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Avoiding scams during tough economic times: Feature Article

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While it really stinks, the reality is that when economic times are tough, scams go on the rise. People are more easily duped, and thus are constantly offers easy money and work at home opportunities that are all scams. The fact is that the more desperate people get, or the tougher times seem, the more likely they are to be taken in by a scammer. The despair for loans, jobs, etc. means your guard may be down, and you are more likely to let a scammer get the best of you. However, if you know this, and know what the most common scams are it is easy to avoid them, no matter how desperate you are feeling.

The most common scams during tough economic times:

1. Credit repair - Okay, when times are tough and you are having trouble making ends meet it can be tempting to get loans to help out in the in between time. However, if your credit is bad, loans are impossible to get. So, this is where scammers come in. They take advantage of your need for better credit by telling you that you can repair your credit with their help. However, there's really no way to clean up your credit, other than to consistently pay your bills over time. Companies that say they can get the negative information removed from your credit report are lying. If there are mistakes on your credit report, you can get them off your reports yourself. A company can't do anything for you thatyou can't do yourself, so do not get scammed, or pay someone to do it. Times are hard enough, every penny counts, so save yours.





Helpful Resources:

Protecting Yourself Online and at Home
This is a blog that explains how greed motivates scammers, and when economic times are tough the scammers come out, so you need to be super vigilant in protecting yourself online and at home.

Stopping Scammers
This is a website dedicated to stopping scammers. It offers information about how scammers operate as well as tips and advice for avoiding scams. You can also look up known scams for more info.

Avoiding Scams When Investing
This is a great advice article about how when times are tough, and the economy is on the downside scammers and fraud increase. It offers tips for avoiding scams when investing.

Avoiding Scams During Tough Economic Times
This is an interesting article about scams and how the economy and economic crisis related to fraud and scammers. It offers tips for avoiding scams during tougher economic times, and all other times as well.

Protecting Yourself
This is an article about how consumers are easier to scam during tough economic times. It helps you understand how you could become a victim because you are looking for easy answers. It offers tips for avoiding scams and for protecting yourself.

Recognizing Scams
This is a great site for learning about how to avoid scammers, protect your identity, and to make sure you do not get hit by fraud during tough economic times. It offers advice for avoidance and how to recognize cams.

Protecting Your Identity
This is a great site for learning how to protect your identity, but also how to recover your identity and get your bank accounts, and other things, back on track if your identity does get stolen.

Protecting Software
This is a website that provides software for helping you protect the personal information on your computer so that you have less chance of having identity stolen by hackers or online identity thefts.

Corporate Fraud and Scammers
This is an article that goes into detail about why tough times usually is accompanied by more problems like corporate fraud and scammers, and how you can protect against these scams.

Investment Scams
This is an article that says that during tough times you need to watch out for scams as well as for errors or surprise fees, etc. on bills. It takes a close look at investment scams and what you should avoid.




2. Foreclosure rescue - Okay, when times are tight, it can be difficult to pay bills, including your house payment. While there are some legitimate companies that do foreclosure rescue, many of those are scammers looking to prey on people who really do not want to lose the roof over their head. Finding a company that will help you with your foreclosure is hard, most advertisements are actually for companies that are preying on the equity you have in your house. Most of the time, the way these companies work is they will charge you money, which you pay by pulling equity out, and then they do not do anything for you. Or, they have you sign something where they get ownership of your house, and you rent it back from them with the chance to buy it back if you get back on your feet. Since this is rare, and you usually have to pay a premium to get it back, it is not a good deal. If you really want to save your house from foreclosure find legitimate companies, or talk to your lender and discuss options with them.

3. Credit and debt help - When times are tight people start to get worried about their debt. It can be an overwhelming burden, and sometimes negotiating with creditors to come up with better ways to make payments, etc. can be difficult. There are many companies out there that advertise that they can help you come up with solutions to your debt. Unfortunately this solution is nothing more than bankruptcy. This is a scam that you should not fall for, even if bankruptcy is right for you, you do not want to hire a company to help you, you want to hire a good attorney.

4. Free educational materials or lunch seminars - Sometimes when times are tough, and economy is on a downturn, it can be really tempting to try and expand your education so that you can get better jobs. Generally, these free seminars and educational materials are nothing more than a high priced kit, program, or solution to a problem you really do not need. Usually the lunch is free, but it comes with a high priced sales pitch about how you can't progress without their materials, support, or program. Most of them have some new break through research or results showing they are necessary. Of course, some of these are legitimate, others are not. So, you have to make sure you do not buy on the spot, and you have to make sure you do your homework to see how legitimate they really are. Never spend money on something when it was advertised as free.

5. Home based businesses - It is a great thing to be able to work from home. When economic times are tough, it can be tempting to try and work from home so you can cut back on expenses. While it is possible to work from home, and while this does provide financial freedom, and a cutback in costs, however, generally, claims of working from home are scams. The better it sounds, the less likely it is to be true. Also, if you want to work from home for a legitimate home business, you should avoid any sort of business that requires you to pay anything upfront. This would be stuff like stuffing envelopes, or assembling products.

6. MLMs - While there is a bit of opportunity in multi-level marketing companies like Mary Kay, Avon, Usana, Herbalife, Amway, etc. statistics show that the most part of people who pay to get involved in these sort of multi-level things, lose money. If you were to ask the person trying to recruit you to pay to join their line of the MLMthey would say that the people who fail are the ones you do not try hard enough, or stay with it long enough. However, when times are tough, spending money on something that may or may not pay off is stupid. The truth is that most of these multi-levels are flawed, they are a system rather than a product or a service worth buying. People sell the structure or pay structure rather than the product itself. Most of the time, it is money down the drain. So, if you want to make it through tough economic times, do not try and do it through a quick cash plan or a MLM, look for something else.

Basically there are tons of scams out there all of the time, but during tough economic times, the scammers come out of the woodwork to prey on people's insecurities and nee for a quick fix. Basically the above mentioned scams are the basics, but they come with a million variations. Sometimes there are "guarantees" other times there are just a lot of meetings to attend, or conference calls to listen to. However, if you are looking for ways to make money or make life easier, there are better ways to spend your time. Instead of devoting five hours a week to conference calls and recruiting, spend five hours a week at a part time job.

Besides knowing some of the basic scams out there, there are things you can do to avoid being a scam victim. Try some of the following:

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  • Never wire money. So many people get drawn in by scams because of the promise of money. For example, let's say that the economy is down, and you are trying to rent out your house. Someone may respond to your ad, and say they live overseas, and that they are moving to the states and want to rent your place site unseen. They will tell you that they are going to send you a deposit and first and last month's rent, as well as extra for their decorator to use to furnish the place so it is ready when they get there. They will tell you that they are sending you a cashier's check, and need you to wire the difference to their decorator. Most of the time, people fall for this because the promise of a cashier's check seems real. It may clear the bank and take months to come back as phony. At that point, the scammer is long gone, and you are out the amount you wired.

  • - Next, do not be too trusting. You need to learn to verify everything, no matter how legitimate it sounds. Scammers invest time and sometimes money into defrauding you. So, they may pretend to be a hospital and ask you to send funds for a grandparent's bill, or they may pretend to be calling on behalf of a sibling, etc. for bail money, pretending to be an attorney, etc. Basically if they ask you to send money, be sure you verify that they are who they say they are.

  • - Most scammers offer you something that seems awesome, and then wants you to determine if you want it right then and there. If they ask you to decide on the spot or lose the opportunity, decline, it is almost always a scam.

  • - Use the web to check the BBB. It is a great place to learn about whether or not the company is legitimate.

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