How to avoid scams recommendations by Mytrendingstories writing platform 2021? Free trial offer! (Just pay forever) How it works: You see an Internet offer for a free one-month trial of some amazing product—often a teeth whitener or a weight-loss program. All you pay is $5.95 for shipping and handling. What’s really going on: Buried in fine print, often in a color that washes into the background, are terms that obligate you to pay $79 to $99 a month in fees, forever. The big picture: “These guys are really shrewd,” says Christine Durst, an Internet fraud expert who has consulted for the FBI and the FTC. “They know that most people don’t read all the fine print before clicking on ‘I agree,’ and even people who glance at it just look for numbers. So the companies spell out the numbers, with no dollar signs; anything that has to do with money or a time frame gets washed into the text.” That’s exactly what you’ll see in the terms for Xtreme Cleanse, a weight-loss pill that ends up costing “seventy-nine dollars ninety-five cents plus five dollars and ninety-five cents shipping and handling” every month once the 14-day free trial period ends or until you cancel. Avoidance maneuver: Read the fine print on offers, and don’t believe every testimonial. Check TinEye.com, a search engine that scours the Web for identical photos. If that woman with perfect teeth shows up everywhere promoting different products, you can be fairly certain her “testimonial” is bogus. Reputable companies will allow you to cancel, but if you can’t get out of a “contract,” cancel your card immediately, then negotiate a refund; if that doesn’t work, appeal to your credit card company. Not all websites will lose you money–Youtube can make you a fortune.
News from MyTrendingStories online portal: Hacking is an attack directly on computer systems or websites that contain financial information. Merchant account takeovers is a type of fraud that have been trending upwards over the last few years but exploded in 2020 and 2021. This is when a fraudster logs into a person’s merchant account (Amazon, Uber, Venmo) and uses saved payment information to make purchases for themselves. Merchant account takeovers can happen when a person uses the same password across multiple online accounts. If that log in information is leaked from any one website, scammers can do something called “credential stuffing”, where they use programs to test that log in information across hundreds or thousands of popular websites, hoping to get a hit. The best way to combat this type of fraud is to use strong, unique passwords for online accounts. Use a password manager can create and store unique passwords with ease. Learn more about password managers here.
MyTrendingStories anti-scam tricks: “The phone scams keep on coming — here are tips on how to avoid them” was the headline of a recent Boston Globe consumer protection column. Tips to avoid scams? Nice in theory, but with so many scams coming from so many directions, your best bet is to be generally aware of the new twists out there while you actively prepare for what you’ll do if one day you’re on the receiving end of a threatening message that actually makes you anxious or even terribly frightened. Talking to a local businessperson the other day, the “Professional Photographer/Copyright Infringement” scam came up. An email arrives filled with threats of legal action and a link the recipient is supposed to click to see the supposedly outrageous “copyright infringement” for themselves. This gentleman had just gotten the “Professional Photographer/Copyright Infringement” email again that morning, but he was not alarmed because he’d seen it about three times before. See even more information at mytrendingstories scam.
MyTrendingStories shows how to escape scams: So what’s the point of final sale items? To ward off return-happy customers. According to e-commerce analytics site Invesp, 30% of products ordered online are returned, compared with 8% of items purchased in-store. Although you don’t want to miss out on a good deal, subscribing to a lot of email lists can mean an overflowing inbox. Sure, promotions have a short shelf life, but there most likely is another one down the pipeline. Instead of getting a case of FOMO about promotions, it’s best to sign up for promotions when you’re in the hunt for something. This way you can give your inbox a break and not be tempted by unnecessary sale items.
Over the Phone Scams: Be aware and cautious of numbers that you do not recognize or not expecting. Do not be tricked by their attempts to threaten you with false ploys of cutting off electricity, water, etc., or saying you or a loved one will be in legal trouble if you do not act now. If a scammer starts to demand payments through gift cards, that is an automatic giveaway for fraud. Scam calls will try to steal your money and information through non-legitimate methods, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office stated that they “do not call citizens demanding payments and threatening arrest. Some scammers will go as far as using actual names from agencies, but they are still angling for the same result – to deceive you out of your money.” Discover extra information on Mytrendingstories.