 JR Fisher here, good to see you. It is Saturday morning, Saturday. Well, at least it is here. I don't know where you're at around the world, but it's Saturday morning here, and I'm gonna talk to you guys today about how to not get ripped off, which I think is pretty important, right? We don't wanna get ripped off. I'm gonna give you a list of the biggest rip-offs right now, making money online, getting free things, whatever it is. And I'm gonna show you how to avoid those rip-offs. And at the end of this training, I'm actually gonna give you eight things you can do to protect yourself and your money and all that good stuff. And I've got the comments section open here, guys, so you can comment, you can chat, you can ask me questions, excuse me, do whatever you want. I'll be happy to talk to you there on the side. This is informal. So anything you wanna ask me about making money online, you are welcome to do so. Don't forget, if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe. Make sure you hit that big button down there. If it's red, you wanna click it, turn it gray, okay? So if that button down there, the subscribe button is red, you wanna turn it gray. And then the next thing you wanna do, what is, turn on all bell notifications, turn on all bell notifications so you're notified each and every time I go live and you don't miss any of this training. Super important that you do that. Make sure you put it in that comment section, who you are, where you're at, if you can hear me, all that good stuff. There's Paul, what's going on, Paul? He says I'm sounding good. I still gotta work on the sound in here, Paul. I got a lot of stuff in this room. I have to build out. And it's pretty messy, and it's a shame because we get this beautiful, nice new home and this room is so messy, but it's messy so that I can do videos for you guys, okay? I got these walls of blanket things up here to kinda make it sound a little bit better. I went live a couple of minutes ago on Facebook and I was talking to you guys about that and I showed you what it looked like in here. But we got a beautiful view. It's a beautiful sunny day here in Texas. Excuse me. And after this, I think we're gonna go out and grab a bite to eat. Try to find some furniture, which is almost impossible to do. There's this shortage of everything. I don't know if you guys have realized that or not, but put in the chat section. Have you noticed shortages of stuff? I know in our food company, we're having shortages of proteins again. We're having a big problem getting meats to ship out to people. There's no furniture out there. I went to look for shoes the other day. There was no shoes out there. I was at the grocery store last night. We were missing groceries. Guys, it's really weird. It's a weird time. If you've experienced some of that, put it in the chat section there. Let me know what you've experienced. And then I wanna go ahead and get started on this list of things that can really rip you off nowadays. And I'll put some notes off to the side here so I wouldn't forget any of these things. But understand, if you are online nowadays, you can and probably will get ripped off if you don't know what to do. They say that in the last survey I saw was 2018, 800 million new scams online, 800 million. I mean, that's kind of crazy, right? Internet scamming is on the rise. It's huge right now. The number of reports has increased each year in the past three years. It's getting worse and worse and worse. So I wanna provide the service to you and help you out. I mean, so you don't get ripped off. Fishing, P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G is the most common thing. Where they're trying to get your information. But romance, investment, a way to make money online, all these things have huge ripoffs and let me get a little sifter real quick. What's Paul saying there? Notice shortages of luggage. Wow, that's crazy, right? Because you'd think luggage there wouldn't be a shortage because nobody traveled, right? So they didn't wear out their luggage. I don't know. Definitely supply chain problems everywhere. Three Walmart sold out watches. All things are hard to get. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's really crazy. Now the majority of the scams that are online are victims who are 45 or older. That doesn't mean if you're 17 watching this that you can't get ripped off because you certainly can. But that's what it is. So let's talk about the very first one. The first one is called fishing, P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G. So this is one of the most common ones. And this is something where they're gonna try to get you to log in to put your information in so they can actually steal it. When you're logging in, you probably aren't logging in the place you think. What you wanna do is look at the exact URL. When you get a link to click and go somewhere, man, I'm telling you, I don't even do it for 99% of them because if my bank needs to get ahold of me or credit cards or whatever, they're gonna probably give me a call something along those lines. Another thing that can happen is that an email could be made to mimic those simple organizations that you know, let's say, I deal with a particular bank, which I'm not even gonna say what it is, but maybe it could come from that bank. One of the best examples of this was Google Docs Fishing scam a few years ago. And in this particular scam, what they did is they invited people to edit a particular doc and it worked with Google systems. So it looked about as real as it could get. However, by agreeing to edit this document, users were granting third party software the right to read your emails and access your contacts. That's crazy, man. This gave the hackers access to sensitive personal material and your bank accounts, your credit card numbers, all kinds of stuff, so security, all that stuff. So fishing scams come in all form shape sizes. For example, some may tell you that you're at risk of being charged huge fines by the IRS, that's, oh my God, that's a big one. Again, I get those on my phone all the time. They may even say that somebody else has hacked your account, they're trying to help you out. Usually, you can stay safe by just not even responding to these things, okay? And they also have a thing called spear fishing. This is essentially the same as fishing, but the difference is that hackers aren't after your information instead, they're usually looking for you to provide access to information which you have privilege access to, okay? It's called spear fishing. The classic example of this is spear fishing attack that managed to hack the Democrat National Convention, okay? So they hacked that. If you're someone who has been trusted with information, make sure you follow your company's policies and procedures, whether it's a business you work for, an organization, it's unlikely that someone you've never met will ever ask you for access without consulting you first. And you will surely be rewarded if you deny someone because you were concerned about fraud, okay? And the next one is called snishing. S-M-S-H-I-N-G, it's another variation of fishing. It's called snishing. It works in essentially the same way except that the fraudulent message will come through as a text message, okay? So you're gonna get it as a text message. It may come from one of your contacts or pretend to come from an institution which you normally associate with. Maybe your bank or credit card company. Again, it feels random, okay? So if it feels random, it probably is. Meaning you've done nothing to solicit this information then leave it alone, delete it, get rid of it, okay? Next one up is shopping scams. This one here is really interesting. This particular type of scam is rather difficult to prevent merely because of its randomness, okay? Essentially, these scams are based around companies that pretend to sell you products. They have no intention of ever sending you. Now I have gotten so many people in the past a year and a half contact our company and they say, hey, we bought food from you and you never delivered it. It's been a month, it's been two months. And when I checked into it, they were buying our survival food from these other sites that were just fake. They were fake sites and the big red flag should have been they were selling it for half the price of what we sell it for. They would say, hey, yeah, I bought a case of meat for $99 that we sell for like $250. And I'm like, no, you didn't buy it from us. You better check your credit card. Let's see, the old saying, if it's too good to be true, it is a scam. Yes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is true. Let's see here, with all the money the government is spending, I can't believe they aren't prosecuting these people. Well, here's the problem with that, Paul, is there in other countries, there are in other countries where they don't have any jurisdiction. The internet is wide open, right? Like I can target Italy or I can target Spain or Mexico or whatever. And that's the biggest problem, okay? So the scams, the shopping scams, essentially are scams that are based around companies that are really, maybe you trust, but these aren't the real companies. You may get a confirmation email after you pay, but you're certainly never gonna get the product, okay? And I've talked to people who bought our food from some of these fake sites and they say, oh no, you sent me a confirmation. Here's my order number. I'm like, we don't have an order number like that. It doesn't exist. These scams will sometimes arrive to you via email or even social media, but they will always direct you to a third party e-commerce site. They will often offer high-end luxury items at a very low price. Even, you know, that should be a red flag right there if you could buy something really cheap. And they will usually demand payment via electronic funds transfer. You may also find these sites if you search for specific items. Now, if you're lucky, if you're lucky, the worst thing that will happen is you'll lose your money you spend. But here's the other thing, guys. If you're using a credit card, they've now got your credit card information. They've got your number, they've got your expiration date, they've got your security code, they've got it all, and then they can go out to other sites and they do this and buy other products. Now, the next one I'm gonna talk about is Nigerian scams. Does anybody trust anybody? No offense to all the Nigerians listening now, but does anybody trust you guys anymore? I mean, there's more scams coming out of that country than anyone in the world. There's craziness. With all the phone scams, I can't believe that we aren't doing more to get countries in line where they get no assistance or get sanctioned. Yeah, they just, Paul, there's so much going on. It's like, there's literally millions of these scams going on. Now, the Nigerian scam should be a big tip-off. It's like, I'm Quaba Donkara, I'm a 54-year-old official from the Bank of Ghana with a long service experience. It just sounds like crap. This is one of the oldest scams in the book, but shockingly, it still gets people. It's called the Nigerian scam because the very first versions were sent from somebody in Nigeria, but nowadays you can get emails from pretty much all over the world and they all say the same thing. The term 419 comes from the designation this scam was received in the Nigerian legal code. Essentially, this scam is somebody from some wealthy family in Nigeria, which ought to be a red flag. There aren't that many of those. And some other West African nation will reach out to you because they need help moving their fortune into your country. This is something you see all the time. They promise to wire you a bunch of money. They'll tell you that they need to first cover some of the fees and well, for the transaction, the fees, okay? And guess what? You're promised a portion of their fortune for some help, but obviously this never is going to happen. This thing is always, always, always a scam. It never happens that somebody's gonna transfer money to the U.S. They're gonna pay you to do it and put it in your bank account. It's not gonna happen, okay? Now, this next one, I guess number four, if we're keeping account here is a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency one. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Oh my God, this is such a big scam, guys. Here's how it works. Okay, cryptocurrencies, the most famous one being Bitcoin, okay? Have taken the world by storm. Everybody knows about them. They're cool, they're exciting, they're different, okay? And oftentimes, quite valuable. However, few people truly understand how these things work and crypto criminals, the assets are called crypto criminals now, are more than willing to use this ignorance to steal some money from you or worse, all of your personal information. Now, I have some cryptocurrency. I did research, I know how to buy it. I did it safely. You can buy cryptocurrency safely, but most of these scams encourage you to make an initial investment in a company, get this, that it is about to go up for initial coin offering. They call it ICO, okay? Now, in exchange for your money, you're gonna get staked in the company and as the hackers will claim, this is going to make you rich, rich, okay? Sometimes these companies do actually exist, but the coins they're selling are either worthless or high risk or don't exist, okay? But most of the time these companies are fictitious and your payment will go towards nothing, okay? You need to buy from a reputable site if you're gonna buy cryptocurrency. Plus, if you do this, whoever contacted you will have your information, which they can use to rob you even more, okay? Why give up your information, guys? Now, next one is fine print scam. The fine print has the power to ruin us all, right? And there was a, I was in an automotive business for many years and there was a saying that anything in fine print is not good news. Anything in fine print is not good news. Nearly every online service we use has a set of terms and conditions to which we must agree. And they are usually longer than any book we've ever read, okay? As a result, most of us just click yes or I agree without putting too much thought into what it really says. However, all too often, less reputable companies will put things in the fine print that will give you or excuse me, give them the right to take more money from you. For example, you may sign up for some sort of subscription. Now, this is a big scam that's gone on for years and they've really clamped down on it but it's called trials. You get something for free, you gotta put in your credit card number and in the fine print it may say, after three months you will be charged an additional service fee, okay? The trials works like that. They send you out this one product and then monthly they start billing you automatically without telling you. As a result, when you're signing up for something, especially from a company, you've never heard of before. If you don't know them, you need to do research. Make sure you do your homework. If you don't have time to read everything in the terms and conditions, then at least Google the company to see if anyone else has had a problem. You know, they're gonna put complaints out there. If they have, there's bound to be a complaint out there, a warning you to stay away from the company and this little bit of research can save you a bunch of money, time and hassle. Next one, number six, fake debt help, okay? Debt is a huge stressor and these thieves know it. As a result, when somebody comes in and offers you help to get out of your debt quickly and easily, it's tempting, right? It's tempting to want to at least listen to what they have to say. However, as we know, taking shortcuts and cutting corners gets us nowhere. It never does, guys. And if you fall for the scam, you could be in serious trouble. You really could. Essentially, these scammers will tell you that they can work with your creditors to help you lower your interest rates and even forgive some of what you owe. However, to gain access to the premium service, right? You need to pay an upfront fee, which obviously goes nowhere but in their pockets. Guys, the best way to pay off your debt is pay off your debt. That's the best way to do it. There's just no shortcuts to that. The scam works largely because it targets those who are most desperate and who are most willing to seek an alternative solution. However, if you find yourself in this situation, know that there's an obvious, there's always a way to make things work that is safe and legal. Do it that way. Next one, number seven, digital kidnapping. And I got a bunch to go through. I don't want to go over time here. We're going to try to go for about 30 minutes. Let me check out some of your comments here. Paul says, I have to say that my email from Gmail has made great strides in identifying scam emails. Yeah, they really are. James Breen, what's up my friend? I inherit at least 1.5 million from Nigeria at twice a day. You're going to be a wealthy man, aren't you James? But only on net zero. All I need to do is fill out a form with my information. Yes, Paul says credit repair sites are ones to be aware of. Yes, there is no such thing as credit repair guys. If you have false information on your credit report and it's wrong, you can just submit it. You can get an app and submit any disputes on any of those things. If it shows you more than what you owe, you can just contact that company. They'll correct it. Next one is called digital kidnapping. Now, this sounds kind of scary, but it's not kidnapping in the traditional sense. Instead, it's a scam. Hackers will take control over one of your social media profiles. They'll then contact you in demand payment for access to the return. Now, in some cases, they may even threaten to post damaging content or harmful material. And this is often enough of an impact on people for them to open their wallets and pay these people because they're worried about what they're going to post online. I've had it where somebody sends me an email and says, we have all your browsing history and we're going to post it online. I'm like, go ahead, you're going to be bored. You're going to be really, really bored if you post my browsing history. But some people do worry about that, okay? If this happens to you, the way you want to handle it, the best thing you can do is to contact the relevant social media platform and alert them that you've been a victim of this fraud. Number eight, bad downloads or fake antivirus software. When you simply view content on the web, okay? The files you're looking at technically don't go on your computer. Instead, they are simply displayed from the relevant servers onto your browser, okay? So you don't have a problem there. However, however, when you click download, those files are in fact loaded onto your hard drive and you're downloading from some sketchy sites, you could end up with some pretty nasty software on your computer. Now, Apple's pretty good about blocking some of that stuff but I know PCs are very susceptible to it but Apple is susceptible too. One of the most common things you can get is malware, it's called malware, which is essentially software designed to collect information from your computer. It usually disrupts the function of your computer and if you catch it in time, you can get rid of it but it may be too late. I know Apple's really good about that if you get something on your computer. I had some malware on my one day and it's been years ago but I'm very cautious about what I download now. Another piece of software you can download unknowingly is ransomware, ransomware. I don't know if you've heard this term before. This software will essentially lock you out of your computer and demand that you pay a certain amount to get back in. Now, if you're on your phone, you may see a pop-up on your phone when you're trying to get to a site and it may say, you know, you can't browse anymore, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. What you can do on Apple phones is go into your settings and clear your history. If you do that, it'll often get rid of that. Sometimes hackers will work the scam by sending you a pop-up saying your computer has been infected with a virus, you may see that. In the same pop-up, you will be instructed to download software that will protect you but that will actually install something malicious on your computer again. When in doubt, don't click. Now, the next one, this is a sad one. I think it's very sad but it's still going on dating and romance scams. Loneliness, loneliness can do remarkable things to the human psyche. And unfortunately, cyber criminals know this and are willing to prey on this weakness. These soulless hackers will make an online dating profile and work to build a relationship with you. They spend time on this. They deal with thousands of people. Then after some time, they will start asking you to send them money, which you will be tempted to do since you've grown to care for this person. If you think you can't be, check this out, okay? Online dating scams, one out of 10 newly created online dating profiles are fake. 10% of the profiles out there are fake. Let me look at some of the comments here. Quick fixes are hardly ever fixes. The queen is within. What's going on? The queen is within. What security software do you use and how often do you need to run it to prevent malware? You know, I have one on my computer, Paul and I don't run it that often. And I think, man, I can't even remember what it is at this point. I hardly ever run it because I don't go anywhere where I have to worry about anything. Wait, I think this is it right here. Yeah, it is malware bytes. Let me put that in there for you. It's called malware bytes. This is the one I use. This is for Mac. Malware bytes. I think that's it. B-Y-T-E-S. This is the one I use. Malware bytes. So check that out. That's a good one, I think. So anyhow, Americans and Canadians have lost over $1 billion to online dating scams since 2015, just in six years, not even a complete six years. In 2018, Americans lost, get this, $143 million in online dating scams. The average amount lost in one person in online dating scam is what? I want you to put that in the comment section. I want you to put the amount of money that the average person loses in an online dating scam. I'm gonna tell you what it is in just a second, but I'll remind you a couple times. Put in there the amount of money you think that was lost by the average person. Now, how to spot a scam? How do you spot these dating scams? The person you're speaking with claims to be madly in love with you despite never having met you. Come on, come on, man. Do VPNs prevent malware, et cetera? Not if you download stuff. What VPNs do is that it's a virtual private network. It masks where you're coming from, but if you download something to your computer, it doesn't matter if you've masked where you're coming from or not. It allows you to access sites that may otherwise be blocked in other countries and it provides you some security with people hacking you, but if you download something, you're screwed. I mean, you really are. Another thing, how to spot a scam. They'll promise to come and meet you someday, but continually break that promise and always have an excuse as to why they can't meet. They usually will ask you to start communicating privately shortly after initiating the relationship. They will ask you to wire them money or cover bills, usually because of some unforeseen emergency that's left them in the lurch, like a family member getting cancer or somebody getting sick, all these things. So stay away from that, guys. Just meet people in person, crazy as it sounds, meet somebody in person. If they don't wanna meet you in person, don't do it. Number 10 is fake lotteries. Another common scam you will encounter online is what's known as the fake lottery scam. And it's exactly what it sounds like. Some of them will contact you, okay? Usually via email, but it could also be social media or some other way, maybe it's a DM or something like that, text message, pop up ad, you name it. And they're gonna tell you that they have some sort of large lottery usually in another country, usually in another country. However, to claim your prize, you need to give up some sensitive information which could be a big red flag or some money, okay? When you get a message such as this, just think back to when you may have entered some sort of lottery. If it's a form, excuse me, if it's from a country you've never been to, then this is obviously a scam. If you've never been there, you didn't enter the lottery, okay? But remember, if somebody is offering you lots of money for doing nothing, there's a good chance they're up to no good. Next one, because this one here gets a lot of people because there's so many legitimate ones. And number 11 is false surveys, false surveys. That's another one. Let's see what you got here in comments here. I think the biggest area to be careful of is online porn sites, not my thing, but had an acquaintance who had major problems. Yeah, I mean, yeah, just don't sign up for anything, I guess, or use your VPN, don't download any of those videos, I guess. Had a friend who got scammed on a date site, he noticed the person was using same generated reply to his emails. This was an intelligent guy, but fell for it. Yeah, this doesn't mean you're stupid, guys, if you fall for some of this. This just means you didn't know about it. And that's why I'm doing this today, kind of like as a service, you guys don't get ripped off. Let me tell you how the false survey thing works. Surveys have been around forever, okay? They're usually ways for large companies' organizations to get information about their audiences, but if you are asked to give up information to take a survey, this is most likely a scam. Only take surveys that come directly from organizations and institutions that you trust, but still check the URL because they'll lie about that. They'll say it's, you know, your B of A bank or whatever it is you deal with or JC Penney's or whatever. JC Penney's around anymore. I don't know if they are or not. And guys, I haven't seen in here how much money people lose on these romance scams. On average, I'm gonna give it to you in a second, post in there what you think it is, take a stab at it. There are online companies that can research anyone's history, education, arrest, et cetera. Yes, it's very true. But anyhow, so be careful for those surveys if they're asking your personal information. Number 12 is a mystery shopper in any other work from home scams, okay? Any other work from home scams. I sell courses on how to make money from home. I sell courses that teach people how to make money from home, but I never tell you if you buy my course, you're gonna get rich. I never tell you if you buy my course, you're gonna make money. I tell you if you buy my course, you're gonna get information that you can use to make money online. That's legit. But if you just tell somebody if they buy a course, you're gonna get rich or make money, that's fake. Because what if they don't work hard? What if they don't do stuff? The mystery online shopper one's a great one. This one falls right under there if it seems too good to be true. It probably is. It applies more than ever to this one. In this scam, somebody will contact you saying that you can earn hundreds of dollars a day doing nothing more than shopping online. However, however, to get started, you need to pay up front for your training materials. But after you pay, you never hear from them again, okay? But this scam comes in other forms. Scammers know how much people like the idea of working from home and they prey on this desire. As well as they wish you, they say that you're gonna make a lot of money from doing this for pretty much doing nothing, okay? Anytime somebody tells you you don't have to work hard to make money, it's a scam. It's always been a scam, guys. The world doesn't work like this. So approach any offer promising lots of money for a little work with a lot of caution because it's just not true. Number 13, put it in that amount. James said 1500 bucks. I'm gonna tell you this, James. It's more than 1500 bucks. It's more than 1500. Paul, some of these other people in here, of course, I know some of your names so that's why I'm calling out the people I know. But put in there, how much do you think people are losing? The Queens with them, what do you think? How much money are people losing on these romance scams? I'm gonna tell you by the end of this, you will know and it's gonna blow your mind. Number 13 is a count failure problem. You get an email from a service telling you that there's a problem with your account. You need to fix it right away, okay? Stop and search online for an explanation. If you can't find one, it's probably a scam. But you can also call the company to see if this is really an issue. That's the best thing to do, call that company direct, call your bank direct, call your credit card provider, call Netflix, Netflix scams is a big one. In this case, instances, scammers claim that there's a problem with your account and they'll ask for your information to fix it. Specifically, Netflix users were told, this actually happened, that there was a problem with their payment information and they were asked to re-enter it so they could keep their account active which handed credit card information right over to the bad guys, okay? You should never have to give your credit card information again to Netflix. Call them guys. There are countless scams like this online so make sure you do your due diligence before filling out forms with your personal information. Really important that you do that. Let's see here. I have friends who are mystery shoppers and do very well as a sideline. Most companies use mystery shoppers including USPS. Yes, there are some legit ones. I'm not saying they're all fake but there's a lot of fake ones out there. Next one is fake charities. This particular scam is easy for us to be really cynical about the world. Oh my God, people are asking for donations and it's fake, yes. Essentially, scammers will ask you to donate to charities, especially after a large natural disaster or catastrophe. Oh my gosh. I mean, when these earthquakes happen or floods or whatever they have fires, these charities don't exist guys. They don't exist. If you wanna donate to one of these charities, donate to one that's been around before the charity started, okay? Or excuse me, before the disaster started. Ones that pop up for a disaster are almost always fake. Instead, they're gonna go straight into somebody's pocket. When a major event does happen, only donate to reputable charities, like the Red Cross or something like that. Typically, during these times of elevated giving, the authorities will publish a list of approved charities. So make sure you reference this resource before sending money to anyone. And they may even do it as an individual. They may say this little girl has cancer and she needs $20,000 for this operation and she's only four years old and here's all of her details. They may do something actually as creepy as that. They will do it. Next one, number 15 is the free stuff scam. Who doesn't love free stuff? Okay, we all love free stuff. Of course, most of the free stuff we get, such as pens, t-shirts, coffee mugs, is essentially worthless, okay? When you get something free, it's probably gonna be worthless, which is why it's free. However, if someone says they can get you a free iPhone or a brand new TV by doing nothing more than handing over some personal information, this is a scam guys, it's not going on. In some rare cases, you may actually get the item, but not after you've done something horrible, like giving up your identity and credit cards and all this other stuff. Something which is even more valuable than whatever that item is. People can't make a living giving away stuff guys. Another common form of the scam is rejected, excuse me, is related to travel. For example, scammers will offer you a free stay at a hotel or a free flight, and it's just really tough to resist. It's like $20 for a beachfront hotel in Miami, which I don't think you'd wanna be in a high-rise Miami now, for some reason for that. But you must see a reason and accept that there is no reason for anyone to give you these things for free or at a reduced price. There's just no reason for it. Let's see here, you haven't mentioned car repair insurance scams, especially scams that look exactly like the auto manufacturers. Yes, that's a big one. And James, since I've owned that, and I was in the automotive industry for years, these companies that call you up and say, hey, your warranty's about to expire. Oh my God, they're all fake, don't buy these warranties guys. And besides that, nine times out of 10, you're not even buying a warranty, it doesn't exist. You're just giving people your money. That's all you're doing. Don't do that. And the best way to tell is when they call up and they say, hey, your warranty's about to expire in your car, I see that it expires in three months or whatever, ask them, say, which car? They say, well, the car you're driving. I say, well, which car is that? What kind of car do I have? And they're like, well, I don't know. I need to get that information from you. I'm like, well, but how do you know the warranty's expiring? If you don't even know what I'm driving, how do you know? Next one, number 16, the pre-approval scam. When going through times of financial stress, it may be tempting to respond to an offer for a credit card, which you've been pre-approved. Typically, these deals include high credit limits and very low rates, which make them all too more appealing. But the catch is that you will need to pay all the fees upfront, which no credit card company would ever ask you to do. If they do charge you an annual fee, many credit card companies do this. It's easy to think these free offers are real, but they're not, okay? And besides that, if there is a fee related to a credit card, let's say there's an annual fee or whatever, they put it on your bill, okay? They put it on your bill. You don't have to send it upfront, okay? I have a couple of cards. I actually have one card that I pay a yearly fee on, but I get more back in benefits, so I pay the fee. But it's always put on my bill. They never ask me to send them money, okay? If they're asking you to send them money, hey, you don't want to do it. How are we doing on time here? We're getting close here. Last thing I want to tell you about is something that was big for years, and I still don't have the right guess for how much money people lose on online romance things. So put your guess in there. You may win a gold star. I may provide you with a gold star, okay? I'll provide you with a gold star. If you can guess the amount of money the average person loses on romance scams. Number 17, guys, if you're keeping track is digital greeting cards. Now, these were real popular years ago, although not as popular as they once were, greeting cards are still a fun way to get people to communicate with one another. However, if you're not careful, opening a greeting card from a scammer will trigger a download on your computer that can leave you with malicious piece of software that can steal your information and ruin your life. These are tough to spot because they can sometimes come from people you know, okay? If somebody you haven't spoken to in years or whom you communicate using other mediums such as sending you a greeting card, consider sending them a text or calling them before you open the email to keep your information protected, okay? Especially if you don't know somebody. If you get a greeting card from somebody you don't know, come on, guys. All right, so I'm gonna give up, I'm gonna give up the amount of money that people are losing on these online romance scams just second. But before I do that, I wanna give you how to avoid all these online scams. How to avoid them all, okay? I'm gonna give you, there's eight things you can do. You haven't done any bragging about how many push-ups you've been doing. My favorite exercise is the push away. You mean like on a wall or something like that, James? That's a good one. I did do push-ups the other day. I did 50 without stopping, which was okay. It was okay, but I have gotten a little weaker in that area, I gotta get back to it. We have a gym here in the neighborhood I live in now, which is really pretty nice. And I've got to set my pull-up bar back up, James. And I'm trying to figure out where to put that because I got this really beautiful patio. And I don't wanna clutter it with a pull-up bar, but I think I might have to do that. I appreciate you bringing that up though. And I've been working out, and I've been working out pretty hard the three miles yesterday, which isn't a ton of mileage, but it's about what I wanna do. All right, let's go through these eight things and then I'm gonna tell you how much money people are losing on these romance things. Just read that building materials up 70% since last July got your home built just in time. Yeah, James, I'm gonna brag a little bit, but our home has gone up in value anywhere from I'd say $250 to $300,000 since November when I bought the land. So it's gone up almost a third of a million dollars since I bought the land. So I'm pretty happy with that. I'm pretty tired of happy with it. All right, let's go through these eight steps and then I'll tell you how much people lose. And you can still guess on this to get the gold star. You can still guess $2,200, James. I'm gonna tell you it's more than that. It's more than that. You're guessing and you're doing good, but you gotta get it up higher. Number one, stick to the term that you've always heard. You know it's true. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. First thing, okay guys, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Number two, visit reputable sites and avoid clicking on ads or other weird looking links, okay? Those two things. Number three, verify contact information. Okay, when somebody contacts you, you gotta know who they are. Number four, check first. That means that you get an email or a text or something like that in your bank or credit card company. Call your credit card company on the back of your card. Call that number. Say, are you trying to get ahold of me? I got this email, I got this text. Check with them before you click, guys. Don't click. Number five, guard your personal information with your life. And this means frequently changing your passwords. I know it's a pain. I understand it's a pain, but believe me, it's a lot more pain if somebody gets all your information and all your credit cards are hacked or your mortgage is hacked or something like that. So get one of these password apps. I use one, I love it. I use it all the time, it works great. Number six, use antivirus software. If you're an Apple user, you pretty much don't have to do this. I do have malware bites and I can run that one. But man, if you've got a PC and you don't have antivirus software, you're gonna be in a world of crap one day. I promise it's gonna happen to you. Let's see. James Breen says 3,500, it's more than that. Then he said 10,000. And I'll say it's more than that. It's still more than that. Lynn McClain, people lose millions from fake sites. Yes, they do, they do. Lynn Wood McClain from date sites. Oh, date sites, okay. I saw that. You know, I do the same thing when I type in fast as like the words come out wrong or I'll do talk to text and it really comes out wrong. Thank you so much, Lynn Wood. I appreciate you putting some in there. I love your comments, guys. I love your comments. I love your questions. I love your suggestions. And before we end today, if you wanna put any questions in there about making money online legitimately, because that's what I do, I've done this in 2009, so millions of dollars about digital physical products. You can Google my name. You can Google survival cave food. You can see some of the products I sell. All right, number seven, use a VPN and avoid public Wi-Fi. Woo, woo, public Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi, guys, people can get into your computer so easily. And I'm guilty of this because every now and then I go to Starbucks and I use their Wi-Fi, but I pretty much use my phone as my Wi-Fi, my hotspot, whatever you wanna call it. Number eight, win and doubt. Win and doubt. If you have a little bit of doubt, do not click. Do not click. Do not click. If you're doubting it, guys, why would you click? Don't do it. Don't do it. Just, it's crazy to do that, okay? Guard your stuff. Protect your stuff. Now, if you have been hacked, something happened to you, fallen for a scam, no matter how educating you are, no matter how carefully you tread, these murky waters on the internet can be dangerous. It's still possible to fall victim to a scam. If this happens, your course of action depends slightly on the type of scam. So here's some more tips. If you download malicious software, get rid of it. These programs are designed to be difficult to remove. So you may need to take your device to some professional. I would go right to Apple if you have an Apple PC and I go to Microsoft or whatever. But if you're familiar with computers, you can start it in safe mode and remove the bad software using anti-malware software. Or you can reset your computer to the factory settings, but you're gonna lose everything. Or save point before you actually got the software. So you can go back to that point if you do backups. After you've done this, spend some time monitoring your accounts to see if any personal information was stolen. I have an Apple my phone, I monitor that every day. You could be proactive and cancel your credit card, debit cards, I've done that before. And you may even want to contact your credit reporting agency so that you can prevent misuse of your information. If you send money to a person or fraudulent organization, you might be out of luck when it comes to getting your money back. But as most banks will invoke the buyer beware defense. However, you should still contact the authorities so that you can file a report and in the event they catch the perpetrators, you could get something back. But even if you can't, alerting the authorities will at least help call attention to that particular scammer. What's the best platform for internet marketing newbies? If you mean to market, I would say Cartra. Definitely Cartra. Cartra will blow your mind. Cartra just came out with surveys, which is I think it's gonna be live next week. They have more bang for your buck than anything else. Below in the description, I'll have a link for Cartra. But that is by far the best one, by far. I think fake guru get rich, quick, and easy are huge problems. It is, it is. And that's why I never want to be a guru because I'm not. I'm somebody who's made some money online and I share with you what I've done. If some guy says if you buy my program or you market my stuff, you're gonna get rich, run from them. If they're shooting money out of a gun, run from them, okay? And I unfortunately have a friend that does that, but I'm just saying it's not that easy, guys. You gotta work hard. If you had your credit or debit card information stolen, you should immediately call your bank, cancel that card. In the event somebody took money from you, you can claim the charges as fraud, you can dispute them. Depending on your bank's policy, you'll probably get your money back. If you have your full identity stolen, ooh, this is a bad one. I had somebody steal my, I guess, tax identity and they filed for a refund. And I got a check and not knowingly, it got deposited. And then the IRS contacted me and said, hey, you filed these taxes. I'm like, no, I didn't. So it was a big brigham overall. And now when I file my taxes, I have all kinds of safeguards and electronic blocks and all this stuff. But if you have your identity stolen, get to work. Identify who did it, if you can. I know it's scary. It takes a long time to fix this problem. Hopefully, if you realize it before the crooks have been able to do anything, meaning all your actions will be preventative. However, if they have managed to take control of your identity, it could be a long time before things are right again. This, these resources I've given you guys can really help you out and get things right. So in conclusion, and I'm gonna tell you how much money, if you wanna do one more guess, how much money online romance, scammers, lose per scam, on average, put it in that chat box there. Let's see here. Like I said, these scams are all around the world. They come in many shapes, form sizes. They damage a lot of people. The loss can be a few bucks to completely getting your identity theft done to losing all your money in the bank, okay? However, if you spend some time learning about these scams that are out there, you can develop vigilant an eye on all the things that are going on and keep yourself safe. This will allow you to enjoy the internet, which we should, we shouldn't have to worry about this stuff and get all the information, all the entertainment, all the good things out of it, all the education we want without getting ripped off. Now, the big number, the big number, how much does the average, 77, 397? That is very specific. Mine is not as specific, but it is accurate. I just did the research on this and it is the amount I'm gonna put in the chat in one second. Let's see, lost on internet romance scams. Isn't it horrible to do that to somebody? Somebody who's lonesome. All right, there we go. $21,000 is the average loss on internet romance scams. $21,000. That means there's people that lose more. Maybe somebody did lose 77,000. That's a lot of money, guys. Holy heck. I mean, that's brain damage. That's a car. That's craziness, but that's what happens to people. So, I will tell you, there are ways to get ripped off, but there are a lot of good things online too, guys. And check it out. Check it out. Look at some of these things. Check out some more of my videos on here too and I would really appreciate if you would subscribe, if that's subscribe button down there. If it's red, click it, turn it gray. Don't forget to turn on bell notifications. Turn on all bell notifications so you're notified each and every time I go live. I really appreciate you guys being here. I'm gonna get back to doing, hope you post lunch break. Oh, my one today. I usually do it Fridays. I don't know. We'll see what it's like. If it's crappy, I'm not gonna do it, okay? But if it's good, maybe I will. I'm gonna start doing lives. If you guys are interested in lives during the week and I know it's inconvenient because when I do them, it's 9 a.m. my time, which is central daylight time right now. So if you're interested in daily lives like this where you wanna learn more information, put in that chat box there. Older women are easy victims as are older men. Older men are pretty easy victims too, especially when it comes to the romance thing. We're all vulnerable. I mean, let's face it guys. We're all vulnerable. We all want that connection. And if you don't have it and somebody's providing it to you, and you know what's funny, and I'll just add this, some of these people that got ripped off on these romance scams said they didn't even mind because at least during that period of time, they had somebody to talk to, somebody who acted like they cared about them. That's pretty sad. So when you go out today, make sure you talk to people. Make sure you're kind to people. Make sure you say hello to everybody. I love it. I'm in Texas now and I can't drive through my neighborhood. Somebody doesn't wait. Everybody waves to you, which is really pretty cool. Thanks so much for being here guys. I really appreciate each and every one of you. Love you. If you like what you hear here and here of course, subscribe, ring the bell, tell your friends about it. Bring in some more subscribers. Do your part to grow this community. The more we grow this community, the more we can help people make money online, learn how to use the internet, all that good stuff. The cooking channel is coming. I'm still working on my artwork for that. I've sent it back four times. I don't like any of the stuff they sent me. So that's the problem there. I'm blown away by how many hot women want to meet me. Yeah, yeah, I bet you are. I bet you are Paul. I bet you're just blown away. They're all gorgeous. They're all like 20 years old too. Guys, thanks so much for being here. I'm gonna go ahead and get out here. Let me make my screen smaller here. And I'm done for the day. I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna get myself some lunch, come back and probably work on scripts for next week. Love you guys. Talk to you later.