January 10, 2025 • 47 mins
Are you aware of the top money-making scams to watch out for? We listen and we don’t judge. In this episode, Jen and Jill explore the rise of scams targeting those looking to earn extra income. Tune in to hear more about how to spot the red flags and how to protect yourself from falling victim to these scams.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Episode four seventy five, Top six money making scams to
look out for in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
my name is Jill, and today we are talking scams
that are on the rise. We listen and we don't
judge because everyone is susceptible to scams.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And especially when they're getting so much more nuanced and
sophisticated and looking like the real deal, it can be
so so easy to fall into some sort of trap,
especially if we're not on guard. I know so many
people personally who have found themselves a part of a scam.
It depends on how far they've gotten into it. But
(01:06):
realizing whoe that almost got me or that did get me,
and so it doesn't discriminate anybody could fall victims. So
we're going to talk about that and help you to
be more equipped for kind of detecting these things and
protecting yourselves. But first, this episode is brought to you
by the Real Deal. We're not doing fake cheap stuff
(01:31):
over here. No knockoffs or scams. We're talking the pure, legit,
real thing, like us in the flesh doing a book
signing at Tombolo Books in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth
from seven to eight pm. It's the real deal, folks,
hope to see you there. If you are in the area,
(01:53):
if you're local or even within a short driving distance,
come see us January fourteenth at seven pm at Tambolo.
It'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, head to Tombolo's website to RSVP and can't wait
to see you there. So it is January, and in
January a lot of people make the goal to pay
off their debt. I know the first thing I did
when I decided to pay off debt was figure out
how can I earn more money so I can pay
this debt off faster. And when you're trying to make
(02:24):
money on the side, you can get into some dodgy places.
And the dodgiest of places are the things that scam you.
But they scam you off the back of something that
actually can make you money. And so that's a lot
of what we are seeing in twenty twenty five for
(02:46):
these scams that are on the rise. We went to
the FTC dot gov website and looked at their past
year of scam updates, specifically just for making money. We
love scam, we do periodic scam.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
We don't love that they happen right right right, just
are obsessed.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
We are learning about them.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Are obsessed with them and helping people because the more
we read, the more we realize that anybody can get scammed.
It is truly a you know, scammers spray and pray
for you to be at the wrong place, wrong headspace,
wrong time, and that's it and then they've got it.
(03:28):
So this is definitely where a lot of people will
be at the wrong place at the wrong time looking
to make money. But if you also are obsessed with scams,
some of our past scam episodes, we did episode three
eighty Love and Money Romance Scams with April Helm and
we also did episode three point fifty my favorite money
(03:50):
murder Scams, where we just read some of our favorite
Reddit posts where scammers have murdered people's money and I
believe that we should. That was a Halloween episode and
I believe I want to do something like that again
because Reddit never fails with the r scams. If you
(04:11):
are interested in learning more about scams. Are scams on Reddit?
I'm sorry, that's better than Google right now.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It was a little bit of a departure from our
typical episodes, but it felt so right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So let's start out with just a couple of overall
tips to take with you some mindsets when you are
looking for a side job or even a different job.
So maybe you're trying to make more money, switching careers, industries,
going back to work, whatever. So the first thing, and
(04:49):
some of these are going to seem obvious, but it's
good to be reminded it is. So.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
The first one is.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Are they asking you to pay for a job?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
On?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to
pay to get a job. Anyone who does this is
a scamer. Even if they are asking you to pay
for education through their company to get their job.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It's pay for the equipment. I've heard of that too,
which sometimes that will happen, right if you are a
if you're a barber, you're gonna have to pay for
your own equipment to start at a salon. So the
reason that we can fall victim to this is because
it does happen for some people, or if you're kind
of getting into a new field. I knew a guy
(05:35):
who this had happened to where he was starting a
remote job. He'd never worked remotely, and so they were like,
you have to buy your computer, you have to do
these different things. He's like, Okay, like I've never done
this before. That seems like it would make sense that
I'd have to purchase my equipment to do this job.
And turns out it was a scam. But yeah, you
really can't fault them for that.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
H what do you know about them? So search online.
This is probably the most important thing you should do
with any opportunity, is to search online for the name
of the company plus the word scam, review complaint. Do
all three of those searches to figure out if they've
scammed other people.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Also, make sure that the reviews about this company this
job are real. Sometimes success stories and testimonials might be
too much of a glowing success story, which could be
really misleading, So be wary of the ones that just
look so positive, so too good to be true. Maybe
(06:35):
even click on some of these profiles see if the
people who are reviewing have ever reviewed other things. Make
sure that they are legit reviewers, so do a little
bit more digging.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
This is so, so so important. I was just reading
on Reddit this morning of a social media this is
a survey scam specifically, but they took this girl's TikTok,
who is a real influencer. They stole her video, very
good quality, and they just put like a seven hundred
dollars Amazon gift card over it. They sponsored the post,
(07:08):
so this is a paid post that you would be
seeing in your feed and basically saying how she does
surveys to make money. She's not talking about this company,
and she's also not talking about making seven hundred dollars
on a survey for this company. And so it was
a scam, but they stole they stole the video so
(07:29):
it looked legit. They also bought likes and comments, and
you would have to see that. You would if you
clicked on the commenters, if you clicked on the profiles
of all these likes and commenters, then you can see
there's like no followers, no interaction, they're all bots. But
you'd have to click through and look do your research
(07:53):
before you figured that out. It's very easy though, to
see once you click through and that leads into LAS one.
What does a trusted friend or loved one think about
the offer? So go and don't just take influencers' words
for it, because it might not really be their words.
They might it could even be AI. We'll talk about
(08:15):
AI later. They are doing, they're taking the likenesses of
influencers or just random people and having them talk about
false things. So talk to real people that you trust
in real life and actually listen to their opinions.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So the first scam that we're going to talk about
here is a car wrap scam. This one seemed to
be on the rise in twenty twenty four, and they
usually will target college students, but kind of anyone in
particular who's looking to make money. They usually are going
(08:54):
to be offering around six hundred to seven hundred dollars
a week to drive around with an ad for some
well known company wrapped around your car, like literally like
a big billboard that your car could get wrapped in.
They're saying that. Usually it's an energy drink that they're saying,
you know, wrap your car and this advertisement for this
(09:16):
energy drink will pay you six hundred to seven hundred
dollars a week. Just to drive around and basically be advertising.
And the thing about this is it is a legit thing.
I do know people who have done car wraps got
paid for it. It's something Eric and I had even
talked about doing when we lived in our RV, was
we're gonna be going on road trips, we could get
(09:36):
our RV wrapped and practically pay for all of the
renovations of our RV. We didn't end up doing that,
but it's one of those things that is legit, and
then people are capitalizing on that and taking your money.
So here's how this scam would work. They would send
you a check for a certain amount of money. Let's
(09:57):
say they're sending you, you know, six hundred and seven
hundred dollars up front, and they're telling you to use
a portion of that money to wrap your vehicle. And
they of course are handling the wrapping as well. So
they send you this money. It's a fake check. However,
the bank will clear the check. The banks won't usually
(10:19):
catch fraudulent checks until days, possibly even a week after
the check clear about a week, so the money is
like technically somewhat accessible or at least pending in your account.
And then they're saying, now you pay us, let's say
four hundred dollars to wrap your vehicle. You pay them
(10:40):
then out of your own pocket. The bank catches that
it's a fraudulent check. They reverse the transaction, So now
the money's no longer there and you are out the
money that you had paid back to the scammer to
quote unquote wrap your car. But it never ended up happening.
Plus you might end up paying a processing fee or
(11:00):
some sort of yeah, bank fees because fraudulent.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
In the comment, people are saying doctor Pepper is a
big one that they've been trying to get. That they've
been saying to get raps. F G fuel is another one.
I'm seeing amounts for five thousand dollars checks, thirty two
hundred dollars, fifteen hundred, and it's all like they deposit
(11:26):
it and then one week later is when the bank
finally tells them it's fake. So it's a real thing.
But do not if somebody approaches you, then it is
a scam and maybe you won't fall for it. But
if you have young people in your life that are
in college, then make them aware of stuff like.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
This, because you might be thinking well, they gave me
the money, so that makes sense for me to have
to pay, but it might not.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
It might not be real money.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Next one, I think is one that might get a
lot of people, and that's appointment setters. So there's this
new trend on social media claiming that you can work
from home and make big money as an appointment setter
for different companies sales staff potential clients to close deals.
You're typically paid an hour hourly rate, but you might
(12:18):
earn bonuses based on the number of appointments you successfully
set if you need. So this is a real job,
but it's a modestly paid job and it will be
far more overinflated what you can make by these people
on social media. They will say you need training that
(12:40):
you need to pay for. That is absolutely false. If
you get an appointment setter job, any training you need,
your employer should offer it at no cost to you. So, again,
modest income. It is something that can be done like
very easily. It's if you can get it. If you
can get the work, then it's not bad. It's some
(13:03):
good extra money. But the truth is honest. Employers will
never ask you to pay to get a job, and
no one can guarantee you a job. These scammers will
also guarantee these jobs and they just they can't. So
do your research again, check Google, company, review, company, scam
(13:25):
company complaint, and take into consideration those things we talked
about at the top of the episode.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
The next one that we're going to talk about is
fake investment opportunities. This could be anything from business opportunities
to investments. There's a lot of scammers out there using
kind of like infusing AI into the frauds and scams
that they are operating. So it could be that when
(13:53):
you're asking, you know, you're chatting with some chatbot about
a business opportunity or some sort of investing that you're
not even actually talking to a real person, but they're
kind of like faking a real person. That these scammers
have trained the chatbots to respond in a way that's fraudulent, misleading,
(14:14):
giving you incorrect information, probably causing you to then invest
monetarily your money and none of it is real.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So this one's a wild one, and we talked about
this in our other scam episodes for Romance and My
Favorite Money Murder, that they will impersonate someone you know.
This will not just look like it's coming from a
random ever you've never met, and they can use the
AI technology. You can get on the phone with them
(14:48):
and think it's somebody that you know that you are
talking about a business opportunity with It is wild. The
favorite money murder one. They were using the AI voice
to make it sound like someone you love is being
held hostage and you need to send money to get
them out. And that was all AI. And one of
(15:09):
the things one of the recommendations was is hang up
and call the person who is supposedly kidnapped. But AI
is getting more and more sophisticated, and so if it
gives you a bad feeling, especially if it's a business
investment or a stock or a crypto investment, then reach
(15:32):
out to the person like in another way, or anybody
else who may know them, or any of that to
get verification.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
They also recommend that if you're thinking about buying into
a business opportunity, ask the seller to give you a
one page disclosure document, which is required by law by
legit businesses. So if the seller makes any earnings claim,
they also must give you an earnings claim statement. And
if they then say anything that contradicts what's written in
(16:03):
their disclosure document or their earnings claim statement. This could
also be a sign of a shady business. So I
think some of the biggest takeaways here is just even
more research, not just trusting the things at face value.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
The next one I think will also be huge in
this community or could be, and its task scams. So
they create the illusion of making money and it will
always start with you getting a message. Actually I don't
want to say it will always start with you getting
a message, but essentially what it is in a task scam,
(16:41):
scammers ask you to do simple, repetitive tasks, such as
liking videos or rating product images online. The supposed job
is to complete tasks in an app or online platform
for which you'll earn money from a quote unquote commission
on each clip. But those promises are fake. They aren't
(17:02):
real commissions. There are no commissions and nobody but the
scammers make money. And the reason this really caught me
is because I did something like this legitimately to make
money when we were paying off debt. I was in
I think it was lion Bridge was I was evaluating search.
(17:27):
I was a human search engine optimizer. I was looking
at what I think it was for Facebook what the
search was and then what the results were, and I
was kind of rating what the search results were, or
I was watching like videos to kind of help the
(17:49):
algorithm make sure it was giving the best search results.
That's what I was doing. But it was for a
legitimate company that I had applied for that had not
reached out to me, and it was it did not
feel scammy, was on the up and up, and I
did make money doing that. So this is like those
(18:10):
influencers or people it's like get paid to watch videos
and just make it sound too easy.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It was not.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Complicated work, but it was still like time consuming. So
it worries me so much that these tasks are so
close to what actual money making like tasks could be.
(18:42):
It's insane. So in order to amvoid these and ignore
generic or unexpected get texts or What's app messages about jobs,
real employers will never contact you unless you contact them first,
and never pay anyone to get paid or to get
a job. I never had to pay for anything, and
(19:04):
don't trust anyone who says they'll pay you to rate
or like things. That's not what I was doing. It
was not rating, I was not liking. I was helping
the algorithm. I was a human brain teaching a computer algorithm,
which now sounds like I'm helping our robot overlords hang over, but.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Training it in the good way, not in the fraudulent way.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, it was real funny stuff like real bizarre, real random.
It was always it gave me interesting things to learn.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I think that's funny. Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
The last one for me on here is post office jobs,
and I found this one so interesting. But also I
feel like I've also seen these as well, like specifically
looking for a postal job. And maybe part of it
is because there is, at least for me, this idea
that that's a good job, like they make good wages,
(20:05):
you've got good pension like, and they're hard to come by,
like they don't often there's not a lot of turnover
within postal work. So this is just my impression of
these types of jobs. So maybe that's in part why
this particular type of job is so useful for scamming.
(20:26):
But essentially they are the scammers would be reaching out
as if they are the usps. They will post an
ad or a listing maybe to your email, and it
will link to a website that looks like a real
USPS website has the logo, it has everything, but it's
(20:46):
actually a copy. And so when you're on this kind
of fake website, everything is created by the scammers, and
they may ask you for a registration fee, your application
or employment package fee, or a fee to apply, or
a fee to take the Postal Service exam. The pattern
here is that they're asking you to pay in order
(21:09):
to get this job. And so the takeaway here is
that it is free to apply for jobs. You should
not have to pay an application fee to apply for jobs,
and to go to the true legitimate websites. I think
being wary of any link that is sent to you
through a text, through an email on social media, instead
(21:32):
going to the website itself, rather than taking the link
that someone is just sending you, because even though it
looks legit, it might not be. It could just be
a very very good copy.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I'd like to give an honorable Do I still have
one left?
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Do we do six? Okay?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
I want to say I have an honorable mention after this? Okay, okay,
but my last one, this is another one I did
while I was paying off debt.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
I've done this one too.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Mystery shopping So mystery shopping is where companies will send
mystery shoppers into stores, into restaurants to try products or services,
like to see how the service is by the weight staff,
how the food is in restaurants, all kinds of just
(22:23):
get the overall customer experience. I did a couple movie
ones where I had to go to the bar and
see if I was id'd, and one time I was not.
I know, I Oh gosh. I felt so bad. I
was like, no, I'm going to get you fired. I'm
(22:43):
so sad, but I got to see a free movie
and get.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
A free drink. Nice.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So while some mystery shopping jobs are legitimate, there is
best Mark, Coil. Those are only two come coming off
the top of my head. I was working with like
four or five at a time. They specialize in different things.
Like Coil is just hospitality, so it's restaurants and hotel stays,
(23:09):
but you really got to you got to do a
lot with them in order to get a hotel stay.
Best Mark is like oil changes, like a lot of
going to car dealerships and test driving cars, all kinds.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Of things but which are legit.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right, But no mystery shop being company will ever send
you a check and say deposit it to buy gift cards.
That is not a mystery shopping job that you will
ever see. Uh, And so they want you to send
them like the numbers on the back of the gift
(23:49):
cards and then they say you get the money, but
they're taking it all. So no mystery shopping job will
ever ask you.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
They will.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And see this is where it gets dicey. You do
have to pay for your meal or your product during
the mystery shop, Yeah, and then they reimburse you and
pay you usually on top of it. So it is
buying a gift card could seem like an actual thing
that you would have to do as a mystery shopper,
but that is not something they're ever going to that
(24:25):
particular thing going to ask you to buy. They don't
ask you to buy something specific. Like if you go
in you order to a restaurant, you order whatever food
you want. They'll say order two entrees and two drinks,
but you get whatever you want like in those categories.
Same like if you go into Target, you buy, like
buy a beauty product, They're not going to tell you
(24:46):
exactly like what to buy. So they're not going to
tell you to buy a specific thing that's a sign
of a scam.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
That was the thing with mystery like the legit mystery
shopping that I didn't love is that you had to
pay it all out of pocket and then it took
like three months to get reimbursed. So that was just
too long a time for me when I'm in the
midst of debt payoff.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Mystery shopping is not a way to like really make
money for us. It was a way to get out
of the house and do things without spend, like without
dipping into our budget. That's what we used it for.
So we didn't do a lot of I still get
emails from these companies right now. They have one where
they are doing they're helping a company do like a
(25:31):
total like restock of their changing their branding and so
they're taking everything out and putting everything back in. So
that's something you like people can get paid to help
with right now. So we didn't do stuff like that.
We just did like the restaurants, the movie theaters, just
(25:52):
the fun stuff that we could get out of the house,
have a date night and have it covered. But I
would have to spend like an hour hour and have
after writing a report, I would have to take pictures
during it, so like it wasn't something we did often.
It did not seem glamorous, right, So if it seems
too good to be true with mystery shopping, it absolutely is.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I think the gift cards, the gift card thing is
one of those red flag pieces, like if someone's asking
you to get gift cards, that should raise some alarm
bells that ooh, this might be a scam. This is
probably a scam. Okay, what's your honorable mention?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
My honorable mention is MLMs because they do fit several
places on our list of money making scams.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
They did come up quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
If you were to google money making scams, you are
going to see MLMs on nearly every list.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So, and my girlipops, if you are buying from your
friend's MLM, you are perpetuating the problem. You are part
of the problem, even if you're not joining one and participating.
If you are buying from one, sensy, I can't have
bought well. A lot of them have changed to affiliate
(27:13):
models in twenty twenty four, so that is something to
be aware of. Some of your least favorite MLMs are
no longer MLMs, like Saint Arbond Body which was Beach
Body are no longer MLMs.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Oh that's good.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, So let's just I mean, be aware that you
have to pay for this business opportunity and then you
have to pay monthly for either website fees or product minimums.
If you're not selling your minimum and you want to
you know, maintain in the company, then you have to
buy product. That is that's a scam. You're you know,
(27:55):
there is, there is not And according to the I
think it was the the FTC. Some part is in
order to avoid legal action, they actually consider like the
person at the top, and they're downline. They're downline. You know,
boss babes are legally considered customers. So you're not to
(28:18):
your upline, you're not a boss babe, you are their customer. Yeah, yeah,
you're and not supporting that's in the contracts.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
You're not supporting small business owners. And when most of
the money is made off of recruiting others who have
to buy their own inventory, research shows the people at
the bottom are not making any money. It's the top
one percent that's actually making money. But yet all these
(28:48):
promises of if you work harder, you hustle harder, you
get more people in your downline, then you'll you'll do it.
You'll finally get there, you'll finally arrive, and it just
doesn't get there because really the population there's not enough
people for you once you're at level six, seven, eight
for you to actually make any money.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
That's just statistics and.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Mass MLMs are declining, They declined greatly. The ones that
still are multi level are just are dropping. I love
to watch Cci Suarez and Hannah Alonso just like totally
go in like nerd out on these things. I think
our biggest issue right now is that we do still
(29:32):
see buying from your friend's MLM is supporting small business
and really you are supporting scammers. So that I think
that's why I wanted to give it an honorable mention,
because it is not a scam on the rise, but
we could still be contributing to it by purchasing these products,
so be aware.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah, and that's not to be like rude to the
friends who are involved in this, but I think that
there can be some education and information that happens to
kind of help people have legitimate paying jobs because I
think the desire is real, right, Like we find ourselves
in these any of these scams that we've listed off
(30:13):
out of in some circumstances, desperation for I need to
be able to pay my bills, I need to be
able to earn a little bit more income. I want to,
you know, to keep living in this house, but the
cost of living keeps rising.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
So what do I do?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
And I think that that urgency, that desperation can make
us even more vulnerable to some of these things that
are like, oh man, that wouldn't require a ton of time.
I can make a lot of money, and oftentimes it's
just it's too good to be true.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I think honestly, it comes back to that I deserve mentality,
Like they will get you with. You deserve to be
a business owner, You deserve time, flexibility, And you're like, okay,
yes I deserve this, But we're thinking too, who's small
is the problem? Yes you deserve it, but you deserve
(31:05):
more and you can do better. But we just don't
think that we deserve that level that we are truly
capable and deserving of. Like we're talking now about like
how do we invest in businesses in our local community,
like not just to like build up our local community,
(31:25):
but to also make money and like honor this desire
in ourselves to be business owners, to be our own boss.
And there are a lot of ways that you can
be a business owner of a legitimate business with not
hundreds and thousands of dollars of capital. And there's just
it's who you surround yourself to figure out, Like are
(31:48):
you surrounding yourself with internet and social media influencer scammers
who are trying to lead you down the quote unquote
passive income scam path or like legitimate like business owners
who have experience and can mentor you.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Do you know what else we deserve And every single
episode is.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Really the biggest and the best, and it has inspired
me to be greater.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
The Bill of the week, that's right, it's time for
the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
of the week.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
Hi Jen, Hi Jill. This is Michelle from southern Orange County, California.
My bill of the week this week is our new
refrigerator bill. Our fridge went out Labor Day weekend, and
I saw on the friend letter that there's usually appliant
sales during Labor Day weekend. But luckily, even before then,
(33:13):
my husband, his name's Jeff, he actually looked into how
to maybe fix the fridge. First. When that wasn't going
to work out, we went to the home depot and
we got a fridge, and it was a little bit
above our budget, but he decided to ask if they
could do anything about that, and they did, and they
gave him a huge discount on top of the Labor
(33:35):
Day sale, so that was awesome. And then when they
delivered the fridge the next weekend, we were able to
get even more of a discount because there was a
small damage. And he just called the person up and said, hey,
this is what happened. The delivery people said this amount,
and the person was like, oh, okay, well let me
(33:56):
give you an extra hundred dollars off. So our bill
went like four thousand down to like twenty two hundred.
So that's my bill of the week. Thank you bye.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Whoa yes. Yeah. So in the front letter every month,
we're talking about we don't just talk about freebies, but
also like when the best sales are because we know,
like we can be tricked by sales, right, Sometimes sales
are like, oh, it's one of a kind, but it
never is. But if there truly is like a best sale, time,
(34:33):
we're gonna tell you about it. Like appliances. I went
into home deep BOMs, like, when are the best sales
and dude, was like Fourth of July and Labor Day
sometimes Black Friday, Yeah, and those are the three best ones.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, we just got appliances as well with Black Friday,
and it was a legit deal and the deal did
legitimately end.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Now they're back up to full price.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
So yeah, Sometimes, especially if you're in the market for
these things, it's good to know when you can be
purchasing these things and then be preparing for it. So
great tips here, congratulations and also well done even negotiating
further for a discount. Sometimes we can assume that these
big box stores like home Depot are not going to
be able to offer us further deals and discounts, but
(35:21):
you just never know what other deals could possibly be happening,
whether or not they're trying to offload certain products from
the floor.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Who knows.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
And then yes, when the item is delivered if there
are small minor damages that could also lead to a discount,
So well done. This is an extreme drop in price,
and yet you still have a new fridge.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
That's so exciting.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
If you all listening have a bill you want to submit,
if it's about negotiating, timing the sales, getting new appliances,
trying to repair your stuff first.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, as we glossed over that one, but well done,
then call it in.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Leave us the bill. We we just love.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Hearing from you and all of your creative ideas about
Bill Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We can't
wait to hear it. And now it's time for the
lightning round you.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
All Right, a time you suspected you were being scammed online,
Oh my gosh, survey scams, Like it's normal for a survey,
you do the onboarding and it's normal to not get
picked for the actual paid survey. But like, because of that,
(36:42):
I did several like survey scams that didn't get I'd
like never gave anybody, Like I never got any money
sent to me or deposited any money, or like took
it too far. But it was just annoying when you're like, ugh,
I just wasted my time and this is a scam.
(37:03):
Like I don't don't get scammed in the end, but
like just the waste of time figuring out it's a scam.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Now I don't do any surveys anymore.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Because it's just too much work to figure out is
this even legitim.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Yeah, whether it's legit or not not worth it.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
I mean, I think I'm getting scammed.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
People are trying to scam me daily, whether it's in
my email or a text message. I will often get
text messages. I think just this week I got one
from you well claiming to be ups that my package
can't be delivered information from me. But if you look
at who is it coming from, like usually it'll be
(37:47):
some random email.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Oh my gosh, I got on yesterday. Yeah, okay, I'm
gonna read it after.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
We'll go for it. You kind of now.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So it's from an email address, it's an imassage. It
says Hi, I'm Emily with Robert half and we have
remote online part time slash full time jobs. Your background
and resume have caught the attention of several online recruiters,
so we'd like to offer you a job. You can
do from home in your free time. This job is
easy and has no time constraints. Daily pay ranges from
(38:16):
two hundred to five thousand and is paid on the
same day. Join us and be part of America's booming
job market and start a career you can be proud
of Requirements twenty two plus. If interested, please contact on
us on WhatsApp. That has a phone number and it's
from an email address, that's an app. It's Sharon Hinton
(38:37):
vs MM two five three one at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I got this yesterday, yeah, and forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Those are the main things that stand out to me.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
And that is a random email address, like it's not
even a domain of some legitimate business.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Now anything that's at Gmail, at yah, who at something?
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Well, and just all those random numbers and everything. And
then let's communicate on WhatsApp. That's another one. I mean,
WhatsApp is a legit app, and I do communicate with
friends on there, But people offering legitimate jobs and income,
they're not trying to communicate with you on WhatsApp.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
That's not where they're going. And so mine too will be.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
The one that I got this week was about a
package that they needed more information from me in order
to deliver my package. And so it's the time of
year right, like we're recording this in December, So people
they're just they're spraying and pray in like you said already,
they're expecting that you probably do have a package arriving.
You're not sure from who is it UPS? USPS? Is
(39:47):
it FedEx? Yeah, you have a USPS. Parcel's just showing
me a number. It's not a US number. Yeah, it's
a plus sixty three numbers. That's not US. Which there
you go, and then yeah, there's just so many things
that are not legit in it. But if you're not
you know it totally aware of that, what that scam
(40:09):
would be is trying to get your personal information and
maybe even your credit card because this is going to
charge you in order to.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
Receive the package.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
I also am a part of so I'm an adjunct
professor as one of my side hustles, and so I'm
on the university's email kind of domain, and I will
get all of the emails that will also get sent
out to the students.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
And there are weekly.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Scams being sent to these college students about jobs remote
work that could pay them like thirty to forty five
dollars an hour, and even me as an adjunct faculty member,
I'm like, this is a great deal.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
I mean, if you quickly know, like this is not legitimate.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
But yeah, when they are offering something that is so
far and above and beyond what you think that job
should be paid.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
It's probably not legit.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Which thinks would be awesome to work five five hours
a week and get paid tons and tons of money.
But that's the thing I think these scammers are praying
upon people in vulnerable situations. The look the ones looking
for extra work without a lot of time involvement, flexibility,
(41:29):
high hourly earning, so college students and moms and people
who just people paying off more money, people who want
to pay off debt and get their financial life right
like you guys, So definitely be aware and thank you
(41:51):
so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
We love reading your views. If so, if this has
helped you or helped you help somebody in your life,
please let us know in the review section either on
Apple Podcasts or in the comments on Spotify or on
the and our book. Our book is out and you
can now review the book, So whether that's on Amazon,
(42:15):
Barnes and Noble good Reads. We would love if we've
helped you if you leave a rating and review like
this one from nest for five plus Mama. Great information
and great fun. There's no shame in this podcast game,
just tons of fun, laugh information, vulnerability, and practical truths
(42:35):
to help you from a much better relationship with your
finances and likely yourself. My college and high school daughters
and I listen to the podcast together and we are
all learning so much and having tons of fun. You
simply must give it a listen.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Oh, this is so kind. Thank you nest for five
plus mama. This is such a sweet review, and I'm
so glad that you have fun listening to this show.
That there's laughter along with learning.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
That is that's the old the goal.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
If you haven't left us a review for the podcast,
please do so wherever you're listening Apple or Spotify would
be most helpful.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
But also the book.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Also review of the book Amazon, Barnes and Noble Target
wherever you've purchased it from, Just just give us give
us a like.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Thanks so much to everyone, See you next time.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Grugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
Oh it stinks to have to be so on guard.
I think to need to be so cynical. It feels
like when it comes to protecting yourself against scams, to
just constantly be vigilant.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
But that is the world we're live in, I know.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
I just I want to, like, I want to believe
that when you know, this person is telling me your
Amazon account was logged into in Mumbai, India, if it's
not from you, please verify your account in this secure
link below and with letters and numbers in a short link.
(44:28):
And I just want to believe that somebody's helping me
out right, and not just like this is just a
picture of everybody's account is getting logged in, specifically from Mumbai, India.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Well, and there's so many actions that we're used to
taking that are necessary, like you know, when I am
trying to log into my Gmail account on my phone
and then they're like log into your email and verify
that it's you, And so these are actions that we're
accustomed to, and then they can kind of become wrote like, oh, yeah,
(45:01):
my accounts are constantly trying to be hacked, and I
know that I'm constantly also needing to approve or deny
certain things that Sometimes it's like, okay, you get this text,
it's like, oh no, that's not me, let me deny this.
But it's actually the scammer who's trying to get you
to log on to deny this thing and praying upon
(45:23):
our habits, even the good habits that we have, of
protecting ourselves. So it's just so overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Here's the scammiest thing I got. Let me read it
to you.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
Ho ho ho Kai.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
It's Santa. I couldn't wait to say hi this Christmas season.
I didn't sign up for no text from no Santa.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
Are you sure guess what?
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Kai? For the first time in years, there's a new
baby reindeer at the north pole. That's cute thing, cute,
actual cute.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
You must have signed up one time for like texts
from Santa for your son.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
And then at the last one it was four days
of text. Was text on four different days in a row,
like four days in a row. It's been so much
fun texting you, Kai, tell a parent I sent a
gift to their Gmail email. Check the junk folder too.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Ho ho ho.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I never checked the junk folder. I never checked.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
Well, now you're going to yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Just assumed it was a scam, you know, well, it
probably how they know it was my Gmail, right, Like.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
How do they know your son's name?
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (46:31):
I think it was my mom.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
I did it, and.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
I can't find anything from Santa on that day. Zoom. Yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I just gotta tell never friend asking me about this.
This might be research we do after we hang up here,
but this friend is asking. They came ac us this
webinar about how to earn money using Amazon's free audible app.
Now I got to look into this and figure out.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Is this a scam? But already it sounds too good
to be true? Yep, well, sounds good good to be true?
Speaker 5 (47:18):
It is.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
I think the takeaway is just like hang out with
real people in person.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yes, that's it.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
It's like to hang out with us at Tumblow Bookstore
in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth at seven pm.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
That'll be real, that won't be a scam, And I'll.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Tell you how to make money online passively in your
sleep by
Episode four seventy five, Top six money making scams to
look out for in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
my name is Jill, and today we are talking scams
that are on the rise. We listen and we don't
judge because everyone is susceptible to scams.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And especially when they're getting so much more nuanced and
sophisticated and looking like the real deal, it can be
so so easy to fall into some sort of trap,
especially if we're not on guard. I know so many
people personally who have found themselves a part of a scam.
It depends on how far they've gotten into it. But
(01:06):
realizing whoe that almost got me or that did get me,
and so it doesn't discriminate anybody could fall victims. So
we're going to talk about that and help you to
be more equipped for kind of detecting these things and
protecting yourselves. But first, this episode is brought to you
by the Real Deal. We're not doing fake cheap stuff
(01:31):
over here. No knockoffs or scams. We're talking the pure, legit,
real thing, like us in the flesh doing a book
signing at Tombolo Books in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth
from seven to eight pm. It's the real deal, folks,
hope to see you there. If you are in the area,
(01:53):
if you're local or even within a short driving distance,
come see us January fourteenth at seven pm at Tambolo.
It'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, head to Tombolo's website to RSVP and can't wait
to see you there. So it is January, and in
January a lot of people make the goal to pay
off their debt. I know the first thing I did
when I decided to pay off debt was figure out
how can I earn more money so I can pay
this debt off faster. And when you're trying to make
(02:24):
money on the side, you can get into some dodgy places.
And the dodgiest of places are the things that scam you.
But they scam you off the back of something that
actually can make you money. And so that's a lot
of what we are seeing in twenty twenty five for
(02:46):
these scams that are on the rise. We went to
the FTC dot gov website and looked at their past
year of scam updates, specifically just for making money. We
love scam, we do periodic scam.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
We don't love that they happen right right right, just
are obsessed.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
We are learning about them.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Are obsessed with them and helping people because the more
we read, the more we realize that anybody can get scammed.
It is truly a you know, scammers spray and pray
for you to be at the wrong place, wrong headspace,
wrong time, and that's it and then they've got it.
(03:28):
So this is definitely where a lot of people will
be at the wrong place at the wrong time looking
to make money. But if you also are obsessed with scams,
some of our past scam episodes, we did episode three
eighty Love and Money Romance Scams with April Helm and
we also did episode three point fifty my favorite money
(03:50):
murder Scams, where we just read some of our favorite
Reddit posts where scammers have murdered people's money and I
believe that we should. That was a Halloween episode and
I believe I want to do something like that again
because Reddit never fails with the r scams. If you
(04:11):
are interested in learning more about scams. Are scams on Reddit?
I'm sorry, that's better than Google right now.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
It was a little bit of a departure from our
typical episodes, but it felt so right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, it was so good.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So let's start out with just a couple of overall
tips to take with you some mindsets when you are
looking for a side job or even a different job.
So maybe you're trying to make more money, switching careers, industries,
going back to work, whatever. So the first thing, and
(04:49):
some of these are going to seem obvious, but it's
good to be reminded it is. So.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
The first one is.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Are they asking you to pay for a job?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
On?
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to
pay to get a job. Anyone who does this is
a scamer. Even if they are asking you to pay
for education through their company to get their job.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It's pay for the equipment. I've heard of that too,
which sometimes that will happen, right if you are a
if you're a barber, you're gonna have to pay for
your own equipment to start at a salon. So the
reason that we can fall victim to this is because
it does happen for some people, or if you're kind
of getting into a new field. I knew a guy
(05:35):
who this had happened to where he was starting a
remote job. He'd never worked remotely, and so they were like,
you have to buy your computer, you have to do
these different things. He's like, Okay, like I've never done
this before. That seems like it would make sense that
I'd have to purchase my equipment to do this job.
And turns out it was a scam. But yeah, you
really can't fault them for that.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
H what do you know about them? So search online.
This is probably the most important thing you should do
with any opportunity, is to search online for the name
of the company plus the word scam, review complaint. Do
all three of those searches to figure out if they've
scammed other people.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Also, make sure that the reviews about this company this
job are real. Sometimes success stories and testimonials might be
too much of a glowing success story, which could be
really misleading, So be wary of the ones that just
look so positive, so too good to be true. Maybe
(06:35):
even click on some of these profiles see if the
people who are reviewing have ever reviewed other things. Make
sure that they are legit reviewers, so do a little
bit more digging.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
This is so, so so important. I was just reading
on Reddit this morning of a social media this is
a survey scam specifically, but they took this girl's TikTok,
who is a real influencer. They stole her video, very
good quality, and they just put like a seven hundred
dollars Amazon gift card over it. They sponsored the post,
(07:08):
so this is a paid post that you would be
seeing in your feed and basically saying how she does
surveys to make money. She's not talking about this company,
and she's also not talking about making seven hundred dollars
on a survey for this company. And so it was
a scam, but they stole they stole the video so
(07:29):
it looked legit. They also bought likes and comments, and
you would have to see that. You would if you
clicked on the commenters, if you clicked on the profiles
of all these likes and commenters, then you can see
there's like no followers, no interaction, they're all bots. But
you'd have to click through and look do your research
(07:53):
before you figured that out. It's very easy though, to
see once you click through and that leads into LAS one.
What does a trusted friend or loved one think about
the offer? So go and don't just take influencers' words
for it, because it might not really be their words.
They might it could even be AI. We'll talk about
(08:15):
AI later. They are doing, they're taking the likenesses of
influencers or just random people and having them talk about
false things. So talk to real people that you trust
in real life and actually listen to their opinions.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
So the first scam that we're going to talk about
here is a car wrap scam. This one seemed to
be on the rise in twenty twenty four, and they
usually will target college students, but kind of anyone in
particular who's looking to make money. They usually are going
(08:54):
to be offering around six hundred to seven hundred dollars
a week to drive around with an ad for some
well known company wrapped around your car, like literally like
a big billboard that your car could get wrapped in.
They're saying that. Usually it's an energy drink that they're saying,
you know, wrap your car and this advertisement for this
(09:16):
energy drink will pay you six hundred to seven hundred
dollars a week. Just to drive around and basically be advertising.
And the thing about this is it is a legit thing.
I do know people who have done car wraps got
paid for it. It's something Eric and I had even
talked about doing when we lived in our RV, was
we're gonna be going on road trips, we could get
(09:36):
our RV wrapped and practically pay for all of the
renovations of our RV. We didn't end up doing that,
but it's one of those things that is legit, and
then people are capitalizing on that and taking your money.
So here's how this scam would work. They would send
you a check for a certain amount of money. Let's
(09:57):
say they're sending you, you know, six hundred and seven
hundred dollars up front, and they're telling you to use
a portion of that money to wrap your vehicle. And
they of course are handling the wrapping as well. So
they send you this money. It's a fake check. However,
the bank will clear the check. The banks won't usually
(10:19):
catch fraudulent checks until days, possibly even a week after
the check clear about a week, so the money is
like technically somewhat accessible or at least pending in your account.
And then they're saying, now you pay us, let's say
four hundred dollars to wrap your vehicle. You pay them
(10:40):
then out of your own pocket. The bank catches that
it's a fraudulent check. They reverse the transaction, So now
the money's no longer there and you are out the
money that you had paid back to the scammer to
quote unquote wrap your car. But it never ended up happening.
Plus you might end up paying a processing fee or
(11:00):
some sort of yeah, bank fees because fraudulent.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
In the comment, people are saying doctor Pepper is a
big one that they've been trying to get. That they've
been saying to get raps. F G fuel is another one.
I'm seeing amounts for five thousand dollars checks, thirty two
hundred dollars, fifteen hundred, and it's all like they deposit
(11:26):
it and then one week later is when the bank
finally tells them it's fake. So it's a real thing.
But do not if somebody approaches you, then it is
a scam and maybe you won't fall for it. But
if you have young people in your life that are
in college, then make them aware of stuff like.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
This, because you might be thinking well, they gave me
the money, so that makes sense for me to have
to pay, but it might not.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
It might not be real money.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Next one, I think is one that might get a
lot of people, and that's appointment setters. So there's this
new trend on social media claiming that you can work
from home and make big money as an appointment setter
for different companies sales staff potential clients to close deals.
You're typically paid an hour hourly rate, but you might
(12:18):
earn bonuses based on the number of appointments you successfully
set if you need. So this is a real job,
but it's a modestly paid job and it will be
far more overinflated what you can make by these people
on social media. They will say you need training that
(12:40):
you need to pay for. That is absolutely false. If
you get an appointment setter job, any training you need,
your employer should offer it at no cost to you. So, again,
modest income. It is something that can be done like
very easily. It's if you can get it. If you
can get the work, then it's not bad. It's some
(13:03):
good extra money. But the truth is honest. Employers will
never ask you to pay to get a job, and
no one can guarantee you a job. These scammers will
also guarantee these jobs and they just they can't. So
do your research again, check Google, company, review, company, scam
(13:25):
company complaint, and take into consideration those things we talked
about at the top of the episode.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
The next one that we're going to talk about is
fake investment opportunities. This could be anything from business opportunities
to investments. There's a lot of scammers out there using
kind of like infusing AI into the frauds and scams
that they are operating. So it could be that when
(13:53):
you're asking, you know, you're chatting with some chatbot about
a business opportunity or some sort of investing that you're
not even actually talking to a real person, but they're
kind of like faking a real person. That these scammers
have trained the chatbots to respond in a way that's fraudulent, misleading,
(14:14):
giving you incorrect information, probably causing you to then invest
monetarily your money and none of it is real.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So this one's a wild one, and we talked about
this in our other scam episodes for Romance and My
Favorite Money Murder, that they will impersonate someone you know.
This will not just look like it's coming from a
random ever you've never met, and they can use the
AI technology. You can get on the phone with them
(14:48):
and think it's somebody that you know that you are
talking about a business opportunity with It is wild. The
favorite money murder one. They were using the AI voice
to make it sound like someone you love is being
held hostage and you need to send money to get
them out. And that was all AI. And one of
(15:09):
the things one of the recommendations was is hang up
and call the person who is supposedly kidnapped. But AI
is getting more and more sophisticated, and so if it
gives you a bad feeling, especially if it's a business
investment or a stock or a crypto investment, then reach
(15:32):
out to the person like in another way, or anybody
else who may know them, or any of that to
get verification.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
They also recommend that if you're thinking about buying into
a business opportunity, ask the seller to give you a
one page disclosure document, which is required by law by
legit businesses. So if the seller makes any earnings claim,
they also must give you an earnings claim statement. And
if they then say anything that contradicts what's written in
(16:03):
their disclosure document or their earnings claim statement. This could
also be a sign of a shady business. So I
think some of the biggest takeaways here is just even
more research, not just trusting the things at face value.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
The next one I think will also be huge in
this community or could be, and its task scams. So
they create the illusion of making money and it will
always start with you getting a message. Actually I don't
want to say it will always start with you getting
a message, but essentially what it is in a task scam,
(16:41):
scammers ask you to do simple, repetitive tasks, such as
liking videos or rating product images online. The supposed job
is to complete tasks in an app or online platform
for which you'll earn money from a quote unquote commission
on each clip. But those promises are fake. They aren't
(17:02):
real commissions. There are no commissions and nobody but the
scammers make money. And the reason this really caught me
is because I did something like this legitimately to make
money when we were paying off debt. I was in
I think it was lion Bridge was I was evaluating search.
(17:27):
I was a human search engine optimizer. I was looking
at what I think it was for Facebook what the
search was and then what the results were, and I
was kind of rating what the search results were, or
I was watching like videos to kind of help the
(17:49):
algorithm make sure it was giving the best search results.
That's what I was doing. But it was for a
legitimate company that I had applied for that had not
reached out to me, and it was it did not
feel scammy, was on the up and up, and I
did make money doing that. So this is like those
(18:10):
influencers or people it's like get paid to watch videos
and just make it sound too easy.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It was not.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Complicated work, but it was still like time consuming. So
it worries me so much that these tasks are so
close to what actual money making like tasks could be.
(18:42):
It's insane. So in order to amvoid these and ignore
generic or unexpected get texts or What's app messages about jobs,
real employers will never contact you unless you contact them first,
and never pay anyone to get paid or to get
a job. I never had to pay for anything, and
(19:04):
don't trust anyone who says they'll pay you to rate
or like things. That's not what I was doing. It
was not rating, I was not liking. I was helping
the algorithm. I was a human brain teaching a computer algorithm,
which now sounds like I'm helping our robot overlords hang over, but.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Training it in the good way, not in the fraudulent way.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, it was real funny stuff like real bizarre, real random.
It was always it gave me interesting things to learn.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I think that's funny. Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
The last one for me on here is post office jobs,
and I found this one so interesting. But also I
feel like I've also seen these as well, like specifically
looking for a postal job. And maybe part of it
is because there is, at least for me, this idea
that that's a good job, like they make good wages,
(20:05):
you've got good pension like, and they're hard to come by,
like they don't often there's not a lot of turnover
within postal work. So this is just my impression of
these types of jobs. So maybe that's in part why
this particular type of job is so useful for scamming.
(20:26):
But essentially they are the scammers would be reaching out
as if they are the usps. They will post an
ad or a listing maybe to your email, and it
will link to a website that looks like a real
USPS website has the logo, it has everything, but it's
(20:46):
actually a copy. And so when you're on this kind
of fake website, everything is created by the scammers, and
they may ask you for a registration fee, your application
or employment package fee, or a fee to apply, or
a fee to take the Postal Service exam. The pattern
here is that they're asking you to pay in order
(21:09):
to get this job. And so the takeaway here is
that it is free to apply for jobs. You should
not have to pay an application fee to apply for jobs,
and to go to the true legitimate websites. I think
being wary of any link that is sent to you
through a text, through an email on social media, instead
(21:32):
going to the website itself, rather than taking the link
that someone is just sending you, because even though it
looks legit, it might not be. It could just be
a very very good copy.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I'd like to give an honorable Do I still have
one left?
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Do we do six? Okay?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
I want to say I have an honorable mention after this? Okay, okay,
but my last one, this is another one I did
while I was paying off debt.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
I've done this one too.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Mystery shopping So mystery shopping is where companies will send
mystery shoppers into stores, into restaurants to try products or services,
like to see how the service is by the weight staff,
how the food is in restaurants, all kinds of just
(22:23):
get the overall customer experience. I did a couple movie
ones where I had to go to the bar and
see if I was id'd, and one time I was not.
I know, I Oh gosh. I felt so bad. I
was like, no, I'm going to get you fired. I'm
(22:43):
so sad, but I got to see a free movie
and get.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
A free drink. Nice.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So while some mystery shopping jobs are legitimate, there is
best Mark, Coil. Those are only two come coming off
the top of my head. I was working with like
four or five at a time. They specialize in different things.
Like Coil is just hospitality, so it's restaurants and hotel stays,
(23:09):
but you really got to you got to do a
lot with them in order to get a hotel stay.
Best Mark is like oil changes, like a lot of
going to car dealerships and test driving cars, all kinds.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Of things but which are legit.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right, But no mystery shop being company will ever send
you a check and say deposit it to buy gift cards.
That is not a mystery shopping job that you will
ever see. Uh, And so they want you to send
them like the numbers on the back of the gift
(23:49):
cards and then they say you get the money, but
they're taking it all. So no mystery shopping job will
ever ask you.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
They will.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And see this is where it gets dicey. You do
have to pay for your meal or your product during
the mystery shop, Yeah, and then they reimburse you and
pay you usually on top of it. So it is
buying a gift card could seem like an actual thing
that you would have to do as a mystery shopper,
but that is not something they're ever going to that
(24:25):
particular thing going to ask you to buy. They don't
ask you to buy something specific. Like if you go
in you order to a restaurant, you order whatever food
you want. They'll say order two entrees and two drinks,
but you get whatever you want like in those categories.
Same like if you go into Target, you buy, like
buy a beauty product, They're not going to tell you
(24:46):
exactly like what to buy. So they're not going to
tell you to buy a specific thing that's a sign
of a scam.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
That was the thing with mystery like the legit mystery
shopping that I didn't love is that you had to
pay it all out of pocket and then it took
like three months to get reimbursed. So that was just
too long a time for me when I'm in the
midst of debt payoff.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Mystery shopping is not a way to like really make
money for us. It was a way to get out
of the house and do things without spend, like without
dipping into our budget. That's what we used it for.
So we didn't do a lot of I still get
emails from these companies right now. They have one where
they are doing they're helping a company do like a
(25:31):
total like restock of their changing their branding and so
they're taking everything out and putting everything back in. So
that's something you like people can get paid to help
with right now. So we didn't do stuff like that.
We just did like the restaurants, the movie theaters, just
(25:52):
the fun stuff that we could get out of the house,
have a date night and have it covered. But I
would have to spend like an hour hour and have
after writing a report, I would have to take pictures
during it, so like it wasn't something we did often.
It did not seem glamorous, right, So if it seems
too good to be true with mystery shopping, it absolutely is.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I think the gift cards, the gift card thing is
one of those red flag pieces, like if someone's asking
you to get gift cards, that should raise some alarm
bells that ooh, this might be a scam. This is
probably a scam. Okay, what's your honorable mention?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
My honorable mention is MLMs because they do fit several
places on our list of money making scams.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
They did come up quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
If you were to google money making scams, you are
going to see MLMs on nearly every list.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So, and my girlipops, if you are buying from your
friend's MLM, you are perpetuating the problem. You are part
of the problem, even if you're not joining one and participating.
If you are buying from one, sensy, I can't have
bought well. A lot of them have changed to affiliate
(27:13):
models in twenty twenty four, so that is something to
be aware of. Some of your least favorite MLMs are
no longer MLMs, like Saint Arbond Body which was Beach
Body are no longer MLMs.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Oh that's good.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, So let's just I mean, be aware that you
have to pay for this business opportunity and then you
have to pay monthly for either website fees or product minimums.
If you're not selling your minimum and you want to
you know, maintain in the company, then you have to
buy product. That is that's a scam. You're you know,
(27:55):
there is, there is not And according to the I
think it was the the FTC. Some part is in
order to avoid legal action, they actually consider like the
person at the top, and they're downline. They're downline. You know,
boss babes are legally considered customers. So you're not to
(28:18):
your upline, you're not a boss babe, you are their customer. Yeah, yeah,
you're and not supporting that's in the contracts.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
You're not supporting small business owners. And when most of
the money is made off of recruiting others who have
to buy their own inventory, research shows the people at
the bottom are not making any money. It's the top
one percent that's actually making money. But yet all these
(28:48):
promises of if you work harder, you hustle harder, you
get more people in your downline, then you'll you'll do it.
You'll finally get there, you'll finally arrive, and it just
doesn't get there because really the population there's not enough
people for you once you're at level six, seven, eight
for you to actually make any money.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
That's just statistics and.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Mass MLMs are declining, They declined greatly. The ones that
still are multi level are just are dropping. I love
to watch Cci Suarez and Hannah Alonso just like totally
go in like nerd out on these things. I think
our biggest issue right now is that we do still
(29:32):
see buying from your friend's MLM is supporting small business
and really you are supporting scammers. So that I think
that's why I wanted to give it an honorable mention,
because it is not a scam on the rise, but
we could still be contributing to it by purchasing these products,
so be aware.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah, and that's not to be like rude to the
friends who are involved in this, but I think that
there can be some education and information that happens to
kind of help people have legitimate paying jobs because I
think the desire is real, right, Like we find ourselves
in these any of these scams that we've listed off
(30:13):
out of in some circumstances, desperation for I need to
be able to pay my bills, I need to be
able to earn a little bit more income. I want to,
you know, to keep living in this house, but the
cost of living keeps rising.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
So what do I do?
Speaker 3 (30:29):
And I think that that urgency, that desperation can make
us even more vulnerable to some of these things that
are like, oh man, that wouldn't require a ton of time.
I can make a lot of money, and oftentimes it's
just it's too good to be true.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I think honestly, it comes back to that I deserve mentality,
Like they will get you with. You deserve to be
a business owner, You deserve time, flexibility, And you're like, okay,
yes I deserve this, But we're thinking too, who's small
is the problem? Yes you deserve it, but you deserve
(31:05):
more and you can do better. But we just don't
think that we deserve that level that we are truly
capable and deserving of. Like we're talking now about like
how do we invest in businesses in our local community,
like not just to like build up our local community,
(31:25):
but to also make money and like honor this desire
in ourselves to be business owners, to be our own boss.
And there are a lot of ways that you can
be a business owner of a legitimate business with not
hundreds and thousands of dollars of capital. And there's just
it's who you surround yourself to figure out, Like are
(31:48):
you surrounding yourself with internet and social media influencer scammers
who are trying to lead you down the quote unquote
passive income scam path or like legitimate like business owners
who have experience and can mentor you.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Do you know what else we deserve And every single
episode is.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Really the biggest and the best, and it has inspired
me to be greater.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
The Bill of the week, that's right, it's time for
the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill
of the week.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
Hi Jen, Hi Jill. This is Michelle from southern Orange County, California.
My bill of the week this week is our new
refrigerator bill. Our fridge went out Labor Day weekend, and
I saw on the friend letter that there's usually appliant
sales during Labor Day weekend. But luckily, even before then,
(33:13):
my husband, his name's Jeff, he actually looked into how
to maybe fix the fridge. First. When that wasn't going
to work out, we went to the home depot and
we got a fridge, and it was a little bit
above our budget, but he decided to ask if they
could do anything about that, and they did, and they
gave him a huge discount on top of the Labor
(33:35):
Day sale, so that was awesome. And then when they
delivered the fridge the next weekend, we were able to
get even more of a discount because there was a
small damage. And he just called the person up and said, hey,
this is what happened. The delivery people said this amount,
and the person was like, oh, okay, well let me
(33:56):
give you an extra hundred dollars off. So our bill
went like four thousand down to like twenty two hundred.
So that's my bill of the week. Thank you bye.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Whoa yes. Yeah. So in the front letter every month,
we're talking about we don't just talk about freebies, but
also like when the best sales are because we know,
like we can be tricked by sales, right, Sometimes sales
are like, oh, it's one of a kind, but it
never is. But if there truly is like a best sale, time,
(34:33):
we're gonna tell you about it. Like appliances. I went
into home deep BOMs, like, when are the best sales
and dude, was like Fourth of July and Labor Day
sometimes Black Friday, Yeah, and those are the three best ones.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, we just got appliances as well with Black Friday,
and it was a legit deal and the deal did
legitimately end.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Now they're back up to full price.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
So yeah, Sometimes, especially if you're in the market for
these things, it's good to know when you can be
purchasing these things and then be preparing for it. So
great tips here, congratulations and also well done even negotiating
further for a discount. Sometimes we can assume that these
big box stores like home Depot are not going to
be able to offer us further deals and discounts, but
(35:21):
you just never know what other deals could possibly be happening,
whether or not they're trying to offload certain products from
the floor.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Who knows.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
And then yes, when the item is delivered if there
are small minor damages that could also lead to a discount,
So well done. This is an extreme drop in price,
and yet you still have a new fridge.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
That's so exciting.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
If you all listening have a bill you want to submit,
if it's about negotiating, timing the sales, getting new appliances,
trying to repair your stuff first.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes, as we glossed over that one, but well done,
then call it in.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Leave us the bill. We we just love.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Hearing from you and all of your creative ideas about
Bill Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We can't
wait to hear it. And now it's time for the
lightning round you.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
All Right, a time you suspected you were being scammed online,
Oh my gosh, survey scams, Like it's normal for a survey,
you do the onboarding and it's normal to not get
picked for the actual paid survey. But like, because of that,
(36:42):
I did several like survey scams that didn't get I'd
like never gave anybody, Like I never got any money
sent to me or deposited any money, or like took
it too far. But it was just annoying when you're like, ugh,
I just wasted my time and this is a scam.
(37:03):
Like I don't don't get scammed in the end, but
like just the waste of time figuring out it's a scam.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Now I don't do any surveys anymore.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Because it's just too much work to figure out is
this even legitim.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Yeah, whether it's legit or not not worth it.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
I mean, I think I'm getting scammed.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
People are trying to scam me daily, whether it's in
my email or a text message. I will often get
text messages. I think just this week I got one
from you well claiming to be ups that my package
can't be delivered information from me. But if you look
at who is it coming from, like usually it'll be
(37:47):
some random email.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Oh my gosh, I got on yesterday. Yeah, okay, I'm
gonna read it after.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
We'll go for it. You kind of now.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So it's from an email address, it's an imassage. It
says Hi, I'm Emily with Robert half and we have
remote online part time slash full time jobs. Your background
and resume have caught the attention of several online recruiters,
so we'd like to offer you a job. You can
do from home in your free time. This job is
easy and has no time constraints. Daily pay ranges from
(38:16):
two hundred to five thousand and is paid on the
same day. Join us and be part of America's booming
job market and start a career you can be proud
of Requirements twenty two plus. If interested, please contact on
us on WhatsApp. That has a phone number and it's
from an email address, that's an app. It's Sharon Hinton
(38:37):
vs MM two five three one at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I got this yesterday, yeah, and forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Those are the main things that stand out to me.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
And that is a random email address, like it's not
even a domain of some legitimate business.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Now anything that's at Gmail, at yah, who at something?
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Well, and just all those random numbers and everything. And
then let's communicate on WhatsApp. That's another one. I mean,
WhatsApp is a legit app, and I do communicate with
friends on there, But people offering legitimate jobs and income,
they're not trying to communicate with you on WhatsApp.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
That's not where they're going. And so mine too will be.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
The one that I got this week was about a
package that they needed more information from me in order
to deliver my package. And so it's the time of
year right, like we're recording this in December, So people
they're just they're spraying and pray in like you said already,
they're expecting that you probably do have a package arriving.
You're not sure from who is it UPS? USPS? Is
(39:47):
it FedEx? Yeah, you have a USPS. Parcel's just showing
me a number. It's not a US number. Yeah, it's
a plus sixty three numbers. That's not US. Which there
you go, and then yeah, there's just so many things
that are not legit in it. But if you're not
you know it totally aware of that, what that scam
(40:09):
would be is trying to get your personal information and
maybe even your credit card because this is going to
charge you in order to.
Speaker 4 (40:16):
Receive the package.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
I also am a part of so I'm an adjunct
professor as one of my side hustles, and so I'm
on the university's email kind of domain, and I will
get all of the emails that will also get sent
out to the students.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
And there are weekly.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Scams being sent to these college students about jobs remote
work that could pay them like thirty to forty five
dollars an hour, and even me as an adjunct faculty member,
I'm like, this is a great deal.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
I mean, if you quickly know, like this is not legitimate.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
But yeah, when they are offering something that is so
far and above and beyond what you think that job
should be paid.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
It's probably not legit.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Which thinks would be awesome to work five five hours
a week and get paid tons and tons of money.
But that's the thing I think these scammers are praying
upon people in vulnerable situations. The look the ones looking
for extra work without a lot of time involvement, flexibility,
(41:29):
high hourly earning, so college students and moms and people
who just people paying off more money, people who want
to pay off debt and get their financial life right
like you guys, So definitely be aware and thank you
(41:51):
so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
We love reading your views. If so, if this has
helped you or helped you help somebody in your life,
please let us know in the review section either on
Apple Podcasts or in the comments on Spotify or on
the and our book. Our book is out and you
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(42:15):
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just tons of fun, laugh information, vulnerability, and practical truths
(42:35):
to help you from a much better relationship with your
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all learning so much and having tons of fun. You
simply must give it a listen.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Oh, this is so kind. Thank you nest for five
plus mama. This is such a sweet review, and I'm
so glad that you have fun listening to this show.
That there's laughter along with learning.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
That is that's the old the goal.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
If you haven't left us a review for the podcast,
please do so wherever you're listening Apple or Spotify would
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Speaker 4 (43:16):
But also the book.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Also review of the book Amazon, Barnes and Noble Target
wherever you've purchased it from, Just just give us give
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Speaker 3 (43:28):
Thanks so much to everyone, See you next time.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Grugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
Oh it stinks to have to be so on guard.
I think to need to be so cynical. It feels
like when it comes to protecting yourself against scams, to
just constantly be vigilant.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
But that is the world we're live in, I know.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
I just I want to, like, I want to believe
that when you know, this person is telling me your
Amazon account was logged into in Mumbai, India, if it's
not from you, please verify your account in this secure
link below and with letters and numbers in a short link.
(44:28):
And I just want to believe that somebody's helping me
out right, and not just like this is just a
picture of everybody's account is getting logged in, specifically from Mumbai, India.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Well, and there's so many actions that we're used to
taking that are necessary, like you know, when I am
trying to log into my Gmail account on my phone
and then they're like log into your email and verify
that it's you, And so these are actions that we're
accustomed to, and then they can kind of become wrote like, oh, yeah,
(45:01):
my accounts are constantly trying to be hacked, and I
know that I'm constantly also needing to approve or deny
certain things that Sometimes it's like, okay, you get this text,
it's like, oh no, that's not me, let me deny this.
But it's actually the scammer who's trying to get you
to log on to deny this thing and praying upon
(45:23):
our habits, even the good habits that we have, of
protecting ourselves. So it's just so overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Here's the scammiest thing I got. Let me read it
to you.
Speaker 4 (45:34):
Ho ho ho Kai.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
It's Santa. I couldn't wait to say hi this Christmas season.
I didn't sign up for no text from no Santa.
Speaker 4 (45:42):
Are you sure guess what?
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Kai? For the first time in years, there's a new
baby reindeer at the north pole. That's cute thing, cute,
actual cute.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
You must have signed up one time for like texts
from Santa for your son.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
And then at the last one it was four days
of text. Was text on four different days in a row,
like four days in a row. It's been so much
fun texting you, Kai, tell a parent I sent a
gift to their Gmail email. Check the junk folder too.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Ho ho ho.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I never checked the junk folder. I never checked.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
Well, now you're going to yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Just assumed it was a scam, you know, well, it
probably how they know it was my Gmail, right, Like.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
How do they know your son's name?
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (46:31):
I think it was my mom.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
I did it, and.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
I can't find anything from Santa on that day. Zoom. Yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I just gotta tell never friend asking me about this.
This might be research we do after we hang up here,
but this friend is asking. They came ac us this
webinar about how to earn money using Amazon's free audible app.
Now I got to look into this and figure out.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
Is this a scam? But already it sounds too good
to be true? Yep, well, sounds good good to be true?
Speaker 5 (47:18):
It is.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
I think the takeaway is just like hang out with
real people in person.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Yes, that's it.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
It's like to hang out with us at Tumblow Bookstore
in Saint Petersburg on January fourteenth at seven pm.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
That'll be real, that won't be a scam, And I'll.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Tell you how to make money online passively in your
sleep by
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