports that Internet Fraud Losses Reach All-Time High. An excerpt:
"While the number of cases dropped, the amount of money lost to internet fraud reached an all-time high in 2007, a new government report states. 'According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006.' The top ruses used by the fraudsters involved pets, romance and secret shoppers. The original report[Large PDF] is available online, and it contains some interesting graphs. One indicates that the two largest types of fraud are Auction Fraud and Non-delivery, which combine for over 60% of all cases. As Computerworld notes, men are more likely to fall for scams than women, and over 30% of losses are between $1,000 and $5,000. The report also contains data about the location of the perpetrators (Nigeria only accounts for 5.7%), age demographics, and contact methods."


Friends, read my past posts about internet scams (more to come) - numbers do not lie! It may happen to you, if you are not careful.

Traffic Light Tampering = Increased Red Light Camera Revenue

Well, there goes any semblance of public safety/concern by our elected public officials!

Jeff Nolan, in his blog, notes that six US cities have been caught decreasing the length of the yellow light below legal limits in an effort to catch more drivers running red lights and thus increase their revenue!
Remember all the people you supported/voted for to get a City Council seat(or any other public office) ?
They're claiming that this is for safety purposes, and it doesn't put people in danger of death or serious injury for the sake of the almighty dollar!

Apparently it's not just the mortgage crisis you have to worry about, but the mismanagement of funds by your City or Township. And of course, when their "revenue" starts to decline, you gotta pay.
I wonder, if misappropriation of funds can be reined in, wouldn't we have enough to support the infrastructure in your area?

Stolen Identity = Ruined Life

We've all heard about people going through identity theft or stolen credit cards with fraudulent charges, but how about when the stolen identity leads to a ruination of one's life and reputation?

An excerpt from an article on BBC:
"The BBC reports on the sad case of Simon Bunce. Mr. Bunce had his identity stolen, and credit cards were made to capitalize on the theft. Some of those cards were used at sites offering child pornography, and as a result Mr. Bunce was swept up in Operation Ore. The poor man was prosecuted for his 'crime', and was eventually found innocent, but in the meantime he lost his job. It took him six months to find another at a quarter of the salary."
The article goes on to report:
"Recent surveys suggest that as many as one in four Britons have been affected by it. In 2007 more than 185,000 cases of identity theft were identified by Cifas, the UK's fraud prevention service, an increase of almost 8% on 2006.'"

So you ask, how are we affected by this?
The Internet is an International network, so what happens elsewhere on the Internet can affect us. Fraud is everywhere on the Internet. Malicious people from other countries such as Russia (or people from the U.S. through servers in other countries) break in to legitimate online businesses and steal information. This information is then sold to others who in turn may sell the information again or use it to create new lines of credit to make fraudulent charges.
There are also malicious people that create on-line stores to get personal information. Some actually sell real products, and some do not ship anything to you after you fill out your information and try to purchase their products.

So, if you shop on the Internet you should be aware of a few things:

1. On-line store's business address, hours of business and contact numbers
   
2. Validate the contact numbers by placing a call to ask some questions about the product or their policies - this bit of due diligence to ensure this is a real business
3. Use a major credit card for purchases online or use paypal that is tied to your major credit card.
4. Do NOT use your bank check card - this gives thieves direct access to your bank account!
   
5. Be aware of your credit report and preferably sign-up for a credit monitoring service that monitors all three of the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) - I recommend myfico.com and selecting their Quarterly Monitoring service - the cheapest and most complete service I found - $50 per year. They have a 25% off sale going on now
6. Constantly check your credit cards online for charges. I check mine once a week or a few days after I make a purchase to ensure the charges shows up correctly and I also make sure my has product shipped
   

There are more items to keep in mind. In short, shred your important paperwork, using something like a variable cut shredder, keep a close eye on your credit report, keep an even closer eye on credit card charges and be choosy of your shopping site.