Money Blue Book

My online messaging routine was doing fine for a while. Every morning I would check my Yahoo e-mail account for messages, and then go about my regular work day, periodically checking back for personal and business related messages. Since I forward and consolidate all of my personal, work, and blog business related emails to one account with Yahoo, I have one easy point of access to my messages – essentially one well oiled emailing machine. Of course, there was always the occasional spam, but that was usually manageable – until now – until the Nigerians struck, and struck hard.

Spammers and Scammers Are Relentless And They Can Afford To Be – Sending E-Mail Lures With Scam Bait Doesn’t Cost A Thing

Starting very recently, I’ve been receiving nearly 20-30 spam related messages everyday. I have no idea how they are effectively evading my spam filters, but they are. These spam messages are driving me absolutely crazy and are irritating to say the least. But one can’t help but find some amusement from the content of these desperate messages. These spam letters that flood the web are mostly from the poor African country of Nigeria – sent by notorious computer users who run well documented Nigerian 419 scam operations. You know when you receive one of these classic Nigerian 419 spam letters as they are pretty recognizable. Usually the Nigerians use very flowery, British style English comprised of exaggerated legalese-type terminology to make the content appear more legitimate. However, oftentimes their lame use of the English language borders on comical and their complete lack of understanding regarding American and western male and female names makes me chuckle. For some reason they have a habit of using the funniest and oddest fake first and last names – using common first names as last names, and improperly matching up male and female names – like Peter John, Mark Donna, or Smith Karen for example – frequently it’s pretty obvious they’re fake names as the names simply sound unnatural. But then again, these Nigerians and African spammers are not incredibly bright. They may be criminally and diabolically clever, but they are not exactly all that well educated or worldly. They resort more to the law of probability and the long held truism that “a sucker’s born every minute”. By casting a very wide net, even their ill conceived attempts may net at least one or two potential biting fish in the long haul.

It’s not just the crazy Nigerians either, spammers and scammers live in other countries as well – all beyond the reasonable reach of established arms of law and justice. Most of them approach the spam and scam business utilizing the same typical shot gun approach. Since the Internet affords the ability to send out many messages at relatively little to no cost, they are able to send out massive amounts of spam emails to potential victims with one click of the mouse or a single tap of the keyboard. Perhaps 75% of their spam messages will be screened out by domain or email spam filters, and perhaps another 90% of those that don’t get filtered out are ultimately deleted by the recipients immediately. However, a small percentage will still get through and a small percentage will be read, and an even smaller percentage will ultimately fall for the scam bait. While the chances of an unwitting recipient acting acting upon the message and replying back to the Nigerian scammer are slim, some people still do.

Frankly, these scammers from Nigeria, Eastern Europe, and South East Asia have nothing to lose – the scams are usually quite profitable for them. Take the Nigerians for example – they live in a wasteland of a country – with a corrupt government, lax law enforcement, high unemployment, with little semblance of an economy. Any amount of money they can siphon from American citizens or that of other western countries is worth the effort and time. To them, there is simply very little risk involved since their government and police enforcement officials either turn a blind eye to their antics, don’t care, or are simply too financially overwhelmed to take on the challenge of cracking down on computer crimes.

Although I may have some sympathy for the poor economic lives the scammers must live in their native countries, their criminal attempts at trickery often leave me coldly and sarcastically insensitive. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t amuse myself with their lame shenanigans. That’s why I sometimes enjoy reading spam emails – they’re funny. They really amuse me – like something from the funny pages. Today I received an email from poor “Madam Ruth Moses” who addressed me as “dearly beloved in Christ”, stating that she was “suffering from a cancerous ailment” and that she was “married to Engineer Gilbert Moses an Englishman who is dead”. Apparently they lived a life of charity of helping the “down trodden and the less-privileged individuals”. Evidently she now has $4.4 million US dollars in some African bank due to a large financial payout stemming from her husband’s untimely death in a car accident that she is unable to retrieve, and is willing to give me a 25% cut if I assist by providing her a “small process charge” to help facilitate the release. Oh how generous and noble of Mrs. Moses – especially since she enjoys citing biblical passages in her message to me, for as she puts it “The Almighty will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.” Comical, yet pretty pathetic. If I ever had the chance to meet any of these spammers, I’d laugh at their face for 15 minute straight.

I Am Now Very Distrustful and Extremely Paranoid About Doing Business Or Any Online Communication With Residents From Proven Scam and Spam Prevalent Countries

Unfortunately, what scammers with their spam emails have done is made me very distrustful of anyone from traditional scam haven countries. The list of countries mainly stem from poor, and legally and socially undeveloped countries like Nigeria, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and Indonesia, but it also covers countries like Russia as well. Many of these third world countries either have corrupt governments or are constantly experiencing tribal warfare and upheaval that prevent stable law and judicial enforcement to flourish. But as of now, I would never do any online business with people who live in those countries at the present time. I’ve already been tricked once and after my one time experience of getting scammed during my post college years, I’ve learned my lesson. It may not be politically correct, but I think it’s a smart business move to refrain from doing any online or Internet transactions with anyone from these countries – the financial risks are simply too high. My purpose for rejecting individuals from these countries is not to stir up racial, ethnic, or even social controversy, but simply to protect my own financial interests, so please don’t take offense. I would gladly do business with them and so would millions of American merchants on eBay, Craigslist, and other online stores if only fraud wasn’t such a huge and rampant problem in those parts of the world.

I run a few small online eBay and weblog businesses (take a look at my ebay business guide), and these days the quickest way to turn me off and cause me to reject your business proposition right off the bat is to say you’re from Africa – it frankly doesn’t matter which country in Africa. I have yet to meet a single African country (aside from South Africa, although that’s debatable as well) that I trust to do business with. The rampant scams and spams that originate from that continent have turned me into a hyper-vigilant person. Most African countries simply have undeveloped legal systems that prevent merchants or publishers like myself from being able to bring legal action to effectuate contractual disputes. That is why the U.S. is such a great country. Despite our over-lawyered and lawsuit-happy society, we have a perfected legal system that ensures legal disputes have a forum to be heard and resolved. Scammers and spammers have a much more difficult time operating their illegal craft here in this country. A few foreign rotten apples have really ruined the whole international tree and apple pile, but online entrepreneurs like myself have to do to what it takes to protect ourselves and our interests. It may seem racist and prejudicial to rule out a whole segment of the world’s population, but it’s not – it’s just smart business.

Despite eBay’s attempts to provide it’s buyers and sellers with more purchase and selling protection, many if not most major eBay Power Sellers now refuse to ship to certain dangerous countries, such as Nigeria or Indonesia. A sizable number of merchants have even ruled out shipping to any foreign destination due to the prevalence of scammers living overseas where they are shielded from prosecution. It’s terrible what these online and Internet scammers have done to the whole industry. These days as I browse through business propositions and offers I receive over email on a regular basis, even African sounding surnames, African cities (like Lagos, scam capital of Nigeria), African banks, and anything to do with Africa trigger glaring red flags when I evaluate Internet commerce deals. So if your online business is based in Africa, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to do business with you at this time. Perhaps someday when your government stabilizes and sets up a legal system that will protect and ensure my legal and contractual interests I will consider it. But until then, too bad so sad. If you are a legitimate African, East European, or South East Asian business, don’t be offended if established western and far east Asian businesses demand strenuous proof of identity and extra evidence of trustworthiness before doing business with you.

All About The Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud – Also Known As The Check Cashing Scam (For Those Not Familiar With What They Are)

The classic Nigerian 419 scam has been around for a long time but scam success didn’t fully take off until the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web. The country of Nigeria has all the essential ingredients that has enabled it to become the worldwide hub of Internet and computer crimes. The country is not only dirt poor, but unemployment is incredibly high, and the government is hopelessly corrupt and incompetent. The country also happens to be an English speaking nation – making it all the more easier for select scammers to communicate with their primarily English speaking victims all over the world. The 419 numeric designation refers to the Nigerian Criminal Code that covers the crime of fraudulently obtaining property through false pretenses. Unfortunately the 419 criminal code is a mockery of the Nigerian legal and criminal enforcement system as the laws in that country are frequently ignored and flaunted, thereby allowing scammers and spammers to run rampant with little fear of accountability. The Nigerian 419 scams have recently developed into a world wide epidemic of Internet fraud crimes that have branched and spun off into other criminal areas such as: charity scams, romance scams, lottery scams, and even threats of violence and extortion scams.

In its most common form, the Nigerian 419 fraud is also known as the Nigerian advance fee scam. The process works by its ability to successfully build trust and emotional confidence with the alleged victim over time, and ultimately persuade him or her to provide confidential financial information or to send sums of money for the possibility of a much larger gain in return. The scam appeals to human greed and the fallible desire to inherently trust others. Through easy and unregulated access to Internet cafe computers and connections, Nigerian scammers have been able to harvest e-mail addresses and contact information to use in their elaborate scams. With potential victim contact information in hand, they usually submit massive amounts of electronic letters to recipients though deceptive means such as spoofed email letters, and cleverly disguised and graphically adorned emails that hide their malicious intent and true source. Oftentimes they’ll write and pretend to be a wealthy heiress or someone who is terminally ill and dying from a disease like cancer, and plead with the recipient for an amount of money in exchange for the promise that they will pay back the amount plus more. Oftentimes they will cleverly claim that they have access to or are in control of a vast financial fortune to which they would be willing to offer the recipient a huge portion as a reward if he or she would provide some upfront money first.

These scam letters are frequently very, very elaborate, as they often disguise the email meta headers to make them seem like they came from legitimate sources such as governmental agencies (like the classic IRS email scam letter for example). Sometimes the headers aren’t even disguised all that well, but the messages still contain content indicative of a mass spam campaign to artificially inflate the stock price of a particular financial investment (penny stock scam spam). Oftentimes they’ll make references to real life current events such as tragic disasters or make reference to official business developments such as laying claim to being connected with some wealthy foreign business developer in the news. Oftentimes they utilize fake phone numbers that can’t be tracked down. One common ploy of the advance fee scam is to send the recipient a fraudulent Western Union or fake personal check for a very large amount of money, and write to the recipient to apologize for the excess amount that was sent and ask for a portion back in supposed good faith. The recipient, thinking he or she will get to keep a large portion for their services, deposits the fake check and cuts out a legitimate sum of money that he or she then sends to the scammers. In time, the check will undoubtedly bounce, forcing the recipient to swallow his or her losses with the bank – an unfortunate result that still happens despite attempts to thoroughly educate the public on the prevalence of Internet scams and how they work.

Whenever I see a predatory tow truck driver or a parking meter maid strolling by, I just want to roll down my window quickly and yell out – “Hey you! Go (*bleep*) yourself you (*bleep bleep*)!”

As you can tell, I am not too fond of tow truck drivers. My disdain also carries over to others in the parking profession, including but not limited to opportunistic car booters and sneaky meter maids who dart from car to car with their little hand held tri-corder gadgets, tucking tickets under windshield wipers and escaping before the driver comes back and catches them in the act. While these parking ticketers bug me somewhat, they don’t irritate me as much as tow truck drivers. Perhaps it’s because parking ticket fines are usually not as financially hefty or as personally offensive as getting your car manhandled and forcibly hauled away by a stranger. Most of the time, I see tow truck drivers as nothing but conniving, predatory, and opportunistic vultures who feast on the vulnerable and distracted plight of unsuspecting drivers.

Just Watching Others Get Their Cars Towed In Their Absence Irritates Me

A few years ago I lived near a shopping center located next to a major Metro subway station. Every morning as I walked to the station to take the train to work, I witnessed the daily spectacle of tow truck sharks preying on those who failed to notice the no parking warning signs for non patrons. At the start of every morning rush, like clockwork precision, several red tow trucks would park themselves in partially hidden locations throughout the shopping center parking lot, embed themselves among the other cars, and lie in wait for subway commuters to improperly park their cars and walk away. Oftentimes as I walked by their tow trucks, I could see the drivers eating their breakfast sandwiches behind the steering wheel as they waited. As soon as the commuters had walked out of sight and demonstrated that they weren’t parking their cars so they could shop at a plaza store, the tow trucks would take turns swooping in, jacking up each vehicle one by one, and speeding away with their precious cargo like a thief in the night – racking up an instant $150 towing fee for each car, plus an extra $25 per day service charge for the cost of daily impounding. What a lucrative but conniving racket.

The livelihood of tow truck drivers is based on their ability to successfully hide in the bushes with their getaway vehicles and lie in wait for hapless drivers to make a parking mistake or slip up. In their eyes, a breach is a breach – if you park past a certain white line, that means you’re going to get towed – there’s little mercy. When that happens, it’s almost a given that at least one tow truck vulture will pop out from the shadows and holler “Gotcha!” as he gleefully impounds your vehicle with cranes and hauls it away to the junkyard. I don’t really care much for their self righteous claims that they are simply doing their jobs. They purport to follow the law and abide by no parking signs, but the reality is that oftentimes these warnings signs are not always sufficiently clear, evident, or easily understandable. The whole towing business is absolutely ripe for unchecked, unaccountable, and abusive practices.

A&E’s Parking Wars Reality Television Show Tries To Humanize The Entertaining Lives Of Tow Truck Drivers, Car Booters, and Meter Maids – But They Still Come Off As Jerks, Albeit Funny Jerks

I guess the world of reality TV shows has finally come down to this – an entire show devoted to the people we all love to hate. Yes, they get yelled at, cursed at, bird flipped, and harassed, but apparently they have feelings too as well as stories to tell. The A&E Channel has released a not-so-new anymore show called Parking Wars that follows the daily working lives of parking meter maids, tow truck drivers, and grunts who make a living from slapping indestructible boots onto vehicle wheels. For those who’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to work on the seedy side of the parking business, this show does a good job of telling it like it is – through the daily lenses of the ticketers and the towers.

While the show infuses the parking meter maids and tow truck drivers with some personality and offers a glimpse into their gritty service with a smile lifestyle, they still come off as predatory and opportunistic hounds who howl with delight when they successfully snag and trap a potential victim – a person who probably was simply at the wrong spot at the wrong time. It’s clear these vultures get a kick from handing out tickets and I’m sure they feel a rush of superior adrenaline when they get to flex their powerful authority by taking away some one’s valuable vehicular possession. Street signs confusing or yellow no parking lines not easily apparent? Tough luck! Ticket and tow, and ask questions later – for they are the law. After all, what is the ordinary layperson going to do – spend thousands of hopeless dollars and file a lawsuit over a $200 towing charge or a $300 booted car fee?

In an episode of Parking Wars, the camera trailed one particular meter maid as she ducked behind a building corner and waited for the right opportunity to pounce – taking a few moments to bask in the inquisitive glory of the A&E camera crew. It was 3:55 p.m. on a weekday and she was waiting near a downtown city street that was close to rush hour time. According to warning signs, street parking was prohibited at the start of rush hour, designated at 4:00 p.m. The parking girl chatted away about how much of a rush she got from ticketing people and the excitement of giving them out. As soon as her watch ticked 4:00 p.m., she eagerly dashed out to begin her ticketing raid, working her way from one side of the street and down the row of parked cars that were now illegally parked on the street. In the distance the camera crew could see a few worried drivers run towards their vehicles, trying to beat the parking violation clock. Some successfully ducked into their vehicles and drove off before their cars were ticketed while others beat it only by a few minutes. One driver who received a ticket only a few seconds before he arrived back protested. However, the parking meter maid was unrelenting and refused to rescind tickets already written.

In one case we had two individuals who verbally protested their ticket concerns to the meter maid over a broken and easily missed no parking sign that was literally dangling upside down. However, their complaints fell on deaf ears as the quota driven ticketing attendant offered no sympathy. Those drivers who parked in the spot guarded by the upside down, broken sign perhaps had a very legitimate lack of proper notice defense. A reasonable driver would not have been able to read the signs as they may not have been readily apparent to a reasonable person. I recently experienced a similar parking ticket scenario. I received a small parking ticket in a neighborhood where there were no visible signs denoting the side street I was parked on as restricted parking. While there were signs elsewhere, there were none readily apparent where I had parked. Luckily I had my digital camera on me at the time, which I used to take photographs of my parked vehicle and the surrounding signs and street shots to prove my case. However, other people are not always as fortunate and most are at the authoritative whims and mercy of parking ticketers.

It’s A Rude And Dirty Job But Somebody Has To Do It… I Suppose

Yes they are financial predators that profit from the absent-mindedness of hapless drivers but I suppose they do serve a legitimate societal purpose. None of them are ever going to win a popularity contest but on some level I suppose they are just dutifully doing their job. After all, some do come to our rescue and save drivers who are stuck in a ditch or have a flat tire on the side of the road, and I’m sure some do a great job of clearing away road blockages and making our highways and local streets more passable. A tow truck did come to my rescue when I spun off the icy highway and into a ditch in upstate New York during one particularly bad winter storm last year. Occasionally, commendable credit is due.

But my biggest concern with the parking authority is that oftentimes, drivers are powerless to protect themselves against improper tows, unfair tickets, or even against scrape and scratch damages to our vehicles caused by improper and negligent towing techniques. Oftentimes it’s simply your word against theirs. I suppose the only real solution is to just stay out of their way if possible. Follow street signs to the letter, timely feed the meters, and don’t park in a spot if you have any doubts. That way, none of us will ever have to learn our parking lessons the hard way and find ourselves as entertaining sideshow victims on Parking Wars.

If you’ve ever encountered sites on the internet that claimed to offer brand new laptop computers, mp3 players, or even plasma TV’s for free, I’m sure most of you jumped to the immediate conclusion that they must all be scams. Well, on some level you may be correct and your initial instincts serve you well. But the misleading deception is not that they don’t actually give out laptops, it’s that these so-called free laptop offers do require some up front financial commitment and mandatory participation in a few monthly subscription programs. However, if you have a keen eye for seeking out deals that require the least amount of out-of-pocket effort, and know how to manipulate the rules by taking advantage of free trial offers, it’s possible to walk away with a brand new laptop for only a fraction of its fair market value.

What I’m about to share may be time consuming and require almost anal, obsessive compulsive organizational skills, but the potential payoff at the end is quite substantial. For those of you who need the laptop or fancy electronic gadget right away, you probably won’t have the patience for what this process demands. The procedure takes some time to complete and requires a lot of waiting – up to four months usually from start to finish. To successfully game the system and earn your almost free reward product you will need to be detail-oriented and willing to exercise patience and follow directions to the letter. If you follow these instructions, you should be able to beat the gift reward system and earn your prize – whether it be a free laptop, Ipod, Xbox, Playstation, or even a free plasma TV. The gift reward process does work, but it is heavily dependent on your own persistence and ability to successfully micromanage your offers to completion. If you are the type to give up easily or freak out in despair at the first sign of trouble, I don’t recommend any of this for you since you will likely crash and burn. For everyone else – good luck!

Background About Gift Reward Websites That Offer Free Laptops and Other Free Promotions

You may have heard about these websites that offer customers the chance to earn a free gift reward – usually an expensive prize like a notebook computer or even a plasma television set. I see these offers all the time and sometimes I even hear a few success stories here and there from friends (as well as a few horror stories) – but I never paid them much attention. I always assumed they were either spam offers or websites run by scammers. However it looks like some of these free gift reward companies are now branching out into mainstream media – running radio commercials, television spots, and featuring online banner advertisements on various websites.

These companies usually run a large number of similarly designed websites touting free laptops, free iPhones and an assortment of so-called free products. In exchange for you signing up yourself and/or referring a few friends to some of the company’s paid services, the company is willing to offer you a free reward. Some programs only require that you yourself participate in select offers, while others require you to refer friends, family, and strangers. Personally I recommend staying away from referral programs since I think they are too much trouble. Ultimately, the reward provider makes money because the sponsors and affiliate programs they promote pay them a lot of money in the form of incentives and commissions for advertising their products. By requiring you and I to sign up for paid products and subscriptions, the prize company makes a lot of money through referrals, which they in turn use a portion of to buy gift rewards for those that qualify for redemption. The way to beat the system is to make sure you cancel your paid programs before the end of free trial periods, or at the very least after fulfilling the prize terms to minimize your overall expenditure. Even for those gift reward programs that limit the number of cancellations to a certain number, you can still seek out the least costly programs to participate in for the mandatory length of time.

The reality is that not all customers will successfully complete the reward redemption procedure and many end up paying more money for unnecessary services than the ultimate value of their reward. The prize system works because the company knows that a sizable portion of customers will fail to follow the rules and procedure and not fulfill the terms to qualify for their reward. This method of working the odds is also how credit card companies make so much money off of promotions like 0% balance transfer offers. They count on a certain percentage of people to fail to make the business enterprise financially profitable. But you can choose to be part of that percentage that does succeed. If you follow the rules to the letter and document your receipts, as well as stick to the terms and conditions, you may be one of those that come out on top.

Some may say these types of offers are nothing but scams, but frankly they are really no different than your so-called reputable mobile phone company offering you a “free cell phone” with a new 2 year long term cellular contract. The word “free” is loosely defined these days in the business world. These companies and websites probably need to put a bigger asterisk by the word “free,” and indicate more prominently that additional terms and conditions apply. However, I think consumers need to take it upon themselves to read the fine print more carefully. In the world of free gift reward websites, the word “free” does not mean that the customer pays nothing out of pocket whatsoever – there is no such business model that could survive this way. When they say “free”, what they mean is that the customer pays nothing directly to obtain the product, say a free laptop, but may have to subscribe and enroll in a few participating product promos to qualify. These product offers frequently do require financial commitment, but only for the length of time required for reward program fulfillment (usually 1-2 months). In many cases you can cancel the paid monthly subscriptions within the free trial period without incurring a charge. Of course, each reward program’s terms and conditions vary so please read carefully.

Separating Scam Sites From The Safe, Legitimate Gift Reward Programs

You should never trust any reward site without first performing a detailed investigation into the company’s business practice and identity, and thoroughly going over its terms and conditions. Just because a website looks legitimate doesn’t make it so. You must also verify its identity to make sure you can trace and track down the company’s customer support staff before engaging with it. As a lawyer myself, I always want to know the identity and primary business location of the company I’m dealing with in the event I need to file a lawsuit against the company for any possible future breach of contract or civil fraud claim.

One thing to note is that these free gift reward companies are not the most pristinely run operations. Their business model naturally generates a lot of angry customers and commentators who are particularly vocal about expressing their views on websites like Rip Off Report. However, you should also keep in mind that the world is frankly filled with quite a few absent minded people who simply cannot follow directions. While I’m sure the majority of the scam reports are legitimate, I think there is a substantial number that are written by disgruntled people who simply failed to follow directions and rules set forth by the company. The terms and conditions written by the company is a obligatory contract between you and them that goes into effect once you sign up and start participating in their reward program. It’s important to follow the terms in great detail. Of course, this only applies to legitimate gift reward websites.

To Separate the Scammers From the Legit Businesses, You Must Do the Following:

1. Verify Its Identity – The quickest and most direct way to verify a company’s identity is to examine the information listed on the website. There should be a Customer Support, About Us, or Contact Us section where the company lists its identity and contact information. Legitimate websites ought to be transparent and you should be able to find and verify business identity information with relative ease. If you find a website that does not provide a telephone number or mailing address, I would advise you to be extra careful. Scam websites usually only include an anonymous contact form, without including an actual mailing address or verifiable phone number. There are also other ways to verify a company’s legitimacy, including checking out the website’s Who Is Internet registry information. Legitimate companies usually list their registry information openly, complete with actual addresses and verifiable phone numbers. If the company’s information is hidden or anonymous, you should be extra careful and suspicious.
2. Check Its Business Track Record – I usually run a few Google word searches to see if the company’s name comes up anywhere. This helps with verifying identity and checking out the company’s business track record. I’m looking to see whether it has a history of scamming people and whether it’s under investigation. Oftentimes gift reward companies will show up on sites like Rip Off Report, but you shouldn’t be immediately deterred by these consumer reviews without further investigation of your own. Use your own judgment about the reward provider and determine for yourself how trustworthy and reliable the program is. Remember, even great mainstream companies are bound to have a few customers here and there that simply have an unfounded grudge against them. You should also look the company up on the Better Business Bureau website. Keep in mind that companies frequently have multiple aliases and run similar operations under different names. If you find a phone number, you should try test calling to see if you can speak to a live person to verify the company’s authenticity.
3. Read The Terms And Conditions Carefully – It’s crucial to read the terms and conditions of the website very carefully. I recommend saving the terms and conditions web page to your desktop by going to your browser window menu and selecting “Save As”. This will allow you to retain the text in the form you found it and will help you keep a record in the event some sneaky company decides to secretly change their terms and offers without letting you know. Remember, this is your contract with the company. If something goes wrong and you must file a civil lawsuit or pursue a legal complaint against the company, this contract will lay out the details of your claim.

How To Beat the Gift Reward Process and Earn Your Almost Free Laptop Or Plasma TV

The first step is to obviously find a site that offers so-called free rewards. There are many of them out there and I don’t recommend any of them in particular, but they shouldn’t be too hard to find. In the future I will cite a few website examples and discuss my experiences with specific programs, but for now I leave the program search to you. Most of them show up in searches for “free laptops”, “free ipods”, and “free plasma TV’s”. Keep in mind that not all reward programs are legitimate.

Every reward program is different and specific terms and conditions vary so it’s important you actually read each program’s contractual details carefully before you even think of participating. However, their business models and the way they work are generally the same. There are two types of free reward programs – sites that don’t require referrals and sites that do. Personally I hate referral programs because I don’t like to bother my friends and family with spam and somewhat shady offers. If I’m going to get involved in some make money scheme/scam or reward program, I’d rather it only affect me and leave everyone out of it. That’s why I advise everyone to avoid offers that require referrals altogether. They are too much of a hassle and will likely upset the people you send those offers to. Once again, always seek out the fine print. Read everything carefully.

1) Before you start, be sure you have properly verified the identity of the reward website and make sure you have assured yourself that the business is indeed trustworthy. Make sure you document every step of the way by saving to your computer the contents of all offer listings and pages containing terms and conditions. You should also take a screenshot of each page or make a paper printout of the offer terms. Having full documentation is very important and will ultimately save you from a major mistake. It may mean the difference of you receiving your “free” laptop or finding yourself disqualified from receiving your reward.

2) Usually the reward website starts out by asking you to select your free reward. This part is meant to sucker you in and get you overly excited about the prospect of receiving an expensive product like a laptop, Ipod, desktop computer, or cell phone. Make your selection carefully since you usually can’t change your reward choice later after it’s made. The site will usually require you to submit your e-mail address right from the start. Never enter your primary personal e-mail address. You should always use an alternate or fake one from Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail because your account will be spammed. However, the spam is part of the program concession and needs to be tolerated if you are to fulfill the program’s terms.

3) Next, the website will usually ask you where it should send your free gift. This is when you have to enter your name, phone number, and address. Keep in mind that the mailing address you submit will likely be the target of any paid promotion they send you and may cause you to receive some junk mail for at least the duration of the promotion. If you want a fake phone number, you can always generate a free phone number online.

4) Some programs require that you refer a certain number of people and get them to sign up for the same product offers. I highly advise against getting into programs that require referrals. You don’t want to alienate your friends, family, or even strangers over this. I prefer non-referral websites since you work on your own and don’t have to annoy anybody. If your reward website is asking you to submit a list of your friend’s e-mail addresses, ditch them and move on to another website.

5) The program will usually run you through a long list of short introductory surveys and ask if you want information on any number of products from pills, to coupons, to student loans, to strange male enhancement products, to crazy nutritional supplements. Just say no to all offers and make sure you clearly click no to every request. Clicking yes will likely result in unnecessary junk mail or unwanted promotional samples to be sent to you. Furthermore, none of these initial offers usually count towards your “free” reward product.

6) The next part demands the most work and requires extra attention to detail-oriented record keeping. After the intro survey, you will likely encounter one or multiple web pages filled with advertisement offers. You will be instructed to select a certain number of product offers from each page by clicking on the desired link and signing up through it. There can be anywhere from 5 to 40 total offers that you have to choose from. Depending on the program details, you may have to select anywhere from 5-10 of them total (but of course it varies). Usually as you progress from one offer page to another, the product terms become more restrictive and expensive. The first page usually contains the least expensive products followed by more expensive and more difficult to fulfill offers. Some reward websites may require you to pick a certain number of offers from each page. For example, one notable reward website separates offer pages by “silver”, “gold”, and “platinum” labels – requiring 2 offers from “silver”, 2 offers from “gold”, and 6 offers from the more restrictive and expensive “platinum” page.

I recommend completing all of your required offers in one sitting to better track your reward completion. Before you sign up for any offer, read through each product carefully, saving and printing out the pages of the ones you are interested in. Here is where you compare offers and determine whether the particular offer is too expensive or has too restrictive of a return policy. Most of the advertisers do offer free introductory trial periods ranging from a week to a month. Before the trial period is up, you are usually free to cancel and get your money back, minus shipping and handling (although sometimes shipping is also refunded). Remember that you are committing yourself to these product offers. Make sure the individual products have return and refund terms that are clearly stated so you don’t get stuck with a permanent supply of useless furniture, foreign language tapes, or herbal supplements you don’t need.

7) Signing up for mandatory product offers will require the use of a credit card. I don’t recommend using a debit card because you want the purchase protections offered by credit cards in case something goes wrong and you either need to cancel your card number or need to protest an unauthorized transaction. Some of these advertisers have a habit of overcharging or continuing to charge even after customer cancellation. Thus you want all the purchase protection you can get.

8) I can’t overemphasize the importance of documenting everything. You should create a table, chart, or spreadsheet of all your product offer names followed by the offer details, including the page the offer was found on (“gold”, “silver” etc), estimated weekly or monthly cost, proposed cancellation date, and a section to indicate whether the item’s fulfillment has been verified by the reward program provider. If the reward provider limits the number of program cancellations, you will want to clearly delineate that on your spreadsheet.

Save every single piece of material you have on all offers you participate in. Run screen shots, print out pages, and save entire web pages that contain information about terms and conditions. In the event something goes wrong, you will need this documentation to prove that you genuinely fulfilled the terms of the offer and are qualified to receive your almost-free gift reward. You don’t want to go through all this for nothing.

9) After submitting your minimum required number of offers, you should regularly check your account to see when the offers have been fulfilled. Usually reward providers require you to fulfill their terms in 60 days to qualify for your “free” laptop or whatever reward you selected (the length of time varies). Your account should have a link location where you can check your gift reward status and verify that the advertiser products have been fulfilled and completed. Usually the advertisers are responsible for notifying the free reward center that you have successfully completed their offer, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the companies forget to report back to the reward provider site. In that case, you will have to bring forth your printed out proof or scanned documentation to verify that you are in compliance. That is why complete documentation is so important. These reward companies are notorious for forgetting to log your program completion.

10) If the terms and conditions permit returns, you should return most of the products you ordered. If that is the case, you should do so at the earliest opportunity to halt the monthly subscriptions fees and prevent yourself from going over any free trial period. Be sure to return the product for a credit and refund if that is required. Once again, make sure you document all returns as well. Note that some reward provider programs limit the number of product cancellations you can make – so keep that in mind before you cancel a product. You don’t want to violate the terms.

Final Thoughts About These “Free” Gift Reward Programs

Keep in mind that you are responsible for all federal, state, and local taxes for rewards that you receive since the rewards will likely be deemed taxable income. While tax reporting policies vary, many legitimate reward providers will report your gift receipts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to comply with federal and state tax codes. On your own tax return, you will likely have to report the fair market value of the items received.

In my next post about How To Get A Free Laptop, I will review the Gift Reward Center. They run a whole bunch of online websites that you may have seen before but never paid much attention to. They’ve endured a whole slew of legal and customer complaints, but after changing their terms and policies, they seem to have stayed in business. Currently they are deemed a legitimate business by the Better Business Bureau despite numerous complaints. Their business practice leaves a lot to be desired but so long as they are a legitimate operation, their gift reward system can be beaten.

Updated IRA and Roth Contribution Tables For Tax Year 2009

Because of the power of compound interest, it is never too early to start saving for your future and planning your retirement nest egg. The earlier you start taking advantage of tax deferred investments, the more money you’ll have to live on when retirement rolls around. Don’t count on dying young to relieve you of the need to save either. Statistics show that improvements in medical technology and lifestyle changes, coupled with increased health awareness are extending our lives longer than before.

For the younger, single people out there, I know it can be strange discussing retirement so early on, but you must remember that your actions now have a huge impact on your future welfare. The cash you invest today in a tax deferred retirement account has a disproportionately more significant impact on your wealth level than money invested later. Don’t delay or keep putting it off – even catch up contributions won’t be much help if you wait too long to save for retirement.

When it comes to saving for retirement, there are a variety of tax deferred options such as the common employer sponsored 401K plan. But there is also the Traditional Investment Retirement Account (IRA) and the Roth IRA. Both are excellent ways to save for the future but you must be mindful of IRS rules when funding them – by being aware of the annual contribution limits, the contribution deadlines, and the applicable income phaseout ranges. I’ve created a list of helpful tables that cover the most important funding rules below. The income phaseouts listed on the charts are based on modified adjusted gross income (modified AGI or MAGI), which is derived by adding certain income factors back to the adjusted gross income. If you want further extra clarification, check out the official IRS explanation page for more information about AGI and MAGI calculation. For the majority of taxpayers, the modified adjusted gross income number will oftentimes be the same as their regular adjusted gross income.

1) Traditional IRA and Roth IRA Contribution Deadlines

With certain exceptions made for weekends, the April 15 deadline for filing your federal income tax is also the deadline for investors to make their final Traditional IRA and Roth IRA contributions for the closing tax year. For example, April 15, 2009 is the contribution deadline to make a IRA or Roth contribution towards the 2008 limit. After that date, all contribution money will go towards the 2009 tax year limit. This differs from a 401K, which has a contribution deadline that ends on December 31 of the tax year. Thus you should never miss the final deadline to contribute for the prior year. Contribution limits for the IRA and the Roth are considered by the IRS to be “used it or lose it” benefits. Those who fail to contribute the maximum allowed contribution to their IRA or Roth by the deadline, forfeit the limit for that year.

Note that even if you’ve already filed your tax return before April 15, you can still contribute to your IRA or Roth by the filing deadline, so long as you file an amended 1040X return thereafter to declare it.

2) Traditional IRA and Roth IRA Annual Contribution Limits

Qualification to contribute to an IRA or Roth account requires the contributing taxpayer to have earned income or taxable compensation, comprised of wages, salaries, fees, tips, commissions, bonuses, and taxable alimony. While the traditional IRA is available to all with no income restrictions or contribution phaseouts (not to be confused with IRA deduction limits), only the Roth reduces and limits your contribution if your income goes above certain levels. However for both the IRA and Roth, you are permitted to contribute the lesser of the normal contribution limit noted below or the entire amount of your total taxable income. You are not required to contribute the full amount but you cannot exceed the contribution limit. Those who are 50 years old or older are entitled to higher contribution limits called “catch ups” to help them expedite the pace of their investment.

Another thing to keep in mind is that for married couples, both the husband and wife may make separate contributions to their own individual retirement accounts, even if one of them is not working. This has the potential to effectively double the combined total they may contribute as a married couple.

3) Roth IRA Contribution Phase Out Due To Higher Income

Unlike the IRA which has no contribution phaseouts due to income, the amount of money that may be contributed to a Roth IRA per year is dependent on tax filing status, modified adjusted gross income, as well as age. Once the contributor reaches a certain modified AGI level, his or her maximum Roth contribution limit may be phased out or gradually eliminated in linear fashion. The phaseouts in the chart above show income ranges that span between a floor and a ceiling. Those with income below the lower floor amount may contribute the maximum amount. Those that exceed the higher ceiling are completely phased out and will not be permitted to contribute to a Roth IRA for that year. Of course, they can always still contribute to a traditional IRA.

Because the phaseout range is liner, if your income fell precisely in the middle of the income range, you would only be able to contribute 50% of the maximum Roth contribution limit shown above. Keep in mind that IRA and Roth’s share the same combined contribution limit. You may open multiple accounts, but the total contribution amount cannot exceed the limit.

4) Income Phase Out For The Traditional IRA Contribution Deduction

Traditional IRA’s, unlike the Roth, offer a unique tax benefit – contributors may be qualified to take a tax deduction on the amount they contribute. However, whether the entire amount can be deducted or only partially deducted from income depends on factors including tax filing status and income range.

An important factor that affects the phase out range is whether the contributor is already an active participant in an employer sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401K from work. For those who already participate in such a plan, their IRA contribution deductions are phased out quicker and at lower income levels than those who don’t participate in such a plan.

For married couples, if neither you nor your spouse participate in such a plan, the entire amount you are qualified to contribute towards your IRA may be deducted from income. If either of you participates in such a plan however, then deductibility depends on your tax filing status. There are two tables below – one for those covered under an employer plan, and the second one for those who are not. For those who are not personally covered by an employer plan, different rules apply if their spouses are covered (Spouse Covered) and for those whose spouses are not (Spouse Not).

For Those Who Are Covered By An Employer Sponsored Retirement Plan:

For Those Who Are NOT Covered by An Employer Sponsored Retirement Plan:

So what are you waiting for? Go open a Roth IRA right now! If you don’t qualify due to income phaseout, then at the very least you should go open a Traditional IRA.