By Patrick on Feb 21, 2008 in Scams / Fraud, Taxes | 10 Comments
There is a phishing scam going around purporting to be from the IRS. In this e-mail, they inform the recipient they are entitled to refunds of $92.35 or some other amount due to a calculation error on a past tax return. These e-mails are not from the IRS; they are from thieves who are attempting to extract your personal information to steal [...]
By Patrick on Dec 18, 2007 in Charity, Scams / Fraud | 1 Comment
Giving donations to charities is a great thing to do. There are many charitable organizations that make our world a better place. Unfortunately, wherever people are willing to give, there are unethical people willing to take advantage of them. Some of these charities are just inefficient and spend the majority of their money on overhead, [...]
By Patrick on Dec 17, 2007 in Charity, Scams / Fraud | 4 Comments
Many people get great enjoyment from donating to various charities, clubs, programs, and religious or other organizations. But how do you know where your donations go? If you donate money, how much goes to overhead, and how much of it is actually used for the purpose for which you gave it? If you donate clothing, [...]
By Patrick on Dec 10, 2007 in Personal Finance, Scams / Fraud | 11 Comments
Counterfeit goods cost consumers and legitimate manufacturers hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Yes, that is billions with a “B.” Big deal right? You buy a knock off Coach purse or Prada hand bag for $30 and no one is the wiser. What does it matter?
Well, aside from ethical considerations, there is a lot [...]
By Patrick on Aug 30, 2007 in Scams / Fraud | 4 Comments
You know, I rarely get these things because my e-mail filters out almost all spam that I receive. However, since I started using G-Mail as my e-mail service for this blog, I have noticed that a few of my e-mails have been sent to the Spam folder that shouldn’t have gone there. So, I always [...]