Telemarketing Fraud

Hi readers!

This week’s topic is about telemarketing fraud.

Have you ever heard telemarketing fraud happen to someone you know?

Or have you yourself happened to experience telemarketing fraud?

Or YOU yourself ever done the fraud to someone? (hahaha.com)

Well, at its core, Telemarketing Fraud is a pretty simple crime: someone calls the victim, makes a false statement, and the misrepresentation causes the victim to give money to the caller. This definition can cover a large variety of scams. Here is the graphic:

To make it short,,,,, the writer will just write the tips to avoid for this kind of fraud to happen to readers, so,,, first of all, we’ll need to know what kind of signs to be watched out: High-pressure sales techniques that is used by the person who persuades us; Insistence on an immediate action from him/her; She/he offers product/stuff/something that sounds too good to be true; She/he requests for your credit card number for any purpose other than to make a purchase (It’s kind of obvious by then); It is an offer to get your money quickly; 

 It is a statement that product or service is free, followed by a request that gets you to pay for something; It is claimed as an investment that is “without risk” or “risk-free” (well, there is no investment without a risk except the benefit is very small and takes a lot of years); If there is inability or refusal to provide written information or references about the company, product, service, or investment; and if the suggestions that you should make purchase or investment based on “trust”.

Now, what can we do to avoid being a victim? First of all, we can practice ourselves not to be quick when we make an important decision. Second, we can request written information about organization and product or investment. Third, we have to remind ourselves not to buy anything on terms if we don’t fully understand it yet. Fourth, we can request the name of the federal agency by/with whom the firm is regulated or registered. Fifth, we investigate the company or organization. Sixth, we can ask and find out about refund, return, and cancellation policies. Seventh, we must not believe testimonials which we can’t verify yet. Eighth, we shouldn’t provide any personal financial information at first, and if we must, hang up the phone. So, in conclusion, we need to practice to be cynical sometimes. We kind of need to know that it’s time to leave naivety world alone, if we want to live and do things efficiently and effectively, really (oh, sorry for being so philosophical.)

As always, 

best of luck, readers!

See you on next week's post “Saving and Investment”!!