Balance your Checkbook

The best defensive moves you have in protection yourself from the long term effects of fraudulent account activity is to keep your checkbook balanced.  This is especially useful when you daily download your transactions from your banking institution.   This action guarantees you catch the activity quickly and can alert your bank of the problem almost immediately.

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Speakers Beware: Avoid the Scammers, Jerks, and Those Who Would Rip You Off

There are plenty of thieves and liars out there. PT Barnum said the following two things that I believe are relevant to understanding the mind of a sum sucking scammer, “There's a sucker born every minute!” and “Every crowd has a silver lining.” These creatures of ilk are focused on the idea that they can find the sucker in every crowd and swindle them of their silver. Felicia Slattery posted a rather well written warning to anyone in the public speaking industry as I am. But the lessons are valuable to us all as a reminder that these slimmy scammers are everywhere and trying to steal our silver!

Speakers Beware: Avoid the Scammers, Jerks, and Those Who Would Rip You Off

Honestly, as dismayed as I am by the events mentioned in this blog, the were frankly bound to happen to our industry, sooner or later. I am personally surprised it has taken these sum suckers so long. In some ways our industry and customers represent an ideal mark in many to them. Here are five that come to mind at the moment, though there are several others mentioned by Felicia that I are equally important to consider.

1. Our business models are largely internet based which means our customers are accustomed to purchasing items online.

2. Our intentions as a group are largely kind hearted; which I have noticed leaves me looking for the positive in every situation, rather than keeping my SCAM-O-Meter running all the time.

3. Our customers are similar to us in this short coming and can often be manipulated by a perceived good word from us, because they know us and trust our advice.

4. We are not a close knit community as of yet. We all have various bureaus and associations we belong to but beyond our circles we are often too busy trying to run our business to notice eddies in the scum that grows on the bottom of the ever growing lake we are all swimming in.

5. We are also creatures, no matter how we may try to reform our nature, subject to flattery. It is one of the greatest tools these sum sucker scammers are able to employ against us. Which is why an amount of personal wariness is needed, so that we may have sufficient room to allow our wisdom and experience to kick in and play the critical role of detecting the BS these scammers try to feed us.

Felicia is right in advocating for the little guy, but I am certain there are lessons for every speaker, trainer and writer. I think the most practical advice out there is if it sounds too good to be true, IT IS! You need to have clear contracts in place and know who, what and why before you sign on to any speaking gig. If they call you out of the blue it is time to put up our shields and cautiously evaluate the person and proposal being offered.

I Just Recieved A Call From 1-866-842-5208 (Fraud Watch), Is It A PHISHING SCAM?

I recieved a call from Fraud Watch asking for information about my card activity. I was instantly suspicious. I told them I would call them back if my bank verified they were indeed legit. I verified it with Northrim Bank here in Alaska. They do contract with Fraud Watch and the teller transfered me to the Fraud Watch at the end of our conversation.



The Fraud Watch operator told me a tale about where my card was being attempted to be used. YIKES! It turns out someone compromised my VISA debit card, THANKFULLY, the Fraud Watch folks had denied each of the various attacks on my card.



Afterward, I remembered that I had dealt with them before with another credit union that I do business with. This is a reputable company but that said I would still advise that you do the samething I did.



1. Get their number

2. Call your banking company and ask them to transfer you to their Fraud Watch (Since most banks and credit unions do appear to utilize their fraud prevention services they will likely say yes.)

3. Ask the teller to transfer you to Fraud Watch.

4. Talk to the friendly Fraud Watch representative. (Hopefully all is well for your card and the transactions are indeed yours.)



I hope this helps.

Armageddon Paydays Elite Training Package - Special Edition

I could not make this system work for me.  I never got to the more advanced levels that they were offering.  This evening I requested a refund from Mo.

Armeggedon So Far...

Update

I cannot say it is a quick and easy as was claimed by the ad copy.  I am still working through the training material (perhaps if I wasn't working two jobs it might be an easier task) with no action yet because that is what is recommended until you get through the videos.  I see there is some potential, but I am not convinced it will earn a dollar yet.  The production value of the training material is minimal it equates to a narrated PowerPoint, so far.

I will keep you updated...

Armageddon Paydays Elite Training Package - Special Edition

Seeing as one of my self appointed roles in this universe is discovering and documenting SCAMS.  I figured I would investigate an email I recieved today.

The tag line was: ...Facebook Ads Loophole (don't share)

Hey,
Ever heard of Mo Mulla?

He's been a big player for over 10 years now. And the guy just has a crazy knack for finding flat-out weird ideas to make a lot of cash!


http://subscriptionserver.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=266&c=4855840


His latest venture involves "gaming" Facebook and hijacking their traffic...

It's perfectly legal and Facebook actually encourages it. But I've never seen anyone scoring traffic quiet like this.

http://subscriptionserver.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=266&c=4855840


It's crazy.


I'm surprised no one has thought of this yet, but as soon as I'm done with this email I'm going to go put it to use myself.


Check out this video (no opt in required) to see exactly what he's up to.


Pretty freakin' eye opening.


http://subscriptionserver.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=266&c=4855840


Enjoy your traffic :P


Talk Soon


Mark James


P.S. I feel obligated to tell you this guy built a traffic robot for Facebook - That's just a small glimpse at the changes coming in 2012

http://subscriptionserver.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=266&c=4855840

The video is smooth enough and the price seems to be inviting. So I decided I would spend a few buck to see if they were telling the truth or if they are attempting to SCAM folk of hard earned money.

I paid my $49 for the ride.

Product Title:



Armageddon Paydays Elite Training Package - Special


Edition


Today's Payment: One payment of $49.00


Taxes: $0.00


Your ClickBank order number: P******5


For technical help, please contact the vendor


Vendor E-Mail: momulla1@gmail.com


Please visit CLKBank.com for ClickBank Customer Service.

So now the test begins.  Do they deliver as promised or do they seek to have you spend even more...

The first of my rules for detecting a SCAM fired off just as soon as the welcome letter for their system opened up...   The letter starts of  

"Your Nearly There...  BUT FIRST... CAN I GIVE YOU MIY MOST PRFITABLE NICHES?  You’re moments away from access. But before you download it, you owe it to yourself to take a look at this… The Most Complicated Part Of This System Is "Designing" Your Facebook Pages And Blog... You don’t NEED to design them."

Isn't this what he said in the video we were purchasing for only $49???

"But doing so will give you a DRAMATIC boost in conversions. Here are my highest converting fan page and blog template designs…  The best part is you can literally “plug them in”, no tweaks or customizing required, it only takes a moment and you’re ready to go…"

Isn't this what he said in the video we were purchasing for only $49???

"Not only that, I’m giving you 20 proven niches you can dive right into and profit from today.   This takes all guesswork out of the equation."

Isn't this what he said in the video we were purchasing for only $49???  Minus the lanugage of 20 proven niches of course...  Nice bait and switch maneuver here.

So what is the bottom line now?  ONLY $197, but don't worry because:

"...your entire purchase is backed by a 60-day, no questions asked guarantee."

I sure hope that is true, as I suspect I am going to be using that guarentee in 49 days...  If not this just became a $246 post, that I will be writing off as a business expense on next years taxes.

"No thanks. I know it'll save me countless hours of time, the designs will immediately boost my conversion rates AND I'm missing out on over 20 proven niches. I understand I'll never see this page again and that ’s okay with me. With that said, I'd like to download my product."

Don't you just love the beauty of this ad copy.  It screams out SCAM to me.  Yet seeing as my review of this system would be incomplete without this "MOST PRFITABLE " of additions I double checked my miniscule research budget and discovered I can indeed barely afford the additional fee requested.

I paid my $197 for the ride.

Product Title: Armageddon Paydays - Premium Package.



Today's Payment: One payment of $197.00


Taxes: $0.00


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your ClickBank order number: X******C


For technical help, please contact the vendor


Vendor E-Mail: momulla1@gmail.com


Please visit CLKBank.com for ClickBank Customer Service.

I recieved a confirmation page that states:

 Gee so very comforting after having been up sold in such a sneaky underhanded fashion.  I sure hope this is the case.

Transaction Completed!



Thank you for buying “Armageddon Paydays“, you will soon realise you made a wise choice.

However when I click on the "GET ACCESS NOW!" link it sends me to a login page that states So I check my email account for the link they said was sent to me.  The link states I am already confirmed... yet it didn't contain a password to use...  now I am a bit more concerned.  Not to worry I entered my email address and clicked "Forgot Password" that should get me what I need right?  It did.

"Sorry! You do not have access to this content"

Now I watch a 3:34 minute intro that doesn't inspire me at all.

• • Powerful System! (rah rah blah blah)
  • Go through it ALL (PDFs and ebooks... not videos so this will slow down the review some.)
  • Take action (DUH! If you fail to act you fail period!)
  • Support ("If I am free I will help..." - That is a very encouraging statement... NOT!)
  • Further Training (Here it is!!!  I suspect this translates later to spend more money and I will give you more help...)

Okay I am finally in and ready to start learning after over 1/2 an hour spent jumping through the hoops.

I will keep you posted if the system has more value.  Subscribe to my blog to get notifications or check back here tomorrow.  I will have more on the Armageddon PayDays...

AT&T Survey

I went online to pay my AT&T bill.  They asked me to do a survey.  The last question was did I have any further suggestions.  So I shared with them my suggestions and analysis.

My biggest complaint is this. Your prices are too high. Compare your prices to any item that is marketed in the AT&T store with those on Amazon.com; you will see why I bought a 32GB Micro SD Card, the exact same brand, minus the AT&T paper packaging for $100 less. All I can say is big flipping deal you can repackage an SD card. That repackaging delivers exactly ZERO VALUE to me as a consumer!!!! I purchased it from a smaller retailer who definitely could not get the massive quantity discounts that you are able to DEMAND from the manufacture due to your volume and distribution network. However, if you expect a long-time customer like me to be impressed by how badly you are gouging my wallet on price you are missing the realities of business.


Your service is not high touch; it just isn’t in your corporate DNA. Your prices are too high, which is why other than the exorbitantly overpriced service and data plan you will not likely see another penny from me. And trust me your customers are not fooled by your employees claiming this is all fairly priced and competitive, (believe me I have had many a conversation with my AT&T dependent friends).

There are not alternative for me at this time in my market, but I promise you that when the alternative arrives if this behavior continues. I will be taking my self to one of your competitors. And when I do I will be sure to let my followers know where I found a better deal. Just like I did when I purchased the 32GB Micro SD Card for my Samsung Infuse!

A survey like this is a start but now that you are aware what will you do? If you have question, feel free to give me a call. (phone number removed). I am always willing to have a conversation with a company I do business with, even when I feel they are screwing me because they can.

Was I unclear?  ;)