Money Blue Book

I debated about whether I should share this story, but at the end I decided that my experience might help prevent someone from falling into the same scam as I did. At the time I was young, inexperienced and financially naive. Since then, I’ve learned and improved based on my past failures and eventually went on to run a small but profitable home business by making money online with ebay, at least for a modest period of time.

It All Started With Too Much Greed

Shortly after college I decided I wanted to start a part time side business selling merchandise on eBay. But first I needed to find a wholesale supplier. After some research I decided I wanted to focus on consumer electronics such as GPS navigation devices and Apple iPods, and concluded my best bet at finding a supplier would be through a free network site like Alibaba, that helps connect sellers with buyers of goods. Little did I know at the time, but sites like Alibaba are crawling with scammers and evil doers.

I ultimately decided to focus on selling Garmin and Tom Tom branded GPS units. After a few searches, I was amazed to find numerous sellers offering brand new Garmin GPS units for very little money. The Garmin GPS model I was interested in buying in bulk retailed for more than $1200 on eBay at the time. The sellers I found on Alibaba were offering each unit for only $700 each. The asking prices were exceedingly low, but sadly I was too overcome with dollar signs in my head to realize that the offers were likely too good to be true. I essentially had blinders on and was too busy calculating all the profit I was going to make by selling these units for such high markup. Eventually I narrowed down a potential seller.

Greed Prevented Me From Recognizing the Warning Flags

When you are overcome with greed, it is hard to think clearly, even when a clearly fraudulent transaction is staring at you in the face. I should have been more aware of all the telltale signs that the seller was likely a potential scammer and a fraud. First of all, the seller provided me contact information based in Indonesia, a country like Nigeria that is notorious for being a hotbed of scammer activity. He also provided very limited company background information that could be used to verify his personal or business identity, or determine his true geographical location. The phone number he provided me did indeed work, but I should have realized that nowadays with VOIP technology, phone number locations are very easily faked. It’s easy to reside in one country and still obtain a temporary, disposable local phone number from another. Even paid identity authentication and verification services are subject to abuse and illegal manipulation as well. It’s not all that difficult for online scammers on Alibaba or any other Internet exchange service to obtain a genuine TrustPass or Alibaba Gold Membership certification using falsified identification.

Another thing that should have raised red flags was the fact that the seller offered to pay for shipping, which is an extremely unusual practice for first time wholesale purchases, especially since international shipping can be quite expensive. The seller also insisted on rushing the sale, frequently threatening to end the lucrative deal if I continued to demand more verification information and not move forward with payment. But otherwise, the scammer was extremely convincing in the way he portrayed the deal as completely legitimate. Rather than thinking that the sale was a scam, I just thought I was getting an excellent deal.

Because I was so motivated by greedy emotions, I was more fearful of losing the lucrative buy than I was of being scammed. There were so many warning signs that I simply ignored, such as the seller refusing to accept Paypal or even credit card payment. Instead, he demanded payment through bank wire transfer. If I had conducted more due diligence, I would have known that unlike Paypal or credit card transactions where my money would have been protected, bank wire transactions are permanent and irreversible once properly executed.

I Fell For the Trap – Hook, Line, and Sinker

Ultimately I sent him over $2,025.00 through bank wire transfer for 3 sample Garmin GPS units. Once he had the money, he disappeared without a trace. I attempted to contact him through the phone number he provided me, but the line had been disconnected. He never responded back to my e-mails and I never received the merchandise. My money was gone and I never recovered it.

Afterwards, I felt very stupid and ashamed, but I learned many valuable lessons as a result. I’m glad I experienced this hard knock life lesson earlier in my life when the potential stakes were lower. I thought something like this could never possibly happen to me, but it did, and I allowed my greedy emotions to get in the way of rational caution. You and I, we may think we’re very smart and that we’re so clever, but we are only human, and still susceptible to basic human emotional irrationality. It’s difficult to control emotions like greed, fear, and pride. So my friends, it’s important to always stay vigilant – scammers are everywhere and one day you might be in their cross hairs too.

What a nice lazy Saturday afternoon. I think I will go file my paperwork to obtain a Business Trade Name Certificate.

I have a decent full time job in finance/law and I also write for a few blogs on the side for fun. Although I see blogging as more of a hobby, I think I should start treating it more like mini-business. I could choose to set up the blog business in a variety of ways depending on my choice of business entity. The primary ones are corporations, limited liability companies (LLC), limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages in regards to liability protection and taxation benefits. There are even fancier and longer named options such as limited liability limited partnerships. But since it’s just me for now and I don’t plan on taking on business debt or expanding the business for some time, my current chosen business entity will be that of a sole proprietorship. Besides, right now I don’t feel like having to deal with filing LLC Articles of Organization papers or having to pay pricey incorporation fees.

Sole Proprietorships Are Easy To Create

Legally, any one can start up a sole proprietorship. You could set up a cardboard table and start selling lemonade and that would be considered a sole proprietorship business. There are no fancy or extra paperwork to create the business entity other than compliance with any relevant state and local licensing and taxation requirements. Sole proprietorships are considered flow through entities, which means that all profit and losses will go straight to the owner and all income generated by your sole proprietor business will be considered your own ordinary income. You can still generally deduct business related expenses for tax purposes, but it has the least amount of tax benefits compared to the other entities. But it’s the easiest to create with the least amount of government regulation. Since I’m lazy, I’ll put off considering more complicated business entity choices for now.

Filing a Trade Name, aka Doing-Business-As Certificate

Although I’m sticking with the easy choice for now, someday, the business might grow to the point where I will need to change business entity to take better advantage of tax breaks. So that’s why instead of running this side blog business in my own name I want to operate it under my chosen business name. It’ll be easier to differentiate and separate my personal operations from that of the business in the future.

Filing an application for a trade name in my state of Maryland is easy and is done through the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Filing cost is only $25.

Thinking for the future, I could also consider filing for a federal trademark now to protect the mini-company’s brand name, but it’s not really necessary at this time. Filing for a federally registered trademark is expensive and can cost upwards of $300. For now, I’ll just rely on common law protections until the day I decide that I need constructive nationwide notice of my trademark.

Whenever two Goliaths want to duke it out for supremacy, I’m the first to grab some popcorn and a front row seat. I can’t help but watch and be entertained. Like watching a cafeteria brawl back in high school, it’s just too fascinating to pass up.

Fox News’ Not-So-Secret Secret

Yesterday, Fox News confirmed that it will be releasing its long overdue 24 hour cable business news channel Fox Business Network by the end of the 4th quarter of this year. In doing so, Fox News will be launching itself into a head on battle between the current dominant business news channel, CNBC (one of my favs).

Back in February 2007, Rupert Murdoch raised my eyebrows when he indicated that his new Fox Business Network channel would be more business friendly than CNBC” which he complained was quick to leap on every scandal”. Fox News president Roger Ailes also indicated in a separate interview, that “Many times I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be,” and adding that “We don’t get up every morning thinking business is bad.”

I certainly hope this doesn’t mean Murdoch plans on creating a business news network that will operate with a particular preconceived and slanted agenda, an allegation some have levied against his current news network.

To Succceed Fox Business Network Will Have To Find Its Niche

The advertising market and demographics for Fox News compared to the other cable news channels such as CNN and CNBC are quite different. To be competitive, Fox’s new business channel will not only need to galvanize its current audience, but it will also have to find a way to go after CNBC’s predominantly wealthier, highly educated viewers. Unlike Fox News, CNBC’s market is generally understood to be comprised of more high net worth viewers, a segment that is highly coveted by advertisers. Because of this, I doubt Fox News will be able to rehash the same recipe for success that worked for the current Fox News channel by focusing primarily on right wing conservative viewpoints alone. Murdoch might find it difficult to create an interested audience of investor types from his current network’s demographic base.

As one online commentator comparing Fox News to another network noted:

Fox viewers are more Chevy buyers than BMWs. Hence, lower ad rates for Fox..

Is There Room For Another Cable Business News Channel?

Not only will Fox Business News face an uphill battle for favorable demographics and marketshare, it will have to find a way to distinguish itself and prove to skeptics that there is room for another cable business news network. Others networks such as CNNfn have tried in the past but failed.

Fox has indicated that it wants to appeal more to a “main street” audience rather than a “wall street” audience. Whether this particular demographic segment will be enough to build up a sustainable viewership remains to be seen.

I am not a Murdoch fan but I think competition will be great for the viewing market. If they want to focus on business and financial issues that affect more the ordinary lay person, more power to them. I will definitely tune in to the channel to get a different viewpoint. But if the channel starts to smack of propaganda and peculiar agendas, I might just tune back to CNBC exclusively. But I’ll give Murdoch a chance.

I think Google’s GrandCentral slogan should be straight out of the Lord of the Rings – One Number to rule them all, One Number to find them, One Number to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. Well I guess everything except for the darkness part.

If you’ve been trying to find a way to organize multiple phone numbers or just want an extra free number from a particular area code, then you might want to take a look at what GrandCentral has to offer. When you sign up for a free GrandCentral account, you are provided a free custom phone number that is not tied to a particular cell phone plan or location. The idea is that you use this one phone number as your primary phone number even when you switch jobs or move.

When someone calls you on the number you created through GrandCentral, the incoming call is routed to any one of your phones. The call can even be set to go directly to voicemail, where messages are saved for as long as you want.

Use It As a Separate Business Number

I’m currently running a home business and I use my GrandCentral phone number as my business line. For my purposes it’s a lot easier and more cost efficient than buying another phone or paying for an expanded phone plan. Business calls are sent to my GrandCentral number but it can still ring my regular cell phone. The caller ID setting will let me know that it is a business call and I can obviously handle the call in the appropriate business fashion. I like how GrandCentral offers many customizable functions. If you don’t want to handle certain calls, you can set it so that those calls are automatically send to voicemail.

Neat GrandCentral Functions

Some of the cool and interesting features that your GrandCentral phone number account includes:

1. The ability to re-route different Caller ID’s to different sources. If you want business calls re-routed differently, you can have it forwarded to a landline for example. If you want personal calls sent to your cell phone, you can do that too.
2. A voice mail box that will save your messages forever. This is handy because many regular phone carriers usually delete messages after a certain amount of time has passed.
3. An online WebCall button that you can put on your website and have phone calls routed to your personal phone line.
4. The ability to listen in and interrupt a voicemail as it is being recorded by the caller.
5. A call recording function that allows you to save your actual phone conversations.

You Have to Receive A Grand Central Invite Email to Join

GrandCentral currently still remains in beta test mode. Everything works fine but you can only join if you receive a Grand Central invitation link from a current user. I wish I could give GrandCentral invitations out but there are too many people that would want one and not enough invitations to go around. My suggestion is to buy one from eBay. You can easily get one for less than a dollar.