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How to Avoid Getting Scammed on Peer-to-Peer Apps
The days of cash may be over. More often, friends are splitting the restaurant tab by sending money via PayPal and parents are Venmoing babysitters their earnings after a night out. The use of peer-to-peer apps like Venmo, Zelle, and PayPal is booming. One forecast predicts that we’ll spend more than $1 trillion with them […]
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How to Protect Yourself and Avoid Reverse Mortgage Scams
Should you get a reverse mortgage? Avoid the scams first For people aged 62 and up, a reverse mortgage may seem like a tantalizing opportunity. After decades of sending in your monthly mortgage payments, you’re now getting money from your bank. A reverse mortgage siphons off the equity in your home and sends the cash […]
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What You Need to Know About Romance Scams
Romance scams are on the rise; here’s how to avoid them As we all sat at home, often isolated, alone and worried about the future in 2020, con artists took advantage. And while many of us are familiar with the scams that try to steal our identity, another kind is growing at an alarming rate […]
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How to Protect Ourselves from Scams Part 2
This is part two of my previous blog on how to protect ourselves from scams. As we anticipate another stimulus package we want to be as proactive as possible in protecting our finances. One of the best ways to protect ourselves is to just be aware of what’s going on around us. PAC Man One […]
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How to Protect Ourselves from Scams Part 1
A City Called Nub As a devotee of all things true crime for about twenty-five years, it’s hard for something to shock me. Enter Nub City, aka Vernon, Florida, in the Texas panhandle. Vernon had two-thirds of the entire nation’s accidental dismemberment insurance payouts. Almost all of the residents of Vernon had taken out insurance […]
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5 Ways to Prevent Senior Financial Scams
Senior financial scams are a growing problem nationwide. Your aging loved ones may have spent a lifetime saving for retirement, but they could lose it all if they fall into the hands of the right con artist. Consider these startling statistics: Older adults lose approximately $2.9 billion each year from financial scams and exploitation, according […]
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Protecting Those Who Protect Us: Military Scams
The men and women in my family have proudly served in every branch of the military. My grandad saw snow for the first time in France during WWI and my dad and uncles were stationed in Germany pre-Vietnam. My college roommate’s father was a Tuskegee Airman and even I was in the ROTC in college. […]
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Protecting Yourself From COVID-19 Scams
We’re in an extraordinary convergence of events; tax-refund season, stimulus payouts, pandemic, coronavirus shutdowns. If you add in any degree of fear or anxiety, you’ve got a situation ripe for predators to take advantage of. They’ve already started to pop up with their COVID-19 scams. Unfortunately, where the average compassionate person seeks to give, the […]
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Avoid These Common Tax Scams During Tax Season
It’s tax season, which can lead to tax scam season. Taxpayers have until April 15 to file their state and federal income tax returns this year. And, as they search their files and piles around their homes for critical tax documents, another group also is losing no time to make the most of the season […]