We Are Suckers
Scammers are counting on our being gullible. We are suckers for a lot of reasons. We want to be rich. We want to protect our family and ourselves.
We are prone to fall for the schemes founded on evil intentions. Evil intentions stem from gain founded on the loss to others.
Most good financial transactions come from good value for the price paid.
Scams are built around giving you nothing for the value you give. Then, the scammer is gone, and you have no recourse to recover.
My mother, who was a trusting soul, was scammed several times until I was aware and helped her put a stop to the calls, etc. That was before the internet and emails!
Now, technology, with evolving AI assistance, has made evil intentions even more productive.
So, how can you help your friends and family not become suckers?
Assume Intentions Are Evil
One of the best precautions you can take is to assume those who try to contact you have evil intentions. Your mission is to discover what they are.
You can qualify most calls and voicemails and emails with the reason for the contact. If they are trying to scare you, then that is the first sign of evil intentions. If they are trying to get bank account or credit card information, that is the second sign. If they are pretending to be law enforcement or a government agency doing collections, that is another sign.
Your first response must be to assume evil intentions and try to define what those intentions are.
Better yet, avoid all non-personal contacts by phone or email! Talk to those you know and those you know where they are. But ask confirming questions. Let your guard down and you can stand to lose more than you can afford.
Look out for yourself and your family from the evil intentions of others.
Be Aware of Odds
State lotteries, casinos, and other forms of gambling were built on the odds being in their favor. That may not sound like evil intentions. But how many people do you know that get rich from gambling? How many people have you known have lost their security and often their family relationships due to gambling? Evil intentions come to my mind.
Even when someone wins big, they often lose their winnings over a short period of time since they were not planning to use it as an investment. They try to live beyond reality. Their intentions were not good.
Be aware of the odds. Gambling is a high-risk investment, though you may look at it as entertainment. Most state lottery drawings have a 1 in 42 million chance of winning. The Mega Millions drawing has a 1 in 300 million chance of winning.
Compare that to the chance of getting hit by lightning, which is 1 in 1.2 million. You should be more cautious about bad weather than how you may be able to use your lottery winnings!
Tools for Scammers
Scammers use the same tools you use to communicate. They count on you trusting others and being ill-prepared to respond in a way other than the way they want you to respond.
Be alert. Be prepared. Report misuse. Be serious about keeping them out of your financial life!
Emails. Phone calls. Texts. Social media. These are all tools for scammers. Even people knocking on your door should be questioned and verified by someone of authority.
Evil intentions must not be ignored.
Use your tools of communication against them by making their tools useless to them. Do not reply!
Have a Defense Plan
Just as you must guard your mind against offensive and depressing talk and conversation that can divert you away from achieving your goals or living a decent life, you must guard your finances from the intentions of those who want your assets with no hope of value in return.
That was a lengthy way to say that you must defend yourself and your family from scammers.
Talk about their attempts. Observe how they try various ways to sucker you in, to get you to trust them and let down your guard. Listen to the experiences of others and give warnings when you can. Discussions will help you be better prepared to defend yourself against the continuous threat they pose!
Your Assets, Your Plan
You want your assets to grow to the point of having returns from investments.
Scammers want to remove your assets for their own gain. That is their plan.
What is your plan for your assets?
Take ownership of your plan. Take ownership of a plan to build assets.
The good thing is that most of us want to do good, to do the right things. Most of us are honest. Most of us want to treat others as we want to be treated.
It is the few that make life difficult. Just be aware of that few!
My intention with this post is not to scare you. But I do want you to be cautious!
Life requires us to be steady about going to work and paying our bills. All else can become so routine that we forget about those with evil intentions. And we forget to be more serious about guarding our financial future.
Do you have a plan? If not, make one.
And, when you do, include a plan to defend your assets from scammers!