Speaker 1: Episode four seventy five, Top six money making scams to
Speaker 1: look out for in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking scams
Speaker 1: that are on the rise. We listen and we don't
Speaker 1: judge because everyone is susceptible to scams.
Speaker 3: And especially when they're getting so much more nuanced and
Speaker 3: sophisticated and looking like the real deal, it can be
Speaker 3: so so easy to fall into some sort of trap,
Speaker 3: especially if we're not on guard. I know so many
Speaker 3: people personally who have found themselves a part of a scam.
Speaker 3: It depends on how far they've gotten into it. But
Speaker 3: realizing whoe that almost got me or that did get me,
Speaker 3: and so it doesn't discriminate anybody could fall victims. So
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about that and help you to
Speaker 3: be more equipped for kind of detecting these things and
Speaker 3: protecting yourselves. But first, this episode is brought to you
Speaker 3: by the Real Deal. We're not doing fake cheap stuff
Speaker 3: over here. No knockoffs or scams. We're talking the pure, legit,
Speaker 3: real thing, like us in the flesh doing a book
Speaker 3: signing at Tombolo Books in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth
Speaker 3: from seven to eight pm. It's the real deal, folks,
Speaker 3: hope to see you there. If you are in the area,
Speaker 3: if you're local or even within a short driving distance,
Speaker 3: come see us January fourteenth at seven pm at Tambolo.
Speaker 3: It'll be fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, head to Tombolo's website to RSVP and can't wait
Speaker 1: to see you there. So it is January, and in
Speaker 1: January a lot of people make the goal to pay
Speaker 1: off their debt. I know the first thing I did
Speaker 1: when I decided to pay off debt was figure out
Speaker 1: how can I earn more money so I can pay
Speaker 1: this debt off faster. And when you're trying to make
Speaker 1: money on the side, you can get into some dodgy places.
Speaker 1: And the dodgiest of places are the things that scam you.
Speaker 1: But they scam you off the back of something that
Speaker 1: actually can make you money. And so that's a lot
Speaker 1: of what we are seeing in twenty twenty five for
Speaker 1: these scams that are on the rise. We went to
Speaker 1: the FTC dot gov website and looked at their past
Speaker 1: year of scam updates, specifically just for making money. We
Speaker 1: love scam, we do periodic scam.
Speaker 3: We don't love that they happen right right right, just
Speaker 3: are obsessed.
Speaker 4: We are learning about them.
Speaker 1: Are obsessed with them and helping people because the more
Speaker 1: we read, the more we realize that anybody can get scammed.
Speaker 1: It is truly a you know, scammers spray and pray
Speaker 1: for you to be at the wrong place, wrong headspace,
Speaker 1: wrong time, and that's it and then they've got it.
Speaker 1: So this is definitely where a lot of people will
Speaker 1: be at the wrong place at the wrong time looking
Speaker 1: to make money. But if you also are obsessed with scams,
Speaker 1: some of our past scam episodes, we did episode three
Speaker 1: eighty Love and Money Romance Scams with April Helm and
Speaker 1: we also did episode three point fifty my favorite money
Speaker 1: murder Scams, where we just read some of our favorite
Speaker 1: Reddit posts where scammers have murdered people's money and I
Speaker 1: believe that we should. That was a Halloween episode and
Speaker 1: I believe I want to do something like that again
Speaker 1: because Reddit never fails with the r scams. If you
Speaker 1: are interested in learning more about scams. Are scams on Reddit?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, that's better than Google right now.
Speaker 3: It was a little bit of a departure from our
Speaker 3: typical episodes, but it felt so right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: So let's start out with just a couple of overall
Speaker 1: tips to take with you some mindsets when you are
Speaker 1: looking for a side job or even a different job.
Speaker 1: So maybe you're trying to make more money, switching careers, industries,
Speaker 1: going back to work, whatever. So the first thing, and
Speaker 1: some of these are going to seem obvious, but it's
Speaker 1: good to be reminded it is. So.
Speaker 4: The first one is.
Speaker 1: Are they asking you to pay for a job?
Speaker 3: On?
Speaker 1: Employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to
Speaker 1: pay to get a job. Anyone who does this is
Speaker 1: a scamer. Even if they are asking you to pay
Speaker 1: for education through their company to get their job.
Speaker 3: It's pay for the equipment. I've heard of that too,
Speaker 3: which sometimes that will happen, right if you are a
Speaker 3: if you're a barber, you're gonna have to pay for
Speaker 3: your own equipment to start at a salon. So the
Speaker 3: reason that we can fall victim to this is because
Speaker 3: it does happen for some people, or if you're kind
Speaker 3: of getting into a new field. I knew a guy
Speaker 3: who this had happened to where he was starting a
Speaker 3: remote job. He'd never worked remotely, and so they were like,
Speaker 3: you have to buy your computer, you have to do
Speaker 3: these different things. He's like, Okay, like I've never done
Speaker 3: this before. That seems like it would make sense that
Speaker 3: I'd have to purchase my equipment to do this job.
Speaker 3: And turns out it was a scam. But yeah, you
Speaker 3: really can't fault them for that.
Speaker 1: H what do you know about them? So search online.
Speaker 1: This is probably the most important thing you should do
Speaker 1: with any opportunity, is to search online for the name
Speaker 1: of the company plus the word scam, review complaint. Do
Speaker 1: all three of those searches to figure out if they've
Speaker 1: scammed other people.
Speaker 3: Also, make sure that the reviews about this company this
Speaker 3: job are real. Sometimes success stories and testimonials might be
Speaker 3: too much of a glowing success story, which could be
Speaker 3: really misleading, So be wary of the ones that just
Speaker 3: look so positive, so too good to be true. Maybe
Speaker 3: even click on some of these profiles see if the
Speaker 3: people who are reviewing have ever reviewed other things. Make
Speaker 3: sure that they are legit reviewers, so do a little
Speaker 3: bit more digging.
Speaker 1: This is so, so so important. I was just reading
Speaker 1: on Reddit this morning of a social media this is
Speaker 1: a survey scam specifically, but they took this girl's TikTok,
Speaker 1: who is a real influencer. They stole her video, very
Speaker 1: good quality, and they just put like a seven hundred
Speaker 1: dollars Amazon gift card over it. They sponsored the post,
Speaker 1: so this is a paid post that you would be
Speaker 1: seeing in your feed and basically saying how she does
Speaker 1: surveys to make money. She's not talking about this company,
Speaker 1: and she's also not talking about making seven hundred dollars
Speaker 1: on a survey for this company. And so it was
Speaker 1: a scam, but they stole they stole the video so
Speaker 1: it looked legit. They also bought likes and comments, and
Speaker 1: you would have to see that. You would if you
Speaker 1: clicked on the commenters, if you clicked on the profiles
Speaker 1: of all these likes and commenters, then you can see
Speaker 1: there's like no followers, no interaction, they're all bots. But
Speaker 1: you'd have to click through and look do your research
Speaker 1: before you figured that out. It's very easy though, to
Speaker 1: see once you click through and that leads into LAS one.
Speaker 1: What does a trusted friend or loved one think about
Speaker 1: the offer? So go and don't just take influencers' words
Speaker 1: for it, because it might not really be their words.
Speaker 1: They might it could even be AI. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: AI later. They are doing, they're taking the likenesses of
Speaker 1: influencers or just random people and having them talk about
Speaker 1: false things. So talk to real people that you trust
Speaker 1: in real life and actually listen to their opinions.
Speaker 3: So the first scam that we're going to talk about
Speaker 3: here is a car wrap scam. This one seemed to
Speaker 3: be on the rise in twenty twenty four, and they
Speaker 3: usually will target college students, but kind of anyone in
Speaker 3: particular who's looking to make money. They usually are going
Speaker 3: to be offering around six hundred to seven hundred dollars
Speaker 3: a week to drive around with an ad for some
Speaker 3: well known company wrapped around your car, like literally like
Speaker 3: a big billboard that your car could get wrapped in.
Speaker 3: They're saying that. Usually it's an energy drink that they're saying,
Speaker 3: you know, wrap your car and this advertisement for this
Speaker 3: energy drink will pay you six hundred to seven hundred
Speaker 3: dollars a week. Just to drive around and basically be advertising.
Speaker 3: And the thing about this is it is a legit thing.
Speaker 3: I do know people who have done car wraps got
Speaker 3: paid for it. It's something Eric and I had even
Speaker 3: talked about doing when we lived in our RV, was
Speaker 3: we're gonna be going on road trips, we could get
Speaker 3: our RV wrapped and practically pay for all of the
Speaker 3: renovations of our RV. We didn't end up doing that,
Speaker 3: but it's one of those things that is legit, and
Speaker 3: then people are capitalizing on that and taking your money.
Speaker 3: So here's how this scam would work. They would send
Speaker 3: you a check for a certain amount of money. Let's
Speaker 3: say they're sending you, you know, six hundred and seven
Speaker 3: hundred dollars up front, and they're telling you to use
Speaker 3: a portion of that money to wrap your vehicle. And
Speaker 3: they of course are handling the wrapping as well. So
Speaker 3: they send you this money. It's a fake check. However,
Speaker 3: the bank will clear the check. The banks won't usually
Speaker 3: catch fraudulent checks until days, possibly even a week after
Speaker 3: the check clear about a week, so the money is
Speaker 3: like technically somewhat accessible or at least pending in your account.
Speaker 3: And then they're saying, now you pay us, let's say
Speaker 3: four hundred dollars to wrap your vehicle. You pay them
Speaker 3: then out of your own pocket. The bank catches that
Speaker 3: it's a fraudulent check. They reverse the transaction, So now
Speaker 3: the money's no longer there and you are out the
Speaker 3: money that you had paid back to the scammer to
Speaker 3: quote unquote wrap your car. But it never ended up happening.
Speaker 3: Plus you might end up paying a processing fee or
Speaker 3: some sort of yeah, bank fees because fraudulent.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In the comment, people are saying doctor Pepper is a
Speaker 1: big one that they've been trying to get. That they've
Speaker 1: been saying to get raps. F G fuel is another one.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing amounts for five thousand dollars checks, thirty two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, fifteen hundred, and it's all like they deposit
Speaker 1: it and then one week later is when the bank
Speaker 1: finally tells them it's fake. So it's a real thing.
Speaker 1: But do not if somebody approaches you, then it is
Speaker 1: a scam and maybe you won't fall for it. But
Speaker 1: if you have young people in your life that are
Speaker 1: in college, then make them aware of stuff like.
Speaker 3: This, because you might be thinking well, they gave me
Speaker 3: the money, so that makes sense for me to have
Speaker 3: to pay, but it might not.
Speaker 4: It might not be real money.
Speaker 1: Next one, I think is one that might get a
Speaker 1: lot of people, and that's appointment setters. So there's this
Speaker 1: new trend on social media claiming that you can work
Speaker 1: from home and make big money as an appointment setter
Speaker 1: for different companies sales staff potential clients to close deals.
Speaker 1: You're typically paid an hour hourly rate, but you might
Speaker 1: earn bonuses based on the number of appointments you successfully
Speaker 1: set if you need. So this is a real job,
Speaker 1: but it's a modestly paid job and it will be
Speaker 1: far more overinflated what you can make by these people
Speaker 1: on social media. They will say you need training that
Speaker 1: you need to pay for. That is absolutely false. If
Speaker 1: you get an appointment setter job, any training you need,
Speaker 1: your employer should offer it at no cost to you. So, again,
Speaker 1: modest income. It is something that can be done like
Speaker 1: very easily. It's if you can get it. If you
Speaker 1: can get the work, then it's not bad. It's some
Speaker 1: good extra money. But the truth is honest. Employers will
Speaker 1: never ask you to pay to get a job, and
Speaker 1: no one can guarantee you a job. These scammers will
Speaker 1: also guarantee these jobs and they just they can't. So
Speaker 1: do your research again, check Google, company, review, company, scam
Speaker 1: company complaint, and take into consideration those things we talked
Speaker 1: about at the top of the episode.
Speaker 3: The next one that we're going to talk about is
Speaker 3: fake investment opportunities. This could be anything from business opportunities
Speaker 3: to investments. There's a lot of scammers out there using
Speaker 3: kind of like infusing AI into the frauds and scams
Speaker 3: that they are operating. So it could be that when
Speaker 3: you're asking, you know, you're chatting with some chatbot about
Speaker 3: a business opportunity or some sort of investing that you're
Speaker 3: not even actually talking to a real person, but they're
Speaker 3: kind of like faking a real person. That these scammers
Speaker 3: have trained the chatbots to respond in a way that's fraudulent, misleading,
Speaker 3: giving you incorrect information, probably causing you to then invest
Speaker 3: monetarily your money and none of it is real.
Speaker 1: So this one's a wild one, and we talked about
Speaker 1: this in our other scam episodes for Romance and My
Speaker 1: Favorite Money Murder, that they will impersonate someone you know.
Speaker 1: This will not just look like it's coming from a
Speaker 1: random ever you've never met, and they can use the
Speaker 1: AI technology. You can get on the phone with them
Speaker 1: and think it's somebody that you know that you are
Speaker 1: talking about a business opportunity with It is wild. The
Speaker 1: favorite money murder one. They were using the AI voice
Speaker 1: to make it sound like someone you love is being
Speaker 1: held hostage and you need to send money to get
Speaker 1: them out. And that was all AI. And one of
Speaker 1: the things one of the recommendations was is hang up
Speaker 1: and call the person who is supposedly kidnapped. But AI
Speaker 1: is getting more and more sophisticated, and so if it
Speaker 1: gives you a bad feeling, especially if it's a business
Speaker 1: investment or a stock or a crypto investment, then reach
Speaker 1: out to the person like in another way, or anybody
Speaker 1: else who may know them, or any of that to
Speaker 1: get verification.
Speaker 3: They also recommend that if you're thinking about buying into
Speaker 3: a business opportunity, ask the seller to give you a
Speaker 3: one page disclosure document, which is required by law by
Speaker 3: legit businesses. So if the seller makes any earnings claim,
Speaker 3: they also must give you an earnings claim statement. And
Speaker 3: if they then say anything that contradicts what's written in
Speaker 3: their disclosure document or their earnings claim statement. This could
Speaker 3: also be a sign of a shady business. So I
Speaker 3: think some of the biggest takeaways here is just even
Speaker 3: more research, not just trusting the things at face value.
Speaker 1: The next one I think will also be huge in
Speaker 1: this community or could be, and its task scams. So
Speaker 1: they create the illusion of making money and it will
Speaker 1: always start with you getting a message. Actually I don't
Speaker 1: want to say it will always start with you getting
Speaker 1: a message, but essentially what it is in a task scam,
Speaker 1: scammers ask you to do simple, repetitive tasks, such as
Speaker 1: liking videos or rating product images online. The supposed job
Speaker 1: is to complete tasks in an app or online platform
Speaker 1: for which you'll earn money from a quote unquote commission
Speaker 1: on each clip. But those promises are fake. They aren't
Speaker 1: real commissions. There are no commissions and nobody but the
Speaker 1: scammers make money. And the reason this really caught me
Speaker 1: is because I did something like this legitimately to make
Speaker 1: money when we were paying off debt. I was in
Speaker 1: I think it was lion Bridge was I was evaluating search.
Speaker 1: I was a human search engine optimizer. I was looking
Speaker 1: at what I think it was for Facebook what the
Speaker 1: search was and then what the results were, and I
Speaker 1: was kind of rating what the search results were, or
Speaker 1: I was watching like videos to kind of help the
Speaker 1: algorithm make sure it was giving the best search results.
Speaker 1: That's what I was doing. But it was for a
Speaker 1: legitimate company that I had applied for that had not
Speaker 1: reached out to me, and it was it did not
Speaker 1: feel scammy, was on the up and up, and I
Speaker 1: did make money doing that. So this is like those
Speaker 1: influencers or people it's like get paid to watch videos
Speaker 1: and just make it sound too easy.
Speaker 4: It was not.
Speaker 1: Complicated work, but it was still like time consuming. So
Speaker 1: it worries me so much that these tasks are so
Speaker 1: close to what actual money making like tasks could be.
Speaker 1: It's insane. So in order to amvoid these and ignore
Speaker 1: generic or unexpected get texts or What's app messages about jobs,
Speaker 1: real employers will never contact you unless you contact them first,
Speaker 1: and never pay anyone to get paid or to get
Speaker 1: a job. I never had to pay for anything, and
Speaker 1: don't trust anyone who says they'll pay you to rate
Speaker 1: or like things. That's not what I was doing. It
Speaker 1: was not rating, I was not liking. I was helping
Speaker 1: the algorithm. I was a human brain teaching a computer algorithm,
Speaker 1: which now sounds like I'm helping our robot overlords hang over, but.
Speaker 3: Training it in the good way, not in the fraudulent way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was real funny stuff like real bizarre, real random.
Speaker 1: It was always it gave me interesting things to learn.
Speaker 4: I think that's funny. Okay.
Speaker 3: The last one for me on here is post office jobs,
Speaker 3: and I found this one so interesting. But also I
Speaker 3: feel like I've also seen these as well, like specifically
Speaker 3: looking for a postal job. And maybe part of it
Speaker 3: is because there is, at least for me, this idea
Speaker 3: that that's a good job, like they make good wages,
Speaker 3: you've got good pension like, and they're hard to come by,
Speaker 3: like they don't often there's not a lot of turnover
Speaker 3: within postal work. So this is just my impression of
Speaker 3: these types of jobs. So maybe that's in part why
Speaker 3: this particular type of job is so useful for scamming.
Speaker 3: But essentially they are the scammers would be reaching out
Speaker 3: as if they are the usps. They will post an
Speaker 3: ad or a listing maybe to your email, and it
Speaker 3: will link to a website that looks like a real
Speaker 3: USPS website has the logo, it has everything, but it's
Speaker 3: actually a copy. And so when you're on this kind
Speaker 3: of fake website, everything is created by the scammers, and
Speaker 3: they may ask you for a registration fee, your application
Speaker 3: or employment package fee, or a fee to apply, or
Speaker 3: a fee to take the Postal Service exam. The pattern
Speaker 3: here is that they're asking you to pay in order
Speaker 3: to get this job. And so the takeaway here is
Speaker 3: that it is free to apply for jobs. You should
Speaker 3: not have to pay an application fee to apply for jobs,
Speaker 3: and to go to the true legitimate websites. I think
Speaker 3: being wary of any link that is sent to you
Speaker 3: through a text, through an email on social media, instead
Speaker 3: going to the website itself, rather than taking the link
Speaker 3: that someone is just sending you, because even though it
Speaker 3: looks legit, it might not be. It could just be
Speaker 3: a very very good copy.
Speaker 1: I'd like to give an honorable Do I still have
Speaker 1: one left?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Do we do six? Okay?
Speaker 1: I want to say I have an honorable mention after this? Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: but my last one, this is another one I did
Speaker 1: while I was paying off debt.
Speaker 4: I've done this one too.
Speaker 1: Mystery shopping So mystery shopping is where companies will send
Speaker 1: mystery shoppers into stores, into restaurants to try products or services,
Speaker 1: like to see how the service is by the weight staff,
Speaker 1: how the food is in restaurants, all kinds of just
Speaker 1: get the overall customer experience. I did a couple movie
Speaker 1: ones where I had to go to the bar and
Speaker 1: see if I was id'd, and one time I was not.
Speaker 1: I know, I Oh gosh. I felt so bad. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, I'm going to get you fired. I'm
Speaker 1: so sad, but I got to see a free movie
Speaker 1: and get.
Speaker 4: A free drink. Nice.
Speaker 1: So while some mystery shopping jobs are legitimate, there is
Speaker 1: best Mark, Coil. Those are only two come coming off
Speaker 1: the top of my head. I was working with like
Speaker 1: four or five at a time. They specialize in different things.
Speaker 1: Like Coil is just hospitality, so it's restaurants and hotel stays,
Speaker 1: but you really got to you got to do a
Speaker 1: lot with them in order to get a hotel stay.
Speaker 1: Best Mark is like oil changes, like a lot of
Speaker 1: going to car dealerships and test driving cars, all kinds.
Speaker 3: Of things but which are legit.
Speaker 1: Right, But no mystery shop being company will ever send
Speaker 1: you a check and say deposit it to buy gift cards.
Speaker 1: That is not a mystery shopping job that you will
Speaker 1: ever see. Uh, And so they want you to send
Speaker 1: them like the numbers on the back of the gift
Speaker 1: cards and then they say you get the money, but
Speaker 1: they're taking it all. So no mystery shopping job will
Speaker 1: ever ask you.
Speaker 4: They will.
Speaker 1: And see this is where it gets dicey. You do
Speaker 1: have to pay for your meal or your product during
Speaker 1: the mystery shop, Yeah, and then they reimburse you and
Speaker 1: pay you usually on top of it. So it is
Speaker 1: buying a gift card could seem like an actual thing
Speaker 1: that you would have to do as a mystery shopper,
Speaker 1: but that is not something they're ever going to that
Speaker 1: particular thing going to ask you to buy. They don't
Speaker 1: ask you to buy something specific. Like if you go
Speaker 1: in you order to a restaurant, you order whatever food
Speaker 1: you want. They'll say order two entrees and two drinks,
Speaker 1: but you get whatever you want like in those categories.
Speaker 1: Same like if you go into Target, you buy, like
Speaker 1: buy a beauty product, They're not going to tell you
Speaker 1: exactly like what to buy. So they're not going to
Speaker 1: tell you to buy a specific thing that's a sign
Speaker 1: of a scam.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: That was the thing with mystery like the legit mystery
Speaker 3: shopping that I didn't love is that you had to
Speaker 3: pay it all out of pocket and then it took
Speaker 3: like three months to get reimbursed. So that was just
Speaker 3: too long a time for me when I'm in the
Speaker 3: midst of debt payoff.
Speaker 1: Mystery shopping is not a way to like really make
Speaker 1: money for us. It was a way to get out
Speaker 1: of the house and do things without spend, like without
Speaker 1: dipping into our budget. That's what we used it for.
Speaker 1: So we didn't do a lot of I still get
Speaker 1: emails from these companies right now. They have one where
Speaker 1: they are doing they're helping a company do like a
Speaker 1: total like restock of their changing their branding and so
Speaker 1: they're taking everything out and putting everything back in. So
Speaker 1: that's something you like people can get paid to help
Speaker 1: with right now. So we didn't do stuff like that.
Speaker 1: We just did like the restaurants, the movie theaters, just
Speaker 1: the fun stuff that we could get out of the house,
Speaker 1: have a date night and have it covered. But I
Speaker 1: would have to spend like an hour hour and have
Speaker 1: after writing a report, I would have to take pictures
Speaker 1: during it, so like it wasn't something we did often.
Speaker 1: It did not seem glamorous, right, So if it seems
Speaker 1: too good to be true with mystery shopping, it absolutely is.
Speaker 3: I think the gift cards, the gift card thing is
Speaker 3: one of those red flag pieces, like if someone's asking
Speaker 3: you to get gift cards, that should raise some alarm
Speaker 3: bells that ooh, this might be a scam. This is
Speaker 3: probably a scam. Okay, what's your honorable mention?
Speaker 1: My honorable mention is MLMs because they do fit several
Speaker 1: places on our list of money making scams.
Speaker 4: They did come up quite a bit.
Speaker 3: If you were to google money making scams, you are
Speaker 3: going to see MLMs on nearly every list.
Speaker 1: So, and my girlipops, if you are buying from your
Speaker 1: friend's MLM, you are perpetuating the problem. You are part
Speaker 1: of the problem, even if you're not joining one and participating.
Speaker 1: If you are buying from one, sensy, I can't have
Speaker 1: bought well. A lot of them have changed to affiliate
Speaker 1: models in twenty twenty four, so that is something to
Speaker 1: be aware of. Some of your least favorite MLMs are
Speaker 1: no longer MLMs, like Saint Arbond Body which was Beach
Speaker 1: Body are no longer MLMs.
Speaker 4: Oh that's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's just I mean, be aware that you
Speaker 1: have to pay for this business opportunity and then you
Speaker 1: have to pay monthly for either website fees or product minimums.
Speaker 1: If you're not selling your minimum and you want to
Speaker 1: you know, maintain in the company, then you have to
Speaker 1: buy product. That is that's a scam. You're you know,
Speaker 1: there is, there is not And according to the I
Speaker 1: think it was the the FTC. Some part is in
Speaker 1: order to avoid legal action, they actually consider like the
Speaker 1: person at the top, and they're downline. They're downline. You know,
Speaker 1: boss babes are legally considered customers. So you're not to
Speaker 1: your upline, you're not a boss babe, you are their customer. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're and not supporting that's in the contracts.
Speaker 3: You're not supporting small business owners. And when most of
Speaker 3: the money is made off of recruiting others who have
Speaker 3: to buy their own inventory, research shows the people at
Speaker 3: the bottom are not making any money. It's the top
Speaker 3: one percent that's actually making money. But yet all these
Speaker 3: promises of if you work harder, you hustle harder, you
Speaker 3: get more people in your downline, then you'll you'll do it.
Speaker 3: You'll finally get there, you'll finally arrive, and it just
Speaker 3: doesn't get there because really the population there's not enough
Speaker 3: people for you once you're at level six, seven, eight
Speaker 3: for you to actually make any money.
Speaker 4: That's just statistics and.
Speaker 1: Mass MLMs are declining, They declined greatly. The ones that
Speaker 1: still are multi level are just are dropping. I love
Speaker 1: to watch Cci Suarez and Hannah Alonso just like totally
Speaker 1: go in like nerd out on these things. I think
Speaker 1: our biggest issue right now is that we do still
Speaker 1: see buying from your friend's MLM is supporting small business
Speaker 1: and really you are supporting scammers. So that I think
Speaker 1: that's why I wanted to give it an honorable mention,
Speaker 1: because it is not a scam on the rise, but
Speaker 1: we could still be contributing to it by purchasing these products,
Speaker 1: so be aware.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's not to be like rude to the
Speaker 3: friends who are involved in this, but I think that
Speaker 3: there can be some education and information that happens to
Speaker 3: kind of help people have legitimate paying jobs because I
Speaker 3: think the desire is real, right, Like we find ourselves
Speaker 3: in these any of these scams that we've listed off
Speaker 3: out of in some circumstances, desperation for I need to
Speaker 3: be able to pay my bills, I need to be
Speaker 3: able to earn a little bit more income. I want to,
Speaker 3: you know, to keep living in this house, but the
Speaker 3: cost of living keeps rising.
Speaker 4: So what do I do?
Speaker 3: And I think that that urgency, that desperation can make
Speaker 3: us even more vulnerable to some of these things that
Speaker 3: are like, oh man, that wouldn't require a ton of time.
Speaker 3: I can make a lot of money, and oftentimes it's
Speaker 3: just it's too good to be true.
Speaker 1: I think honestly, it comes back to that I deserve mentality,
Speaker 1: Like they will get you with. You deserve to be
Speaker 1: a business owner, You deserve time, flexibility, And you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: yes I deserve this, But we're thinking too, who's small
Speaker 1: is the problem? Yes you deserve it, but you deserve
Speaker 1: more and you can do better. But we just don't
Speaker 1: think that we deserve that level that we are truly
Speaker 1: capable and deserving of. Like we're talking now about like
Speaker 1: how do we invest in businesses in our local community,
Speaker 1: like not just to like build up our local community,
Speaker 1: but to also make money and like honor this desire
Speaker 1: in ourselves to be business owners, to be our own boss.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of ways that you can
Speaker 1: be a business owner of a legitimate business with not
Speaker 1: hundreds and thousands of dollars of capital. And there's just
Speaker 1: it's who you surround yourself to figure out, Like are
Speaker 1: you surrounding yourself with internet and social media influencer scammers
Speaker 1: who are trying to lead you down the quote unquote
Speaker 1: passive income scam path or like legitimate like business owners
Speaker 1: who have experience and can mentor you.
Speaker 3: Do you know what else we deserve And every single
Speaker 3: episode is.
Speaker 1: Really the biggest and the best, and it has inspired
Speaker 1: me to be greater.
Speaker 6: The Bill of the week, that's right, it's time for
Speaker 6: the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 2: Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 6: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
Speaker 6: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 6: That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 6: of the week.
Speaker 5: Hi Jen, Hi Jill. This is Michelle from southern Orange County, California.
Speaker 5: My bill of the week this week is our new
Speaker 5: refrigerator bill. Our fridge went out Labor Day weekend, and
Speaker 5: I saw on the friend letter that there's usually appliant
Speaker 5: sales during Labor Day weekend. But luckily, even before then,
Speaker 5: my husband, his name's Jeff, he actually looked into how
Speaker 5: to maybe fix the fridge. First. When that wasn't going
Speaker 5: to work out, we went to the home depot and
Speaker 5: we got a fridge, and it was a little bit
Speaker 5: above our budget, but he decided to ask if they
Speaker 5: could do anything about that, and they did, and they
Speaker 5: gave him a huge discount on top of the Labor
Speaker 5: Day sale, so that was awesome. And then when they
Speaker 5: delivered the fridge the next weekend, we were able to
Speaker 5: get even more of a discount because there was a
Speaker 5: small damage. And he just called the person up and said, hey,
Speaker 5: this is what happened. The delivery people said this amount,
Speaker 5: and the person was like, oh, okay, well let me
Speaker 5: give you an extra hundred dollars off. So our bill
Speaker 5: went like four thousand down to like twenty two hundred.
Speaker 5: So that's my bill of the week. Thank you bye.
Speaker 1: Whoa yes. Yeah. So in the front letter every month,
Speaker 1: we're talking about we don't just talk about freebies, but
Speaker 1: also like when the best sales are because we know,
Speaker 1: like we can be tricked by sales, right, Sometimes sales
Speaker 1: are like, oh, it's one of a kind, but it
Speaker 1: never is. But if there truly is like a best sale, time,
Speaker 1: we're gonna tell you about it. Like appliances. I went
Speaker 1: into home deep BOMs, like, when are the best sales
Speaker 1: and dude, was like Fourth of July and Labor Day
Speaker 1: sometimes Black Friday, Yeah, and those are the three best ones.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we just got appliances as well with Black Friday,
Speaker 3: and it was a legit deal and the deal did
Speaker 3: legitimately end.
Speaker 4: Now they're back up to full price.
Speaker 3: So yeah, Sometimes, especially if you're in the market for
Speaker 3: these things, it's good to know when you can be
Speaker 3: purchasing these things and then be preparing for it. So
Speaker 3: great tips here, congratulations and also well done even negotiating
Speaker 3: further for a discount. Sometimes we can assume that these
Speaker 3: big box stores like home Depot are not going to
Speaker 3: be able to offer us further deals and discounts, but
Speaker 3: you just never know what other deals could possibly be happening,
Speaker 3: whether or not they're trying to offload certain products from
Speaker 3: the floor.
Speaker 4: Who knows.
Speaker 3: And then yes, when the item is delivered if there
Speaker 3: are small minor damages that could also lead to a discount,
Speaker 3: So well done. This is an extreme drop in price,
Speaker 3: and yet you still have a new fridge.
Speaker 4: That's so exciting.
Speaker 3: If you all listening have a bill you want to submit,
Speaker 3: if it's about negotiating, timing the sales, getting new appliances,
Speaker 3: trying to repair your stuff first.
Speaker 1: Yes, as we glossed over that one, but well done,
Speaker 1: then call it in.
Speaker 4: Leave us the bill. We we just love.
Speaker 3: Hearing from you and all of your creative ideas about
Speaker 3: Bill Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We can't
Speaker 3: wait to hear it. And now it's time for the
Speaker 3: lightning round you.
Speaker 1: All Right, a time you suspected you were being scammed online,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, survey scams, Like it's normal for a survey,
Speaker 1: you do the onboarding and it's normal to not get
Speaker 1: picked for the actual paid survey. But like, because of that,
Speaker 1: I did several like survey scams that didn't get I'd
Speaker 1: like never gave anybody, Like I never got any money
Speaker 1: sent to me or deposited any money, or like took
Speaker 1: it too far. But it was just annoying when you're like, ugh,
Speaker 1: I just wasted my time and this is a scam.
Speaker 1: Like I don't don't get scammed in the end, but
Speaker 1: like just the waste of time figuring out it's a scam.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now I don't do any surveys anymore.
Speaker 3: Because it's just too much work to figure out is
Speaker 3: this even legitim.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whether it's legit or not not worth it.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think I'm getting scammed.
Speaker 3: People are trying to scam me daily, whether it's in
Speaker 3: my email or a text message. I will often get
Speaker 3: text messages. I think just this week I got one
Speaker 3: from you well claiming to be ups that my package
Speaker 3: can't be delivered information from me. But if you look
Speaker 3: at who is it coming from, like usually it'll be
Speaker 3: some random email.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I got on yesterday. Yeah, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna read it after.
Speaker 4: We'll go for it. You kind of now.
Speaker 1: So it's from an email address, it's an imassage. It
Speaker 1: says Hi, I'm Emily with Robert half and we have
Speaker 1: remote online part time slash full time jobs. Your background
Speaker 1: and resume have caught the attention of several online recruiters,
Speaker 1: so we'd like to offer you a job. You can
Speaker 1: do from home in your free time. This job is
Speaker 1: easy and has no time constraints. Daily pay ranges from
Speaker 1: two hundred to five thousand and is paid on the
Speaker 1: same day. Join us and be part of America's booming
Speaker 1: job market and start a career you can be proud
Speaker 1: of Requirements twenty two plus. If interested, please contact on
Speaker 1: us on WhatsApp. That has a phone number and it's
Speaker 1: from an email address, that's an app. It's Sharon Hinton
Speaker 1: vs MM two five three one at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4: So there you go.
Speaker 1: I got this yesterday, yeah, and forgot about that.
Speaker 4: Those are the main things that stand out to me.
Speaker 3: And that is a random email address, like it's not
Speaker 3: even a domain of some legitimate business.
Speaker 1: Now anything that's at Gmail, at yah, who at something?
Speaker 3: Well, and just all those random numbers and everything. And
Speaker 3: then let's communicate on WhatsApp. That's another one. I mean,
Speaker 3: WhatsApp is a legit app, and I do communicate with
Speaker 3: friends on there, But people offering legitimate jobs and income,
Speaker 3: they're not trying to communicate with you on WhatsApp.
Speaker 4: That's not where they're going. And so mine too will be.
Speaker 3: The one that I got this week was about a
Speaker 3: package that they needed more information from me in order
Speaker 3: to deliver my package. And so it's the time of
Speaker 3: year right, like we're recording this in December, So people
Speaker 3: they're just they're spraying and pray in like you said already,
Speaker 3: they're expecting that you probably do have a package arriving.
Speaker 3: You're not sure from who is it UPS? USPS? Is
Speaker 3: it FedEx? Yeah, you have a USPS. Parcel's just showing
Speaker 3: me a number. It's not a US number. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: a plus sixty three numbers. That's not US. Which there
Speaker 3: you go, and then yeah, there's just so many things
Speaker 3: that are not legit in it. But if you're not
Speaker 3: you know it totally aware of that, what that scam
Speaker 3: would be is trying to get your personal information and
Speaker 3: maybe even your credit card because this is going to
Speaker 3: charge you in order to.
Speaker 4: Receive the package.
Speaker 3: I also am a part of so I'm an adjunct
Speaker 3: professor as one of my side hustles, and so I'm
Speaker 3: on the university's email kind of domain, and I will
Speaker 3: get all of the emails that will also get sent
Speaker 3: out to the students.
Speaker 4: And there are weekly.
Speaker 3: Scams being sent to these college students about jobs remote
Speaker 3: work that could pay them like thirty to forty five
Speaker 3: dollars an hour, and even me as an adjunct faculty member,
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is a great deal.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you quickly know, like this is not legitimate.
Speaker 3: But yeah, when they are offering something that is so
Speaker 3: far and above and beyond what you think that job
Speaker 3: should be paid.
Speaker 4: It's probably not legit.
Speaker 3: Which thinks would be awesome to work five five hours
Speaker 3: a week and get paid tons and tons of money.
Speaker 3: But that's the thing I think these scammers are praying
Speaker 3: upon people in vulnerable situations. The look the ones looking
Speaker 3: for extra work without a lot of time involvement, flexibility,
Speaker 3: high hourly earning, so college students and moms and people
Speaker 3: who just people paying off more money, people who want
Speaker 3: to pay off debt and get their financial life right
Speaker 3: like you guys, So definitely be aware and thank you
Speaker 3: so much for listening.
Speaker 1: We love reading your views. If so, if this has
Speaker 1: helped you or helped you help somebody in your life,
Speaker 1: please let us know in the review section either on
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Speaker 3: Oh, this is so kind. Thank you nest for five
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Speaker 3: Thanks so much to everyone, See you next time.
Speaker 1: Grugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3: Oh it stinks to have to be so on guard.
Speaker 3: I think to need to be so cynical. It feels
Speaker 3: like when it comes to protecting yourself against scams, to
Speaker 3: just constantly be vigilant.
Speaker 4: But that is the world we're live in, I know.
Speaker 1: I just I want to, like, I want to believe
Speaker 1: that when you know, this person is telling me your
Speaker 1: Amazon account was logged into in Mumbai, India, if it's
Speaker 1: not from you, please verify your account in this secure
Speaker 1: link below and with letters and numbers in a short link.
Speaker 1: And I just want to believe that somebody's helping me
Speaker 1: out right, and not just like this is just a
Speaker 1: picture of everybody's account is getting logged in, specifically from Mumbai, India.
Speaker 3: Well, and there's so many actions that we're used to
Speaker 3: taking that are necessary, like you know, when I am
Speaker 3: trying to log into my Gmail account on my phone
Speaker 3: and then they're like log into your email and verify
Speaker 3: that it's you, And so these are actions that we're
Speaker 3: accustomed to, and then they can kind of become wrote like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: my accounts are constantly trying to be hacked, and I
Speaker 3: know that I'm constantly also needing to approve or deny
Speaker 3: certain things that Sometimes it's like, okay, you get this text,
Speaker 3: it's like, oh no, that's not me, let me deny this.
Speaker 3: But it's actually the scammer who's trying to get you
Speaker 3: to log on to deny this thing and praying upon
Speaker 3: our habits, even the good habits that we have, of
Speaker 3: protecting ourselves. So it's just so overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Here's the scammiest thing I got. Let me read it
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 4: Ho ho ho Kai.
Speaker 1: It's Santa. I couldn't wait to say hi this Christmas season.
Speaker 1: I didn't sign up for no text from no Santa.
Speaker 4: Are you sure guess what?
Speaker 1: Kai? For the first time in years, there's a new
Speaker 1: baby reindeer at the north pole. That's cute thing, cute,
Speaker 1: actual cute.
Speaker 3: You must have signed up one time for like texts
Speaker 3: from Santa for your son.
Speaker 1: And then at the last one it was four days
Speaker 1: of text. Was text on four different days in a row,
Speaker 1: like four days in a row. It's been so much
Speaker 1: fun texting you, Kai, tell a parent I sent a
Speaker 1: gift to their Gmail email. Check the junk folder too.
Speaker 4: Ho ho ho.
Speaker 1: I never checked the junk folder. I never checked.
Speaker 4: Well, now you're going to yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Just assumed it was a scam, you know, well, it
Speaker 1: probably how they know it was my Gmail, right, Like.
Speaker 4: How do they know your son's name?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I think it was my mom.
Speaker 3: I did it, and.
Speaker 1: I can't find anything from Santa on that day. Zoom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just gotta tell never friend asking me about this.
Speaker 3: This might be research we do after we hang up here,
Speaker 3: but this friend is asking. They came ac us this
Speaker 3: webinar about how to earn money using Amazon's free audible app.
Speaker 3: Now I got to look into this and figure out.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Is this a scam? But already it sounds too good
Speaker 3: to be true? Yep, well, sounds good good to be true?
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 3: I think the takeaway is just like hang out with
Speaker 3: real people in person.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's it.
Speaker 3: It's like to hang out with us at Tumblow Bookstore
Speaker 3: in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth at seven pm.
Speaker 4: That'll be real, that won't be a scam, And I'll.
Speaker 1: Tell you how to make money online passively in your
Speaker 1: sleep by