Is there an investment opportunity that sounds too good to be true?
Are you getting strange emails from your bank asking for your account details?
Does your mom have a new online boyfriend that desperately needs cash?
If any of those sound familiar, you or someone you know may be the victim of a Financial Scam!
That’s why on this week's podcast, Financial Expert Dan B. is here to talk about the different types of scams, how to spot them, and the specific ways to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your Credit Repair customers. He was also kind enough to share some personal stories about the terrible Financial Scams that damaged his family.
It’s a great discussion, and you can’t afford to miss any of it!
Dan B. is a brilliant Financial Expert, he created CRC’s popular course on how to become a Personal Finance Coach, he has been my good friend for 25 years, and he's here today to have a candid conversation about Financial Scams.
We cover how they’ve affected our families and how we can protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our Credit Repair customers. You don’t want to miss a single second.
It’s not just Credit Scores that are at risk. Entire life savings are at stake.
So head over to Youtube to watch the Full Interview now!
Here are a few of the highlights…
Please tell everybody what happened with your family?
So I have an aunt, an elderly aunt, well into her 80s, and she lost her entire life savings due to a scam. And we didn't find out until all the money was gone.
She lost her entire life savings?!
Completely. She lost everything.
That's horrifying.
It was a terrible thing that happened. It didn't just happen to my family. It happens to many families…Scams are just so common now that they're targeting…the vulnerable… essentially every member of our society is being targeted right now for different types of scams. And, you know, sooner or later, a lot of us get impacted by it. And in my personal case, my aunt, who was living off of her retirement savings, lost everything.
There are different types of scams. This particular scam worked on emotions and romance and got her thinking that she was romantically connected to a particular person.
Did this happen online?
It happened through email…A lot of these scams connect through email. And in this particular case, they sent her an email, making her think that she was talking to a celebrity or someone that she highly respected…They made that personal connection. And when they make that personal connection, that emotional connection, that's when they engage the victim. And when you engage the victim, the victim feels personally responsible and wants to help out.
And when they got that hook, they create the drama. They create the need for money.
There has to be drama in order for the scam to work. And this particular person needed funds to get out of a situation, but was gonna get funds later…So all this person needed was a short-term loan…and of course…we all wanna help each other. We all wanna help. So, my aunt felt that she was helping this particular person.
And because it was an embarrassing situation, she didn't wanna tell anyone. She didn't wanna tell anything. That's another very key component of a scam. They try to create an environment where you feel you can't tell other people about it.
How was she to loan this person? How was the money to exchange hands?
So scams work in different ways. Sometimes you wire transfer. In this case, there was a wire transfer involved. But there was also the common scam of gift cards. How this particular scam works…and it's very common…is they convince people that they need funding. And the way to do that is to purchase gift cards and then give those gift card numbers to the scammer.
Then the scammer will empty those gift cards, buy products and then sell it. And that's how they make their money. So it was a combination of wire transfers. And when all that was consumed up using credit cards, maxing out credit cards to purchase gift cards.
And this went on for a very long time until her savings was gone?
It likely went on for about one to two years, and yes, that's exactly how it stopped…Essentially all the credit cards were maxed out…You couldn't pay your own bills cuz you didn't have anything…My aunt felt that she was moments away from being refunded, but hasn't been refunded yet.
The scammer will constantly come up with more drama and excuses of why she needs to give more money and why they're only days or weeks away from getting all paid back whole.
Do you remember what any of the drama excuses were?
In this particular case, this supposed famous person was going through a personal divorce and didn't have access to his money. It’s always a complicated story. So he needed the money to float a particular expense or health issue…whatever…And then, when it would settle, he would get access to all this money and then repay back with interest, and all would be good. The issue would be closed, and my aunt would feel satisfied that she helped this famous person.
Of course, none of that is real. You know it's all playing on people's emotions…what people connect to…which is helping others…And when they can't tell the story to others…That's what all these scams have in common, the drama, the roughness of it, the need to do something quickly. And then the ability to be paid back in whole or more.
How much did they take?
Oh, it was about $120,000. It was quite a bit of money.
What was this like for her? What was it at the end? What was this like for your family? What did you go through?
Well, I don't think she's unique in this. At first, you don't believe it's real. You believe that you haven't been scammed…So there's that whole time period where you have to kind of accept that you were scammed. And then when you realize you're scammed, there's an incredible embarrassment that occurs. So you don't wanna tell people about it. You don't want to feel embarrassed that you got kind of snookered into this deal.
And then after that, there's the guilt and the impact and the consequence to all this, cuz you still have to pay your bills and you lost all your savings. So there's a lot of repercussions that occur. And one thing I wanna emphasize is this is not a one, two person situation. This happens to millions of people across our country. And these scam artists are professionals. They know what buttons to push and what keywords to use to make these deals happen.
Now, how common are these kinds of scams?
They are everywhere. Anyone who has a cell phone knows that they are getting multiple calls a day from various scam artists. And these are people that are just calling millions and millions of people a day, hoping for that one or two hits…There are scams across the board…Is it too good to be true? Are there references to this? Are there examples of it working successfully? Are they preventing you or discouraging you from telling your friends and family about it? You know, that that's always, that's always a key thing.
We should talk about some of the other ways people can protect themselves. I think…most of all…if an offer or a person or a situation looks too good to be true…It probably is, right?
Absolutely…Another thing is, don't do things in secret, you know? It's okay to discuss when you got all these big issues. Like I had this friend that desperately needs money…You wanna talk to people about that. Make sure it makes sense if you're gonna loan somebody money. Make sure that there's some kind of recourse about it. And then, hopefully, a friend will say, “have you met this person? Have you seen this person in real?”
You want someone outside of your bubble to kind of double-check your thoughts. Talk to family members like that. And then the other thing is to do some Googling…In the case of the Pump and Dump stocks…Those are very well documented…So you should kind of understand when you're being exposed to that. You could Google it and figure it out…
It's important not to get in over your head.
Don't invest in things that you don't fully understand. If you can't understand how the process is working, it's probably best you avoid it. The stock market is considered a long-term investment. So if you're trying to get short-term gains out of it and you don't really understand how that works, you're likely not gonna be successful.
What are some more tips that people can use to protect themselves?
First of all, you should be aware of your credit score, right? So that kind of addresses the issue of identity theft because identity theft could occur when you're completely not aware of it. You could do nothing wrong and still get identity theft. They could take out credit cards in your name, and you reap the consequences of that. So you should have visibility and a kind of regular routine looking at your credit report. That's one way.
The second thing is, when you're dealing with relatives that are elderly, like your mother or my aunt…have honest conversations with them. Explain how you could be vulnerable to this. You were definitely being sought after and attacked routinely by scams. Have those open conversations. That's something that I probably should have done better. You wanna get ahead of it and you wanna be able to explain, what are the different types of scams, so that when they are exposed to it, they say, “oh…I kind of remember this.” So that's very important.
And then the third thing…think about the deals that you're doing with yourself…Where are my risks? Where are my weaknesses? You know, we all have kind of emotional connections with ideas. And the scammers know that. So they try to take advantage of that.
Dan and I kept talking – as old friends do. We covered more tactics to avoid scams like…
You should never give money or credit card details or online account details to anyone that you don't know and trust.
You should check your bank account, and credit card statements regularly for unusual activity.
You should be doing credit monitoring to check your credit report to make sure there's not weird stuff on there that’s not yours. That would be a sign of identity theft.
You should report any unexplained transactions to your bank.
You should make sure no one else knows your pin number.
And we discussed a whole lot more!
Also, if you don’t already have a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It’s the software that most Credit Repair businesses in America run on. Just sign up for a 30 day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com/freetrial
And If you’d like me to hold you by the hand as you launch your own credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge!!
It’s an amazing program where you’ll learn the processes that have made millionaires, and it costs less than you'll spend taking your family to McDonald’s for dinner.
We’ve got another challenge starting in a few days, so grab your spot right now at CreditHeroChallenge.com!
Until then, remember…protect yourself, your loved ones, and your customers from Financial Scams…
And keep changing lives!