Book 2. The Scam Watch Guide

Hello, is that the police, I think I have been robbed, all my money is gone… 

Hello, (to your bank), I want to know why my account is showing payments I never made… 

Hello, (to your bank again) I have tried to get cash out of the ATM, and it says, “insufficient funds”, I know I have plenty of money in there… 

Honey, have you seen the size of our phone bill, I can’t believe it, what are all these premium calls and messages…? 

Those are all classic responses when you discover that something is wrong, but what happened, how could it have happened, I didn’t do it so who did! 

The chances are the “Scammer” did it and YOU let them, but you didn’t realize you were being scammed. 

Why? Because they seemed so genuine, they had a great website, and it had a secure payment page. The phone call was from my utility company, I had to make that late payment, or they would have cut me off. That urgent SMS message to unblock my account was from my bank. The email was from a reputable investment bank, so I invested, their brochure was amazing. I gave all my personal details at the job interview that day. We met online he’s genuine I know it, he had a problem with his sick mum and needed money, I know he didn’t like asking me for help, poor guy...  

Those are just a few examples of scams, but how do you know they are scams; they were so genuine! Sometimes your gut instinct will tell you but a lot of the time you may have no idea! Some scams are cheesy and obvious while others are very sophisticated and can last for months if not years. You will see many examples of those in this book. 

Here are a few global statistics:

In the US:

• US experts estimate that $40 billion to $50 billion a year is lost to consumer fraud, says a study by the Financial Fraud Research Center at Stanford University's Center on Longevity.
• Some 30 million Americans are sucked into some type of financial fraud each year.
• The FBI says that business email account compromises in 2018 cost the domestic and international real estate industry $12.5bn.

In the UK:

• It is estimated that £10bn is lost each year by victims of scams.
• The UK National Crime Agency says that Fraud costs the UK £190bn a year.
• UK dating scams, victims lost more than £50m in 2018, according to Action Fraud figures. It said the average loss per victim in 2018 was £11,145 – a 27% increase on the previous year. 

In Australia:

• The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission or ACCC, expects that scams will exceed over $532bn.
• Up to July 2019, investment scams were among the least reported, but they were the single biggest loss financially at over $30m.
• Up to July 2019, contact via the phone was the main method of contact, causing losses of close to $20m. 

There are many more statistics inside. 

In the Scam Watch Guide, you will learn about many types of scams and sub scams and then in detail exactly what to look for and how to recognize the scam. All scams have a flaw somewhere and you will learn how to spot it and how to deal with it by doing your due diligence, all will be explained. 

Don’t assume that a scam involves direct contact with you. You can be scammed without you realizing or knowing it for some time, that’s the scary stuff. You will learn how the scammer and hackers do that. 

You will learn what a “Mark” is and how you might become one and then a “Victim” and then how to avoid becoming a victim. You can’t avoid being a Mark, you’ll find out why. You will learn how the scammers get your personal details and how they can sell those details and even sell your credit card and bank details to the highest bidder on the “Dark Web”. What is that? All is explained. 

Prevention through due diligence is better than cure and better than needing damage limitation measures! 

This book is jam-packed with information from start to finish, full of information on identifying scams and then how to deal with them for you and your family’s security and peace of mind. 

 A final word… 

It’s not all doom and gloom in the scamming world, lastly, this book will show how to have fun, when YOU scam the scammer by turning the tables on them. This is priceless! Payback time, KARMA!

SPECIAL BONUS: You’ll get FREE periodic supplementary updates to keep the information inside this book up to date.