Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing sneaky er scams targeting younger folks. So, Joel,
Speaker 1: are you saying that even I even you, that we
Speaker 1: could fall prey to some of these different scams? Maybe me,
Speaker 1: but you're you're pushing forties. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: qualify anymore. I'm a couple of years older than you.
Speaker 1: It's true, that is what we're talking about today. We
Speaker 1: are talking about scams and specifically how they're targeting younger
Speaker 1: generation because because oftentimes I feel like they're viewed as
Speaker 1: this thing. They're like, oh, I would never fall for that,
Speaker 1: or that that's something that I heard my dad talk
Speaker 1: about one time, or my mom. You know, my nana
Speaker 1: she talked about this guy that she talked to one
Speaker 1: time and he ended up swindling her out of a
Speaker 1: couple hundred bucks, that sort of thing. But no, these
Speaker 1: are scams that are that needs to be on our radar,
Speaker 1: which scams from the new generations. That's what we should
Speaker 1: have titled this episode. But it maybe wonder have you
Speaker 1: ever been scammed so I fell for that? You're aware
Speaker 1: of a very very informal scam. One time when I
Speaker 1: was I guess early twenties a girlfriend up in Canada.
Speaker 1: I had like three girlfriends of in Canada. Now, so
Speaker 1: is this young and I was broke. Young fella came
Speaker 1: up to my door when I was still living at
Speaker 1: my parents house. I don't know, I was probably like
Speaker 1: nineteen and twenty, and he was selling stuff to raise
Speaker 1: money for for school. And he was selling Blockbuster gift cards.
Speaker 1: This is how old that scam was. This is when
Speaker 1: Blockbuster was. To our gen Z listeners, Blockbuster was the
Speaker 1: real life equivalent of Netflix. And so the combination of
Speaker 1: Netflix and the library mashed together, right, and my my
Speaker 1: penchant to get a deal he you know, he was.
Speaker 1: They were discounted, and so I got something like, I
Speaker 1: don't even remember twenty five dollars worth of Blockbuster gift
Speaker 1: cards for the low low price of fifteen dollars, and
Speaker 1: I got to feel good that I was supporting this.
Speaker 1: This his school fundraising efforts at the same time. But
Speaker 1: alas I law stout on all the money I gave
Speaker 1: to him because it was a fake gift card, and
Speaker 1: I think just enterprising young scam artist had he printed
Speaker 1: them out himself, or like, what was the deal. I know,
Speaker 1: it's so long ago, I barely remember, but my family
Speaker 1: joke about it. No, maybe they were expired and they
Speaker 1: were legitimate, and maybe it could have been in the
Speaker 1: best case scenario, give it, give him the benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt. Maybe he didn't even know that they were
Speaker 1: expired and was just trying to to make a buck,
Speaker 1: because that's that's the only time I can remember where
Speaker 1: I got scammed. And but it's still just like a
Speaker 1: humorous story to tell when we're hanging out as a family.
Speaker 1: Nice man, I don't think you've ever told me that
Speaker 1: or or even shared that here on the show. But scams, dude,
Speaker 1: they're not going anywhere. And so I am glad that
Speaker 1: we're going to dedicate an entire episode to the subject today.
Speaker 1: But I can ask you a frugal or cheat before
Speaker 1: we get to it. Okay, So we are getting rid
Speaker 1: of a lot of old paint at our house, all right.
Speaker 1: I think everybody out there probably does kind of switched
Speaker 1: up the interior color of your of the house during
Speaker 1: the renovations, and so we have, you know, a few
Speaker 1: extra cants that we want to keep on hand. But
Speaker 1: there's just a bunch of old paint and owning multipl
Speaker 1: rental houses over the years, I've just had old old
Speaker 1: paint cans stacked up for use of different properties, and
Speaker 1: so trying to consolidate my colors to where we're using
Speaker 1: one color when I paint anywhere. That's how you do it. Yes,
Speaker 1: And secondly, you keep the paint at the houses, keep
Speaker 1: them in like a little tupperware, like either in a
Speaker 1: closet or down in the basement. Man, that's all right,
Speaker 1: that's a good call. Maybe I should do that from
Speaker 1: now on. But for anybody who has old paint hands
Speaker 1: that they need to get rid of, you can't just
Speaker 1: toss them in the trash. That is toxic material that
Speaker 1: you can't just uh toss in with with all your
Speaker 1: other trash items. So well, you can throw it away
Speaker 1: as long as it's dried, yes, if there's not much left.
Speaker 1: But lots of times there's a lot of paint left
Speaker 1: in some of those here you switch color, so you
Speaker 1: have a lot, you probably have like half gallons left.
Speaker 1: But if it's an older can and you've used maybe
Speaker 1: most of it, you can just like pop that lid off,
Speaker 1: let it dry out. If that's the case, I know,
Speaker 1: at least here in Atlanta, you can throw those away, okay, alright, Well,
Speaker 1: but if you don't, and you've got tons of paint
Speaker 1: like Joels paint, as I have, you have to go
Speaker 1: to a place for specifically hard to recycle items. And
Speaker 1: there's a place here in South Atlanta called Charm, and
Speaker 1: that's where you can drop your stuff off. They Here's
Speaker 1: the thing, though, They they accept up to twenty five
Speaker 1: pounds worth of paint every visit for free, but then
Speaker 1: you have to pay per per pounds above that pound limit.
Speaker 1: And so I think anywhere this is going and my
Speaker 1: frugal or cheap for making multiple Charm runs in order
Speaker 1: to avoid paying. And I did pay a little bit
Speaker 1: the first time because I was at something like forty
Speaker 1: forty pounds, but I'm not like weighing it by hand
Speaker 1: at home to make sure I don't go above the
Speaker 1: twenty pound limit. But I'm also not taking it all
Speaker 1: in one fell swoop so that I can at least
Speaker 1: take advantage of that that free threshold a few times. Well,
Speaker 1: Charm isn't too far not only from where we live,
Speaker 1: but some of the other spots that we like to
Speaker 1: hit up and so as long as you're not going
Speaker 1: out of your way to have to swing by there,
Speaker 1: which I don't think you are, because I know why
Speaker 1: you're hitting down there that I don't think it's that
Speaker 1: cheap of a move. If it was across town, uh say,
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, miles away with cash prices
Speaker 1: these days, so yeah, like it would I don't even
Speaker 1: know if it'd be worth it now actually the time
Speaker 1: now that I think about how much gas costs. But
Speaker 1: one of the other things I was gonna mention maybe
Speaker 1: that's worth checking out is just like listening it on Facebook,
Speaker 1: either the you know, like like one of the buy
Speaker 1: nothing groups or just listening it locally, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: for free. Remember any of the paint that's still in
Speaker 1: good conditions. If it's in good shape and you buy
Speaker 1: good paint. We both like that Sherwin Williams stuff. And
Speaker 1: I feel like getting decent paint is something that we
Speaker 1: learned over the years too. If you go with the
Speaker 1: cheaper stuff, it doesn't really stick to the walls all
Speaker 1: that well, I thinks as well as like super Paint,
Speaker 1: the top rating Consumer Reports paint is like the bare
Speaker 1: Premium plus and it's still pretty cheap, something like twenty
Speaker 1: bucks a gallon, and I don't know with inflation, it's
Speaker 1: probably a hundred dollars a gallon out. But so you
Speaker 1: don't have to get the really nice menchment more. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I don't think you do. I think, yeah, just just
Speaker 1: read those consumer reports. Trainings still help leading in the
Speaker 1: right direction. But okay, good to know. I am doing
Speaker 1: the multiple runs to get rid of some of those
Speaker 1: pain But did I'll post some of the nicer gallons
Speaker 1: on by Nothing group. So the reason I mentioned that
Speaker 1: is because one time when we were flipping renovating a
Speaker 1: home like this is maybe five six years ago. Did
Speaker 1: ever tell you about the time that I sold a
Speaker 1: five gallon, you know, one of those big drums, like
Speaker 1: one of those big buckets of paint. It was a
Speaker 1: custom color that we already had mixed, and you can't
Speaker 1: return those. It was It's not like it was a
Speaker 1: base and uh kit and I we didn't like the color.
Speaker 1: They started putting it up in side. We're like, oh no,
Speaker 1: we there's a chance we're gonna live there ourselves. And
Speaker 1: so we wanted to make sure that we really like
Speaker 1: the paint color. And so obviously we couldn't return it,
Speaker 1: but I listed it, and somebody was glad to show
Speaker 1: up and pay a discounted rate for all of that
Speaker 1: pain because it was a popular color. It just wasn't
Speaker 1: right for us. So I wanted to mention that because
Speaker 1: there is hope for some bring a new paint that
Speaker 1: you just can't take back. Okay, good to know. I'll
Speaker 1: put that on my list of things to consider. This
Speaker 1: isn't a paint episode, though, No, let's move on. Let's
Speaker 1: get onto the actual topic in hand. But first, the
Speaker 1: beer we're having on this episode is called Electric Venom.
Speaker 1: It's by a brewery called Little Cottage, just like like
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes away from where we live here in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: But it's worth a drive, one of my favorite breweries.
Speaker 1: All right. So but let's get to scams and scams, Matt,
Speaker 1: I say they're kind of like zombies. Did you ever
Speaker 1: watch the TV show The Walking Dead? I watched a
Speaker 1: couple of episodes, Okay, never remember really get into it. Basically,
Speaker 1: I only got into the first season. I thought the
Speaker 1: first season was really good. But I think they're in
Speaker 1: season like ten or eleven or something like that. I'm
Speaker 1: still surprised they have that much zombie content that they
Speaker 1: can cover. But but basically the reason I'm acquainting it
Speaker 1: to two zombies, it's in that show there are just
Speaker 1: a few remaining humans and there there are hordes of
Speaker 1: zombies that are coming after them, and they've got to
Speaker 1: protect themselves, right, They've got to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to not get bit because then they too will turn
Speaker 1: into a zombie. And basically, you know, there's a never
Speaker 1: ending litany of scams out there, just like there's a
Speaker 1: never ending amount of zombies coming after you, which is
Speaker 1: why they can create double digit seasons out of such
Speaker 1: a basic premise for a show. But you can never
Speaker 1: really get rid of all the scammers. And if these
Speaker 1: scammers spot you, they're gonna come at you. And and
Speaker 1: that means that you have to be prepared in order
Speaker 1: to avoid the most clever ones, because there's always a
Speaker 1: new scam, there's always a new tactic, and the only
Speaker 1: way that you can outrun them yourself is is really
Speaker 1: through personal preparation. That's rights. Yeah, I feel like I mean,
Speaker 1: zombies they're always there, right because like when you're watching
Speaker 1: those shows, you know that at any moment, like one
Speaker 1: could just kind of like you know, pocus out through
Speaker 1: the window, come out of the shadows. It's it's sort
Speaker 1: of like this low grade stress where it's just kind
Speaker 1: of constant. And I think that's true of these different scams.
Speaker 1: I think they're always to be there, and there's there's
Speaker 1: always gonna be these bad players, right Like there's always
Speaker 1: gonna be criminals who are looking to take advantage of us.
Speaker 1: And so I think this is why we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about this today. And I did say criminals as well,
Speaker 1: because it's not just folks who are oh, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're they're not making the best decisions. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: like they're actually law breaking criminals who are trying to
Speaker 1: steal your money. We're not trying to gold with ne
Speaker 1: ferious intent. Yeah, we're not gonna sugarcoat it here. But
Speaker 1: another problem here is that these scams they're they're seemingly
Speaker 1: everywhere these days as well. They've they've gotten so good
Speaker 1: at targeting folks wherever they hang out. Um, these scams
Speaker 1: they're in your dating app, they're on Twitter, they're they're
Speaker 1: on TikTok, and it certainly feels like scams are you know,
Speaker 1: like they used to be easier to spot. But they've
Speaker 1: just gotten so much more sophisticated over the years, and
Speaker 1: by the numbers. You know, it used to be the
Speaker 1: elderly who were most commonly susceptible, you know, for these
Speaker 1: scams and who have their money stolen, but that is
Speaker 1: not the case these days. People ages twenty nine, they
Speaker 1: reported losing money to fraud more often the folks who
Speaker 1: are ages A D and over, And so we're talking
Speaker 1: about young professionals. They're the ones now who are getting
Speaker 1: more often than their grandparents. Although it's worth mentioning when
Speaker 1: when older folks do fall prey to a scammer, they
Speaker 1: tend to lose more money with each scam attempt that
Speaker 1: they succumbed to. But either way, that's quite the reversal
Speaker 1: that's happened in a short time span. So yeah, not
Speaker 1: only are they more ubiquitous, they are going after all
Speaker 1: the different generations. Now, Yeah, that's right. And part of
Speaker 1: our reason really for creating this episode is because the FTC,
Speaker 1: the Federal Trade Commission, they just released their list of
Speaker 1: top scams for one for last year. The heavy hitters
Speaker 1: were identity theft, imposter scams and credit bureau scams. And
Speaker 1: the FTC received five point seven million reports in total.
Speaker 1: And let's be honest, when when someone gets scammed, they're
Speaker 1: not always reporting um to to the authorities, whether it
Speaker 1: was successful or not, you know, whether they got taken
Speaker 1: advantage of, whether they ended up giving money to the
Speaker 1: scammer or they didn't. Either way, they're often not filing
Speaker 1: a report. And so yeah, reported losses totaled five point
Speaker 1: nine billion dollars and the average person lost something like
Speaker 1: five dollar. But again, since a lot of these scams
Speaker 1: don't get reported, the numbers are likely a whole lot
Speaker 1: higher than what the FTC is actually relaying than what
Speaker 1: they have in their reports. So yeah, on that note,
Speaker 1: if you ever are the victim of a fraud or
Speaker 1: a scam, we would say let the FTC no by
Speaker 1: heading to report fraud dot FTC dot gov. That's just
Speaker 1: a good way for us all to kind of know
Speaker 1: what scams are most prevalent, how much money they're taking
Speaker 1: from people. It's just good knowledge that should be made public.
Speaker 1: Even though I know for a lot of people it
Speaker 1: feels like a shame inducing thing that you got caught
Speaker 1: up in a scam. But we we don't think that
Speaker 1: should be the case either because they can really get
Speaker 1: anybody these days, that's right. Yeah, and specifically via social media,
Speaker 1: because that's one of the main avenues for scamming these days,
Speaker 1: accounting for seven hundred and seventy million dollars in just
Speaker 1: last year alone. Fake accounts, they're a dime a dozen.
Speaker 1: They're getting harder to spot. Actually, Morning brew the they
Speaker 1: had this really interesting article about fake accounts pretending to
Speaker 1: be real advertisers on TikTok. You know, you think you're
Speaker 1: buying a flannel shirt from l L Bean, or maybe
Speaker 1: you're buying a new side table from Wayfair, but in reality,
Speaker 1: it's actually a scammer offering you a deal that's too
Speaker 1: good to be true. You don't actually get anything, but
Speaker 1: then you still end up losing that money and due
Speaker 1: to be honest, like, I have real questions about the
Speaker 1: viability of the metaverse, given that you know, meta can't
Speaker 1: even curb scam artists and spam comments on Instagram. Just
Speaker 1: imagine an alternative reality where spam artists continue to run
Speaker 1: amuck in the virtual world. Yeah, you know, and we're
Speaker 1: just talking about ads that they can't even ring. Every
Speaker 1: time we make an Instagram post, and look at all
Speaker 1: the scam spam comments that happened to get posted on
Speaker 1: pretty much every post we create. Sometimes it's in the
Speaker 1: double digits, and Instagram can't seem to figure that out.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a good sign. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: think for me, I'm not terribly bullish on the metaverse too,
Speaker 1: although I think it has some interesting sounding features. But yeah,
Speaker 1: if if spam continues to be a major issue, people
Speaker 1: aren't gonna want to hang out there. But it's also
Speaker 1: important to mention how scammers ask for money. That's changed
Speaker 1: a lot too in recent years. You know, there's Venmo,
Speaker 1: cash app, Zel, PayPal, all of those apps have made
Speaker 1: it just so much easier to steal your mind. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, Medium love Exchange has become something that's as
Speaker 1: easy to send as like a text message, instead of
Speaker 1: like physically having to lift your wallet out of your
Speaker 1: back pocket. There are much easier ways now to check, yeah,
Speaker 1: access those funds, and so it's it's become a lot
Speaker 1: harder to track that criminal down. In the modern day
Speaker 1: of digital payments and then different cryptocurrencies, they're quickly becoming
Speaker 1: a common way to these scammers asked to receive money too,
Speaker 1: and because the way we send and receive money has
Speaker 1: changed just so much in recent years, it means that
Speaker 1: you've got to be on your toes even more before
Speaker 1: you send someone money, before you transfer any funds to
Speaker 1: somebody that you don't know. That's right. Yeah, So let's
Speaker 1: talk about some of the most common scams and how
Speaker 1: they work. Scams in the realm of finding love online,
Speaker 1: they've kind of dated back almost, you know, like as
Speaker 1: far as the Internet, but the FTC stats show that
Speaker 1: romance scams rose nearly seventy percent last year. A lot
Speaker 1: of times you're already in a particularly vulnerable position already,
Speaker 1: you know, like if you've created an online profile, you're
Speaker 1: entering into these sensitive conversations with strangers. Well, scammers there,
Speaker 1: you know, they continue to flock to every iteration of
Speaker 1: dating apps to try to take advantage of folks there.
Speaker 1: The New York Times they just read the story about
Speaker 1: crypto scams on apps like Hinge. As more people seek
Speaker 1: to find love online, the possibility to get taking advantage
Speaker 1: of his grown exponentially. One telltale sign that you might
Speaker 1: be getting scammed, as if the person you're talking to
Speaker 1: tries to move the conversation to what's app, which encrypts
Speaker 1: every message that gets sent. And another sign is if
Speaker 1: you get asked for money in any way, any form,
Speaker 1: any fashion. But oftentimes these folks are looking for cryptocurrencies. Uh.
Speaker 1: The scammer will often make it sound like they're they're
Speaker 1: trying to help you to invest your money, but in
Speaker 1: reality they are they're really just taking your money. Let
Speaker 1: me teach you how to invest in bitcoin, and then
Speaker 1: you send some over and then they show you a
Speaker 1: website where it looks like, look, look at your money
Speaker 1: going up in value. This is incredible, You should send more.
Speaker 1: And then it turns out that that money is in
Speaker 1: their hands in the website they're pointing you to is
Speaker 1: actually fake. And it just makes me think of the
Speaker 1: old saying Matt Love is blind, and in the case
Speaker 1: some of these, like romance scams, love is blind, and
Speaker 1: it just causes you to not see what's actually in
Speaker 1: front of your face. When people are asking you for
Speaker 1: in particular for for you to transfer money their way,
Speaker 1: you start thinking the best of this person because you've
Speaker 1: been chatting back and forth for weeks or months on end,
Speaker 1: and you trust them, But the reality is you've never
Speaker 1: seen their face and you have to continue to proceed
Speaker 1: with more caution. Yeah, well I do. I think this
Speaker 1: is like, first of all, this is just such a
Speaker 1: sad thing, right, because first of all, not only are
Speaker 1: you not having your money grow in ways that you
Speaker 1: think it should be growing, but you're actually having your
Speaker 1: money taken away. Right. The second strike is the fact
Speaker 1: that not only are you uh not finding someone who
Speaker 1: is like your soul mate, like you found somebody that
Speaker 1: who's trying to like damage you, you know, like they're
Speaker 1: trying to harm you in in a financial way at
Speaker 1: the very least, it's like this double wiming. And because
Speaker 1: of the pandemic, it's like this perfect storm. Because obviously
Speaker 1: cryptocurrencies have been crazy hot over the past few years,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of interest in those. It's hard
Speaker 1: to meet somebody I r L and exactly. And then
Speaker 1: on top of that, folks are dealing with just huge
Speaker 1: amounts of loneliness, and so you combine those two things
Speaker 1: together and you have a very vulnerab population. Yeah no,
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. And and because it's someone that you've
Speaker 1: gotten to know and trust over over that period of time,
Speaker 1: you're susceptible to lose even more money in these scamps.
Speaker 1: I think some of the people who fall baketot to
Speaker 1: a romance scam can lose, you know, up to their
Speaker 1: entire fortune something sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's
Speaker 1: all because they've developed this relationship built on trust that
Speaker 1: the stakes are high. So be warned. We would say,
Speaker 1: don't send money to someone you truly don't know. This is,
Speaker 1: of course, one of the massive downsides to online dating.
Speaker 1: But yeah, after the break, we're going to get to
Speaker 1: a really common scam that almost anyone with a kind
Speaker 1: heart could fall prey to. It's basically digital pickpocketing, and
Speaker 1: we'll discuss that and more right after this break, we're back.
Speaker 1: We were talking about the proliferation of scams, and Jil,
Speaker 1: let's get to the one that you just mentioned before
Speaker 1: the break, digital pickpocketing. Let's do it. Let's do it, man.
Speaker 1: This one's been around for a minute here listener, Gary,
Speaker 1: he actually sent us this article from his local TV
Speaker 1: station in Savannah, and this one involves the different digital
Speaker 1: payment apps. Basically, someone comes up to you. This one
Speaker 1: uh takes place in real life. They come up to you,
Speaker 1: they ask you to borrow your phone, maybe to make
Speaker 1: an important phone call, maybe their phone has died, or
Speaker 1: maybe they don't have their phone at all. Sometimes. Uh,
Speaker 1: In this this specific story, it was a kid, which
Speaker 1: is something you can identify with. We've all had our
Speaker 1: phone right out of battery exactly, and you, being a
Speaker 1: nice person, you hand them your phone to make that
Speaker 1: quick call. I think a lot of decent human beings
Speaker 1: would probably do that. But then, you know, what do
Speaker 1: they do while your phone is in their brief possession?
Speaker 1: Will they open your PayPal or like venmo zel cash app.
Speaker 1: That's another one too, where they make a quick transfer
Speaker 1: to their own account. They hange your phone right back
Speaker 1: to you, They say thanks and walk away, and it's
Speaker 1: not until later that you find out, you know, like
Speaker 1: via email or when you check your statements, that you
Speaker 1: have lost money. The lady that they had interviewed for
Speaker 1: the story was standing right there. She was talking about
Speaker 1: how she was just feet away and the kid even
Speaker 1: had it on speaker phone, and she she was watching him.
Speaker 1: But then he had asked her if he could pull
Speaker 1: up maps, and so he was kind of mess one
Speaker 1: with the phone. She saw him actually messing with it
Speaker 1: and with some quick fingers he got away with a
Speaker 1: few thousand dollars. Yeah, yeah, I mean I think what
Speaker 1: the lady in that article lost right in just a
Speaker 1: minute or two to this to this young kid, and
Speaker 1: then she didn't find out till later when checking her
Speaker 1: bank statement. And so yeah, if this happens to you,
Speaker 1: if someone comes up to you and ask to borrow
Speaker 1: your phone, we would say, uh, it sounds unkind, but
Speaker 1: just to say no, to not give your phone over
Speaker 1: to anybody, um, and so yeah, offered to dial the
Speaker 1: number yourself and to put it on speaker phone for them.
Speaker 1: Also enable stuff like touch idea, there's technology to help
Speaker 1: us with this stuff, right or face I D for
Speaker 1: these apps to make it harder for someone to get
Speaker 1: in there to mess with your money. Face I D. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Dual factor authentication is another one. I have fingerprint I
Speaker 1: D on my Google pixel for a for for all
Speaker 1: those apps. But yeah, that's one of those things where
Speaker 1: even if you just left your phone sitting around and
Speaker 1: the screen was unlocked or something like that, someone could
Speaker 1: get in and easily steal money from you. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to make sure you have the technology set
Speaker 1: up and you just don't like give your phone to
Speaker 1: random people who who asked to borrow it, totally dude.
Speaker 1: And I will say this is when when I read
Speaker 1: this story, I was just like, a good thing, I've
Speaker 1: got face I D already turned on on my phone,
Speaker 1: which I do, you know, as far as unlocking the phone,
Speaker 1: but I would have sworn that I also had it
Speaker 1: set up on some of those different apps I checked
Speaker 1: earlier today as we were getting ready for this episode. Nope.
Speaker 1: I went to PayPal, cash App, and Venmo, all three
Speaker 1: of them they weren't locked down, which is crazy kind
Speaker 1: of your phone for a second, Oh my god, you
Speaker 1: know you can't, but it's just crazy to think that, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not somebody who goes in and customizes all my
Speaker 1: different settings right normally. And so I guess, like what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is that what that tells me is that
Speaker 1: is the default option. When I know that there are
Speaker 1: some other apps, like, for instance, I know my Ally
Speaker 1: bank app, which I know I've been with ally for years,
Speaker 1: they have always had the face I D like. I
Speaker 1: distinctly remember that one. I think it may have been
Speaker 1: the first app ever that required me to you know,
Speaker 1: acknowledge the face I D thing. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention that because it is super easy to turn that
Speaker 1: on once you go into the actual app, you go
Speaker 1: to your account, uh, your or your profile, and then
Speaker 1: you just go down to the security settings and turn
Speaker 1: on you know, at least on the iPhones face. I
Speaker 1: d uh. Sometimes they'll prompt you to enter in a
Speaker 1: little pin, but now I know that I'm totally secure.
Speaker 1: There you go. I love that. Yeah, and and that's
Speaker 1: just a good warning to everyone else who thinks, maybe, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe I do, but go in there and check
Speaker 1: because probably not. Yeah, you want to make sure it's
Speaker 1: on UM and and yeah, so that's definitely one of
Speaker 1: the one of the scams that's been kind of making
Speaker 1: the rounds, and that can affect especially young people. It's like, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: I gotta call my mom or a friend and my
Speaker 1: phone died like that. That seems like one of those
Speaker 1: innocuous asks, but in reality it leads to you losing
Speaker 1: potentially thousands of dollars. Um. Okay, let's talk about another
Speaker 1: scheme out. We talked about multi level marketing UH schemes
Speaker 1: back in episode too. We didn't we didn't have very
Speaker 1: much good to say about them back then. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot of trash about Lulu Row. Yeah
Speaker 1: we did, we did, and that that documentary came out
Speaker 1: on Amazon and documented even more of the oddities happening
Speaker 1: in that organization and how many people just just thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands and tens of thousands of women who got
Speaker 1: who got ripped off. We lost a lot of money
Speaker 1: in that organization. And um, and most of these MLMs
Speaker 1: are actually pyramid schemes, which we put in the same
Speaker 1: camp as scams, and they are in actuality too good
Speaker 1: to be true, and and really only a handful of
Speaker 1: people make any money. The only real way to make
Speaker 1: money in a pyramid scheme is to recruit other people
Speaker 1: to to sell things underneath of you and the item
Speaker 1: that's being sold. It makes it seem like there's this
Speaker 1: legitimate business opportunity, but nobody really makes money that way
Speaker 1: in these organizations. And so, in fact, the FTC says
Speaker 1: that less than one percent of m LM participants actually
Speaker 1: end up making money. And so, yeah, the vast majority
Speaker 1: of folks that participate, they end up wasting a lot
Speaker 1: of time, They put forth a lot of efforts, and
Speaker 1: then they lose a good bit of money. Um, and
Speaker 1: they often end up hurting some of their friends along
Speaker 1: the way too, because yeah, that you're you're being told
Speaker 1: to recruit more people, um and and then you can
Speaker 1: just you can damage relationships in the process of trying
Speaker 1: to yeah, pursue being in an MLM. Two. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: only have you written them hard to actually buy that product,
Speaker 1: but now you've roped them in to the scheme that
Speaker 1: they can't escape. Uh, we we've got to bring up
Speaker 1: imposter scams as well. These types of scams are on
Speaker 1: the top three on the Federal Trade Commission list. It's
Speaker 1: where you know someone they call you to tell you
Speaker 1: that you owe the money, and if they do it well,
Speaker 1: it's easy to think that maybe, like maybe I actually
Speaker 1: did just forget to pay a bill. Well, an impostor
Speaker 1: can call you, you know, they might email you posing
Speaker 1: as a representative from either the government or from a company.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, first of all, government employees they
Speaker 1: don't do this. You'll never get a call from the
Speaker 1: Social Security Administration or from a local government agency demanding
Speaker 1: payment of fees or taxes. You also won't get a
Speaker 1: call from a government agency requesting any personal information because
Speaker 1: guess what there to have that information? Uh, they're not
Speaker 1: asking you for it because like, I'm from the Social
Speaker 1: Security Administration, but I'm gonna need your Social Security number.
Speaker 1: It's like, wait, wait, aren't you supposed to have that?
Speaker 1: It's like, what kind of incompetence are we dealing with here?
Speaker 1: But but scammers like they're going to assume the role
Speaker 1: of a government agent, you know, whether via email, text,
Speaker 1: or phone call, and they're going to attempt to free
Speaker 1: you out in order to make some quick money. Oftentimes
Speaker 1: it is done over the phone because when they have
Speaker 1: you on the line like that, they can create that
Speaker 1: sense of urgency and that's a lot of times when
Speaker 1: we can make some poor decisions. Yeah, okay, so let's
Speaker 1: talk about I R S games because that that is
Speaker 1: an imposter scam. That's a form of imposter scam. And
Speaker 1: particularly since we're we're in the middle of tax season
Speaker 1: right now, we'd be remiss not to mention this one
Speaker 1: because it's it's going around in a big way, and
Speaker 1: there are a number of different I R S related
Speaker 1: scams out there, and and the pandemic actually seems to
Speaker 1: have created an even larger variety of these scams, largely
Speaker 1: because of like stimulus payments and extra unemployment benefits. A
Speaker 1: lot of people have been targeted because maybe they were
Speaker 1: a recipient of one of these things, or they thought
Speaker 1: they should be and so oh, low, low, behold. A
Speaker 1: scammer comes in, sends an email and tells you there's
Speaker 1: a stimulus payment waiting, or there's additional unemployment compensation, and
Speaker 1: you click the link and you fall prey. But Matt,
Speaker 1: like you just said, it's important to know that the
Speaker 1: only way the I r S legitimately contacts people is
Speaker 1: via snail mail, like through a traditional letter in your mailbox.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, if someone from the I R S
Speaker 1: tries to get in touch with you via some other method,
Speaker 1: we just encourage you not to respond because it's fake.
Speaker 1: That's right. The utility scam. That's another popular imposter scam. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is when your water, your gas, your electric company.
Speaker 1: They might call you to tell you that your months
Speaker 1: behind and your bill. You better pay up, and you
Speaker 1: better do it quick, otherwise your power is gonna be
Speaker 1: cut off. It sounds like such a hassle, and so
Speaker 1: because of that, so many people go ahead and decide
Speaker 1: to pay there on the spot. Sometimes the fake utility
Speaker 1: company will tell you to go buy a gift card.
Speaker 1: And the reason is because if you pay them with
Speaker 1: a gift card, those funds can't be traced. It's like
Speaker 1: paying with cash basically. And some might even go the
Speaker 1: opposite approach, saying that you have overpaid, which sounds nice.
Speaker 1: And so when that's the case, just give them your
Speaker 1: bank account number and then they can send you that
Speaker 1: money back your way. You didn't overpay and you don't
Speaker 1: get your money back. So be warned of the utility
Speaker 1: scam that sounds like that block poster scam I fell
Speaker 1: prey to. It's like, hey, it's you know, you feel
Speaker 1: like you're coming out ahead and you're doing something good
Speaker 1: or whatever, and um, ultimately in the end it comes
Speaker 1: back to bite you. Right. But and I actually had
Speaker 1: a friend Matt, who fell victim to the utility schame
Speaker 1: or the electric company called him at his place of
Speaker 1: business and then they said, like, your power is classic
Speaker 1: just about to be shut off. Stay on the phone
Speaker 1: with us, go get a gift card, send us that
Speaker 1: information and you're gonna be embarrassed. Yeah, and then the customers.
Speaker 1: The thing is when a scam artists gets you once,
Speaker 1: which they got him once, they try to get you again,
Speaker 1: but by then hopefully not always, but you know, and
Speaker 1: he wised up the second time around, he realized he
Speaker 1: had been had. But that is one of those nefarious things,
Speaker 1: especially for someone who has their own business, because they
Speaker 1: can't afford to be shut down, They can't afford for
Speaker 1: the power to be shut off. Their livelihood is at stake.
Speaker 1: If you own a restaurant or just any place where
Speaker 1: people come in to to do business like that could
Speaker 1: throw a whole wrench in your day or week. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: that is something in particular for business owners to be
Speaker 1: aware of as well. Yeah, and that that's another reason
Speaker 1: too why we'd always recommend for you to go straight
Speaker 1: to that company's website, don't do it over the phone,
Speaker 1: don't click any links in your email, go directly to
Speaker 1: the website that you know to be legit, or go
Speaker 1: straight to the government website that straight to the dot
Speaker 1: gov website. Don't click the links in your email. Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about something else. Let's move on
Speaker 1: from imposter scams. There's charity scams happening all all over
Speaker 1: the place too, and so yeah, fake nonprofit donations are
Speaker 1: just it's just a terrible version of a scam. Really
Speaker 1: frustrating to see these. These often happen after a natural
Speaker 1: disaster or it's like support the victims of this in
Speaker 1: such tornado or hurricane um and and you know, but
Speaker 1: not just that, like scams have already happened invoking their
Speaker 1: Ukrainians and supporting their cause. They're a bunch of websites
Speaker 1: that have already gone online, uh, generically promising to funnel
Speaker 1: your funds to support the efforts over there and support
Speaker 1: the individuals. The Ukraine coin like that's one of the
Speaker 1: like it was a crypto scam and basically the purporting
Speaker 1: to support the people of Ukraine. I mean, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just heinous that people will take advantage of something like
Speaker 1: that happening internationally or or locally in an effort to
Speaker 1: steal your money. But it happens, right, and it happens
Speaker 1: all the time, and they just want to take advantage
Speaker 1: of your generosity. But really it's just terrible people who
Speaker 1: are trying to, you know, make use this conflict for
Speaker 1: their own gain. And so yeah, if a cause that
Speaker 1: you would like to donate two comes on your radar
Speaker 1: from a plea you've read online, that's okay, but we
Speaker 1: would say, don't click that link to give, and instead
Speaker 1: let that lead you to research different organizations who are
Speaker 1: doing great work in that area. Only give to organizations
Speaker 1: that you know, that you've vetted, that you trust. And
Speaker 1: Charity Navigator and charity watch are just both excellent sites
Speaker 1: that rate charities and they show you how those charities
Speaker 1: used the dollars that you donate. So we would say
Speaker 1: go there, type in the name of the charity doesn't
Speaker 1: even come up. If not, that's a huge red flag.
Speaker 1: And if it does, you can find out more about
Speaker 1: how they actually use the funds that they receive, and
Speaker 1: you can give you a greater peace of mind before
Speaker 1: you actually, you know, click the button to donate. That's right,
Speaker 1: And I think I just said Ukraine coin. It's actually
Speaker 1: Ukraine token. Yeah, so you're probably both either way point
Speaker 1: of those. But we're gonna get to a couple more scams.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about some some sound general advice regardless
Speaker 1: of the scam that you might come across, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to all of that right after this break.
Speaker 1: All right, now we're back. Let's keep talking about scams
Speaker 1: and yeah, and just a little bit we're gonna get
Speaker 1: to some general advice, just kind of a few takeaways
Speaker 1: that will help protect you and your assets from the
Speaker 1: vast majority of scams out there. But let's detail just
Speaker 1: a couple others first. One of them, and especially right
Speaker 1: now in a hot job market that is making the rounds,
Speaker 1: are employment scams. Yeah, and a lot of how money
Speaker 1: listeners have benefited from this hot job market. Some people
Speaker 1: have uh told us that they have doubled their income
Speaker 1: in in just the last few months, which is incredible
Speaker 1: to see. You know, don't let this scam uh cause
Speaker 1: you to apply avoid applying for jobs, because there are
Speaker 1: a lot of legitimate opportunities for you to make a
Speaker 1: whole lot more money out there. Um. But yeah, employment
Speaker 1: scams have been around for for years, and the listings
Speaker 1: on these jobs can appear on legitimate job hunting websites.
Speaker 1: And in fact, a report from the Better Business Bureau
Speaker 1: review that indeed dot com, which is a place where
Speaker 1: people go to find legitimate jobs all the time, was plagued,
Speaker 1: which is a huge number of job scammers. And so
Speaker 1: the application that you're being asked to submit it often
Speaker 1: asked for personal information that shouldn't be required for a
Speaker 1: first phase interview, stuff like your social Security number or
Speaker 1: your bank account information, we would say never ever your
Speaker 1: mother's maiden name, yes, exactly, what's your password to Gmail?
Speaker 1: I mean those are the kind of things your first
Speaker 1: pets name while we're at it. Yeah, yeah, what's what's
Speaker 1: your vanguard logging information? We say never never give what
Speaker 1: are your first four favorite numbers? That just pop in
Speaker 1: your mind that that sensitive information is stuff that you
Speaker 1: definitely do not want to bring to the table to
Speaker 1: someone that you just met through a job interview website.
Speaker 1: That's a massive red flag. When they're saying, like, you know,
Speaker 1: you seem like you'd be a good candidate. Tell me
Speaker 1: everything about you. I feel like we would. It sounds
Speaker 1: like we would make good scammers. Well, now we know
Speaker 1: all the tools of the trade. I guess that's true.
Speaker 1: We know how it works. Uh. The thing is too,
Speaker 1: with the different employment scams, they can kind of shake
Speaker 1: out in different ways. Right, Some scammers they'll they'll use
Speaker 1: job positions like mystery shoppers. They'll use these vague positions
Speaker 1: like work from home opportunities to find their victims because
Speaker 1: guess what, anybody can do that, And so they're casting
Speaker 1: their net really wide in that case. Yes, like jobs
Speaker 1: doing with shipping or drop shipping. That's another common uh
Speaker 1: you know job description term that often has some sort
Speaker 1: of scam element taking place. Totally yeah, But one of
Speaker 1: the common forms, uh that these scams play out is
Speaker 1: that you will receive what looks like a legit paycheck
Speaker 1: in the mail after accepting one of these completely bogus positions,
Speaker 1: and then your your quote unquote boss, they say that
Speaker 1: you were overpaid. Hey, sorry, uh, could you send back
Speaker 1: a portion of that check? And then the problem is,
Speaker 1: even though that check cleared your bank, it looks like
Speaker 1: that money is in your account, but it actually isn't.
Speaker 1: The paycheck it bounces and then guess what, You've already
Speaker 1: sent your real money back to that scammer and then
Speaker 1: you're out all of that money. And so make sure
Speaker 1: to do your own diligence here, make sure that you
Speaker 1: research any supposed company that is offering you a job.
Speaker 1: Another way that this plays out as well. It's not
Speaker 1: just that first paycheck, but sometimes uh, you know you've
Speaker 1: signed the line, they're like, you're hired. You're gonna be
Speaker 1: making six figures. However, there is a pretty lengthy training process,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna need some supplies. You're gonna need this
Speaker 1: a new company laptop because you're not allowed to do
Speaker 1: business on your personal laptop. They send you a link
Speaker 1: to a portal where you pay for all of these
Speaker 1: expenses yourself. But you know it's gonna be worth it
Speaker 1: because of those six figures you're gonna be raking in.
Speaker 1: This is just another way that they get legitimate dollars
Speaker 1: out of your bank account without offering you anything. Seems
Speaker 1: like a drop in the bucket compared to the just
Speaker 1: sick paychecks you're gonna be pulling home in the near future.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, it turns out paycheck, it turns out
Speaker 1: those you know that thousand dollars or more, it's just
Speaker 1: gone immediately. Yes, let's talk about like scam adjacent sort
Speaker 1: of rip offs to Matt, because sometimes I think you know,
Speaker 1: there there are clear cut scams. A lot of the
Speaker 1: ones we've covered so far are just these clear cut,
Speaker 1: tried and true scams that have been happening for a
Speaker 1: long period of time. But sometimes it's it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: a full fledged scam that's happening that you get taken with.
Speaker 1: It's just an inferior product or service, And so yeah,
Speaker 1: the ways that people lose money these days don't always
Speaker 1: involve someone actively trying to steal money from you while
Speaker 1: not giving you anything in return. And then they're just
Speaker 1: completely pulling the wool over your eyes trying to trick you.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people are selling a somewhat legitimate product or online course,
Speaker 1: and you know, they're not trying to completely rip you off,
Speaker 1: they just don't really have your best interest in mind,
Speaker 1: and they're over selling something that is actually kind of
Speaker 1: a piece of crap. It's it's a turret on the
Speaker 1: back end, and so uh, they're they're looking to make
Speaker 1: a living in the shady corners of the internet. Basically,
Speaker 1: it could be advice that you're getting on YouTube or TikTok.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of scams
Speaker 1: on those platforms, a lot of people pitching something that
Speaker 1: actually isn't good for you. You know, online courses are
Speaker 1: a dime a dozen, and Matt, you and I know
Speaker 1: friends in the personal finance community who have really good
Speaker 1: online courses that cost a pretty penny. But those people
Speaker 1: get almost like a mini college course in how to
Speaker 1: invest in real estate or something like that. High end
Speaker 1: videos with a lot of accompanying material that is actually
Speaker 1: really helpful. But then there are a lot of other
Speaker 1: people who are selling courses that are complete trash where
Speaker 1: you can get that information for free really easily, and
Speaker 1: they're not giving you anything special, and depending on the
Speaker 1: method of payment, there's no way to get your money back.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, you just have to be careful, you
Speaker 1: have to tread lightly. Even when we're not talking about
Speaker 1: full fledged scams, there's still a lot of ways to
Speaker 1: to lose your money or to spend it in effectively,
Speaker 1: you know, on the internet. That's right, And sometimes too,
Speaker 1: it's not even inferior products because like you kind of
Speaker 1: we're targeting just courses that are kind of crappy. It's
Speaker 1: just I think it's first time we've ever said turn
Speaker 1: on the back end. But sometimes they are legitimate products, right,
Speaker 1: Like I'm specifically thinking about cut cod knives. Those are
Speaker 1: legitimate knives like that. You know, they've got like these
Speaker 1: lifetime warranties you can send them in to get sharpened.
Speaker 1: But so much like it just makes me think of
Speaker 1: sales just more broadly speaking, and anytime you're dealing with
Speaker 1: a salesperson, you need to sort of look at things
Speaker 1: through a slightly different lens because in that case, in
Speaker 1: this case, like when we're talking about knives, it's not
Speaker 1: that those aren't good knives, but if you're somebody who
Speaker 1: already has twenty four knives in your drawer at home,
Speaker 1: you don't need another butcher's block full of you know,
Speaker 1: like a knife set or whatever. Uh. And so it
Speaker 1: comes down to whether or not you need that as
Speaker 1: an individual. And that's where where it takes a little
Speaker 1: bit of wisdom to determine. You know, am I just
Speaker 1: being swayed by this persuasive conversation that you know, do
Speaker 1: I like this person that do I want to help them?
Speaker 1: Or is this something that I actually need? That's something
Speaker 1: that we all just need away in our minds when
Speaker 1: we're having these conversations with people. Man, that's true. And
Speaker 1: I think that they talk about whole life insurance as
Speaker 1: being an item that is sold, not bought, and it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where it's like it's high pressured
Speaker 1: sales tactics. Often times that leads people to get that
Speaker 1: product when they would be much better served by having
Speaker 1: term life insurance. Matter, how to kind of listener reach
Speaker 1: out recently and and she is very young, with no dependence,
Speaker 1: no kids, she's not married. And she said, hey, I've
Speaker 1: got this whole life insurance product. I'm starting to get
Speaker 1: concerned after listening to some of your episodes. And I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you're you're right to be concerned, and
Speaker 1: she started to to push back, and so she's thinking
Speaker 1: about ditching it. And she doesn't even need term life
Speaker 1: insurance yet. Maybe in the near future she will, we'll see.
Speaker 1: But yeah, those are the kind of things where there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things out there that are are
Speaker 1: sold not bought. If it's something you didn't go out
Speaker 1: searching for and someone pitched it to you, give to
Speaker 1: do some extra thinking to see about whether it makes
Speaker 1: sense or not. So let's give some general advice, because yeah,
Speaker 1: we've listed a lot of popular scams, but there are
Speaker 1: just a few things where if you were to implement these,
Speaker 1: they would make you not necessarily like scam proof, but
Speaker 1: scam resistant. Right. Like uh, like what I'm thinking about,
Speaker 1: like a rainproof jacket. If if it's water resistant, it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna hold up pretty well. Right, Um, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be much better than like that fleece you're exactly that's
Speaker 1: gonna get drenched in a heartbeat. But um yeah, the
Speaker 1: first thing, right, the general way to protect yourself is
Speaker 1: to know that if it's too good to be true,
Speaker 1: it probably is. And so yeah, a scam artist is
Speaker 1: often going to make a guarantee. You know, that's it's
Speaker 1: meant to give you some assurance that the money you're
Speaker 1: about the handover will be taken care of. But really
Speaker 1: that guarantee is fake. Peace of mind, we would say
Speaker 1: to trust your instincts and to not give someone your
Speaker 1: hard earned money just because they offer verbal assurances and
Speaker 1: and really lots of times, man, this is just like
Speaker 1: a gut check, like it sounds really nice, like obviously
Speaker 1: I want this to be true, but if you had
Speaker 1: another friend that that happened too, and it was actually real,
Speaker 1: Like have you ever heard of this happening in the
Speaker 1: real world? Those are the kind of filters you need
Speaker 1: to run this pitch through before you sign on the
Speaker 1: dotted line totally. We want to recommend for folks also
Speaker 1: to freeze the credit. This is something that we've advised
Speaker 1: for years now, but freezing your credit with all three
Speaker 1: of the major credit bureaus is worth doing even if
Speaker 1: you think that you couldn't possibly fall for one of
Speaker 1: the scams that we've talked about today. By the way,
Speaker 1: I hope we've actually made it clear that you can
Speaker 1: actually potentially fall for one of these. But we've got
Speaker 1: an article up on the site that will link to
Speaker 1: about doing a credit freeze, really freezing your credit. It's
Speaker 1: sort of like using a bike lock. That is the
Speaker 1: most deaf, the cheapest and smartest way to make sure
Speaker 1: that your bike doesn't get stolen. You know, not using
Speaker 1: that simple tool is putting yourself at unnecessary risk, And
Speaker 1: the same thing is true with the credit freeze. Right.
Speaker 1: It just takes a few minutes, it costs nothing, and
Speaker 1: it provides a lot of protections, so someone doesn't open
Speaker 1: up credit in your name without your knowledge or without
Speaker 1: your consent. You don't want to become an identity theft victim. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is one of those instances where you're not being
Speaker 1: parted with your current dollars. You're just being parted with
Speaker 1: your future dollars. And that's basically what debt is. You
Speaker 1: don't want to owe I owe use either, right, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: I owe us that somebody else had the fun of
Speaker 1: spending that money, but you're on the hook to pay
Speaker 1: the bill and so yeah, like you said, Matt, it's
Speaker 1: just so ridiculously easy, Like why would you not do it?
Speaker 1: And Uh, I think another thing that we need to know.
Speaker 1: Another way to protect yourself is to realize that scams
Speaker 1: can often come from someone who you're somewhat close to.
Speaker 1: This is called affinity fraud. It's kind of tough to
Speaker 1: come to grips with because you don't want to be
Speaker 1: suspicious of everyone who's close to you, like, oh, my
Speaker 1: best friend trying to scamy or my grandma, Like what's
Speaker 1: her problem? Uh, why is she trying to get my money?
Speaker 1: Like usually uh, yeah, yeah, I don't wanna talk to
Speaker 1: you anymore. Um, but it's it's so it is important
Speaker 1: to note though that it's not criminals stalking strangers on
Speaker 1: the internet, and many people have uh and continue to
Speaker 1: use race, religion, and age as a tool to connect
Speaker 1: with you and to part you from your money or
Speaker 1: in the case of MLMs, it's often friendship that gets
Speaker 1: you in the door, right, It's like kind of joined
Speaker 1: me in this opportunity. It'll be fun. Uh, And you know,
Speaker 1: you just trust your friend instinctively, and so you decide
Speaker 1: to jump on board. But we would say, don't just
Speaker 1: assume that because you know someone or you share the
Speaker 1: same faith with that person, that their pitch is infallible.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing too, Matt. I think sometimes people
Speaker 1: feel the need to respond antagonistically if they feel like
Speaker 1: that pitch is not appropriate for them and they want
Speaker 1: to tell their friend all of the reasons that this
Speaker 1: is actually made up gobbledygook. But I don't think you
Speaker 1: necessarily have to write. You don't have to right all
Speaker 1: the wrongs of this world necessarily. You can just use
Speaker 1: a simple response like, uh, hey, I'm glad it's been
Speaker 1: good for you, but I've already got too much on
Speaker 1: my plate. And that simple response might be like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: I guess they're not interested. There's there's just no need
Speaker 1: to argue the merits with someone who has drunk the
Speaker 1: kool aid, because as that doesn't always work out. It's
Speaker 1: like a protracted conversation where maybe you create some bitterness
Speaker 1: in that friendship. That's true. Something else that we'd recommend
Speaker 1: for folks as well is to take your time when
Speaker 1: you are considering uh financial opportunity and also make sure
Speaker 1: that you're doing your research as well. But scam waters,
Speaker 1: they will almost always use time to their advantage, sort
Speaker 1: of like what we're talking about earlier about being you know,
Speaker 1: once you're on the line, whence you're on the phone,
Speaker 1: they are not going to want to hang up. They're
Speaker 1: gonna want to get you to head to the store,
Speaker 1: buy those gift cards. That sort of thing. Same thing
Speaker 1: with a utility scam that we talked about earlier, that
Speaker 1: involves you having to give them money immediately. It's just
Speaker 1: this shrewd tactic because it's harder to make a smart
Speaker 1: decision when you're under the gun, when you're in a
Speaker 1: pressure cooker. Right, So do your research, take your time,
Speaker 1: and don't let any claim that you need to make
Speaker 1: a decision now or being told that the opportunity it
Speaker 1: will be gone forever. Don't let those tactics lead you
Speaker 1: to act impulsively. What's so difficult, you know, like you're
Speaker 1: you're talking about how like you don't want to be
Speaker 1: suspicious of every relationship in your mind, Like that's what's
Speaker 1: so crazy about a lot of these schames is that
Speaker 1: it does involve some sort of relationship, right, whether that's
Speaker 1: the trust you have with a certain company, or whether
Speaker 1: it's because oh yeah, I'm acquaintances with this person, I
Speaker 1: kind of know them, or even if it's somebody that
Speaker 1: you think you love right go, kind of going back
Speaker 1: to the different dating apps. Scammers target all those different
Speaker 1: kinds of relationships, whether it be with a brand or
Speaker 1: with someone who's closer to you, to take advantage of you,
Speaker 1: to part you with your money. And so it's difficult
Speaker 1: because what we're saying is like, you got to be
Speaker 1: on alert, but don't be so un alert that you're
Speaker 1: just this crazy person, right Like, like you don't want
Speaker 1: to live in the equivalent of a bunker when it
Speaker 1: comes to your relationships where you're just hunkering down. But
Speaker 1: we do want you to think twice anytime you are
Speaker 1: faced with some of these decisions. Just give pause and
Speaker 1: think twice before you take any actions. Yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think what you're saying is that you
Speaker 1: don't have to be paranoid. But but I feel like
Speaker 1: someone could listen to most of the episode and be like,
Speaker 1: I should probably be paranoid because is there a zombie
Speaker 1: behind me right now? Everyone's out to get me? And
Speaker 1: so yeah, I should get my shot. I can kill
Speaker 1: all those zombies. But you know I will say I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't personally live in fear of internet con artists
Speaker 1: or or that someone close to me is going to
Speaker 1: try to steal my money from me. Right, I'm not
Speaker 1: like line up awake at night when I opened watching
Speaker 1: my wife's sleeps just in case she's gonna try to
Speaker 1: scam me out of something. Right, Um, she's gonna try
Speaker 1: to sell me some lie or some whole life insurance.
Speaker 1: What's her problem? But I think the goal of this
Speaker 1: episode it really is to raise awareness and to highlight
Speaker 1: the fact that even intelligent people like our listeners, because
Speaker 1: if you've been listening to the show for any amount
Speaker 1: of time, you are a smart person, and anybody, even
Speaker 1: you can fall victim for a scam. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, scammers are getting savvy er, you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're making those scams more difficult to identify. There's just
Speaker 1: no foolproof way to avoid getting scammed completely and to
Speaker 1: assure that you'll never get scammed for the rest of
Speaker 1: your life. But you know, if scams are like zombies
Speaker 1: in the Walking Dead math, then I think we'd all
Speaker 1: be remissed to not carry a shotgun and take some
Speaker 1: of the steps that we just outlined. Like you, you
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you're prepared do those simple
Speaker 1: tasks that we just outlined, and hopefully it will make
Speaker 1: you scam resistant. That's that's our goal. That is right. Man.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and get back to the beer that
Speaker 1: we enjoyed during this episode. You and I we shared
Speaker 1: a crawler of electric Venom. This is from Little Cottage Brewery,
Speaker 1: and I will say with it being in a crawler,
Speaker 1: you and I we both got a full sixteen ounces.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure John filled this thing like up to
Speaker 1: the brim before and before he gave it to you.
Speaker 1: But man, how much pineapple juice do you think is
Speaker 1: actually in this thing? Because there's more pineapple juice than
Speaker 1: beer almost, like uh like, I mean that was the
Speaker 1: first thing I could smell. We could crack the first
Speaker 1: of all, it's a crawler, so when you crack the top,
Speaker 1: it's like you're opening a drum of oil or something
Speaker 1: like that. But yeah, as we poured this, I was like,
Speaker 1: holy cow, Like the the amount of pineapple fragrance was
Speaker 1: definitely noticeable. And as you're drinking it too. It's I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the first thing I noticed. But it wasn't like
Speaker 1: over over the top. It wasn't so much that it
Speaker 1: was like that it overwhelmed the senses, right. It wasn't
Speaker 1: too perfume me, I guess, is what I'm saying, because
Speaker 1: there was a lot of actual fruit flavor within the beer.
Speaker 1: Because a lot of times I get turned off if
Speaker 1: like the smell doesn't match up with the eiver, then
Speaker 1: something's wrong. And we've had beers like that before where
Speaker 1: the fruit flavor it almost felt artificial, But this I
Speaker 1: feel like there's nothing artificial about this pineapple. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm like biting into a giant pineapple, like it's
Speaker 1: an apple pineapple. If nobody does that kind of like
Speaker 1: cut the exterior. If you do that, you're like bleeding
Speaker 1: cut it into cubes. Does does your mouth get tore
Speaker 1: up if you eat fresh pineapple? Like, because it's kind
Speaker 1: of like I don't know if it's what it is
Speaker 1: about it, but like the actual fiber is kind of
Speaker 1: stuff on the mouth. Don't you try to remember the
Speaker 1: last time I had a fresh pineapple? I don't think so.
Speaker 1: But you know, you don't even know what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about how crazy. Yeah, Okay, if you're listening and if
Speaker 1: you have to moderate the amount of pineapple that you
Speaker 1: eat because it blisters up the inside of your mouth,
Speaker 1: let me know, because that happens to me. I think
Speaker 1: pineapple juice is one of the best ways to consume
Speaker 1: finepple's delicious. And this should think like you gotta pinnick
Speaker 1: a lotter or something, right, Yeah, And this beer had
Speaker 1: a ton of just distinct pineapple vibes going on. It's
Speaker 1: definitely the most pineapple beer I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 1: But our friend John who who's the brewer over there.
Speaker 1: He and an owner of Little Cottage Brewing. He as
Speaker 1: a knack for making just ridiculously interesting beers that are
Speaker 1: a little off the beaten path, but that anybody can enjoy,
Speaker 1: I think. And so yeah, this, I think this beer
Speaker 1: in particular is like one of the best representations of
Speaker 1: how far in a particular direction he can go. He
Speaker 1: can get crazy with it but still make it an
Speaker 1: excellent final problem. Absolutely, Yeah, anybody who's in Atlanta and
Speaker 1: hasn't been a Little Cottage you gotta go. Absolutely, it's
Speaker 1: it's I mean, we've got a couple of favorite breweries
Speaker 1: in here in Atlanta, but he he's tied for first. Also, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's the perfect amount of sweetness. There's like a
Speaker 1: touch of tartness with this being a sour ale. But
Speaker 1: I was curious if you're gonna note how sweet it was,
Speaker 1: because I felt like it was kind of pushing the
Speaker 1: envelope as far as how sweet you like your beers.
Speaker 1: I thought it was perfect, nice amount of sweetness with
Speaker 1: a touch of tartness, going yeah, yeah, I know, I agree,
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's definitely on, you know, higher on the
Speaker 1: sweet scale. But because it was like had a depth
Speaker 1: of juiciness to it, it kind of I was cool
Speaker 1: with it. It had the fruit to back it. Yes,
Speaker 1: for sure. Well, dude, cool. I'm glad you and I
Speaker 1: got to share this beer on the episode. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: Joel mentioned, everyone check out Little Cottage Brewery if you
Speaker 1: are going through Atlanta or if you live here, And
Speaker 1: we will make sure to have our show notes up
Speaker 1: on the website at how the Money dot com and
Speaker 1: we'll link to any of the resources that we mentioned
Speaker 1: during this episode. No doubt. By the way, if you
Speaker 1: haven't joined our Facebook group, it is a pleasant place
Speaker 1: where people help each other with their money questions. We've
Speaker 1: encourage you to go over to Facebook dot com type
Speaker 1: in how the money in the search line. I promise
Speaker 1: this is not a scam. It's just a truly good
Speaker 1: online resources where people can ask each other questions and
Speaker 1: receive help. So um, yeah, I feel free to check
Speaker 1: that out. But that's gonna do it for this episode.
Speaker 1: Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,