Financial Reflections

This week’s collection of five financial stories that caught my eye on social news site Afternoon Rally and other spots around the web.

When the FTC talks, Google and Facebook listen. I wote earlier on what the Federal Trade Comission is calling “Economic Stimulus Scams” and thought I’d call into the FTC’s press conference to get the details on how they are handling the issue. Here’s what I learned.

When the Federal Trade Commission calls a special press conference, you know something’s up. You may have seen one of the hundreds of ads with President Obama’s image and often a shot of a stimulus check. They offer a way to get some of the billions the government is handing out. Well the FTC has had enough and is holding a press conference to show what they call “Economic Stimulus Scams.” So what’s all the fuss about?

This week’s collection of five financial stories that caught my eye on social news site Afternoon Rally and other spots around the web.

The Audacity of Doing Nothing: Harvard Blogger Philip Greenspun makes an audacious statement against the stimulus.
Scam Spotters: I wrote a guide on how to spot a scam recently so this list of 10 [...]

Just how safe is your identity?  Identity theft is all over the news, but I wanted to learn a little more about how prevalent this crime actually was, so I did a little research and came up with some stats to make it seem a little more real, and it wasn’t exactly encouraging.

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Think you can spot a scam? Think again. After all, Bernard Madoff bilked some pretty smart people out of some serious cash with his 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Everyday people end up falling for it as one guy did for the classic Nigerian email scam. Even Oprah’s had the wool pulled over her eyes. So how can a one tell what’s legit?

You’ve got a property to rent. Maybe you’re a little desparate to get the place rented — you own two houses and need to rent one out, are trying to relocate, or keep your investment property out of foreclocusre. These days, all those situations are common. That’s where the scammers step in.

Suppose you’re a someone who’s looking to rent, and you’ve just found an ideal place online — cheap rent for a big place in a great location.  The only hitch is that the owner is out of state or out of the country so you can’t meet. You’ll also need to wire some money for [...]

Who’s in your wallet? It might be more than a some dead presidents and a few bank logos. Identity theives have gotten rather creative when it come to getting your information, so I thought I’d outline some of the ways they do their dirty deeds so we can defend against them.

I like to think that I’m “scam proof.”  I can pretty much take a glance at something and smell the slightest hint of fraud or deceit.  I’ve done pretty well over the years, but this latest story is a big wakeup call.  It was recently found that a money manager named Bernard Madoff has bilked [...]