1-720-708-1000 is a SCAM

It has been a while and yes I have neglected my responsibilities to this blog. So thus I begin again.
Last night my wife answered the phone the number on the display was 1-720-708-1000 and on the other end was a guy claiming we had a computer malware problem. We needed to login and follow his instructions to fix it. YEAH RIGHT! SURE! When my wife firmly said, “NO I AM NOT DOING THAT.” The foreign accented guy started yelling at her! Gee that ID Thief has some personal skills issues to work on.
However, not every thief is as ill skilled. Be Aware that this type of fraud is rampant and they will call you at home.  Just hang up and if they call again, use an air horn!

Update: Please share your experience as a comment.  I would love to hear how these vile creatures attempted to steal your information.  Plus it will be instructive for the hundreds of other visitor hitting this page each week.

Old Fraud, New Tactic... Be Aware!

Here is a timely warning for us all. There are always sharlaitans and scammers looking to steal your hard earned money. I got the following email from my Father-in-Law.

I wanted to warn everyone about a new and dangerous fraud that I was sent. This has a new twist and has some very great potential for costing people in these trying times.

I received in the mail a letter with a Check for $4910.00. The letter notified me that I had won a Utility Lottery through a Computer balloting system. The amount that I won was $46,500.00. The letter further states that there was a percentage surcharge that was to be paid in the amount of the $4910.00 to the Lotto Regularity Board and they had sent me the check to cover the charges. The letter also asks me to keep the winning confidential. The thing that is so dangerous is that the Check that was send is a real Check drawn on the Regions Bank in Union City Georgia. My bank has verified that it is a real check with a correct routing number. We cannot at this point find out what the status of the account is because of the privacy laws, but Wells Fargo Bank’s Fraud department is looking into it. I am not sure how the fraud works because I have called the number on the letter and only received an answering machine that was so full that it didn’t take a message. Here are what they are telling me about the possible scenarios.



1. A person would be asked to deposit the check and then write a new check and send to the Global Sweepstakes company for the amount. They would get your check and they you would find out that the original check was not good because of an inactive or wrong account number. The Global Company would then have your $5000.00 that you would be legally responsible for.

2. When you call the Global Company they would ask you for SSN numbers and account bank account numbers to verify your winnings in which case they would have everything they need to clean out your account.

3. If you tried to cash the check you would have to give your account number at and when the check was found to be a fraud you would then be responsible for the entire amount.

Everything about this letter is suspicious. The amount is just under the Federal guidelines for verification. A company that has a phone number that is automated with no live persons answering. The fact that a person doesn’t have to enter any contest but would be drawn based on a computer selected Utility. The fact that you would be asked to pay up front before you could receive the winnings. The thing that is so dangerous is the Check. It is a real check with all of the security water marks and everything. It prays on the greed and the needs of a struggling economy but the old adage is still true “There aint no free lunch”.

I have ask the bank to let me know what they find out, but the local branch cannot guarantee that the fraud department will give that information. If I get anything further I will send it along but at least for now Buyer beware.

I will post any further communications I get on this issue. Remember if it seems to good to be true especially these days IT IS!

Financial Peace can be found in these troubled times!

Financial Peace can be found in these troubled times! Yes I know it sound odd, but it is true. My 401k may be suffering like everyone else', but that doesn't mean that my family is suffering during this financial crisis in the market. In fact, the opposite is the case. We are doing better now that we were one year ago! We have no credit card debt. We have no car loans. We have no furniture that we are renting to own. All we have left in our debt category is just over $10K and our house. We have eliminiated well over $30K in debt over the last year on less than $55K of income. If we can do it you can too. Just create a budget and live your financial life responsibly.

The place we find ourselves in this troubled time is actually a peaceful place. We can pay our bills and this year like last year as the holidays approach will not be a time of dread, due to the mounds of new debt that will be taken on for Christmas. I can testify to you all that there is hope if you are on the edge or even if you are already in the icy waters. That hope is in the form of the Seven Baby Steps that can be found in Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Make Over".

Do your family a favor this day go find a copy of this book (at the library, a bookstore or online) and begin to read it. You will be greatly blessed if you do! I know we have been. Join us in rejecting the failed policies of living in debt! Discover the joy and the peace that can be had when you no longer live paycheck to paycheck due to the money you have already spent. Learn the principles that will free you from the bondage of debt. There will never be a better time than today to step forward and take control of your financial life.

Freddie and Fannie and the ENRON Crooks!!!

There is a lot of panic in the financial markets right now with the declining stock prices in most sectors. I personally attribute this insanity to the poisoning of the credit markets by the Democrats who were in charge of Freddie and Fannie. They purposefully mislead investors so that they could rake in $90 Million in bonuses based upon their fraudulently cooked books. The securitized mortgage instruments that they knowingly assisted in pawning off is the height of fraud in my book. These bad mortgages where sold Grade A or AA investments to the unsuspecting and the greedy alike are criminal in my opinion.

These CEO's and CFO's from Freddie and Fannie along with those Senators and Congressional members who accepted money from these organizations through their lobbyists are corrupt and ought to be punished in a fashion at least as harsh as was given to the ENRON crooks! If the heads of Freddie and Fannie had been life long Republicans they would already be indited for the crimes they have committed and if the top three Senators who took money from them to look the other way had been Republicans they would be the subject of countless exposes on the evening news! But instead they are given the keys to the kingdom and the mess is swept under the carpet and the American people are scammed for over a BILLION DOLLARS! And one of them, namely Barrack Obama, set to become the President of the United States in a similarly fraudulent fashion.

ENRON cost few thousand people everything, but this scandal is going to cost us all something alot more dear and precious.; or freedoms in the name of change. That change has a name and it has failed EVERY TIME AND PLACE it was tried. Communism, Marxism, and Socialism.

700 BILLION DOLLARS!!!!! HELL NO!!!

This bail out that has been proposed by President Bush, Hank Poulsen, and the rest of the Goldman Sachs team they have brought to Washington DC, is TOTALLY BOGUS!!! It is INSANITY!!

Newt Gingrech is 100% right on this issue!

1. Remove onerous regulations that are sitfling Small Business.
2. Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley!
3. Eliminate Capital Gains taxes immediately to encourage market based investment solutions.
4. Pass a REAL ENERGY BILL that encourages drilling and alternative energy developments.

This insane push to SOCIALIZE the Financial Markets is WRONG and WILL NOT SOLVE the problem!

I urge everyone who reads this to Call your Senators and your Representatives NOW and tell them to OPPOSE this BAIL OUT!

Another one bites the dust!!!

The financial sector may be realigning itself after the insanity in the marketplace due to BAD FEDERAL REGULATION, but at least one financial institution is $9300 richer today, as we paid off another student loan, (thereby doing our part to avert the coming crisis in the Student Loan market. Just a little over $10,000 to go and we will be calling Dave Ramsey to tell him we are "Debt Free Except for the House". Coupled with the promotion and raise I just got at work our Federal Tax Refund this year should put us pretty darn close to that mark. Time will tell though for certain this time next year we will be working on our Real Emergency Fund of six months worth of cash. Too bad the Democrats at the helm of Freddie and Fannie could not understand that the only way to remain solvent financially is to be properly capitalized. Perhaps they (Raines, Johnson and Gerellic) will do a better job of running Barrack Obama's campaign coffers. Yikes is he a fool putting those three embezzlers in charge of his money! You know what they say a fool and his money are soon separated. I guess that explains a lot about our current financial crisis as a nation. We are a nation run by of financial fools and socialist idiots! It is sad that Mitt Romney didn't win the Republican's slot I am certain he would have know how to solve these financial situations. Perhaps McCain / Palin will be wise enough to put him in charge of the Treasury Department.

Changing Your Money Mindset...

I came across an interesting money article by Mike Peterson who is the senior certified counselor and a co-founder of American Credit Foundation, which is a non-profit credit counseling organization. He is the author of Reality Millionaire, from which this article is excerpted.

I don't much about Mr. Peterson other than what is on his website at this moment. However, I going to do some more digging because the premise of his work appears to be in alignment with God's Laws of Managing Money and Good Common Sense Financial Management. I know I agree whole-heartedly with his observations and suggestions on from his article titled Changing Your Money Mindset .