A friend of mine announced that she and her family were wrapping up the settlement of her uncle’s estate. A cheerful consumer, he had amassed an impressive collection of cars and recreational vehicles during his lifetime. The family wanted to sell as many of these items as they could before they put his house on the market, so they listed them on Facebook. I scrolled through and noticed some really good deals. I even mentioned them to my husband. Then, fortunately, our day got busy and we tabled any thoughts of participating in the fire sale. The post was a scam and my friend ended up locked out of her account, so she couldn’t even warn people not to participate. Had I expressed an interest in purchasing any of the items listed in the scam post, the next step would have been a conversation through Messenger, where I would have been asked to send the money. In this case, it was $5,000 and up. If you do that to a bad actor, you almost certainly will not get your money back. I’m fairly certain I would have figured it out pretty quickly. I have a strict policy of not sending any money through Facebook. For that reason I don’t participate in the platform’s birthday fundraisers or Marketplace. But, I can see how easily people get stung. You think you are dealing with a trusted friend, so why wouldn’t you take advantage of the great deals they offer? I write this as a cautionary tale. It’s really easy to become a victim of a scam and, often, really difficult to disentangle yourself and your finances. Be very cautious, especially if you’re encouraged to act quickly. Research the product, opportunity and seller and don’t use a method of payment that makes you uncomfortable. Trust your healthy skepticism. A deal that looks too good to be true generally is.
Author: Laura Biskupic
Internet safety tips for you
We’ve offered lots of tips on how to keep your device safe online: Take your time before you respond to an unsolicited request. Double check the email address or link before you click on anything. Do not email personal information, especially account details or Social Security information, to anyone. Today, in honor of Safer Internet Day, we offer you tips on how to keep yourself safe online. As convenient as our screens can be, they can also lure us in, stress us out and make us feel worse than we need to about the world. We can control our online experience, though. Here are seven ways to protect yourself. Set screen time limits. We do this for our children and we should do it for ourselves too. Set a timer or a specific schedule for yourself and stick to it. If you can, turn your phone off at night. Control your newsfeed. Unfollow accounts that promote negativity and aim to incite. You don’t have to expose yourself to content that upsets you. Join online groups that focus on supportive and uplifting topics. Turn off notifications. They distract you. You can check out content when it’s convenient for you. Schedule periodic no screentime days. They act like deep cleansing breaths and give you time to enjoy other things. Comparison is the thief of joy. Don’t judge yourself against someone else’s carefully crafted online presence. Check your sources! A tremendous amount of information is available to us with just one click. But it’s up to us to make sure we’re choosing legitimate sources for that information. It’s a good idea to check multiple sources before you accept a post as fact. Protect your privacy and be very mindful of what you post. Check your settings to make sure you understand who can see what you post. Do this for your social media sites and the digital photos you post. We hope these… | Read More »
Five tips for charitable giving to remember on #GivingTuesday
In celebration of “Giving Tuesday” approaches, charities ramp up their efforts to secure funding. So do bad actors wanting to capitalize on both the hectic nature and the genuine altruism of the holiday season. Before you donate to a charity, please consider the following five tips: If a charity pushes you to donate quickly, it’s probably a scam. Take your time and do your research. We recommend Charity Navigator to evaluate an unfamiliar charity. Do not donate to charities that ask you to donate via cash, gift cards, cryptocurrency or wire transfers. If you intend to direct your Required Minimum Distribution to a charity for tax purposes, make sure it is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Don’t trust your caller ID if a charity contacts you by phone. If you’re interested in donating, do not do so over the phone. Ask for contact information or a web address so you can follow up. Be wary of crowdfunding and social media platforms. While these can highlight legitimate needs, they are not well-monitored and can be easy vehicles for people with bad intentions. Ideally, you can take time to plan your annual charitable donations during a less hectic period, so you can research each charity thoroughly and understand the impact of your donation. If you have any questions about charitable donations, please contact us. We’d be glad to help.
Speed kills on the information superhighway too
Speed kills. We learn this before we even put a key into the ignition for the very first time. Speed limit signs show up everywhere on streets and highways. They encourage us to slow down, consider our surroundings and proceed with caution. Speed also kills on the information superhighway. It is the single most obvious indicator of maleficence. If you are contacted by someone either via email, text, messenger or phone call and told you must do something quickly to avoid a disaster, resist the urge to comply. With even just a little time, you can calm down, assess the situation, contact the authorities to confirm a problem even exists and then proceed. A common scam involves a government entity, the IRS for example, contacting a victim, demanding money for a phantom infraction and telling them it must be paid promptly through a gift card or wire transfer. These bad actors threaten their victims with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting. They ask for immediate responses to their questions, which are designed to elicit important account and personal information. The caller, texter or messenger becomes increasingly demanding and insists that you provide the information they request immediately or else. If you remember the two words you learned in your first driver’s ed class – speed kills – you will know it’s time to hit the brakes on this conversation. Hang up. Log out. Do not reply. Block and report the person who contacted you. You are allowed to give yourself a little time to think. Then, contact your bank, your tax preparer, the IRS or whatever entity that was cited in the conversation you just had. Contact them directly and ask about your account status. Report the alarming conversation you just had to the police. Sometimes, your best defense against a sophisticated scammer is just a deep… | Read More »
Life lessons from a lemonade stand
We could all learn a lot from the evolution of the lowly lemonade stand. Still manned by cute kids on hot summer afternoons, many lemonade stands have gone high tech. If you look closely at those hand-lettered signs, you might see a QR code directing you to a secure payment site so you won’t have to let your lack of cash limit your order. Social media marketing also helps drive traffic to the stands. Some lemonade stands even offer online ordering and, of course, curbside pickup. As a result, those cute kids are raking in the dough. More than 55,000 of them are also taking advantage of an app run by the non-profit Lemonade Day, which guides them through social media influencing, investing, marketing, advertising, online orders and even philanthropic efforts to promote their brand. Today is National Lemonade Day and one way we can celebrate it is to support a neighborhood stand. Another is to look at areas in our life where we could apply a lemons-to-lemonade philosophy. And, rather than shake our head at the ways modern technology is changing the world, we can look at opportunities to embrace those changes and use them to augment our own lives. The wise use of technology has made budgeting, tacking investments, planning retirement, scheduling appointments, keeping in touch with family members and a whole host of daily activities much more manageable. That’s the lemonade part of the lemons we face when technology challenges us. If we put the work into understanding how new technology works, why it’s necessary and what dangers lurk in its wake, we can enjoy benefits we might not even have imagined. Happy National Lemonade Day! Whether you get your lemonade from a stand down the street, order it from an app, or make it yourself, we hope you have a very refreshing day. And, if you’d like information about how technology can make retirement planning easier… | Read More »