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June
30, 2006:
Protecting Yourself From Scams
Interview
with John Wilt author of Do
I Need Help
Mike
Carruthers:
Have you ever been the victim of a scam?
John
Wilt:
There's a lot of scams. Everybody's after your money. Telephone
scams are number one. The U.S. Congress estimates that Americans
lose 40 billion dollars a year just from telephone scams.
John
Wilt author of the book Do
I Need Help says when someone calls trying to sell you something,
a few, quick questions will weed out the scams.
First
one is where did you get my name? You know. What are the risks
involved? Would you explain this to my attorney? Can you provide
references? Those type of questions.
We all
like to think we're too smart to fall for a scam, but John says
a lot of these guys are really good and can talk people into
doing a lot of things.
There
was a woman that had been called and said that they thought
somebody at the bank was messing with the accounts, and so they
asked her to withdraw cash to see if it was recorded. And then
he said he'd come over and get the money from her, and return
it to the bank. Well, he did come over and get the money, but
it was never returned to the bank, and this poor lady and her
friend lost $16,700 in a matter of a minute.
And here's
a scam everyone should be aware of.
Look
in the obituary section and it will identify when the funeral
is, and the family obviously will go to the funeral. So that
leaves nobody at home and the thieves will then break into your
home while you're away at the funeral. So, it's always advisable
to leave a friend in your home when you go to the funeral.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net.
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's "Something You Should Know."
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