Stock market crisis? What crisis? Atleast that's the case for Drug companies as more investors are turning attention to them.
Follow on to the article here.
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
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:
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!!
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:
- How do I make money? (get details)
- How do I receive my money? (get details)
- Do I need to spend any money to get started?
- What products or services will I be involved in?
- How are the products or services marketed?
- What assistance is provided to me for marketing and administration?
- How much time will the marketing, administration and other business related activities take?
- Do I need to be trained to sell or recruit others?
- Does the training cost money? How long is the training?
- Do I need to attend seminars or lecturing sessions (where you "learn" from high flying associates)?
- 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!)
- Do I need to attend regular business meetings? (see lecturing sessions)
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!!
Friday, April 11, 2008
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.
"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.
Friday, April 4, 2008
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:
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:
- On-line store's business address, hours of business and contact numbers
- 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
- Use a major credit card for purchases online or use paypal that is tied to your major credit card.
- Do NOT use your bank check card - this gives thieves direct access to your bank account!
- 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
- 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
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Tips to make your inbox less vulnerable to identity theft
Identity theft continues to be a big concern among Americans who engage in online transactions, and for good reason. Last year, an FTC survey found that 8.3 million American adults were victims of identity theft in 2005, and an alarming 85 percent reported that one or more of their existing accounts had been misused. Those accounts included email, credit card, banking, medical insurance, ...
Read more at: tech.yahoo.com
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Stay away from Capital One!
If you've ever been enticed by the ads or mail offers for Capital One, please consider carefully before signing up with them.
Their no-hassle slogan is anything but true - from my experience.
Their customer service is horrible! False advertising and bait-and-switch methods, it seems, are visible just from scratching the surface.
I was enticed with a no-fee, no-hassle rewards card via a mail offer. After accepting the offer, I was charged a $29 annual fee. After discussing it with many a Customer Service Reps (CSR), and Supervisors and Managers, no one was able to revoke/credit this charge. After many days and unsuccessful attempts, I decided to make the best of it. I decided I would earn as much as possible in cash rewards to offset this charge.
So, I start to put charges on to the card. To keep my available line of credit high, I kept making online payments instead of waiting for the bill. This is where the fun starts! Some payments I make are allowed and clear up my available credit. However, others, especially larger payments, clear my bank, and gets posted to the account, but my available credit does not get cleared. This prompts a phone call to Customer Service - after 2-3 days and a hours of calmly trying to find the right person/dept that can resolve this, we found the FIT dept. All the while, we'd been treated to long hold times, misplaced transfers by CSR's and Supervisors telling us there's nothing they can do, and others saying you will have to wait for 5-7 business days for it to automatically clear. Apparently their computer system places a credit hold on any payments, larger than the minimum due for that month, made on accounts newer than 6 months. You would think that they can remove this automatic hold feature after receiving about a dozen cleared payments, but that would be logical!
This being our first experience with their so-called Customer Service, we were calm about the situation. From the second time they placed a hold on my available credit, I called Customer Service and asked to be transferred to the FIT dept so they can resolve the issue. Again, I was hit with requests to validate account information and then transfers to various other CSR's and Supervisors that told me it is not possible to remove this hold, etc, etc.. I stopped giving them my account information. The CSR's (most of them) are in India, it seems, and it was as if verifying my account information was needed to show they worked on an account - they are not allowed to even transfer a call without this information - no doubt this is a ploy implemented by the call center CapOne outsourced to. So, CapOne pays for every account touched by each agent - hey CapitalOne, your call center vendor is having their way with you and your customers for their financial gain. Yet, when I am able to reach a US based rep, I am transferred without even a single question! Why? Since the customer (me) has clearly explained the need and they are clearly _not_ able to help, and the obviousness of the customer experience with the presented issue and knowing which department the customer needs to talk to, there's no further questions required, provide the customer with the service s/he is looking for and move on to the next customer! WOW! What a concept, actually get some work done and not waste their time or a customers time!?!?! I hope someone at Capital One reads this, as you have a very unhappy customer - one that will _not_ be renewing the card at the end of the annual service agreement.
AND from what I see, I'm not the only one.... see here(consumeraffairs.com) for more details.
Here's another one about their bait and switch program.
There's plenty more - a google search will do wonders for your wallet and peace of mind, if this catches you before you get bit by the Capital One bug!
So far, I have made cash rewards well over $29 that they charged me. I plan on keeping this up to get as much money as possible from them. I am not a fool, I understand they make plenty of money on my transactions. However, for me, I will take pleasure in knowing that I'm getting something back for something that I already need to purchase. I plan on making sure I get my rewards until I cancel this card and will never look back.
Oh, when you're trying to do anything with CapOne, use their automated fraud system and after entering your account info press 0 for an operator. This, hopefully will get you to a US based CSR. If you bypass the automated system, you get sent to the Indian call center hell for sure.
Ask me how I know?! Wait, I already told you!
BTW- maneuvering phone trees and call centers isn't rocket science, just takes some patience and trial and error.
Their no-hassle slogan is anything but true - from my experience.
Their customer service is horrible! False advertising and bait-and-switch methods, it seems, are visible just from scratching the surface.
I was enticed with a no-fee, no-hassle rewards card via a mail offer. After accepting the offer, I was charged a $29 annual fee. After discussing it with many a Customer Service Reps (CSR), and Supervisors and Managers, no one was able to revoke/credit this charge. After many days and unsuccessful attempts, I decided to make the best of it. I decided I would earn as much as possible in cash rewards to offset this charge.
So, I start to put charges on to the card. To keep my available line of credit high, I kept making online payments instead of waiting for the bill. This is where the fun starts! Some payments I make are allowed and clear up my available credit. However, others, especially larger payments, clear my bank, and gets posted to the account, but my available credit does not get cleared. This prompts a phone call to Customer Service - after 2-3 days and a hours of calmly trying to find the right person/dept that can resolve this, we found the FIT dept. All the while, we'd been treated to long hold times, misplaced transfers by CSR's and Supervisors telling us there's nothing they can do, and others saying you will have to wait for 5-7 business days for it to automatically clear. Apparently their computer system places a credit hold on any payments, larger than the minimum due for that month, made on accounts newer than 6 months. You would think that they can remove this automatic hold feature after receiving about a dozen cleared payments, but that would be logical!
This being our first experience with their so-called Customer Service, we were calm about the situation. From the second time they placed a hold on my available credit, I called Customer Service and asked to be transferred to the FIT dept so they can resolve the issue. Again, I was hit with requests to validate account information and then transfers to various other CSR's and Supervisors that told me it is not possible to remove this hold, etc, etc.. I stopped giving them my account information. The CSR's (most of them) are in India, it seems, and it was as if verifying my account information was needed to show they worked on an account - they are not allowed to even transfer a call without this information - no doubt this is a ploy implemented by the call center CapOne outsourced to. So, CapOne pays for every account touched by each agent - hey CapitalOne, your call center vendor is having their way with you and your customers for their financial gain. Yet, when I am able to reach a US based rep, I am transferred without even a single question! Why? Since the customer (me) has clearly explained the need and they are clearly _not_ able to help, and the obviousness of the customer experience with the presented issue and knowing which department the customer needs to talk to, there's no further questions required, provide the customer with the service s/he is looking for and move on to the next customer! WOW! What a concept, actually get some work done and not waste their time or a customers time!?!?! I hope someone at Capital One reads this, as you have a very unhappy customer - one that will _not_ be renewing the card at the end of the annual service agreement.
AND from what I see, I'm not the only one.... see here(consumeraffairs.com) for more details.
Here's another one about their bait and switch program.
There's plenty more - a google search will do wonders for your wallet and peace of mind, if this catches you before you get bit by the Capital One bug!
So far, I have made cash rewards well over $29 that they charged me. I plan on keeping this up to get as much money as possible from them. I am not a fool, I understand they make plenty of money on my transactions. However, for me, I will take pleasure in knowing that I'm getting something back for something that I already need to purchase. I plan on making sure I get my rewards until I cancel this card and will never look back.
Oh, when you're trying to do anything with CapOne, use their automated fraud system and after entering your account info press 0 for an operator. This, hopefully will get you to a US based CSR. If you bypass the automated system, you get sent to the Indian call center hell for sure.
Ask me how I know?! Wait, I already told you!
BTW- maneuvering phone trees and call centers isn't rocket science, just takes some patience and trial and error.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Fraud Alert - Money Mules
This one is becoming a fast growing trend, so I'm posting some info on a relatively new fraud scheme.
I know I'm not the only one that receives job offers via email for "money transfer agents" or "re-shipping agents" which utilize your bank accounts for transactions for overseas companies. These transactions are fraudulent and should be marked as SPAM or phishing emails in your email software. Just delete them asap - clicking on the links provided usually validates your email address for the sender and will prompt further scam related emails.
Here are some links that describes the varieties of the fraud scheme in more detail:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/
some example emails for your review:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/page8.html
a news blurb:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/12/20/arrests_in_money_mules_scam/
Please share this with friends.
I hope it helps someone from falling in to this very serious trap.
I know I'm not the only one that receives job offers via email for "money transfer agents" or "re-shipping agents" which utilize your bank accounts for transactions for overseas companies. These transactions are fraudulent and should be marked as SPAM or phishing emails in your email software. Just delete them asap - clicking on the links provided usually validates your email address for the sender and will prompt further scam related emails.
Here are some links that describes the varieties of the fraud scheme in more detail:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/
some example emails for your review:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/page8
a news blurb:
http://www.channelregister.co
Please share this with friends.
I hope it helps someone from falling in to this very serious trap.
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