Scams

There are so many ways to separate you from your money.  There are legitimate things like a great sale or a bunch of advertising that makes you want to buy something that you may or may not need, then there are scammy things with the sole purpose of taking your money and leaving you with nothing.  There are so many scams that I could write an entire book about them, but I will use the email in the photo above as an example of one type of scam.  This email arrived yesterday and I had to laugh when I read it because it was so poorly written.  So I Googled the email associated with the email and found that it is a common phishing scam. 

Any time I get an email that I am not expecting I am always suspicious.  For any email that asks me to send money or confirm my information, I simply ignore the email and log into my real account and see what's going on that way (some websites do need me to update my info occasionally, if that's the case it will tell me that when I log into my account instead of emailing me for the info).  If I still have questions I will contact the customer service number for the actual company (using the number found on the company website, not one offered in the possible scam email).

In another incident a few months ago, a lady called and said I have a warrant out for my arrest and unless I paid with a credit card over the phone right now, the police would be sent to my house to arrest me immediately.  I had to laugh at that one too because I knew it was fake but I understand how her aggressive tone and threatening manner could have scared some innocent person into complying with her request for payment.  I asked her for the court the warrant was issued out of and the warrant number and she slammed the phone down in my ear.  There is seemingly no end to the ways that people can think of to rip other people off.  Anyway, just a short note to beware of all of the scammers out there...