Nearly half of the U.S. population was impacted by identity and financial fraud last year. This is nearly all of the unbanked-~5.4% or 7 million households and millions from various social classes, particularly the top 20%.
Donât even get me started on crypto fraud. With no gatekeeper, it is the Wild Web, or more like 3.0 now. A multi-billion-dollar palooza. This week Zelle, a payment transfer system, more popular than Venmo developed by financial firms in 2017 has been prominent in the news. Over 10 million Americans were scammed last year through Zelle.
The underbelly and framework of the internet are bad actors. The irony of the internet is as it gets more complex and safer, hackers and con artists are more present.
There is a flood of foreign and domestic scammers all around us, not to mention Tinder Swindlers. Given the political tensions abroad in Ukraine and Russia, there are escalating concerns around cyberattacks. We already witnessed a biological weapon a.k.a covid from China. The world cannot afford another cyberattack, especially after the USâ largest meat producer was hacked earlier last year.
Nowadays, since tax season is right around the corner on April 15th, expect to get a lot of unauthorized fake calls from the IRS.
And no, the IRS will never call, text or give you gift cards.
Sadly I have to tell you that since too many fall for it.
Beyond Vigilant
You have to be dumb, yes dumb to not fall for scams. Not naive, but dumb. If youâre smart, you fall for get-rich-quick schemes too easily.
A perfect example of accredited affluent investors who got scammed big time was through Bernie Madoffâs Ponzi scheme. He encouraged affluent investors, not just anyone through his coercing mechanics to invest in riskless companies that delivered lofty audacious promises. Defensible companies that have stable earnings and cash flows that have paid quarterly dividends for a century such as J&J can be seen as less risky but anything in the markets is still risky.
Even the wealthy are desperate for more money yet you have to be too smart to believe the markets come with no risk.
The risk of not investing is greater than investing but this is a total fake. Clearly, people donât use their minds when investing sometimes and can be manipulated by a con artist. For decades he convinced and racked up hundreds of millions of investorsâ funds while keeping all the profits himself, filing investor relations reports, quarterly statements, and stating bogus out of this world returns while not investing the money at all. Instead, he spent it!
You have to be pretty wealthy, smart, and delusional to get into that mess.
As the old adage goes, the more you know, the more you realize how much you donât know. Never lose sight of that. We will never know everything or what we donât know but when something sounds slightly too good to be true, itâs most likely a fat scam.
Weâre all guilty of this. In this day in age, thereâs no getting around it easily. Even living under a rock will cause an invasion of privacy. We are human and crave money. Itâs a drug but be responsible with it or else you will get hooked and ruin yourself more at your own expense.
I donât know anyone who hasnât come across scammers in some capacity. Ever heard of the Jamaican kingdom and prince offering you a scholarship or getting a fake phone call from someone trying to pose as your cousin asking for money when theyâre in trouble?
There are some bad actors out there that are too good at acting.
We all become victim to something that we get ourselves into. Earning a bit more cash to blow for years of trouble, heartache, and concern is simply a waste. Might as well throw away money then.
The other day I came across a replica of the J.Crew website. Due to lockdowns and my remote lifestyle as a student since 2020, I finally needed to refresh my wardrobe with business casual again. For 2 years now itâs been business on top, party on the bottom. We finally need it in sync again.
Since I dislike shopping, I try to delay it to when Iâm least productive. I went on a mindless journey at 10pm to pick out a few collared shirts, dropped them in my online imaginary cart, and was about to go through checkout when I remembered I had a few points to redeem from J.Crew that I didnât use on my prior order from a few months ago but didnât notice the option.
I decided instead of wasting hours navigating the site, I would just call friendly customer service to not only help me but brighten my day. One conversation a day keeps the doc away! Low and behold, there was no customer service phone number, no contact, and this wasnât the precious J.Crew site after all! The site had an identical address with missing characters and without the https indicating the site wasnât secure!!! Always make sure the lock symbol is in the web address. If not, your data can still be comprised even if you donât enter any personal details.
Additional red flags on a site include:
-No contact details
-Location
-Full inventory for everything
-Glossy reviews with fake news
Thankfully I stopped myself. Fewf. I have gotten into a years-long mess attempting to detangle myself out.
Better be safe than sorry and ALERT! Donât go shopping when asleep.
The Power of Slowing Down
In this fast-paced gig economy hustle culture world, the last thing you are thinking about is to slow things down. We had 2+ years to crank things up with our side hustles, aggressively save and invest, build passive income sources, and have extra quality family time for those who could afford the time and means to do so and now is tht time to crank it up a notch, and party hard because weâve worked so hard.
I know many people who did the exact opposite with their precious time at home and took a 2-year hiatus but personally, that never ends up feeling good anyways. You donât need as much of a break as you may think. 2 days is sufficient for me since I pace myself.
But now I feel a bit guilty of actually working too hard and not taking enough rest since I must say, I am a bit burnout. Younger workers, especially junior workers are most susceptible to burnout more often due to high expectations and hustle culture, wanting to expend all their energy drinking RedBull and beat some unrealistic expectations down the road.
Guess what? I used to be that person and I say crank it down a notch. In fact, it will help you earn more. What will help you earn even more is outsourcing because you will get your time = money because in the end health = wealth after all.
Rest = fuel and you deserve it so take that time for yourself and most importantly then, you wonât get yourself in trouble when it comes to these hidden scams, thefts, and security flaws. Slowing down keeps you more alert and keeps you safe!
My rule of thumb is if you canât take your time or slow down, something is already wrong. You should never feel pressured to do anything in life and especially never to spend money for goodness sake!
This reminds me of the feeling users have on social media. When you create your profile, you feel so courageous, motivated, and excited for the world to know your superpowers and planets yet at the end of the day, no one really cares as much about you as we want them or we think. Everyone is focused on themselves and we all wish people paid more attention to us than they really do.
As a result, if itâs optional, not just on Instagram for kids, you donât need to give it up. Your algorithm will be more abusive not supportive. After all, when you arenât paying for the product, you become the product. As Biden pronounced, social media is an experiment to profit off of children.
Join me and only be a part of LinkedIn where the temperature is lower. If you search my name, you would think Iâm a middle-aged woman whoâs never heard of the internet. My online presence is limited and I like it that way.
Your algorithm will be healthier and less addicting for you in the long run. E-commerce indebted Millennials wonât bribe you anymore and people will stop asking for your money.
Our time and attention are our most precious assets. As someone who is only on one social media platform, LinkedIn, a rule of thumb Iâve followed for many years now that has helped me save my time and sanity is if you donât need to share it, donât. Guard your privacy and time by being aware of what you are receiving value from.
Your reputation is all you got.
Guard your privacy and time to save your wallet.
Unexpected Scams
Our reputation is our life. Without it, we have nothing.
It is saddening to hear that the most common form of theft globally is identity theft. Iâm not here to endorse any product but Iâm attached to one myself. Similar to insurance, it is a commitment yet at the end of the day, or anytime, the best investment will forever be in yourself and your future. Nothing can replace true peace.
After having your identity taken care of, make sure to freeze your credit as well. This can be done at any of the 3 credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion. This will prevent anyone from opening an account, taking out a loan, or borrowing against your home (HELOC) or a reverse mortgage under your name.
If your employer requires you to unfreeze your credit, do it for that time period then lock it ASAP. There are far too many people that get scammed this way by simply having their credit unfrozen which can cause damage to your credit score, a vital metric that is used when building equity within a home to get the most affordable mortgage and keep your reputation sound. Everything connects back in some way. One misstep can wreak havoc on the rest sometimes not in your control.
Another unexpected yet blatantly obvious way people get a hold of your precious information is via mail and packages. Font door theft is rampant and rising, especially in the suburbs. Surprisingly not so much in the city thanks to handy dandy trusty doormen.
From a young age, my parents have always asked me to tear my name and any personal details from my mail and documents. This has been a lifesaver. At the end of each school year when I was so excited to throw away my binders, I forgot I scribbled and wrote my name all over them in class to pass the time.
An easy way to parse together information is to sift through physical mail. Itâs annoying that tax documents are still sent this way yet via email maybe even more unsafe! Iâve heard crazy stories that thefts hire people hooked on cocaine and methane to puzzle piece together shredded documents to find confidential information.
If your portfolio advisor is still sending you pamphlets of your quarterly investment statements, ask everything to be online but be careful over email as well. Whatever is confidential, can get scanned and broken into as well. Remember to turn on duo-authentication, a captcha option, have a backup email address, and secure password on all your devices. Americans, 1234 wonât cut it. Donât be that lazy because when you must, you will change it.
If you are concerned some documents can be read and broken into via email, in Excel you can set up a password to open sheets to make them more secure but remember, anything via email can still be tracked and hacked into so be on the lookout.
If certain documents cannot be shared online, shred your documents and dispose of them not all at the same time. An annoyance that we can get rid of by being more eco-friendly! Save the trees!
Additional Common Scam Practices
Pyramid Scheme: Referral business where top-level execs cash out
Bernie Madoff: Ponzi scheme-encouraging people to invest with lofty promises and no risk-they donât invest money
Affinity Fraud: Pretend to be a part of a group to build trust and keep their money
Pump and dump and boiler room: Fake stockbrokers and use high-pressure sales tactics to coerce investors to buy bogus sharesâââWolf of Wall Street
Hackers and Scammers:
Data breaches: Too many of us use the same credentials on various websites where scammers and hackers can easily breach into
Brute Force: Computer-generated passwords through machine learning
Malware: Viruses that damage computer and hardware, hijack information, internet traffic monitoring, and keystrokes
Phishing: Pretending to share passwords through scam emails, chats, and SMS, masquerade a legit service pretending thereâs an issue
Above all, always be on the lookout for suspicious stuff. Itâs rampant we just have to become familiar with it to prevent it.
Look out for:
-Call/Email out of the blue
-Email has bad grammar not written in English
-Wants an immediate response
-Too good to be true = lofty promises, lump sums, checks, donations from non-credible organizations
Donât sabotage your future by being foolishly smart. Nothing in life is for free so guard your time, attention, privacy, face, body, practically everything if you can. If you donât need to reveal it, donât do it.
Safeguard your time, sanity, and life before itâs too late.