Money Blue Book

These days, you can buy pretty much everything under the sun online. All it takes is some fancy keyboard typing and mouse clicking, and you can Google your way to an ideal product that offers both perfect features and perfect pricing. Theoretically if you wanted to, you could put yourself under house arrest, never venture out of your house again, and still live a relatively comfortable and convenient life by surviving on supplies and groceries ordered through the Internet. All you would need is a trusty computer or laptop, equipped with a reasonably fast high speed internet connection, and you would be good to go. With the emergence of online bargain shopping, consumers no longer have to pay the higher retail mark up prices due to overhead costs found at brick and mortar stores. Consumers are now free to go with online merchants who are passing along their own cost savings to online customers due to not having to pay extra expenses associated with maintaining physical retail locations. On the whole, prices found online for the exact same product otherwise available in a regular real life retail store are almost always lower. Frequently, the cost savings can be tremendous - as much as 10-25% savings simply by ordering the desired product online rather than purchasing it at a corresponding retail store location.

Unfortunately, there is one significant and readily present downside to shopping for products online - the inevitable wait time and frustrating inconvenience of having to wait around for days and weeks for the delivery to be made. Depending on the shipping option chosen and the actual distance separating the online merchant and customer, the wait time can be anywhere from as quick as 3 days to as long as 3 weeks for more expensive back ordered merchandise like custom built computers. Of course, one could always speed up the delivery process to overnight delivery status, except the much higher price of expedited delivery would just pretty much negate the intended cost benefit savings of online shopping to begin with. With gas prices overpriced and soaring as they are, future shipment and delivery prices are anticipated to see increases in the coming years.

Despite the Discounts and Savings Associated With Online Shopping, Forced Delayed Gratification Is A Pain In The Butt Cheeks

I’m currently a huge and almost obsessive online shopper, particularly with popular online auction sites like eBay (I like to call myself, an eBay Powerbuyer). My goal and objective since the advent of the Internet has always been to maximize my money by taking advantage of all online bargains and arbitrage cost saving opportunities whenever possible. Over the years I’ve turned to my tried and true eBay bargain hunting approach for such things like heavily discounted subway debit cards, expensive laptop electronics, and bulk pet food. By combining inherent online price discounts with cash back shopping sites and free promotional coupons found online, I’ve generated significant cost savings for myself over the years. Recently I’ve even tried to see if I could garner some extra tiny savings by utilizing online grocery delivery programs like Stop & Shop and Giant Food’s Pea Pod service and Safeway’s supermarket delivery service, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m going overboard with the whole online bargain hunting obsession.

While I’ve managed to save quite a bit of money for a long time due to my online shopping practices, I’ve had to learn and force myself to hold back my instant gratification urges. For example, when I suddenly needed to buy a GPS device immediately for my car, my frugal mentality dictated that I head to eBay and Google Products to perform a few hours of thorough price comparison shopping. Eventually I settled on using eBay to maximize my purchase price savings. However, the whole buying experience took up to 2 and a half weeks to secure my product online and to finally receive it in the mail. Not only did the auction bidding process take nearly a week of several failed bid attempts before I finally won my bid, but it also took more than a week for the item to get delivered and shipped to my address. While sometimes the compulsory delayed gratification is helpful because it prevents me from hastily snapping up newly released and grossly overpriced electronic gadgets during their maiden introductions, the mandatory wait time from delivery to receipt can be a major pain and inconvenience, especially when you need to use the desired product sooner than later. Now I’m starting to wonder if the online cost and supposed time savings are worth the great inconvenience and terrible hassle of having to wait so long. Instead of being able to see the physical object and walk out with something in my hand, shopping online offers me only a confirmation email and a claims ticket for something I won’t receive for weeks.

While Online Shopping Sites Will Always Offer The Best Prices, Sometimes You’re Better Off Paying A Little Extra At Brick And Mortar Retail Stores

While I used to think that shopping online was a time saver in that the buyer did not need to waste time getting dressed, hopping into their gas guzzling car and driving the miles needed to get to the local mall or retail store, I’m starting to realize that for certain smaller ticket items, or things more urgently needed, the time savings of shopping online is sometimes only illusory. While websites offer many more options for consumers, sometimes the graphic intensive sites offer way too many confusing choices. While browsing speed is no longer an issue due to faster broadband Internet download speeds, trying to navigate some of these product and feature heavy websites from only the four corners of the computer monitor screen can be a burden. Oftentimes it’s just easier and more simplistic to drive to the store, walk around the shopping aisles to inspect your choices with your physical naked eyes, or ask a live customer service person for help, than to buy online.

While shopping online is great because you don’t have to pay sales tax most of the time (this former benefit might be disappearing soon in the future) and prices are generally lower, I think there may be times when the ability to walk out with what you want immediately is worth the extra cost. I realized I was starting to take the whole online shopping deal a little too far when I found myself willing to wait one and a half weeks for a $12 handheld Sony FM radio that I found online, instead of buying it from a live Best Buy location for $15 - for a mere total cost savings of $3. All in all, I think buying very expensive electronic products online makes a lot of sense, but for smaller, cheaper day to day items, buying online just isn’t worth the hassle or inconvenience anymore.

Updated List Of Citi Thank You Codes For Free ThankYou Network Points Below

Back in the day, cash back credit cards were all the rage as their rebate offers provided the highest purchase incentives for cardholders. But as the U.S. economy has soured in recent years and the mortgage backed credit crisis has worsened, credit card companies have joined the legions of credit-related industries hurt by the downturn. Despite the need to make changes in the new economical climate, credit card issuers still continue to offer lucrative incentive rewards and rebates to attract new customers and encourage continuous credit activity. However, such riskier times have compelled them to modify and scale back their credit card purchase incentives to greatly favor point reward programs over straight cash back. By offering purchase reward points redeemable for free merchandise, free airline tickets, or free gift cards, credit card companies are at least able to lessen their promotional losses by plowing some rebate money back to merchants that they have special partnership agreements with instead of just giving money back to the customer. This shift towards promoting reward points instead of cash back has lead to a rise in rebate earning percentages for reward programs offering points, and a gradual decrease in earning percentages for credit card programs offering cash back.

However, over the years, Citibank has consistently remained one of my better credit card reward issuers. When they came out and started promoting the Thank You Points Network for their banks and credit cards, I did my research and ultimately embraced its usage. While the point-based program will never beat the versatility and convenience of good ole cash back rewards, the Citi Thank You rewards program is still a good silver medal, second place choice. Just for your reference, here are a few of the prominent Citi Thank You credit cards that I have in my wallet. Each of them earns points when you use them to make qualified purchases.

1. Citi Professional Thank You Mastercard - Earn 3 Thank You points for every dollar spent at restaurants, gas stations, car rentals, and certain office supply stores. Get 10,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $250 in purchases, redeemable for a sweet $100 gift card.
2. Citi Premier Pass Master Card - The Premier Pass is one of the best travel reward credit card options out there. With the card you’ll also get 10,000 bonus points after $300 in purchases made within 3 months of account opening.
3. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card - Earn 5 Thank You points for every dollar spent on purchases at gas stations, supermarkets, and drug stores for a year. Get 6,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $100 in purchases within 3 months of account opening.

For those who want to know my strategy to maximizing the amount of Citibank Thank You Network reward points that I earn over the course of a year, here are the steps and things that I recommend. Some are basic credit card usage philosophies while others are tips on ways to make the most of what you earn out of everything you do.

1) Be A Loyal User Of Citi Credit Cards That Offer Thank You Network Purchase Reward Incentives

First of all, before you even think of using a Citibank credit card that offers rebate rewards or airline miles (or any credit card for that matter), you must promise yourself to always pay off your credit card balance in full every month. Remember, the more you spend on credit card late fees and interest, the less your reward miles or reward redemptions are worth. The goal is to maximize your savings and get the most bang for your bank. The fewer purchase fees and the fewer interest charges you pay, the better.

- Focus On Reward Network Points That Can Be Pooled

In the credit card rewards money making, rebate earning business, loyalty pays dividends. While I’m a holder of a large number of credit cards, I don’t necessarily use them all. Some like my expired 0% balance transfer credit cards - I don’t even use anymore since their introductory interest rate benefits have since long expired. To maximize my money, I try to focus my efforts on 1-2 credit card reward programs that offer me the best earning and redemption results. As a general background matter, the more credit cards you use the fewer points you’ll ultimately earn on each. Especially for cards that require a certain level of point accumulation before reward redemption, using too many reward cards may spread your usage out too thin. The greatest exception to the rule is participation in a credit card reward program like the Citibank Thank You Network that allows you to combine points from several different cards into one shared rewards account.

- Save Up Your Credit Card Purchase Points For Higher Value Rewards That Offer More Bang For Your Buck

To maximize your Citi Thank You rewards, you should resist the urge to spend your reward points right away. Remember, the reward redemption options are offered based on a tier system. The best point to rewards ratio will obviously occur at the higher value, more expensive to redeem reward choices. As I note in my analysis of redeeming Citibank Thank You gift cards, the highest value redemptions will offer you the best conversion rates - essentially fewer points needed for the same equivalent reward. The lower the redemption cost, the more points you’ll have left over to redeem for other rewards. So save up your points for the bigger prizes. After all, why would you want to swap your points incrementally through out the year for 10 gift cards worth $20 each for a total value of $200, when you can save up until you have the same total number of points, and then redeem them for a higher value $250 or $300 gift card? They require the same number of points, except the difference is that by waiting and saving, you can potentially walk away with a much sweeter reward.

Another great Thank You reward redemption option is to redeem points for free Citi airline flights through Citibank’s fixed flight option. The Thank You Network fixed flight option offers one of the best redemption ratios for free airline tickets around for any credit card and banking reward program.

You can also earn bonus Thank you points for shopping with partner merchants through the network’s website, but personally, I think you can get better reward and rebate savings through other online shopping sites instead.

2) Earn Extra Free Thank You Network Points By Registering With and Using Expedia

If you’re like many people who rely on special online travel search engines to locate and book their travel reservations for airlines, cruises, car rentals, or hotel stays, you’ll definitely want to take your Thank You Network account and register it with Expedia. All you have to do is enroll your Citi Thank You account with Expedia to earn 1 bonus point for every $1 spent on hotels, vacation packages, activities totaling $50 or more, and cruises. To earn points on flights, you need to add an activity of $50 or more, or a hotel stay to your travel itinerary. The nice part is that you don’t even need to necessarily use a Citibank Thank You Network credit card to make your purchases. Once you’ve enrolled and linked up your Expedia account with the Thank You network, you are free to use any credit card or other valid form of payment to make your purchase. If you’re smart and savvy, you might consider using an airline credit card to book your flight travel plans to earn additional rewards. Not only will you earn bonus frequent flyer travel miles by using your airline credit card, you’ll also receive Thank You reward purchase points through your Expedia-Thank You Network linked account. Not a bad deal.

3) Enroll Your Citibank Checking and Savings Accounts (If Any) Into The Thank You Network

Other than through the usage of Citibank credit cards that offer ThankYou rewards, each month you can also earn bonus Thank You points for having and using certain other Citibank products and services (view Thank You points chart according to Citibank account package). Such options include opening and enrolling your qualified Citibank savings or checking accounts with the Thank You network program or simply by enrolling your Citibank ATM/debit card with the program to earn points everytime you use it. By enrolling your debit card with the rewards program, it’s like having a reward credit card at your disposal without any of the downsides of credit card usage that you may otherwise fear (the whole credit card debt thing). Thus the more Citibank relationship accounts you have and use, the more points you may receive, up to the annual cap limit that applies. For your reference, other Citibank branded products and services that may help you get more points include online bill payments, direct deposits, savings accounts and money markets, home equity lines and loans, mortgages, personal loans, and CDs.

If you’re interested in opening a new Citibank checking or savings account, you may want to review some of the promotional Citibank sign-up bonuses currently available. If you qualify, you might be able to get some free money as a new customer.

4) Manually Purchase Your Citi Thank You Network Points Directly

The Thank You Network actually allows customers to purchase Thank You points directly if they so choose, which is a helpful option for those who are close to having enough points to qualify for the reward redemption of their choice. Under the purchase option, for $25 charged to your credit card, you can purchase 1,000 Thank You points, limited to a purchase cap of 30,000 points a year. If you don’t mind paying money for points instead of earning them through ordinary credit card earning usage, then this may be a nice option to consider. The points purchase option offers an exceptionally awesome dollar to points ratio. With most of the Citi Thank You credit cards, you get at most - 3 points for each $1 spent. With the purchase option you get 40 points per $1 spent. Plus, you have the potential to earn the usual extra Thank You Network purchase rewards if you charge the $25 acquisition cost to your Citi credit card.

5) Take Advantage Of Promo Offer Codes For Free Citi Thank You Network Points

This short list of free Citi thank you reward point offers are subject to change at any time as such free promotions come and go as people become aware of them. Most of them can be discovered and found through popular online discussion boards from sites such as Fat Wallet that discuss online bargains and deals.

Qualifying for these instant free Thank You points is easy. All you have to do is visit the promotional page for Citi Thank You points, log into your account, and enter your desired promotional code. I recommend typing in each of the following promotional codes as you may get lucky and qualify for them all - it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. After entering in the free Thank You promo code, you should be able to verify the receipt of extra reward points in your account of 100 additional points or whatever the code was worth. If someone or some company is giving away free reward points, why not jump at the chance - particularly when there is no extra contract to sign or obligation to commit to.

Updated List Of Free Citibank Thank You Network Promo Codes

Yes they are only technically worth $1.00 each, but like loose coins that surprise you at the bottom of your sofa cushions, they are points you didn’t have before but now do! Are you feeling lucky yet?

• CITICCI508IN (100 Free Points)

• DPR1CDW408WK (100 Free Points)

I love using eBay. I’ve been a busy eBayer since the online auction service opened for business in the late 1990’s, and over the years I’ve gotten my bargain grubby hands on quite a few deal finds. However, back in the beginning there was less competition among buyers and sellers vying for a piece of the lucrative eBay pie. With less auction and savvy awareness on the part of the general public during eBay’s infancy, deals were easier to be had.

Back in the good old eBay days, one of my best past success stories was bidding and winning online auction sales for D.C. Metro SmarTrip cards. People in the Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia metro area use prepaid magnetic debit cards to ride the subway train to work in our nation’s capital. When the SmarTrip cards were first implemented on the subway system in 2004, I think I was one of the early few to immediately turn to eBay to buy subway cards in bulk denomination for maximum arbitrage savings. At the time, the whole concept of buying subway cards was still in its infancy so there was less competition for them online. Most of the SmarTrip sellers were federal government workers looking to unload their government issued cards to eBay buyers and make some money in the process (they probably weren’t authorized or permitted to do that of course). But regardless of the legality or morality on their part, I was happy to buy them. Since I worked in D.C. at the time and commuted downtown on a daily basis, I needed a huge supply of them at all times. Due to the lack of bidding competition, I frequently won for 40-60% off the face value, although I had to bid on higher value cards to maximize my cost savings. For example, for cards valued at $300, I usually only paid $140 for them. My auction bidding success lasted a few brief years, but as the years went by and the number of worldwide eBay users grew, many of the inherent market efficiencies were ultimately plugged up, causing bid prices to soar and eBay savings to become less and less. Nowadays, it’s hard to get any type of significant savings anymore as eBay auction prices usually get bid up to or close to the fair market value, negating the awesome bargains I use to enjoy.

By Bidding For Misspelled eBay Phrases and Keyword Typos, It Is Still Possible To Get Great Deals and Bargains

Over the years, eBay has continuously modified its search algorithm and implemented system changes to weed out arbitrage type opportunities that some suggest hurt the integrity of the eBay search engine and business model. However, while eBay may try to take measures to ensure bidding fairness and listing accuracy, it can really only do so much. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. There will always be absent minded people out there, and there’s little that big brother eBay can do to stem their perpetual cluelessness. Which brings me to the purpose of this article - One very interesting area of eBay that is still prone to arbitrage profit and bargains is the area of eBay typos and eBay auction spelling mistakes. While there are many factors that influence how an eBay product listing ends such as auction title, description, timing, number of eBay reviews, and the type of photos displayed, one critical human element that is often overlooked by sellers is spelling accuracy.

The power of eBay is that it is currently the most popular and dominating online auction service in the world and has the capability to bring in a significant number of buyers and sellers together into one open marketplace where products can be exchanged for maximum gain and efficiency. Because of the sheer number of potential buyers and sellers, as well as eyes and ears so to speak, there is little room for inefficiencies to flourish. Even expensive laptop computers valued at $3,000 for example that start the bidding process at $1.00 will absolutely bid up to its fair market value by the close of the bidding period. Even the concept of eBay auction sniping is already known by most people. Sniping, or the process of using special software to fire in your online auction bid at the very last second to keep bidding war competition to a minimum used to work well in the past, but nowadays it seems like everyone uses it on every auction as well. Thus the notion that one can somehow catch an arbitrage or significantly underpriced deal now as a buyer is difficult due to the inherent scale and efficiency of today’s eBay market place.

But this all changes drastically when the market place is altered in significant fashion. When the auction seller places an auction advertisement and fails to ensure correct spelling in the auction title or description, particularly for key phrases that denote what he or she is selling, this creates an inefficiency that is just begging to be exploited. This is a critical mistake because such typos prevent prospective bidders and buyers from being able to find your auction at all. Misspelled keywords in the auction title essentially eliminate the buyer and seller equilibrium usually inherent in eBay. Because the vast majority of prospective eBay buyers find their item by typing in keywords into the eBay search form, such spellings errors have the potential to make or break the final sale. However, due to the sheer size of the eBay marketplace, even such spelling error bargains are bound to be snapped up eventually, but there are simply more spelling mistake and eBay typo deals to be had than that with correctly spelled and properly placed auctions ads.

It’s clear eBay has at least recognized that spelling mistakes and typos are causing a portion of sellers to wind up with much fewer bids and lower bid values than they ought to have. While they have permitted a substantial number of eBay buyers and bidders such as myself to take walk away with nice bargains we would otherwise not have gotten, eBay doesn’t seem entirely committed to stamp out this little shopping loophole. While eBay has installed spell checkers and automated keyword suggestion tools into their online auction software, there is only so much the company can really do to force absent minded sellers to comply. Many grammatically-challenged eBay merchants simply continue to disregard the importance of spelling accuracy. Auction listings containing multiple spelling errors and typos continue to litter the eBay marketplace, to the delight of many potential bidders who can find them. I’ve been on both sides of the eBay auction, as both a seller and as a buyer. While there’s nothing quite like being the seller and experiencing the excitement of registering that first successful auction sale for the first time, I mostly prefer to be the auction bidder and buyer. I love stumbling onto great deals that others have overlooked. These days, my best eBay finds and bargains come from the spelling error misfortunes of others.

A Few Examples Of Critical eBay Spelling Errors and Auction Typos That Will Cause The Seller To Lose A Lot Of Money But May Allow The Buyer To Profit

The unfortunate part of this is that there are thousands of eBay sellers that are going to lose a lot of money due to lost profits caused by lower final bids as a result of less bidding competition brought about by fewer people being able to locate the auction through misspelled keywords. With less bidding competition is the creation of an inefficient marketplace where bidders can purposely keep bid prices low, resulting in anemic final bid prices. However, the reality is that one man’s loss is another man’s gain. It’s not our fault that others fail to properly title or write their ads to maximize their own business revenue. As buyers, we shouldn’t feel guilty when we can take advantage of a great bargain or deal find. After all, we don’t feel guilty when we haggle at a bazaar, flea market, or any type of barter exchange, so why should any of us feel guilty about being able to snap up savings due to someone else’s incompetence?

One of the best, most common, and perhaps most expensive example of critical eBay auction spelling errors is the keyword - “diamonds”. Strangely enough, many people still incorrectly spell it as “dimond“, without the letter “A”. Despite the existence of free eBay provided spell checkers and a myriad of warnings and alerts, many sellers continue to list incorrectly spelled diamond related products for sale. For the sneaky bargain hunter, this is a lucrative gold mine, or a diamond mine for that matter, of great deals. Of course, there’s always the problem of discerning fake diamond products from the real gems. eBay and other auction sites are filled with lots of internet scams and online frauds.

As for myself, I’m currently in the market for a new GPS system for my car. My old handheld global positioning map system is currently being loaned to a friend of mine so I’ve decided to search eBay for any special GPS deals. As you may or may not know, GPS systems are rather expensive and can range anywhere from $200-$500 depending on brand and model. One popular GPS brand is Garmin. A quick search for the incorrectly spelled “Gamin“, “Garmen”, or “Garnin” yields a few nice results, in the eyes of mighty bargain hunters like myself. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for any good GPS misspelling deals in the near future.

Another common spelling mistake is for the word “monitor” as in LCD or computer monitor. A couple of common spelling errors can be created with the simple juxtaposition of a few letters to come up with “montoir“, “montor”, and “moniter”. I suppose it’s a common mistake, but it can be a costly one for the seller, especially if he or she is forced to uphold the sale. Computer monitors aren’t cheap! For fun, you can also try entering things like “Playstatoin” or “Playstaton” for the Sony Playstation - you’re bound to get a few intriguing bargains.

Instead of manually coming up with common typos and eBay spelling errors, you can also try using online software programs like Fat Fingers to help you come up with misspelling ideas for your target keyword. There are a whole slew of other similar eBay-minded programs online that can help you take advantage of common spelling mistakes. If you’re lucky, you might score a great deal too! The scecret has been out for some time but as long as there are absent minded poor spellers out there, there will be great deals for us buyours, I mean buyers.

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.