tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31149675862312830632024-11-01T02:00:54.955-07:00Online marketing business news, social networks, economics and scams.Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.comBlogger512125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-50934456323229925732016-07-01T20:41:00.004-07:002016-07-01T20:41:46.012-07:00

Tens of millions of dollars will be spent in the next few weeks as the excitement builds for the Olympic Games in Rio, but, sadly, a chunk of that money will end up in the pockets of travel scam artists. Many bogus websites are offering non-existent tickets for the Games, including the opening ceremony, which sold out months ago. Others offer packages that supposedly include flights,

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-12444046247645214622016-06-26T14:18:00.000-07:002016-06-26T14:18:07.421-07:00

If you’re about to embark on an overseas vacation this year, there’s one thing you’ll need in addition to your passport, foreign currency and a phrasebook our latest list of travel scams. Stepping into unfamiliar territory should be fun, but it can also be risky. For instance, pickpockets are always active in busy tourist areas. So are scammers trying to sell you a sow’s ear for the price of

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-3965710708333807772016-06-10T18:42:00.000-07:002016-06-10T18:42:20.671-07:00

We tend to give little thought to those gold-colored miniature SIM cards that connect us with our cell phone network providers, as long as they’re doing their job. But beware! Scammers have recently been giving them plenty of thought. That small card contains a mountain of data about you as well as being the key to making calls and, increasingly, to making mobile payments so it can be like

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-60647866688192959582016-06-07T13:11:00.001-07:002016-06-07T13:11:23.788-07:00

A sales conversation is the exchange between you and a prospective client where you find out what the client needs, explain what you offer, and see if there’s a match between you. It’s neither a lecture nor arm-twisting; it’s a discussion between peers about an arrangement that will serve you both. Here’s what a conversation like this sounds like in real life, with a few asides to note what

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-29507379900150852532016-06-03T10:35:00.000-07:002016-06-03T10:35:15.243-07:00

Lottery scams cost Americans an estimated $300 million every year. That’s the amount that victims mostly seniors and other vulnerable individuals shell out in advance for supposed taxation and processing charges so they can pick up their “winnings,” which, of course, never arrive. And despite stories appearing in local media every day about these costly con tricks, there’s apparently no

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-78477024739447274232016-05-27T10:59:00.001-07:002016-05-27T10:59:32.530-07:00

How do you rate your chances of being scammed when you make a hotel booking? You probably think the likelihood is pretty remote. But it’s not. According to the latest figures, something like one in every 16 online room bookings is a fake. That’s right. Six percent of travelers ended up booking on phony hotel websites that looked like the real thing. Click here to read the full article. 

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-55938548885904832942016-05-20T11:18:00.000-07:002016-05-20T11:18:25.680-07:00

Who doesn’t feel surprised and more than a little uneasy when an ad pops up in your browser or a posting appears on your Facebook page that exactly reflects something you’ve been doing online. You’re a victim of tracking the process of watching what you do and where you go online and then serving up an item or product that matches your interest. Even if the results are helpful, you may feel

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-59839436523258827852016-05-16T09:55:00.005-07:002016-05-16T09:55:58.289-07:00

As a self-employed professional, the last thing you want is for clients to perceive you as a commodity. Commodities are products or services that are considered to be basically the same no matter who provides them. When your target audience thinks of you as just another financial planner, graphic designer, life coach, personal trainer, or psychotherapist, you must work far too hard simply to

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-29640038351075192442016-05-13T11:12:00.000-07:002016-05-13T11:12:22.860-07:00

Bamboo has been hailed as one of the great environmental wonder products of modern times. It’s claimed to be sustainable,  easy and fast to grow. And it can also be processed into a variety of practical products from wood flooring to bed sheets. It’s also fairly expensive, perhaps because of its environmental credentials. And that, inevitably, has led to the misleading use of the word

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-77944319596201781492016-05-06T22:16:00.000-07:002016-05-06T22:16:09.179-07:00

Salmon is salmon, right? Well, yes, in a manner of speaking, but there are also several different varieties of America’s most popular fish dish. And if you don’t know your Chinook from your Chilean or your Alaskan from your Atlantic, you could be on the receiving end of a salmon fraud that has nutrition and fishery experts increasingly worried. A while back in  Seafood Fraud: What’s

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-56057502824534865062016-05-03T15:32:00.003-07:002016-05-03T15:32:35.538-07:00

As a self-employed professional, the view that prospective clients hold of you is crucial. What you want is for clients to see you as an expert. How clients perceive your level of expertise will influence not only whether or not they hire you, but also how much they’re willing to pay, how easy it is for you to close the sale, and whether clients award you big projects or small ones. It may

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-89412218763133178542016-04-23T18:11:00.000-07:002016-04-23T18:11:25.636-07:00

Older seniors are the most widely targeted victims of scams, often because they’re too trusting and sometimes because they can be more easily confused or forgetful. These ingredients come together in a new trick that relies on victims thinking they’ve failed to recognize someone they should know, but don’t like to admit it. It may play out at a stop light, where the scammer hangs out until

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-44105288079603988832016-04-15T14:33:00.002-07:002016-04-15T14:33:57.764-07:00

While we mostly think of the law enforcement as being a group of people who are there to protect us and ensure justice, scammers are also finding ways to twist that understanding so it earns them some money. For example, scammers have, for years, posed as police officers and court officials threatening victims with arrest and jail for bogus charges like failing to turn up for jury duty. In

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-49538160976615304952016-04-12T13:02:00.001-07:002016-04-12T13:02:37.307-07:00

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-4907299233538764932016-04-05T11:08:00.002-07:002016-04-05T11:09:32.786-07:00

“I’d like to attract clients by writing articles or a blog, but I’m not sure what to write about.” “I tried blogging for a while, but it didn’t bring me any business.” “When I write, people seem to like it, but I have only a handful of readers.” These are some of the comments I hear from self-employed professionals who think that writing about their area of expertise might be a path to

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-10083905113159203602016-04-01T08:37:00.000-07:002016-04-01T08:37:20.824-07:00

In the course of just two weeks during February, software company Intuit reported the circulation of a dozen fake emails attempting to steal confidential information from users of its QuickBooks accounting program and tax preparation software, TurboTax. It turns out that this is not unusual. It just happened to be a random sampling we took. A similar level of scam emails seems to be

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-70580379240136672982016-03-25T08:58:00.003-07:002016-03-25T08:58:51.189-07:00

When you use the professional social network site LinkedIn, it’s easy to be flattered when someone you don’t know asks to connect with you. After all, that’s what LinkedIn is all about growing your network of business and professional contacts. Plus, of course, it’s perfectly reasonable that someone you don’t know might want to link up with you if you seem to share a mutual interest or

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-73615545044399630882016-03-18T15:58:00.003-07:002016-03-18T15:58:30.866-07:00

Tax scams have become a year-round activity for crooks, turning them into what is probably the biggest individual con trick of them all. But once the tax-filing season gets underway, the pace picks up even faster, prompting the IRS, the Treasury, and consumer and law enforcement agencies to issue a stern warning about the risks of being scammed. We’ve written about most of the tricks

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-25407458694973999142016-03-11T08:34:00.002-08:002016-03-11T08:34:57.384-08:00

The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) calls them small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) but most of us know them as “drones.” Meanwhile, scammers and other opportunists know them as a chance to make money. Drones (as in miniature “quadcopter” flying machines, not military aircraft) are becoming increasingly popular both among hobbyists and professionals — such as photographers, real estate

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-63616344751348217342016-03-09T10:28:00.001-08:002016-03-09T10:28:21.658-08:00

I use a cookbook metaphor in my Get Clients Now! system to illustrate how to go about creating an effective marketing plan for a self-employed professional. An essential element of that plan is what I call Success Ingredients — the missing ingredients your marketing and sales activities need in order to be successful. Why is this important? Let’s say you decide you’re going to market your

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-92102709611670596442016-03-04T06:51:00.004-08:002016-03-04T06:51:47.709-08:00

Although death isn’t something most of us want to think or talk about, especially when it involves those near and dear to us, the simple fact is that after death, an individual’s virtual life goes on. It doesn’t automatically end. This has serious implications for those of us left behind to pick up the pieces. For instance, all the data, images, accounts and other information that remain

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-10655290826023903172016-02-26T06:55:00.000-08:002016-02-26T06:55:10.475-08:00

Wearable devices, smartwatches, microchips or miniature computers that you wear could soon become targets for scammers, hackers and unscrupulous data brokers. This type of equipment is becoming increasingly popular, not just in the shape of intelligent wristwatches but also built into glasses and even clothing. But in the early days of this technology, we can’t always count on

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-57968020047537872782016-02-19T08:56:00.002-08:002016-02-19T08:56:51.795-08:00

In the old days of rotary telephone dials, we were usually sure-fingered enough to avoid calling the wrong number. Now that we’re all fingers-and-thumbs with our smartphones, we’re more likely to key in a wrong number when we quickly stab at numbers on those flat screens. Crooks know that too. Click here to read the full article.  ©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-36231591366223493902016-02-12T13:11:00.001-08:002016-02-12T13:11:38.823-08:00

Hack fraud, a new twist to the theft of personal information through corporate data breaches, is creating a double threat for victims. Data breaches, in which a company’s customer records are accessed by hackers, are now so common that it’s rare to encounter someone whose information hasn’t been stolen. Mostly, this information ends up in the hands of spammers and identity thieves but most

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3114967586231283063.post-23738998663784022622016-02-05T20:23:00.000-08:002016-02-05T20:23:27.150-08:00

It’s not just online dating agencies that are being used by scammers in search of lonely-heart victims. Crooks have also started using the Skype video service to target and trap potential dupes into a potentially horrendous extortion scam. As we reported a few weeks back in our annual Top 10 list, New Threats Emerge in Our Top Scams List for 2016, dating scams are on the rise. Click here

Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082883910790377729noreply@blogger.com0