In my last article I talked about a lady name Laura who was scammed out of a lot of money by an supposed investment company based out of Hong Kong. In this post I want to show you what to look for so you won’t become a victim of these scams.
Do You Know When You Are Falling For A Scam
About 10 years ago, I was invited to meeting by a few friends who said, ‘You gotta see this.’ So after hearing them brag about this meeting, I have to admit I was a bit intrigued to see what all the fuss was about.
While we were on the way, I asked them what this meeting was all about. They told me it was all about investing some money with a company called Purchase Plus.
So at this meeting I learned about an investment plan where you give your money to this company, Purchase Plus, and within two months they would send you a check back for the full amount plus a guaranteed extra amount.
Now at this point you might be thinking this is a total scam but when you’ve never been exposed to something like this you don’t know any better. As a result of going to this meeting I was asked if I wanted to invest money with them as my friends did. I almost agreed but I instead decided to wait and see what happened.
A few months later, a headline came across the news that said that the Purchase Plus Pyramid Scam had been foiled. My first reaction was shock. I didn’t even realize I was being scammed. Purchase Plus had scammed millions of dollars out of people before finally being caught.
As for my friends that bought into the scam, they got their money back but I have heard of a few who lost a lot. The bad part about this whole situation is that I didn’t even know I was being scammed, and that’s the worst part–you may not know you have fallen for a scam before it’s too late.
So the question needs to be asked, how do you know when you’re being scammed? Here are a few points to consider.
5 Red Flags To Watch Out For
- Guarantees. If they are guaranteeing you something like big money, that should instantly raise some red flags. Especially if it’s an investment for money. When it comes to investing money in the stock market there are no guarantees.
- Your must act now. This is just a gimmick to get you to do something in the heat of the moment especially when your emotions are high so it doesn’t give you a chance to think about it. Remember you all have time to think about it.
- You’ve won a free gift. If you get this line, run in the other direction. They may say you get something free but you have to pay postage and handling, and as a result you will be enrolled into a membership program that will cost you money every month. I’ve fallen for this before and it was next to impossible to cancel the program.
- Pushy sales people from unfamiliar companies. If you get some guy calling you on the phone trying to push you into buying something that you don’t want just hang up. Pushy sales people tend to get you all emotional so your logical thinking is out of the picture, making it easier for them to get you to buy. If you have never heard of the company, this should also be a red flag.
- If they ask for your information over the phone. Sure if your buying something from a reputable company over the phone it’s not a scam but ifsomeone callsyou proclaiming you’vewon a free gift but they need to confirm your identity withyour credit card number or social security number it’s a scam.
Do You Know Of Any Other Red Flags To Watch Out For
Now this isn’t all of the warning signs but these are some of the big ones. If you have some other warning signs to watch out for leave a comment below. Also feel free to share your story of any scams you have witnessed or been involved with.
Chris
This post was recently featured on The Carnival of Personal Finance by The Mighty Bargain Hunter.
{ 4 trackbacks }