Speaker 1: Social media scams that all most fooled us.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and deliver your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 3: My name is Jen, my name is Jill.
Speaker 1: And today we are talking about the latest scams on
Speaker 1: social media that were not as evident as we thought
Speaker 1: they would be.
Speaker 4: This is such an important topic because scams are becoming
Speaker 4: so much more complex, nuanced. They're using AI and we
Speaker 4: just got to be on top of our game. So
Speaker 4: we're helping to equip you today.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by being
Speaker 1: at the end of your brow. Today Jill and I
Speaker 1: were talking about how I think we're both at the
Speaker 1: end of our rope. We are. We like to I'll
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Speaker 1: like to say how we each have seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of a brain and together we create one business owner
Speaker 1: with one hundred and fifty percent capacity, and this week
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Speaker 4: You know what, some people would say, you're still doing great,
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Speaker 1: But me, I'm saying I'm at the end of my ropes.
Speaker 1: Only thing that is saving me is having things written
Speaker 1: down before I descended that rope, kind of like in
Speaker 1: the real world, having a budget or at least some
Speaker 1: kind of loose plan for your finances, because there's no
Speaker 1: shame in hitting the end of your rope. It's the
Speaker 1: end of the school year, summer's about to hit, and
Speaker 1: you can turn your brain off. But before you descend
Speaker 1: into chaos, you should write down things like that you
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Speaker 1: be very helpful for you. And always be checking our
Speaker 1: social media and things, because we often will have some sales,
Speaker 1: some legitimate sales sometimes that are not scams. Sometimes because
Speaker 1: I'm at the end of my rope right now, I
Speaker 1: didn't write down what our current one is or if
Speaker 1: we even have one. I don't know. We do.
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Speaker 1: You're swinging on the end of your rope in your
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Speaker 1: All right, let's get into some social media scams and
Speaker 1: I want to make a major shout out to Pleasant
Speaker 1: Green on YouTube. He was really the inspiration for this
Speaker 1: episode because sometimes I get enthralled in something and I
Speaker 1: get hyper fixated on it, and I don't Surely there's
Speaker 1: a neuro something titled for that that I could be
Speaker 1: diagnosed with, but I don't know what it is. I
Speaker 1: don't want to know what it is. I tell me
Speaker 1: right now, Bay fixation is good hyperfixation. And his YouTube
Speaker 1: channel has been that hyperfixation for me for a little bit.
Speaker 1: That and Hannah Alonzo Pleasant Green. He gets the scams.
Speaker 1: Hannah Alonzo she covers MLMs and influencers, and so those
Speaker 1: are two YouTube channels that I am loving. This one.
Speaker 1: He is going into all of these scams that we're
Speaker 1: covering today, because I checked, and not only are the
Speaker 1: videos he's doing recent, the scams are also continually updating.
Speaker 1: So right now these are new scams. They are as
Speaker 1: violent and on the rise as ever, and we don't
Speaker 1: want you to lose money.
Speaker 3: To them, so keep your money.
Speaker 1: The first one is sad old People.
Speaker 3: That's the first scam.
Speaker 1: That is the first scale.
Speaker 4: Playing upon the elderly, pretending to be the elderly to
Speaker 4: get you to spend money.
Speaker 1: So these are AI generated ads for old people's businesses,
Speaker 1: and there are of old people and they're saying either
Speaker 1: I have to they're changing, I have to close my shop.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a closing sale. Or my grandma or grandfather
Speaker 1: struggling in his business, and nobody's buying these things, and
Speaker 1: then cut to sad old AI generated man.
Speaker 4: It's hard to tell that they're AI generated though. That's
Speaker 4: part of the difficulty now and how on high alert
Speaker 4: we have to be.
Speaker 1: Yes, so pleasant Green. We will link to these the
Speaker 1: inspiration YouTube videos from the channel. But so he found
Speaker 1: one of a watchmaker, and so the video is of
Speaker 1: an older man who is selling his watches and.
Speaker 4: Luxurious, high quality handmade and.
Speaker 1: So is either going out of business or isn't getting sales.
Speaker 1: And I also wanted to put in Shellene Johnson is
Speaker 1: somebody who I followed for like probably a decade in
Speaker 1: the fitness world. She also posted a video on her
Speaker 1: social media which we will also link. She almost fell
Speaker 1: for an old person selling slippers. Same story, it's nobody's
Speaker 1: buying my grandmother's or grand grandfather slippers slippers. Cut to
Speaker 1: video of an older man buy a selling machine making slippers,
Speaker 1: and it's just tugging on your heartstrings, like I got
Speaker 1: to give grandpa some money to keep making a slippers.
Speaker 1: So here's the anatomy of the scam. It is a
Speaker 1: paid ad on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, any social
Speaker 1: media platform. It's a paid ad. It's going to be
Speaker 1: manipulating your emotions. So maybe it's not as extreme as
Speaker 1: the old person, but it is something that is making
Speaker 1: you feel bad for the person or for the person's
Speaker 1: grandfather or whatever to buy what they are selling. And
Speaker 1: she'll tell us what they're selling.
Speaker 4: Oh, they're selling anything from watches to slippers to wreathes apparently.
Speaker 3: And really what.
Speaker 4: This is is from these larger, mass produced factories where
Speaker 4: you could be getting these products for ninety nine cents
Speaker 4: to a couple of bucks, and they are up charging it,
Speaker 4: which is this is a way that people make money.
Speaker 4: I mean, this really is the whole fast fashion industry.
Speaker 4: Drop shipping is a thing where they will bulk order
Speaker 4: a bunch of stuff from a site like ali Baba
Speaker 4: and then mark up the price and you purchase it.
Speaker 4: That's not necessarily what's a scam. It's the marketing that
Speaker 4: is super scammy and exploitive, trying to claim that this
Speaker 4: item was handmade by somebody's grandfather or it's a family
Speaker 4: business and they're just being super secretive and a manipulative
Speaker 4: in their marketing of it to you when really they're
Speaker 4: just getting it at bulk order pricing and then driving
Speaker 4: the cost up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So in the Pleasant Green YouTube video, what he
Speaker 1: did was he tested it. So what this and this
Speaker 1: is a way that you can test to see if
Speaker 1: the product is Ali Baba Tamu Ali Express stuff like
Speaker 1: that shean is. He captured the image on the website
Speaker 1: and then Google image searched it and found it on
Speaker 1: Ali Express and so what he did and they were
Speaker 1: selling it the watch for a dollar, so he actually
Speaker 1: bought the watch for a dollar. He literally paid a
Speaker 1: dollar six no shipping costs, so crazy got it immediately.
Speaker 1: And he same day bought the you know custom the
Speaker 1: watch made by somebody's grandfather. That one took a little
Speaker 1: longer to get there ended up coming in a nice
Speaker 1: blue box. So that's something that's uh for drop shippers,
Speaker 1: that's very common. They'll get the you know, the dollar
Speaker 1: one just came in a bag, no padding, no nothing.
Speaker 1: And this one that he spent forty dollars on came
Speaker 1: in a you know, something that you would imagine it's
Speaker 1: packaging would look like that's very common for drop ship
Speaker 1: versus too. A charge for better packaging opens it up.
Speaker 1: It is the same exact watch down to the brand
Speaker 1: name is on the face of the watch, and it
Speaker 1: is a Chinese retailer of mass produced watches. Both of
Speaker 1: them felt like basically hollow inside. The strap was not adjustable.
Speaker 1: It was very much a dollar watch from Ali Express.
Speaker 1: And like Jill said, the drop shipping is not the issue,
Speaker 1: though it could be another issue in and of itself.
Speaker 1: It is the manipulative marketing making you think you're getting
Speaker 1: something that is custom and not even custom, making you
Speaker 1: think you're getting something high quality, making you think you're
Speaker 1: helping someone. And we'll talk about quote unquote helping in
Speaker 1: one of our you know later scams. But it's manipulating
Speaker 1: on your goodness. So and we also saw some commenters
Speaker 1: on the video saying that they saw this with leather
Speaker 1: goods small like purses, which you'll actually see in his
Speaker 1: video if you watch it too. It's not just watches
Speaker 1: or versus, it's all kinds of things. And like what
Speaker 1: Jill said about the wreath, one commenter said, I purchased
Speaker 1: what was supposedly supposed to be a huge, beautiful wreath
Speaker 1: for forty dollars from a quote unquote family business that
Speaker 1: was forced to liquidate due to the economy. That's a
Speaker 1: standard that is a very standard across the scams forced
Speaker 1: to liquidate due to the economy. What I got a
Speaker 1: month later, that's another thing. It is not two day shipping.
Speaker 1: It's not Amazon. Was a very small plastic grief that
Speaker 1: would have cost me three dollars at the dollar store. Crazy. Okay.
Speaker 4: The next social media scam is around home services. So
Speaker 4: this example that also came from Pleasant Green talked about
Speaker 4: an air duct cleaning service and how this company would
Speaker 4: pretty much act as a third party. Generally they are
Speaker 4: in another country and they will try to find leads
Speaker 4: for various home services. So in this example, again it's
Speaker 4: air duct cleaning, where they're going onto sites like Facebook Marketplace,
Speaker 4: joining local Facebook Marketplace groups and posting really sometimes like
Speaker 4: recommendations for these types of services. So it's like the
Speaker 4: eighth page of Google air duc cleaning service. They will
Speaker 4: go on and say, oh, this cleaning service was so good.
Speaker 4: If anybody's looking for to get their air ducts clean,
Speaker 4: I highly recommend them, And a lot of times there's
Speaker 4: just trust in local Facebook market market marketplace groups are
Speaker 4: just fit on Facebook and.
Speaker 1: It's usually city groups. Yeah Saint Pete Florida Facebook group.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, sorry, not marketplace. And so people will see, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know what, I might need my air ducks cleaned.
Speaker 4: I'm going to reach out to them, and then they
Speaker 4: will often charge you like an upfront payment and act
Speaker 4: as the middleman. They will then find somebody to come
Speaker 4: do the thing. Maybe it's an air duck cleaning service maybe,
Speaker 4: or maybe it's just some dude that they're able to
Speaker 4: find on Fiver, which we learned from the Pleasant Green
Speaker 4: who gave some examples from other people where they said
Speaker 4: that they had somebody come out. They called the company,
Speaker 4: a guy showed up. So somebody will show up. It's
Speaker 4: not going to be the people that you had given
Speaker 4: the money too.
Speaker 1: It's going to be some random from another like Facebook
Speaker 1: group for Saint Pete, Florida looking for work on Facebook group.
Speaker 4: And then said that they did no work, sent pictures
Speaker 4: to that person that they had been in contact with
Speaker 4: of this guy showed up. There was a real person here,
Speaker 4: but work got done. Thankfully, they were able to file
Speaker 4: a chargeback with the bank so that they would get
Speaker 4: their money back. That's not going to always be the case,
Speaker 4: depending on how you end up paying, because a lot
Speaker 4: of times they want Zell, they want Venmo. There's different
Speaker 4: ways that they might do something that is not FDIC
Speaker 4: insured or doesn't have some of the same protections that
Speaker 4: maybe using like a credit or a debit card might
Speaker 4: provide to you.
Speaker 3: So that's another one.
Speaker 4: To be super aware of who you're actually hiring and
Speaker 4: who's referral you're taking that we can't be as trusting
Speaker 4: even on these local groups on Facebook of who's being recommended.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this could be air duct cleaning, it could be
Speaker 1: a number of home services. But the scammer themselves is
Speaker 1: either making money on selling the lead to a person
Speaker 1: in one of these you know, willing to work groups,
Speaker 1: or to one of these companies that's not getting any
Speaker 1: leads because you know, they're on the eighth page of Google,
Speaker 1: so it's it's gonna be one of those so and
Speaker 1: they're not. There's a reason they're going to be on
Speaker 1: the eighth page of Google. And you can't even be
Speaker 1: sure if they're in one of these generic working groups
Speaker 1: that they even know how to do the service or
Speaker 1: have the tools to do the job. Under the comments
Speaker 1: for the video, we saw a couple that were interesting.
Speaker 1: One is I moderate a local Facebook group and the
Speaker 1: number of scammers I ban from requesting is ridiculous. Glad
Speaker 1: you mentioned the red flags always posting public news, same
Speaker 1: people who like the posts, So that's another thing when
Speaker 1: you're looking to verify is this a legitimate recommendation. Go
Speaker 1: to the person's page who's recommending it if you're seeing
Speaker 1: they are only posting public news. But if you're looking
Speaker 1: the people who like the post of the public news,
Speaker 1: go to their profile. If they are also only posting
Speaker 1: public news and the same person's liking their post, that's
Speaker 1: an ancestuous little hacker scammer group of profiles. So that
Speaker 1: is going to be a really key indicator that that
Speaker 1: was Either that profile was either farmed, whether so they
Speaker 1: make the profile, they set it up, hold it for
Speaker 1: a couple of years to make it look like it's
Speaker 1: an older profile, and then use it, or it was
Speaker 1: hacked from somebody just happened to my mom's. She couldn't
Speaker 1: get her Facebook profile back and they changed the name,
Speaker 1: and it looks like you've got all of her posts
Speaker 1: from years and it looks like a legitimate thing, but
Speaker 1: then the only thing in the last few years has
Speaker 1: been scam posts.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so this happens quite frequently. Another one is
Speaker 1: I'm a locksmith and get calls from people with very
Speaker 1: heavy accents asking if I'm available for a job. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what was going on and found out they
Speaker 1: were using my website the same way. So it's not
Speaker 1: just air duct cleany, it's also locksmith services. Just got
Speaker 1: done talking to a scammer on Facebook. They use a
Speaker 1: fake photo and profile. They said they were from Texas,
Speaker 1: but I got them to click on Gravify and it
Speaker 1: turns out they were using a VPN but the time
Speaker 1: zone was the same as Nigeria, and they said I
Speaker 1: learned that from you plus a cream. He has all
Speaker 1: kinds of tips on his videos on how to identify
Speaker 1: if somebody who you're talking to on social media is
Speaker 1: a scammer.
Speaker 4: And that then Gravify is one of those resources. So
Speaker 4: he will talk about some of these ways to be
Speaker 4: able to check. And I think all of this can
Speaker 4: sound so overwhelming and it makes me want to reach
Speaker 4: for all. Right, then what can be done if I
Speaker 4: don't feel like I've got the time to dig in
Speaker 4: on this profile page and identify whether or not it's
Speaker 4: real or fake, or if I even feel like I've
Speaker 4: got the skill set for that. I honestly think it's
Speaker 4: turning to your actual network. And we talk about this
Speaker 4: a lot about building our network and community and how
Speaker 4: important that is. And I think all the more reason
Speaker 4: to kind of live in the real world in the
Speaker 4: places where it's going to matter, asking our friends and family, Hey,
Speaker 4: who do you use for this service. It's not as
Speaker 4: if we can't entirely trust Google. I think some of
Speaker 4: it then would just be to then go on to
Speaker 4: Google itself, look for some of these places, look at
Speaker 4: their reviews rather than kind of these third party sites
Speaker 4: like Instagram or Facebook where you're not entirely sure is
Speaker 4: this a third party, because it's a lot easier to
Speaker 4: kind of intersect as a third party.
Speaker 1: And it is. It may seem overwhelming and something like
Speaker 1: you do, but it's important to have this information in
Speaker 1: the terminology, know how to explain it in case somebody
Speaker 1: you know it might become susceptibul to it and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can tell that's a scam, but I don't know
Speaker 1: how it's a scam, so I can't help you avoid
Speaker 1: it because you know you're not going to believe me.
Speaker 1: But like, if you know how it's a scam, then
Speaker 1: you can more easily help other people. And when you
Speaker 1: see it, because I was searching for these things, I'm like,
Speaker 1: surely after you know this has been up for a
Speaker 1: couple of months, people are catching on. They're not doing this.
Speaker 1: Literally within the last two hours of us recording, getting
Speaker 1: the same word for word posts and it's it's going on.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you know, it changes from you know, grandpa to
Speaker 1: grandma to uncle to in laws, whatever, but it's the
Speaker 1: same scam.
Speaker 4: That's why this third one is extra important. It has
Speaker 4: to do with Facebook marketplace scams. And you know why
Speaker 4: market because we tell you to buy on Facebook marketplace,
Speaker 4: we tell you to buy secondhand. We think Facebook Marketplace
Speaker 4: is one of the best spots to do that. So
Speaker 4: here we go. This one's important. They will gain access
Speaker 4: to legitimate Facebook accounts and post listings for expensive items
Speaker 4: at attractive prices. These are real photos of real things
Speaker 4: that other people have sold before, but again often being
Speaker 4: run from other countries. They are not who they say
Speaker 4: that they are you can't actually go and pick up
Speaker 4: that item from that person. So here's how it then
Speaker 4: ends up working. They will post you will say, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm interested in this thing. Well I'll start off first.
Speaker 4: A lot of the postings are very similar language, so
Speaker 4: that was a helpful. Here's what to do to be
Speaker 4: on the lookout for this scam. A lot of times
Speaker 4: it'll be like my elderly father is moving into a
Speaker 4: retirement community and trying to liquidate his items. I am
Speaker 4: able to deliver to you for a small fee, let
Speaker 4: me know if you're interested in anything. And it's kind
Speaker 4: of like a whole lot that they're selling, and they've
Speaker 4: got different prices listed for a variety of things, but
Speaker 4: all reasonable prices. So it looks like, oh man, that
Speaker 4: looks like a nice house. Those are good products. Even
Speaker 4: the staging of the thing looks good, Like if I'm
Speaker 4: looking for a kitchen eighty yeah, I want it to
Speaker 4: come from a kitchen with that kind of backsplash and countertop.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: So then you say is this still available? Can I
Speaker 4: grab it? They say, yeah, when do you want to
Speaker 4: come get it? Then you might list a day and
Speaker 4: a time and they're inevitably going to say I'm not available.
Speaker 4: What had happened in this example scam was that they
Speaker 4: then sent pictures back to the guy asking for the
Speaker 4: item with a screenshot of all of the people who
Speaker 4: are interested. Now this is a fabricated screenshot, but easy
Speaker 4: to create. It just looks like a ton of people
Speaker 4: are asking about the item, and so then he's like, well,
Speaker 4: put down a deposit, I'll hold it for you. Then
Speaker 4: you'll be able to pick it up and be able
Speaker 4: to pay the full price. So that's where they get you.
Speaker 4: I'm paying money for that's the thing we have.
Speaker 3: I haven't.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: It's a trick that Travis will do, although in his
Speaker 4: circumstance he'll do it like he is the one offering that, Hey,
Speaker 4: I'm so interested in this, I'll give you. I'll then
Speaker 4: mow you twenty five bucks if you hold it for me.
Speaker 3: So that it still could be a strategy. It's not.
Speaker 3: It's we don't advise it.
Speaker 4: But anytime they are asking for upfront money before picking
Speaker 4: it up, your red flag should be going off because
Speaker 4: there is no you then actually meet up and you
Speaker 4: get your item.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little if they're just selling one thing
Speaker 1: like if you go to their Facebook marketplace profile and
Speaker 1: they are legitimately only selling one thing, it could still
Speaker 1: be legitim. That's why it's so hard, Like, that's why
Speaker 1: this is this episode is like social media scams we
Speaker 1: would almost fall for, right, Yeah, but it's just getting
Speaker 1: to a point where it's better safe than sorry. But
Speaker 1: a tell tale sign is if the person has uh
Speaker 1: it's you know, they're saying something like, hey, hey guys,
Speaker 1: we're clearing out stuff from my dad's house. He got
Speaker 1: moved to aged care. You can literally copy and paste
Speaker 1: that forbatim, and it was posted two hours ago by somebody,
Speaker 1: three hours ago by somebody. It's ridiculous, and they're just
Speaker 1: posting it on their profile. Sometimes they're posting it in
Speaker 1: a group, but most of the time they're just posting
Speaker 1: it on their profile because it's a hacked account. So
Speaker 1: they just want the person's you know, thousand, five hundred
Speaker 1: whatever how many followers to see this and believe them.
Speaker 1: They're not doing a large scale scam like somebody in
Speaker 1: a local Facebook group. This is more targeted, so it'll
Speaker 1: look like someone, you know, they may have tagged one
Speaker 1: hundred people. That's another thing. If that's one hundred percent
Speaker 1: red flag if they've tagged the mats amount of people.
Speaker 1: But I'm seeing that they're not always doing that, so
Speaker 1: that's another thing. And yeah, so I've seen Dad's house,
Speaker 1: uncles in laws, but they just want they're trying to
Speaker 1: they're no longer need because they're moved to age care
Speaker 1: and they want to make some extra money. We have
Speaker 1: a truck and can deliver at a small extra fee.
Speaker 1: Send a DM if interested in any item.
Speaker 3: But then they typically would have you venmo somebody who
Speaker 3: is not them. It would be a different name, and
Speaker 3: then if you ask about it, like in the example
Speaker 3: they're giving, it was well who is Tiffany?
Speaker 4: Why am I venmoing? And then the person was like, oh,
Speaker 4: that's my cousin.
Speaker 3: They live with me. There's something wrong with my Zell
Speaker 3: so hers is easier.
Speaker 1: And that's the other red flag. That's another red flag
Speaker 1: and in a different direction.
Speaker 3: But that's another potential.
Speaker 4: This is a maybe deeper scam that ends up happening
Speaker 4: is they're using money mules. So a lot of times
Speaker 4: they are in other countries where Zell and Venmo doesn't work,
Speaker 4: so they have to use someone in the United states
Speaker 4: to be their money mule whose zell Venmo does work
Speaker 4: to then be able to in the example they were
Speaker 4: giving by bitcoin and be able to send bitcoin to
Speaker 4: whatever nation the scammer is actually in and the way
Speaker 4: that a money mule, they are also being scammed into
Speaker 4: this as well, often again pulling on your heartstrings. This
Speaker 4: one woman had received a DM from somebody claiming that
Speaker 4: they were in the military and their child had cancer
Speaker 4: and he's not able to get money to his kid,
Speaker 4: and she needed to be able to get the money
Speaker 4: and then transfer it to him so that he would
Speaker 4: be able to help his child.
Speaker 3: But he's overseas and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even a romance scam. It was just she
Speaker 1: thought she was friends with this soldier and that he
Speaker 1: was telling her a sob story and she felt bad
Speaker 1: for him and she was trying to help him because
Speaker 1: she's a kind person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so playing on patriotism, you know, appreciation for the
Speaker 4: military for a child with cancer, and it's not really
Speaker 4: costing her any money, right, so she can kind of say, well,
Speaker 4: they're not taking from me, And it's not that she
Speaker 4: knows that she's scamming somebody else. She's just, yeah, I
Speaker 4: receive some money. This is meant for you. I'll get
Speaker 4: it to you. No big deal. And so when this
Speaker 4: guy who was uncovering the scams was actually able to
Speaker 4: reach out to her and he's like, hey, am I
Speaker 4: supposed to venmo you for this kitchen aid, She's like,
Speaker 4: I don't have a kitchen aid we're we're talking about
Speaker 4: And he's like, oh, okay, have you ever received money
Speaker 4: and then sent bitcoin to somebody? And that's when she described, yes,
Speaker 4: I have, but it's for a child with cancer. And
Speaker 4: then they dug in deeper and the child with cancer
Speaker 4: was actually no longer alive anymore. This child had passed
Speaker 4: away nine years ago. These photos had been taken from
Speaker 4: an account that still kind of lived on in memorial
Speaker 4: to this child that they took those pictures from. I mean,
Speaker 4: really gross stuff happening that these scammers are doing. So
Speaker 4: she thought she was doing something legitimate. Her emotions and
Speaker 4: kindness and good naturedness is being preyed upon to then
Speaker 4: like this other person's just thinking that they're buying a
Speaker 4: kitchen aid and the old things just.
Speaker 1: All messed up. Yeah, And so these are how complex
Speaker 1: these scams are getting and so we want you to
Speaker 1: be able to identify them and be able to pretecked yourself.
Speaker 1: A few of the other Facebook marketplace scams are fake
Speaker 1: payment confirmation scams, so scammers will pose as buyers, send
Speaker 1: counterfeit payments via email or screenshots, claiming to have paid
Speaker 1: through sell Venmo or PayPal, and assert that the seller
Speaker 1: needs to. So you're selling something and they send you
Speaker 1: a screenshot that they paid, but you're not getting it
Speaker 1: because they never paid, and they say, oh, you just
Speaker 1: need to upgrade to a seller account to get my payment. Well,
Speaker 1: then you pay for a seller account and you're out
Speaker 1: that money. And then also they just didn't pay, so
Speaker 1: you're not going to get it. So you've got that
Speaker 1: and then they just are banking on that you'll send
Speaker 1: them the thing. The other is over payment and refund scams.
Speaker 1: This one's been around for a while. The scammer sends
Speaker 1: a fake payment exceeding the price and request the seller
Speaker 1: to refund the difference, and then once the seller sends
Speaker 1: the refund, they discovered the original paint was fraudulent or
Speaker 1: never processed, and then you're out that money. So I
Speaker 1: don't think a lot of people would you fall for
Speaker 1: that anymore? But it's actually still something that is going
Speaker 1: on right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it can seem so legitimate. And they'll also
Speaker 4: use a sense of urgency, making you feel bad like
Speaker 4: you've done something wrong. So depending on your awareness of
Speaker 4: what's going on in the moment, sometimes it's just I
Speaker 4: can't even think straight, and that's their goal, is for
Speaker 4: you not to have an awareness to even be able
Speaker 4: to give full thoughts to this, but just push, push, push,
Speaker 4: making you feel bad, and that's what can kind of
Speaker 4: lead people to fall for this. So here's some overall
Speaker 4: tips to protect yourself. Verify profile, so checking when you're
Speaker 4: on social media the user's profile for activity history, reviews
Speaker 4: the age of the account, how long has it been around,
Speaker 4: Being very cautious of newly created accounts, those with limited information,
Speaker 4: those with limited friends, or weird requests from somebody that
Speaker 4: you are friends with. Always be aware that accounts can
Speaker 4: be hacked. Use secure payment methods, avoid transactions outside of
Speaker 4: trusted platforms. This is one of the reasons that we
Speaker 4: do like credit cards because of the protections that they
Speaker 4: offer and the ability to get refunds when payment doesn't
Speaker 4: go through. It's also why we say. Do not have
Speaker 4: a Venmo credit card. Do not have a PayPal credit card.
Speaker 4: You can use these platforms to pay your friends. Do
Speaker 4: not keep money in them. Don't get the credit card.
Speaker 4: They do not offer the same protections as a Visa
Speaker 4: MasterCard something like that.
Speaker 1: Always meet in public places. Go meet these people in person.
Speaker 1: Do not deal in internet. If you're mind something on
Speaker 1: the internet, go to the website. Don't do it over Facebook,
Speaker 1: mark Place. If you're going to buy something on Marketplace
Speaker 1: or get a service done, deal with the website directly
Speaker 1: or deal in person. Always be skeptical of unusual requests,
Speaker 1: so deposits, overpayments, urgent transactions, anything of urgency red flags.
Speaker 1: It's so hard because you want to be able to
Speaker 1: make a blanket statement. Be like every account that's new
Speaker 1: is going to be a scam, but no accounts get packed,
Speaker 1: and people create new accounts because their old accounts got packed.
Speaker 1: So sometimes they are real people. You just don't know,
Speaker 1: So you have to just, you know, put on your
Speaker 1: thinking cap a little longer to verify.
Speaker 4: And when a doubt, ask somebody else to help you
Speaker 4: sauce it out. You don't have to be the expert
Speaker 4: on all of these things. Somebody else who maybe does
Speaker 4: Facebook marketplace a lot, ask them, Hey, what do you
Speaker 4: think about this? There's something that feels a little off,
Speaker 4: but I can't quite pinpoint it.
Speaker 3: What do you think You don't have to know it all.
Speaker 1: Ask people in real life. Don't assume that you're ignorant,
Speaker 1: because and then everything that's usually what I do. I'll
Speaker 1: go with something because I just assume I'm ignorant and
Speaker 1: everybody else knows it. Don't ask people in real life.
Speaker 1: If you work in an office, ask coworkers, or get
Speaker 1: in your slack and ask people. Ask people that you
Speaker 1: know are real people.
Speaker 4: And finally, report suspicious activities. So use Facebook's reporting tools
Speaker 4: to flag anything suspicious. The listings the users.
Speaker 3: They they want to.
Speaker 4: Be a platform that continues to exist, so it only
Speaker 4: helps them if you're able to identify and kind of
Speaker 4: just weed out these people.
Speaker 3: But they are cropping up every day and you've got
Speaker 3: to be won't.
Speaker 1: Do anything about them, but you should still report them.
Speaker 4: You should still and you should still be aware. You
Speaker 4: know what else you should be aware of that is
Speaker 4: never suspicious?
Speaker 1: You should always be doing it.
Speaker 5: The bill of the week, that's right, it's time for
Speaker 5: the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby
Speaker 5: was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid
Speaker 5: off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy
Speaker 5: to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills,
Speaker 5: Buffalo bills, Bill clean, this is the bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi, doan to My name is clean mansh in my
Speaker 6: childer week.
Speaker 1: Lena, take a dollar every Sunday, and.
Speaker 6: Then I take antoll to church every Sunday. Love your
Speaker 6: pie baked Bye.
Speaker 4: Oh we're losing our side, losing.
Speaker 1: She's already at the end of her rope. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm gone. I'm so sad for your ears. That pitch.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Oh my goodness, I am done.
Speaker 3: This was This is amazing, Quinn.
Speaker 4: We are so thrilled that you're listening to our podcast
Speaker 4: and that you've got a very cool adult taking care
Speaker 4: of you and helping you be able to hear this podcast.
Speaker 3: What a cool thing to be connected and friends with you, And.
Speaker 4: What an awesome bill of the week you have. It
Speaker 4: sounds like you are very generous taking a dollar to
Speaker 4: church every Sunday.
Speaker 3: How fun, so.
Speaker 1: Fun, Quinn, ha be free.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you are helping so many people with your
Speaker 4: weekly dollar that you're giving, and we just love the
Speaker 4: generosity that you're showing. We hope that you continue to
Speaker 4: cultivate that generosity and keep listening. We hope that this
Speaker 4: ends up being so helpful for you in your life. Quinn,
Speaker 4: thank you so much. If you all listening, have a
Speaker 4: bill you want to submit. If you're four years old
Speaker 4: and you want to talk about your generous giving, or
Speaker 4: you're eighty eight years old, your name is Bill and
Speaker 4: you want to talk about a time you did not
Speaker 4: get scammed or just what your life is like. Frugal
Speaker 4: Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We can't wait for it,
Speaker 4: and now it's time for I actually spit a little.
Speaker 6: Earlier.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, Okay, last time you felt like you got
Speaker 1: scammed or you've been scammed or really were scammed.
Speaker 3: You know that, you know I was. You just want
Speaker 3: to make me talk about it again?
Speaker 1: And I didn't do this one, Jill. I couldn't even
Speaker 1: remember if I'm the one who wrote the outline for
Speaker 1: this episode. Okay, I'm gonna be very honest. When we
Speaker 1: got into the office this morning and I looked at
Speaker 1: the outline, I was like, did I write this or
Speaker 1: did Goldie write it?
Speaker 3: And we don't know.
Speaker 1: I'd figured out that it was me wrote most of it, okay,
Speaker 1: and Goldie did add some things.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you again so you know what the more
Speaker 4: of a merrier and if my faux pause can help
Speaker 4: you all, then then I'm here for it.
Speaker 3: Sorry if this is a repeat story for you all,
Speaker 3: this is very recent, very recent.
Speaker 4: And again this was when Jen and I were not
Speaker 4: in person together, so again that fifty percent brain fifty
Speaker 4: percent brain.
Speaker 3: I didn't have her fifty percent to think this.
Speaker 1: All the way through was on social media.
Speaker 4: I was on Instagram because now I handle our Instagram
Speaker 4: account and responding to dms, and this woman had reached
Speaker 4: out saying, hey, I know this seems really weird, but
Speaker 4: I am just reaching out to anybody that I'm friends with,
Speaker 4: letting them know about my friend who's going through a
Speaker 4: really tough time. Their child is in the hospital, looking
Speaker 4: for donations. And we had already exchanged DMS, so her
Speaker 4: account at least was a listener who had reached out
Speaker 4: in the past. We had talked to them about a
Speaker 4: product that we were selling, so to me, the account
Speaker 4: seemed legitimate because we had been in communication in the past.
Speaker 4: I clicked on the link. I read through the whole thing,
Speaker 4: and I even had the thought, I don't know this person,
Speaker 4: that this child might not actually have cancer, these people
Speaker 4: might not act actually exist. However, I was like, what's
Speaker 4: the big deal, though, If I'm out twenty thirty dollars
Speaker 4: I've given if it is legit, and if it's not legit, NBD.
Speaker 4: So I did do that? What I didn't Okay, well,
Speaker 4: I'll finish the story and then I'll tell you what
Speaker 4: I didn't realize. So gave a little bit of money.
Speaker 4: Then responded to the person. I was like, hey, I'm
Speaker 4: so sorry this is happening, like, yeah, we did just
Speaker 4: send some money.
Speaker 3: I hope, I hope. I hope the best.
Speaker 4: For you and your friend. The next day that person
Speaker 4: reaches back out. They're like, oh my gosh, you guys
Speaker 4: were so sweet, but my account was hacked. Hope you
Speaker 4: can get your money back, and we were able to
Speaker 4: because thankfully we gave through a credit card. But what
Speaker 4: I didn't think about was that we had put down
Speaker 4: an address like we gave so I'm thinking we're protected
Speaker 4: by the credit card, and if this is a scam
Speaker 4: who cares. But we put down a billing address and
Speaker 4: at the time, the billing addressed was Jen's house. Now
Speaker 4: we have a real office, so we are like a
Speaker 4: little bit protected.
Speaker 3: But that was the flaw in my thinking. And I'm
Speaker 3: so sorry.
Speaker 1: It's fine, I felt.
Speaker 4: And that's the thing too that we have mentioned here.
Speaker 4: Scams can happen to anybody, and like there might be
Speaker 4: some where you are, you are locked up, you're not
Speaker 4: going to fall victim to that, but then there's others that,
Speaker 4: you know what, you might be a little bit more
Speaker 4: vulnerable too.
Speaker 3: So they found my vulnerability.
Speaker 4: Uh, and I was like, yeah, sure, what could what
Speaker 4: could go wrong? Thankfully, nothing really actually did go that
Speaker 4: wrong with it, but I did feel like such a dummy.
Speaker 1: And I hope that that story helps our listeners because
Speaker 1: you've got usually seventy five percent of a.
Speaker 3: Brain usually now and then between you and Eric you
Speaker 3: make up the rest.
Speaker 1: It's and that was the problem is that you didn't consult.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, I just send money to somebody on
Speaker 4: Instagram because I just think that everyone truly is my friend.
Speaker 1: And we are frugal friends podcasts.
Speaker 4: We have an Instagram account of people are dming me
Speaker 4: like it is us responding and you all feel like
Speaker 4: my friends. Although I hate to break it to you now,
Speaker 4: I'm jaded and if you ask me for money, I'm
Speaker 4: not giving it to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a.
Speaker 4: Small window of time where I might have given you money,
Speaker 4: but it's over now of like eight years, however.
Speaker 1: Long we've been doing this, and I don't know, just.
Speaker 4: Stinks like can you never give to a gofund me again?
Speaker 4: I mean you can, because you just have to know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but sometimes it's a co workers.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: There still can be some layers where it's like do.
Speaker 4: You know that?
Speaker 3: Do you actually know that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: That's you can google image search. That's a really good
Speaker 1: way to help verify or just ask a question. Don't
Speaker 1: think your questions are duck like, yeah, trust, but verify.
Speaker 4: Okay, John, how about you? Your turn to be vulnerable?
Speaker 4: Almost scammed? You feel like marketing? Ever kind of scams you?
Speaker 4: If you've gotten scammed in any trends.
Speaker 1: Maybe a fashion trend. I am at the end of
Speaker 1: my rope, so I'm sure there is a scam and
Speaker 1: maybe I just don't realize that I have been scammed yet.
Speaker 1: I am actually super cynical, and I don't well, and
Speaker 1: maybe that's why I get hyper fixated on scams, because
Speaker 1: I think everything's a scam and I just like to
Speaker 1: be verified in that.
Speaker 4: So I would say, as an observer, the only thing
Speaker 4: that really does get you is marketing. Good marketing for
Speaker 4: something that's going to solve a problem for you, you will do.
Speaker 3: That's not a scam adjacent.
Speaker 1: Okay, So here is one. I had been following this
Speaker 1: digital marketer for quite a while in the printable space,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to get into selling downloadable principles and
Speaker 1: she was selling, of course on how she had made
Speaker 1: a million dollars selling these really robust printable packets, really
Speaker 1: doing a lot of them for free, and that was
Speaker 1: a form of marketing. And I wanted to buy the
Speaker 1: course it was two thousand dollars and found out that
Speaker 1: my friend Caroline, our friend Caroline Benseil, she actually had
Speaker 1: the course, but she hadn't spent two thousand dollars on it,
Speaker 1: and so I had told her I wanted to take
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, i'll give you the log in.
Speaker 1: You're not and you're gonna know why as soon as
Speaker 1: I give it to you, because typically that's not a
Speaker 1: good thing, like you want to respect somebody's intellectual property
Speaker 1: and purchase it. But I understood why when she gave
Speaker 1: me the log in. It was the worst course I've
Speaker 1: ever purchased or not purchased. I'm so glad I didn't.
Speaker 1: It was so bad, and like half of the course
Speaker 1: was about trusting God with your business. It wasn't about principles.
Speaker 1: She set her sex success what's do And so I'm
Speaker 1: really glad I didn't pay for it. I wanted to
Speaker 1: email her and just give her some constructive criticism. I
Speaker 1: realized later that she had a mental break. She was
Speaker 1: actually featured in a couple in a couple places for
Speaker 1: doing illegal things because of her psychotic break, And so
Speaker 1: because of her psychosis, she thought she was a successful
Speaker 1: printable business owner who'd made a million dollars, and she
Speaker 1: was not.
Speaker 4: So telling everybody that everybody would believe her, no reason
Speaker 4: to not no way to really verify.
Speaker 1: Oh and crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so that was the closest I've been to being
Speaker 1: scammed from marketing that I can remember off the top
Speaker 1: of my head. Again, I think I'm dumb on the internet,
Speaker 1: and I assume that I don't know, and I just
Speaker 1: go along them. Yeah, so that is That's my story.
Speaker 1: And I hope that this episode has helped you avoid
Speaker 1: some potential scams and you can be that real life
Speaker 1: person that helps other people avoid scams.
Speaker 4: It doesn't stop with you avoiding scams. You need to
Speaker 4: also help others to avoid scams. It takes a team
Speaker 4: and a community. Yes, thank you all so much for listening.
Speaker 4: We love being a part of your community, and we
Speaker 4: love reading your kind reviews on the book.
Speaker 1: Which that's not a scam. We actually wrote a book
Speaker 1: you can buy.
Speaker 4: And here's an example of a review on our book
Speaker 4: from Teak in five stars says, buy what you love
Speaker 4: without going broke is unlike other personal finance books I've read,
Speaker 4: and only in good ways. Jenn and Jill wrote this
Speaker 4: book to show the work on the things you can
Speaker 4: do without selling a course or coaching program like so many,
Speaker 4: to achieve your goals using values based spending instructions, Stories,
Speaker 4: applicable statistics, and funny anecdotes are sprinkled throughout the knowledge
Speaker 4: they present on simplifying finances and life for average people
Speaker 4: and families. I love their focus on community and contentment.
Speaker 4: A quote from the books she loved. We can buy
Speaker 4: when we can buy ourselves out of our problems? What
Speaker 4: happens to belonging, sharing, knowing, and supporting. With the new
Speaker 4: but much needed trend on social media of under consumption
Speaker 4: along with more people trying out no spend challenges, this
Speaker 4: book is perfectly timed and could make such an impact
Speaker 4: on anyone's life. I am a longtime listener to FORR
Speaker 4: Girlfriend's podcasts, and this book conveys the foundational messages of
Speaker 4: many of the episodes.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you so much, Tiegan. This is so nice
Speaker 1: to hear, and I'm really glad that our listeners have
Speaker 1: been jiving with the book. I want everybody to jive
Speaker 1: with it. But it is truly a love letter for
Speaker 1: anybody who enjoys the podcast that I think you will
Speaker 1: enjoy and get a lot out of the book, and
Speaker 1: it'll save you sometime. You won't have to listen to
Speaker 1: five hundred other episodes. You can just read the book
Speaker 1: and get the gist.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you liked the book, please leave us
Speaker 4: a review. If you like this podcast, please leave us
Speaker 4: a rating and review and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So this
Speaker 1: episode releases on June sixth, which is six six. I
Speaker 1: graduated high school in two thousand and six, and I
Speaker 1: remember after I graduated, I went on a europe trip
Speaker 1: with some people from It was like school sponsored. But
Speaker 1: we left on June sixth, two thousand and six, six.
Speaker 3: And it's about to be in a year six o
Speaker 3: six twenties, right, But.
Speaker 1: I remember being on a plane over the ocean on six.
Speaker 3: Six six, and You're like, this feels right.
Speaker 1: I live to tell the tale.
Speaker 3: Wow, you graduated high school two years before me.
Speaker 1: I graduated high school a year early, so I know
Speaker 1: I'm only three months older than you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and my parents held me back, so I graduated
Speaker 4: a little bit later.
Speaker 1: So that's how we got there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, yeah, similar age. But you're just you just got
Speaker 4: work done so much faster than me. And that's why
Speaker 4: I fall for scams and you jus I gets.
Speaker 1: I gets like that, but wow, no happy June