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Don’t Give Up: 4 Billionaires Who Failed Miserably Before Success

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You can change your life and get what you want. But you have to change who you are and adapt your mindset accordingly to get what you want.

Have you ever thought about starting your own business? Who hasn’t? However, opening a business is not as hard as keeping it open long-term.

Over 22% of businesses fail within the first year of operations. And over 50% of businesses fail after five years.

I’m not trying to discourage you. If you have a business ambition, you should try to make it a reality. But you must be realistic about it. A business is not going to run itself, or be successful just because you launch it.

To start a business, you need money, a business plan, a marketing plan, an understanding of who will buy your product or service and why. You should consult experts, and lawyers, and consider your options. You shouldn’t start a business impulsively, but you shouldn’t procrastinate either.

I’m in the process of trying to start my own business as I write this, which I hope to write more about soon. I’m not patronizing you, I’m in the same boat too.

You can launch your own business in your own home, in an attic, basement, garage, or spare bedroom for a few hundred or thousand. If you want to launch a business with a rented space, it could cost you hundreds of thousands or millions.

There is nothing easy about starting a business. But anything worthwhile is never easy to accomplish. Keep at it.

Need a little motivation? Here are three billionaires who failed multiple times, miserably, before finding success.

J.K. Rowling

I get it. J.K. Rowling’s stances on gender identity have cheesed off a lot of people. While it’s had to effectively cancel a billionaire, (she wrote the screenplays for the Wizarding World films) she has technically been canceled.

But that does not mean you can’t learn from her early life struggles. Rowling actually fits the definition of a “rags-to-riches,” story.

Rowling was a poverty-stricken single mother in the early 1990s. She was in her 20s, living off of government benefits, and going back and forth between Scotland and England looking for opportunities.

Rowling’s Harry Potter book was rejected dozens of times. She submitted it under a man’s name and got rejected. Rowling said she was so depressed she considered suicide.

Scholastic Press published the book in 1998. The Harry Potter books have since sold almost half a billion copies since then.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen

Before they created Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen were industrious high school students in the 1970s. And they came up with a way to collect traffic data more efficiently.

In the 1970s, state and city municipalities used pressure-sensitive rubber cables on roadways to collect statistics on traffic patterns. However, the system used then was inefficient.

Gates and Allen created an update to this system called Traf-O-Data. Unfortunately, the young men were decades ahead of their time with their thinking. There was no hardware to support the proposed software of the 1970s. And there was no infrastructure to implement. And they had no connections.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney died in 1966. He lived to become rich and successful, but he died long before seeing how powerful his company would become.

But if he was more of a pessimist, he would never have succeeded.

Disney’s first animation studio went bankrupt. He tried to become an actor in Hollywood and failed. He created a cartoon called Oswald The Lucky Rabbit and had the IP stolen from him by a shady business partner.

Meanwhile, Disney was steadily increasing his debt and living off a starvation diet of canned beans. (It was the era of the Great Depression.)

When Disney tried to launch Disney the company, he was rejected over 300 times by investors, banks, and financiers. He launched Disney in 1928 but didn’t find true success until the late 1930s.

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USED CAR BUYING SCAM ALERTS AND HELPFUL TIPS

CAN ZERO-BASED BUDGETING HELP MAXIMIZE YOUR SALARY?

THREE AMERICAN TOWNS WHERE YOU CAN LIVE FOR $2,500 MONTHLY

Used Car Buying Scam Alerts and Helpful Tips

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The average cost of a used car is over $33,000.

However, Americans also overpay by over $10,000 when they buy a used car.

You may get completely scammed when buying a used car and not even know it.

Used car dealerships exist to profit — end of sentence. If you know nothing about cars or don’t bring an experienced mechanic with you to vet a potential purchase, you could get ripped off.

One of the dirtiest tricks that used car dealerships employ is to buy damaged or salvaged vehicles dirt cheap or at police auctions. Some police and public auctions offer discounts for people who buy multiple vehicles at once.

The dealership will then have the cars repaired and aesthetically rehabbed as cheaply as possible. They will function long enough to fool you to buy it and get it off the lot.

Meanwhile, the car dealership profits by selling defective vehicles at an inflated price.

Here are several ways to catch a car dealer trying to cheat you red-handed.

Seatbelt Mold Check Test

Over 400,000 cars on the road have been damaged in floods. Flood-damaged cars are slowly corroding and apart from the inside.

And many Americans have no idea that the car they just bought has unseen flood damage.

The easiest way to check if the car you want to buy has flood damage is to pull the seat belt out as far as it will go. The unseen part of the seat belt that is nearest to the interior base of the vehicle may have mold on it.

Why would an aesthetically pleasing car have mold at the very base of the seat belt strap?

The only way that this hack won’t work is if the dealership was smart enough to replace the seat belt.

Seat belt and Manufacture Label Cross Reference

If a car dealer buys salvaged and damaged vehicles to cheaply repair, they should be smart enough to replace the seat belts.

And that act can expose them.

Pull the seat belt strap out of its opening as far as possible. There should be a label that certifies the manufacture date of the seat belt in the vehicle. The seat belt date on the vehicle may not be the same as the manufacture date of the vehicle, usually located within the door jam or on the VIN.

But if the manufacture label date of the seat belt is multiple years before or after the car manufacture date, then the vehicle could be a salvage put together with new parts like a Frankenstein monster.

Underside Inspection

When buying a used car, most people look everywhere except under the car.

If you are not a gearhead, hire a mechanic to come along with you for vetting.

A cheaply put-together salvage is more obvious to discern from under the car. A good mechanic can easily and quickly spot cheap repairs and components holding the underside together.

These are just a few tips to keep you from getting scammed while looking for your next car. Good luck and happy car shopping.

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4 METHODS RETAILERS USE TO SCAM YOU INTO PAYING MORE

CAN ZERO-BASED BUDGETING HELP MAXIMIZE YOUR SALARY?

WHY FREE TRIAL OFFERS ARE USUALLY A SCAM

7 REASONS YOU SHOULDN’T BUY YOUR KID A CAR

4 Methods Retailers Use to Scam You Into Paying More 

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If you only live to buy it all, then whatever you attain will never be enough.

And you will probably overpay for everything without ever realizing it.

Did you know that the American consumer usually overpays for everything?

The typical consumer pays over $3,700 more on a car loan than the vehicle is actually worth. Some drivers are even duped into paying more than double what a used vehicle is worth.

American drivers collectively overpay their car insurance by over $101 billion.

Americans are even overpaying for generic drugs by over 20%. 

It’s one thing to overpay for goods because you have been duped or tricked into it. Car dealers and car insurance sellers understand the system. They know how to get naive and uninformed consumers to pay more than they should. 

And the pharmaceutical industry is manipulating the price of generics in secretive ways to make you overpay.

But did you know that businesses and retailers also use psychological warfare to manipulate you into overpaying for consumer goods, approving of it, and even feeling euphoria over it?

They have been doing this for a very long time. They even hire scientists and researchers to study consumer psychology and behaviors and even conduct social experiments to maximize their profit potential.

Here are four ways that retailers scam you into overpaying and even trick you into enjoying it.

Price Anchoring Tactics

The best way to explain price anchoring tactics is to first explain the scamming practice of “menu engineering.”

Menu engineers are consultants and consumer behavioral experts who deceptively design restaurant menus to trick you into paying more than you intended to. In fact, menu engineering tactics are designed to trick you into feeling good about overpaying even though you don’t realize you’re doing it.

Imagine that you are at a high-end and pricey restaurant. You’re shown a menu. There is a bottle of red wine or truffle and bleu cheese dressed Kobe-beef cheeseburger priced at $1,000.

You scoff at the price and then order something a price tier or two under that item.

Like a sucker.

The menu was socially engineered to make you repulsed at the idea of paying $1,000 for wine or a fancy burger. Now you feel psychologically validated to pay $400 or $500 on a two-person date. Even though those relatively cheaper items are overpriced as well, you are not paying $1,000.

Retail stores use this same tactic.

BOGO Deals

Have you ever felt a dopamine rush of excitement whenever you see a “buy-one-get-one” offer?

There are research papers that suggest consumers can’t resist themselves whenever they see the word “free” or “BOGO.”

Consumers love getting something for free. And they convince themselves that they are saving a few bucks while getting something free.

It isn’t true. You may get a free trinket or item, but the retailer is the only one benefiting.

BOGO deals are usually only available for a limited time so the retailer doesn’t lose everything. The retailer could have excessive inventory. Or they need to free up storage space.

Or they may just want to trick consumers into inflating their profit margin.

To get a BOGO offer, you may have to buy a minimum amount of goods first. Imagine that you have to buy $50 of goods in a supermarket or retailer before you get a free item.

Sometimes burger joints like Mcdonald’s or Burger King give away a food item for free with certain meals. But if a thousand people or more take up that deal daily for a month, and pay an $8 minimum per person to get the BOGO deal, then who benefits?

Just seeing “BOGO” or “free,” can have you happily impulse buying or overpaying just to get a free trinket.

Prestige Pricing Plans

Prestige Pricing Plans are kind of similar to the price anchoring scam.

Except with prestige pricing plans, you are tricked into feeling proud and emotionally validated into paying high prices for elite brand names.

When you see words like Fendi, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Balenciaga, Dior, or Chanel, what do you think of?

Probably paying exorbitant prices for the privilege of wearing a luxury brand.

But you are paying inflated prices for its own sake. Businesses hire consultants to track consumer behaviors and test pricing tolerances to gauge how high they can push prices before consumers revolt. And these tactics are backed by science. 

Prestige prices is a rounded up exorbitant prices for a prestige or luxury brand. When you buy a luxury item, like a designer handbag, it’s usually for $770 or $1,180. Prestige prices never feature decimals in advertised prices, like $770.58.

Consumers think too much when they see decimals in a price. If Prada wants $940 for shoes, you just pay it! They’re a quality brand and luxury is not free, right?

No. You are just paying an inflated arbitrary price after being mesmerized by a luxury brand name.

Don’t believe me? In 2018, Payless Shoes conducted a social experiment in a Los Angeles store. They created a fake European-sounding luxury brand called “Palessi,” and plastered the fake name on their store for a day. Then Payless invited 80 social media influencers to the Palessi.

Payless presented $20 shoes to them and asked them how much they were willing to pay to obtain them

Some of the influencers said they would pay anywhere between $200 to $640 for the $20 shoes.

Coupons Use Causes Euphoric Reactions in the Mind

Coupon use can be financially beneficial in the long term. But most coupons offer middling discounts and savings. You need to use a coupon on multiple purchases, like every item in a supermarket cart, to realize significant savings. And even then, you have to continue the practice long term.

Unless you are really researching and comparing prices and have a disciplined long-term use strategy, then you are wasting your time.

Coupons are really designed to instill trust in consumers and make them loyal customers. And that is because there is scientific proof that using a coupon causes feelings of euphoria within the consumer.

Using a coupon triggers a mental euphoria and feelings akin to kissing or cuddling someone you lust for or love.

There is nothing wrong with using coupons. Just create a financial strategy that benefits you in the long term and realizes actual savings over time. Otherwise, you may be using them for their own sake.

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CAN ZERO-BASED BUDGETING HELP MAXIMIZE YOUR SALARY?

THREE AMERICAN TOWNS WHERE YOU CAN LIVE FOR $2,500 MONTHLY

3 SIDE HUSTLES PAYING AS MUCH AS FULL-TIME

 

 

Can Zero-Based Budgeting Help Maximize Your Salary?

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What would you do to have some more money in your life? Seriously, what would you sacrifice? If you are now contemplating in your mind the sacrifices you would make, you may be overthinking the question. It’s not always the case, but people usually create misery and unhappiness themselves. 

Money is a mindset and a tool. Wealth is not a state of possessing a lot of materialistic items. You can get 10 cars if you want. But you will spend a fortune on maintenance. And if you don’t drive a car for long periods, it will internally degrade.

The things you own, end up owning you – and costing you more money.

Wealth is the state of not wanting things. Money is a tool that allows you to have more options in life. Consider these diametrically opposed sayings:

“Money talks and B.S. walks.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.”

How many times has your life mirrored the meaning of the second quote? Life is always hard for working-class and middle-class people, whether or not there is a pandemic or skyrocketing inflation to deal with.

The average American salary ranges between $35,000 to $51,000. When one must consider the costs of raising a family and owning a home, this is not a lot of money.

What would you sacrifice to make more money? You could start with your mindset about money. 

Acknowledge money is a tool. Differentiate between needs and wants. And budget your personal life strategically.

Zero-Based Budgeting

Before tackling zero-based budgeting, you should first master traditional budgeting.

Traditional budgeting helps you to get a sense of how much money comes in and out of your household. It also shows you how you are spending your money. 

Before you start a traditional budget, start by keeping a purchase diary. Keep a record of everything you buy in a week. Then expand upon it by making a list of your income, expenses, debt, and spending habits. Well-calculated math rarely lies – you will learn quickly if you are too frivolous with your income.

You can then excise non-essential expenses and strategically save money. Here is a great place to budget templates. Remember to reassess your budget weekly or monthly and update it as needed.

The only drawback to traditional budgets is that they are like a Rorschach test for financial literacy. It’s hard to look in the mirror and admit that your financial mindset could be the cause of most if not all of your money problems.

While a traditional budget tells you how well or badly you spend money, a zero-based budget helps allocate all of your money for future use.

In a zero-based budget, you can take your monthly salary and then allocate every penny towards an expense, debt, bill payment, or savings plan. You allocate every penny of your salary until there is no money left.

However, the best way to develop optimal allocations for your lifestyle is to perfect the traditional budget first.

Here is a sample zero-based budget template. Let’s pretend you are a single working professional and you make $3,000 monthly.

  • Rent – $1,000
  • Bills and Utilities – $350
  • Debts – $300
  • Groceries – $300
  • Insurance – $200
  • Gasoline – $200
  • Entertainment – $100
  • Emergency fund – $200
  • Savings – $200
  • Miscellaneous – $150
  • TOTAL – $3,000

With zero-based budgeting, every dollar and penny has a place. There is no room to waste money. 

Adjust such a budget to your personal finances and see how it makes your salary stretch a little farther.

Zero-based budgeting won’t maximize your salary overnight. It may or may not work depending on your circumstances. Talk to a financial adviser to learn more about it.

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THREE AMERICAN TOWNS WHERE YOU CAN LIVE FOR $2,500 MONTHLY

3 SIDE HUSTLES PAYING AS MUCH AS FULL-TIME

WHY FREE TRIAL OFFERS ARE USUALLY A SCAM

 

 

Three American Towns Where You Can Live For $2,500 Monthly

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Why does it feel like the cost of living is not going to go down anytime soon? Have you noticed that the price of everything is steadily going up?

The inflation rate has historically been around 3% in previous years. But as of this writing, the inflation rate in the United States is over 8%. So, if you live in a large and population-dense metropolitan city, your finances are getting hit hard.

What would you be willing to do to save more money in these financially perilous times? Would you be willing to downsize your life and move to a smaller city or town?

Moving to a smaller city has its benefits and drawbacks. The cost of living is lower and you will be able to save more money.

However, such a move may only be feasible if you are a remote worker and don’t mind small-town culture. Additionally, you should not get easily homesick for big city culture and events. After such a move, you may have to travel for 30 minutes or more to get to the largest large city.

Don’t make such a move on a whim. Consider your options. Make a one or multi-year plan to move to a small town for financial benefit.

I’m not suggesting that you move to a Mayberry-esque town for its own sake. But with the right plan, downsizing to a small town may help you improve your finances in the long term.

Here are three towns you can move to for a $2,500 monthly budget.  Each town description will feature a generalized food budget of $250 monthly as interpreted for a single individual relative to USDA’s food budgeting recommendations.

Each general rent quote will be hyperlinked to listings in that town as advertised on Rent.com.

Downsizing Your Life

It is important to note that this list was made for nomadic workers looking to move to low-cost of living towns on a small budget. These suggestions are made in consideration for a single working professional who works remotely or a retiree on a fixed income.

You could limit yourself to a $2,500 monthly budget after downsizing, but you should have an emergency fund or make more than $30,000 annually budget before making such a move.

This article is about downsizing your life for financial gain to improve your finances, not just financially sacrificing for its own sake.

If you are married, have children, and need to drive and buy gas often, then a $2,500 monthly budget won’t work. Adjust your budget and cost of living expectations accordingly as you peruse this list.

Please note that these estimates are very basic and conservative. You will have to adjust for any miscellaneous expenses you incur. Look at these basic expenses as a starting point budget for a telecommuting and entrepreneurial professional who wishes to move to a smaller city to downsize and save more money.

Parma Heights, Ohio

Parma Heights is a small city of 20,000 people situated about half an hour south of Cleveland.

A former car manufacturing hub, Parma Heights is now a small city that is optimal for raising children and living quietly.

A one-bedroom apartment will run you for less than $800. 

General Annual Budget:

Food – $3,000

Rent – $9,600

Utilities – $1,284

Transportation/Gas – $1,524

Total: $15,408

Ohio generated over $19 billion for the American economy in 2019.  There are business opportunities there if you know what you are looking for. The summer and winters are extreme.

Hopkins, Minnesota 

Hopkins is a town with over 18,000 people that is situated 30 minutes west of Minneapolis and near the border with Wisconsin.

Hopkins was once a major vehicle manufacturing hub in the 1960 but is now a sleepy small town with some tourist attractions. St. Paul and Minneapolis are nearby if you crave larger city action.

A studio apartment will run you for less than $900. And a one-bedroom will cost a little more.

General Annual Budget:

Food – $3,000

Rent – $10,800

Utilities – $1,740

Transportation/Gas – $1,380

Total: $16,920

Minnesota is a state with plentiful work opportunities for those with the right mindset. There are more jobs than applicants and increased consumer demand with fewer workers to facilitate it. If you have a mind for economics and starting new entrepreneurial opportunities, this may be the place for you, just watch your budget.  Also, be prepared for brutally cold winters.

Seabrook, Texas

Seabrook is a very small town of 14,000 people that is located about half an hour southeast of Houston. The town is situated on Galveston Bay, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

This small town is surrounded by swampland but has an amazing and consistently stocked seafood market. You will never want for fresh fish and seafood in Seabrook.

And if you miss big cities, Galveston and Houston are only about 30 minutes away.

You can get a studio apartment for $900.

General Annual Budget:

Food – $3,000

Rent – $10,800

Utilities – $1,980

Transportation/Gas – $1,608

Total: $17,388

Texas has no personal income tax. You should consider moving living to Seabrook if you like seafood and living by the bay. You will have to get used to being near the path of hurricanes during hurricane season.

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3 SIDE HUSTLES PAYING AS MUCH AS FULL-TIME

WHERE TO SELL LIGHTLY USED LUXURY CLOTHES FOR BIG BUCKS ONLINE

WHY FREE TRIAL OFFERS ARE USUALLY A SCAM

3 Side Hustles Paying as Much as Full-Time

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If you have been watching the news or reaching into your pocket to pay for essential items, then you know that times are rough. 

Inflation and the price of everything are going through the roof. The cost of living relative to food, retail items, gasoline, and everything else is more expensive than they have ever been in decades. 

So, my advice to you is that if you can manage to get a side hustle, do so. 

The 21st-century gig economy is alive and kicking. The only limit to the types of part-time work you can find is in your imagination.

Broaden your job search options. Check out as many freelance gig sites as possible. These include:

  • Craigslist
  • Fiverr
  • Upwork
  • Linked
  • Toptal
  • Freelancer
  • TaskRabbit
  • People Per Hour
  • Indeed 
  • Flexjobs
  • Freelance Writing Gigs
  • Blogging Pro

Send out five, ten, or 20 resumes a day to improve your odds of getting a response. 

And don’t give up. Some potential employers may not get back to you for a few days.

And spend time researching as many jobs as possible. Some side hustles can potentially pay as much as a full-time job.

Here are three.

GreenPal Lawncare Specialist

Do you have a green thumb? Are you skilled in landscaping and lawn care tending? Then you should consider becoming a Greenpal Lawncare specialist. 

GreenPal is a specialty lawn care service company. Greenpal franchises its name and logo out to anyone who wants to work for them as a vendor. 

And unlike other franchising opportunities, there are no signup fees or franchise fees of any kind.

It’s free to apply to work for GreenPal.

Start by creating your work profile on Greenpal. Then, local registered GreenPal users, your future clients, can bid on your services to have their lawns mown and maintained. 

The catch here is that you will be competing with other local GreenPal lawncare vendors in your area. Also, you should live in a population-dense area with a lot of homes in need of lawn care.

You should also hustle hard, promote your services online locally, and try to build your own clientele.

GreenPal’s official website says that while most of its vendors work part-time they can also take on as much work as they can handle. 

As a GreenPal vendor, your rates would usually start at $55 per hour. But your potential rates could be double that depending on local demand.

Greenpal will take a 5% commission fee from every payment you get.

Telecommuting  Curriculum Writer

In this post-Covid world, telecommuting work is where it is at. If you have any skills that you can do at home, then you should consider becoming a remote worker.

If you have any teaching experience and can write, you can get work as a telecommuting curriculum writer. There are a lot of schools with remote classes that need new or refreshed curriculums.

You don’t necessarily need to have been a teacher before, but some employers may require it. Some employers may require curriculum writer applicants to have a teacher’s license and teaching experience.

You should have a bachelor’s degree and experience as a writer when applying. Some explorers may ask you to write a sample of a potential curriculum to consider your application.

The typical part-time curriculum writer can make about $34 per hour. So, you could make anywhere between $24,000 to $70,000 (or more) annually as a remote curriculum writer depending on your experience.

Bookkeeper

A bookkeeper and an accountant are two different vocations.

Bookkeepers are responsible for tracking all of the revenue going into and out of a company.

An accountant does perform some duties that a bookkeeper performs. But an accountant offers their client advice, guidance, fiscal reports, profit margin projections, and more relative to the needs of the client.

Bookkeepers are just responsible for providing their client’s raw financial data in regards to the company. Bookkeepers don’t offer advice or financial strategy, they just crunch raw financial data. 

Bookkeepers usually perform activities like:

  • Facilitate payroll
  • Create financial statements
  • Data entry work
  • Facilitate accounts payable and receivable
  • Handle taxes and tax compliance rules

Your chances of getting work will increase if you have a verifiable track record as a bookkeeper. It helps if you have a degree and bookkeeper-based certifications, but is not needed to get work.

The average remote bookkeeper makes $25 to $50 per hour.

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RECEIVED UNORDERED AMAZON PACKAGES? ARE YOU A BRUSHING SCAM VICTIM?

WHY FREE TRIAL OFFERS ARE USUALLY A SCAM

 

 

Why Free Trial Offers Are Usually a Scam

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 When I was younger and lost a long-held job, I had to move back into my family home. I had to cut back or sever every non-essential expense.

So, I’m back in my mom’s house and I am checking my bank account and I notice I have an overdraft fee. I was being charged by a company for a magazine service I canceled. I called the bank and proved I didn’t live at my former address and the bank canceled the transaction.

This situation is called a “negative option.” 

A free trial offers asks you to choose the free trial. But if you forget to cancel, then the company assumes that you want to continue and start paying for the product or service.

There are many reasons why you should avoid free trial offers at any cost. In most cases, they are a scam. And in others, the company will make you jump through several hoops or make it impossible to cancel the offer.

Nothing in life is free, but consumers love the prospect. And when advertisers say “free” consumers pay close attention.

We inherently want something for nothing. We want to believe in “free trial offers” when we know better. Free trial offers are a deceptive way for businesses to offer a minimal cost, limited-period, risk-averse introduction to a service or product. 

And that is when we, as consumers, get in trouble.

But free trial offers can unexpectedly switch from asking the consumer to consider buying the product to forgetting to remember to cancel automatic renewal payments for products or services they forgot they were interested in initially.

The average consumer lost $140 in a free trial offer scam. 

So, here is what you need to know about free trial offers and why you should avoid them.

They are basically a bait and switch scam where you end up paying for an unannounced long-term subscription for a product or service.

Data Mining

What is the first requirement to enjoy a “free trial offer?”

You need to give the company offering the service your credit, debit, or bank account information.

This process is like hooking a fish while it is underwater. A business, which exists to profit, is not going to request your personal financial information, even for a free trial offer, and then NOT use it,

Be wary of any free trial offer that asks for your financial information. In this scenario, even if you don’t take up the offer in the free trial, or forget you accepted, the business won’t forget your credit, debit, or bank account information.

Forgetting to Cancel

Most free trial offers last a week, a month, or several months.

However, we don’t usually think about the length of time for a free trial offer, we just think of the word “free.”

Payment (Intended or Not)

Here is the crucial thing – if you forget about the free trial offer you signed up for, you will probably be automatically billed for a month or one installment of the initial offer.

Remember – the company has your credit, debit, or direct bank account information.

If you notice that you are automatically billed for your free trial offer, you should contact the business immediately and make sure you won’t be automatically renewed for future payments.

Shipping and Handling Payments

Some free trial offers will give you a product or service for free as long as you pay for shipping and handling.

But if you have to pay anything for a free trial offer, then how is it free?

And if you are willing to pay for shipping and handling, then the company could decide that you won’t mind paying for the product or service indefinitely.

Automatic Payment Renewals

If you don’t cancel the free trial offer, the business will assume you want it, or that you forget. And that works for them either way.

You will then find yourself automatically renewed every month for a product or service you forgot about and don’t need or want in the slightest.

(If you needed or wanted it, you would not have been blindsided by any automatic renewal payments.)

And not here comes the worst part of being tricked into a free trial offer…

No Clear Answer on How to Cancel

A legitimate free trial offer will provide you with a clear answer on how to cancel the service. You may need to send an email, click a button, or call a customer service representative.

However, many companies won’t tell you how to cancel your free trial offer. They may make you jump through hoops, give contradictory instructions, and make you too bureaucratically exhausted to follow through.

How to End a Free Trial

Call the company directly, don’t rely on email. Find out in no uncertain terms how to cancel the free trial offer and any automatic renewal payments.

Call your bank or credit card company and make them aware of the problem. It might even be a better idea to write a letter with a return receipt request so you have written proof of the issue. Thereafter, it should not be an issue to get contested charges canceled or reversed.

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BEWARE RENTAL SCAMS THIS SUMMER

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Beware Rental Scams This Summer

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Scam artists are the worst opportunists. They are intelligent. They know how to read people, talk to them and intuit what they want. If scam artists applied half the energy they used to fool people, they might go farther in life via legitimate means.

Scammers know what you want, know that you are over-anxious to get it, and take prime advantage to steal your money.

It’s not fair, but life is not fair. You must always stand vigilant against scam artists.

As the world is opening up now post-pandemic, scam artists are preying upon the desires of people to reenter the world and enjoy it.

And that is why you need to beware of the rental scam this summer. You should beware of the rental scam at all times, but scammers are coming out in force this summer.

The Rental Scam

The rental scam is where a scam artist fools you into believing that they are a legitimate landlord or subletter renting out a room, apartment, house, or property.

And this is not a one-and-done scam either. The scammer could spend days or weeks communicating with you to gain your sympathy and trust.

Then, after you give them a check, a digital payment, or enough of your financial data to steal your money or identity, they disappear.

And there are many ways in which they can do this.

Some scam artists will either hijack or illegally recreate a legitimate real estate or home rental ad. They may change the contact information in the ad to make it easier to get in contact with you and get your information.

Or the scam artist may create Ghost Rentals. These are phony ads for properties that don’t exist. And by the time you figure it out, they will already have taken your money and be long gone.

The scam artist will send you all kinds of paperwork that looks legitimate too. Unless you pay close attention to the URL, and email addresses, or press them on authenticating any paperwork they send you, you will probably be fooled.

How to Spot Rental Scams

There are several ways to spot a rental scam.

Property owners, landlords, and subletters should have no problem meeting potential renters. You have a right to view the property, ask questions, and meet the person renting out the property.

If the person who placed the rental ad always has a reason why you can’t meet face-to-face or says they are out of the country, it’s probably suspicious.

If the person is pressuring you to pay first and last month’s rent, a security deposit, or any other fees before meeting or signing a lease, then it’s a scam.

No legitimate property owner will ask you to wire them money via Western Union or MoneyGram to pay for a rental.

Sometimes the price may be too good to be true. Rental markets are volatile. The scam artist may not have thoroughly researched rental and property prices in the neighborhood they are pretending to rent from.

Pay attention if you are never screened, have your credit history checked, or are asked to sign a phony-looking lease with typos or incomplete information.

Many scammers are now using PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and other digital payment services to pressure victims to pay for rentals upfront. There is no way to get the money back afterward.

How to Beware of Rental Scams

Always meet anyone renting a property. You can vet property owners on Google.

Check out the property in person. And you are not legally obligated to pay for a property until after signing a lease.

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Received Unordered Amazon Packages? Are You a Brushing Scam Victim?

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Have you ever had a feeling that something was wrong? Was it an odd feeling that you were a small part of bigger agenda in a way that you couldn’t comprehend?

Have you ever received a package that you didn’t order in the past three or four years? Was it a small package?

Over the past three years, people with Amazon and other retail accounts have reported mysteriously receiving unordered packages containing cell phone chargers and even seeds.

Has this ever happened to you?

It may seem like a weird and innocuous occurrence. And after all, you got a free gift from someone or some company without even asking for it.

So, what could be the harm?

This is called a “Brushing,” scam. Someone has gotten ahold of your personal information and they are using it to improve their seller’s ratings and reviews on sites like Amazon.

Let’s talk about the brushing scam, why you should be worried, and what you can do about it.

Brushing Scam 101

Back in July 2020, there was a brazen brushing scam that made news headlines. It may have gone unnoticed because the world had started coming to grips with the pandemic.

Americans and Canadian citizens were receiving small boxes from Amazon and other e-commerce sites. All of them contained small packets of seeds that were marked as coming from China. None of the recipients ordered the seeds. 

In other instances, people have reported getting small electronic components, like wires or phone chargers. Sometimes the packages were listed as containing small electronic components but actually contained seeds from China.

This is a brushing scam. It is a relatively new kind of scam that started in the late 2010s.

Scam artists will use malicious JavaScript code to hijack a legitimate e-commerce site. Have you ever noticed something weird about your usual e-commerce checkout page?

Sometimes if you look, you will notice an extra alphanumeric digit or a lack of one on a checkout page. 

The scam artist will steal the personal info you input or copy your profile. 

Or they could use regular email phishing tactics.

Sometimes, you may actually make it easy for scam artists to co-opt your private data.

How often do you post your address, phone number, social security number, and full name on social media to answer a questionnaire or take part in a trivia game? Sometimes scam artists send those questionnaires. Or they use an algorithm to scan for such data.

They then send you an unsolicited gift. But it is small and lightweight to save them on shipping.

They then coopt your identity to give their Amazon seller’s profile great reviews and great ratings. The scam artist may even use your profile or your name and vital data to post phony reviews praising the product you received unsolicited.

It may sound like nothing, but the average online consumer trusts any online review and rating they see as gospel and without question. And any Amazon, or any e-commerce seller, with the best reviews, ratings, and scores gets the most business and attention online.

It may sound like nothing, but the average online consumer trusts any online review and rating they see as gospel and without question. And any Amazon, or any e-commerce seller, with the best reviews, ratings, and scores gets the most business and attention online. 

Amazon sellers with great scores and ratings, legitimate, and scammers alike, are also listed higher on search engine queries. 

And that is why you received a small, unsolicited gift. To post reviews or ratings, a product must first be sent into the real world. So, whatever money the scam artist paid to mail out small unsolicited gifts is recouped when they sell more legitimate products or run bigger scams.

So why is this a problem for you?

Why You Should Be Worried

If you give someone an inch, they will take a mile.

Some scammer is pretending to be you online for their own professional aggrandizement. They are writing online profiles with your name to make them look good.

Where will they stop?

And scammers don’t need a lot of data to steal your identity. They could use your basic Amazon profile data to try to access your financial accounts online.

And you shouldn’t take it for granted that a scammer will stop after using your identity to improve their seller’s rating.

What You Should Do

You can keep the item if you received it. I don’t know if you want to plant any unsolicited seed you received by mail.

Contact Amazon’s Customer Service and report receipt of an unsolicited package. Do the same for any other e-commerce site. The scammer’s profile, and their glowing phony reviews, could soon be deleted.

After that, you may want o change your passwords. Check on your bank and credit card accounts to see if there is any suspicious activity.

You could even file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Whatever you do, don’t just ignore the incident. You have no idea what that scammer could do next. 

Your personal data could just be the seed of bigger scam agenda that could grow out of control later.

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