Money Blue Book

The Internal Revenue Service is at it again - trying to steal our hard earned dollars. Just kidding. This time it’s not really the IRS, but someone trying to masquerade as them. Recently I’ve been receiving spoofed emails from someone trying to impersonate the IRS to solicit confidential financial information from me. Screenshot of the Scammer’s E-Mail Message - looks real doesn’t it? But it’s a fake.

Spoofing and Phishing

Spoofed e-mails are forged messages where the e-mail header is altered to appear to have come from someone else other than the true source. Many of these spoofed e-mails come from scammers who send these messages out on a massive scale to unwitting recipients to try to get people to respond to them. Spoofed emails are frequently disguised to be from places of authority such as government agencies or banks, usually asking for sensitive and confidential data such as name, login, password, credit card numbers, and social security information. This disguised request for sensitive data is known as phishing and is a frequently used tactic by scammers to fish for and steal confidential information. Be careful, once confidential financial data has been harvested, the stolen information is usually used for criminal purposes.

I’ve seen so many of these types of spoofed e-mails from scammers over the years, mostly disguised to be from well known banks like Wells Fargo, Citibank, Sun Trust, and other major online sites like PayPal, eBay, and now the Internal Revenue Service. Through the untrained eye, it might be easy to fall for these types of spoofed phishing attempts but if you know what to look out for, you’ll be better prepared to distinguish faked messages from legitimate e-mails.

Things to Know and To Look Out For:

1. First of all, be aware that they exist and that more likely than not you will receive them at some point or another, particularly if you ever give out your e-mail address for any online service.
2. Keep in mind that most legitimate companies will rarely solicit confidential data from you directly. In fact, most banks and credit card companies routinely remind customers that they will never ask them to send personal or financial information by, or in response to, via a link in an e-mail.
3. Know the type of sensitive personal and financial information that scammers attempt to phish for - passwords, pins, credit card validation codes (the three digit number on the back of your card), debit or credit card numbers, bank account information, and social security numbers. Always safeguard this information closely.
4. When you do receive a seemingly legitimate email that asks for you to click on a link or if it asks for any personal information, ask yourself, was the e-mail solicited or not? If it was not requested by you, chances are it may be a spoofed email from a scammer.
5. Avoid clicking on links from unsolicited e-mails altogether. The safest and most trusted way to visit a website is to go directly there by typing it into your web browser and bookmarking it.
6. If you do want to click on a link contained in an email message, check out the link’s website address (URL) before proceeding further. Does the revealed website address match the company’s true domain name? In the case of the email that I received, the address was listed with the number zero for the letter “O” in “IRS.GOV”, a red flag indicator that the e-mail was originating from a spoofed domain.
7. Scammers are lousy spellers as many of them are located in scam and fraud friendly countries such as Nigeria, Romania, and Indonesia. The scammers from these countries tend to have either horrendous English language skills or have a tendency to unnecessarily overuse big words in their writing. If there is even a single spelling or grammatical mistake, your antennae should go up immediately and put you on alert.

I was listening to the radio this morning and came upon an interesting discussion about the upcoming U.S. elections. The question proposed was this - If you could give up your right to ever vote again in an election for a million dollars-tax free, would you do it?

The seemingly innocuous question brought up certain fascinating issues. Just how much do we value our constitutionally protected right to choose our own leaders? With the U.S. election coming next November in 2008, I have already sort of decided who I plan to cast my vote for to become the next president of the United States. But would I be willing to give up that right forever for a million dollars?

The radio show fielded numerous answers from callers and the overwhelming response was an emphatic - yes. The majority of callers indicated they would be willing to give up their right to vote for the money. About 70 percent said they would take the money and only 30 percent refused to give up their voting rights.

Just Show Me The Money

As an American, as much as I’d love to think or say that I cherish and value my right to vote so much that no amount of money could ever make me give up that right, I have to say that the reality is that we live in a “show me the money” society. I think, a million dollars would probably do more for my own personal life than the results of any election ever could. With a million dollars, I could buy a house, set myself up for life, and support my family and loved ones on a real and inescapably personal level. I could pay off my student loans, credit card debts, and invest the remaining amount for my future retirement.

Even if I were concerned that by giving up my right to vote that I would be permanently giving up my right to ever have my opinions heard, don’t forget that with a million dollars, I could easily buy television and radio airtime and have my views projected into the public forum more powerfully than my single vote ever could. My single vote is only one of many, but money is money. With money, I could buy political sway and affect greater change in society than I could with a single lonesome vote. But I do respect and understand those who feel they could never part with their right to vote for any amount of monetary gain.

Just for the record, I have voted in nearly every single significant election since I was eligible to do so when I hit 18. But frankly I don’t recall anytime in my life when a single vote truly made a difference in any election. The last time that happened probably was in high school.

Would anyone really forfeit a million dollars tax-free just to keep their right to vote? For real? Does the ultimate result of the election really impact how you live your day to day life on such a significant level for you to give up the possibly of living a more financially secure life? Not including those who are already very wealthy and don’t need the additional money anymore, I just find it hard to believe there really are people like that anymore.

It’s a Sign of the Times

Unfortunately, it’s also probably an indicator that we have turned into a more selfish and cynical society. I think many people, including myself, often feel that our vote really doesn’t make much of a difference anymore. Some feel that the media and special interest groups ultimately sway the course of elections anyway.

But I am curious to hear what others would do. Would you be willing to forfeit your vote permanently for the remainder of your life for a million tax-free dollars right now?

Side Note: The funniest call came from a woman who responded that as long as she was married she would probably take the money because her husband and her vote always canceled each other out every election anyway. But she added that if she were single, she might consider holding onto her vote and forsake the money because she is so opinionated and would want her opinion heard!

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. 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.

You never know what life will chuck your way, so you should always be prepared for anything. If you keep your finances and paperwork in order, you’ll be in better shape to handle anything unexpected.

A few nights ago I received a sudden flurry of phone calls and e-mails from family members with sad news. My ailing grandfather, who had been bedridden in the hospital for more than a year due to a stroke, suddenly took a turn for the worse and was nearing his end. As the oldest grandson, I had a familial duty to be there. But since my grandfather lived overseas, getting to him at a moment’s notice wasn’t going to be easy. Things started to get hectic immediately as I began to make plans to fly overseas to join my parents at my grandfather’s side as soon as possible. I wish I had anticipated earlier and made better preparation for the unexpected.

Here is how you can stay ready and avoid the chaos that follows an emergency situation:

Keep Important Documentation Up To Date And At the Ready

If you have family in another country, including Canada and Mexico, make sure your passport is valid and ready for travel at all times.

In my case, I had one major problem. My U.S. passport had only one more month before it expired. Since most countries require that your passport be valid at least 6 months beyond the date of your trip, I would not be able to travel internationally unless I got it renewed as soon as possible.

Luckily the U.S. Department of State, which processes all passport renewal applications, has a special expedited process for such emergency life and death matters. Normally the renewal process can take more than 10 weeks, but by paying an extra fee and providing documentation of the emergency, I could shorten the application process to just a few days. Potentially big problem solved.

Make Sure Your Bank Account Is Prepared To Handle Emergency Expenditures

It’s important to make sure you have emergency funds in case something unexpected happens, whether it involves losing your job or a family situation. Always make sure you have access to back up money.

Because I wasn’t prepared for the family emergency and was caught completely off guard, I did not have an adequate balance sitting in my checking or savings account to handle major emergency spending. I had big expenditures coming, including almost $200 for expedited passport processing and $1200 for a last minute international plane ticket.

Fortunately, I could access my investment brokerage and shuffle some needed cash back into my bank accounts.

Automate Your Monthly Expenses And Have Less Things To Worry About

During emergency situations, it’s hard to deal with the urgent situation while still balancing your monthly bill obligations. I find it much easier to set up automatic billing and debit payment for all of my regular recurring expenses such as electricity, gas, and credit card bills. When something unexpected happens, those are just a few less things to have to worry about. Since the vast majority of my bills are viewable online and registered for online or automatic payments, I can still conveniently make bill payments even if I’m not physically in the country.