Fraud

Internet bidding sites have been spreading like forest mushrooms after a warm rain in late May recently. E-Bay has almost become an afterthought.

It all began when people decided, for example, that to sell a car as a trade-in when buying a spanking new vehicle is shortsighted. The dealer offers you a price. That price will, in the best of cases, cut into the new car's price but, eventually, you'll find out that car dealers aren't in the business for your beautiful (insert colour here) eyes.

This realization (and not only about cars) has led to all kinds of lists and sites that let you sell your older product (or buy one) for prices considerably more to your liking. You're not supporting a dealer's overhead, after all (this brings us back to cars, but only because they're such an easy example).

But the lengths some of the bidding sites go to these days must raise an eyebrow or two.

Maybe you've picked up the phone recently to hear the following recording or something like it:

"Are you more than $10,000 in debt? We can help! Press #1 now to get connected with one of our agents and they can help cut you're debt in half for only a quarter of the cost."

Well, unfortunately a lot of these debt reduction agencies are nowhere near who they claim to be and most end up costing you money instead of waiving your debts. This is why The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has issued a consumer warning against those telemarketing calls and advertisements claiming to come from debt reduction agencies or anyone who claims to provide "debt reduction," "debt relief," "debt settlement" or "debt renegotiation."

"Unfortunately, people do not always see the benefits that debt reduction companies lead them to expect-and some people wind up even deeper in debt than they were before," says FCAC Commissioner Ursula Menke. "If an offer to reduce your debts seems too good to be true, it probably is."

The usual setup promises that the company can work out a deal with your creditors so that you're able to pay back only a small percentage of what you actually owe for "pennies on the dollar." It's quite the offer, but it may actually turn into a Faustian bargain.

Related Links:

• Debt Settlement or Credit Counseling?
• What is Debt Settlement?
• It's Never Too Late to Get On Top of Your Debt
• Debt Reduction: Five Steps to Freedom

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Oh, you think as you gaze into a, say, exclusive car showroom, oh, if only I won a lottery! Why, then I'd be able to buy several of these shiny things, one for each member of my extended family, and I'd still have enough left to go for a sumptuous dinner at my local fast-food eatery!

And then you get an e-mail, usually from a country whose name you hear for the first time in your life, telling you that you've just won loads of money. Sweepstakes, lottery, you name it. Of course, the message says, first you've got to pay taxes due, and then, we'll release the cash.

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If you thought that signing up for inclusion on the Non-Call List would get you of the telemarketers' hook, you might have found out by now it didn't.

While, granted, offering goods and services over the telephone is a legitimate endeavour, many amongst us view it rather as harassment – especially when the phone rings while you're otherwise engaged, or when it rings and all you hear is silence after you've picked it up. On some occasions, the silence is interrupted after about 30 seconds by a female voice that says, with a certain degree of malevolence, "Good bye," getting your level of adrenaline even higher.

If you can get hold of experts who know how to do this kind of testing, you might find out that many of the calls originate outside of any Canadian government agency's jurisdiction. Some tropical islands seem to be the favourite spots for some telemarketers. None of these islands has anything to do with Canada, except having a phone network that can reach and touch someone north of the 49^th parallel.

Can somebody do something about it?

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So are you tired of hearing the repeated platitudes about how you should change your passwords and keep them safe from those who might steal your information? Personally, I can't keep up with the passwords I do have. And you want me to keep changing them too?

Related:
The 25 Worst Passwords of 2011
The Most Common Hiding Places for Workplace Passwords

When it comes to cyber security, though, passwords and malware are just the tiniest tip of the iceberg. Even this tiny tip though, if ignored, can create a significant and vulnerable weak point which can compromise your own information and the information at companies you work for. You could even, unwittingly, allow your computer to be part of a larger network which attempts to bring down country infrastructures.

Depending on how you look at things, this can either sound hysterical or just too big for one person to worry about.

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Please give, this is a worthy cause. You can help humanity by donating to ... well, it is true that charity is an important part of our social fabric and that, on more occasions than many would even think of imagining, charitable organizations exceed whatever a government can provide by a country mile.

Many would assert that this is how it should be, and this is not the forum to debate this.

This is the forum to establish whether you can find out in advance, before parting with your hard-earned dollars, whether the organization that does the asking is really performing the help it says it is performing.

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Thinking of buying a new house because the old one is too small for you? Thinking of selling your old house because it's too big for you? Thinking of entering the fabulous world of real estate?

The real estate world is filled with curiously-sounding words, such as "party of the first part," whatever THAT is supposed to mean, with one proviso: it usually DOES mean something you'll have to pay for even if it's not mentioned in the original offer sheet.

The real estate world is also filled with professionals who really mean it when they say they're in it to help you.

Unfortunately, there are some people who say the same thing but mean something completely different: they're in it to help themselves and the consumer be damned.

Here's a primer.

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We read stories of outrageous thefts from time to time. Used to be we were shocked to hear somebody stole, say, a Mona Lisa painting from the Louvre in Paris. Morons, we used to say, they won't be able to sell the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece to anyone anywhere without being caught.

Rank amateurs, when compared to modern-day thieves. These people do not need to wear gloves so as not to leave fingerprints, and dark mackintoshes so as not to be seen during the night. They don't have to leave their homes to do their dirty deeds.

They're called hackers, and people who tried to steal the Mona Lisa painting from the Louvre wouldn't have a chance, compared to them.

No matter what you do on your computer - buy and sell things, keep in touch with family and friends, play games, or keep up on the latest news and events - you could be exposing your personal information to fraudsters, which can result in identity theft and financial loss.

How does it happen?

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Watch out, says a message that just landed in your e-mail inbox, there's this new outrageously funny video available, here's the link get it, it's perfect, you'll be rolling on the floor laughing, have a look.

The message has come from someone whose name you know, it may even be a family member. So, you trust it and click on the link. You'll land on a page that looks just like your typical YouTube (or Facebook, or any other social media network) page. But wait, first, you have to install an Adobe Flush plug-in. Without it, you're toast, you can't view the video.

If you DO try to download the plug-in, you will be toast within seconds.

Meanwhile, the villain who wrote Koobface is laughing his head off somewhere out there.

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People working in retail fear most cashier jobs will disappear once the so-called "wave-and-pay" technology takes over. No need to fear right now. For now, it's the automated checkouts that should scare them. The "wave-and-pay" applications are still too scary to most customers. They are afraid its developers still haven't rid it of serious security breaches.

British newspaper Daily Telegraph's Digital Media Editor Emma Barnett says that, for example, the loudly trumpeted Google's Wallet application has been a flop, so far, and she cites research figures to prove her point.

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