Beware Of This New Credit Card Scam

A New Kind of Scam

A new kind of scam is sweeping across the country. This time, the scammers are not calling to get your financial information. They have all the information. However, they are missing one piece of information, and they can't use your credit card without that. The objective of their call is to trick you to get that one piece of information from you. To gain your trust and sound real - the callers will provide you with all the information. Example:

Your Name
Your Date of Birth
Your Credit Card Number
Your Address
Your Issuing Bank
Etc, Etc.

The Piece of Information Scammers Missing

Take out your credit card from your wallet and look on the back of your card; you will see a 3 Digit PIN Number. You need this number to purchase online. This number works as a security shield. Online merchants will ask you this number to verify that you are the real owner. If someone hacked your information and trying to put through online purchases, they will not have this 3 Digit PIN Number as only the actual card holder can get this number by looking at an actual credit card. That's why the con artist on the other side of the phone is desperate to get this number from you.

A Mock Conversation with a Con Artist

Let me construct a mock conversation to give you an example, so you know what to expect from con artists. Remember, each situation is different and scammers will come up with new techniques to trick you. The phone call you will receive may be very different than this example. Always use your common sense as your guide to protect you.

Mr. Con: Hello, my name is John Smith, and I am calling form CITI Bank Master Card Canada
A. Dawn: Oh! Hello there
Mr. Con: Mr. Dawn, the reason of my call is to confirm if you have made a recent online purchase of $767
A. Dawn: Oh no! I haven't used this card for a few months!
Mr. Con: No worries, Mr. Dawn. We have been watching this company for some time, and we will block its transactions and will start a fraud investigation. We will credit your account for this trade and will issue you a new credit card. Let me read your credit card information to you to make sure this is the right card.

Credit Card Name: Citi Bank Master Card
Issuing Bank: Citi Bank Canada
Credit Card Number: 1234567
Expiry Date: January 10, 2011
Is that correct?
A. Dawn: Yes, that's right.
Mr. Con: Now, Mr. Dawn, let me give you my employee ID number at Citi Bank Master Card and also, I will give you a case number for this investigation. You need to write this down. Do you have any questions on anything Mr. Dawn?

A. Dawn: No, thanks. You guys are very active and helpful.
Mr. Con: Thanks for being a loyal customer. Before I go, for security reasons and your own protection, I need to verify that you are in possession of your card. There is a 3 Digit Number on the back of your card. If you could read that number to me.

A. Dawn: Oh! Sure. I see the on the back it shows 6 7 8
Mr. Con: That is absolutely correct. Thank you for you time Mr. Dawn and have a nice day.
A. Dawn: You too

What Happens Next

Mr. Con just got a hold of the missing piece of the puzzle, and he will start placing online purchases without delay.

Award-winning Invest Now covers a broad range of topics including Internet Scams. To purchase a copy, visit Chapters Indigo or click here to buy online - Invest Now: A Canadian's Guide to Investing

How to Protect Yourself

The best course of action to protect yourself from telephone scams would be to subscribe to Caller ID and screen your calls with voice mail or an answering machine. If you don’t recognize the phone number on your Caller ID, don’t pick up. Urgent callers will leave a message.

If you believe you have been a victim or someone has tried to scam you, call your local RCMP Detachment or the police service of jurisdiction in your area.

Report your situation on Reporting Economic Crime On-Line - www.recol.ca

Remember, common sense and vigilance are your best defense.

First Published: ADawnJournal.com May 19, 2008

Keep Your Dot Com Lifestyle Simple and Uncomplicated

Dot Com Lifestyle

Before Google lifted its ban on John Chow, a “dot com lifestyle” search would put my site, A Dawn Journal, as number one on search results on Google’s first page. Once Google lifted the ban, A Dawn Journal began appearing right beneath John’s site on search results pages. The article which is causing the appearance is this one:

What Is A Dot Com Lifestyle?

In the above article, which is a four-part series, I mentioned what a dot come lifestyle means to me. Here are the main five characteristics of a dot com lifestyle:

Work two hours a day and five days a week

Live in a new country for every six months a year (if you have a family, make it two to four months)

The whole world is your office (you can work anywhere as long as you have your laptop and internet connection)

Live on your own terms

Have ridiculously flexible lifestyle choices

These characteristics are not set in stone. You can change or modify them based on your own lifestyle or needs. I get a feeling of living a dot com lifestyle on the weekends only, as I still have to maintain my full time job. Every Saturday, I go to Tim Hortons or Starbucks with my Netbook and Mobile Internet Stick and work 3 – 4 hours writing articles, updating my sites, replying to emails, and so on.

A dot come lifestyle does not have to be complicated and out of the ordinary. I like keeping things simple and hope to live a simple and an ordinary life once I reach my goal of living a full-time dot com lifestyle. This is what the Entrepreneur Journey website is all about and I invite you to be a part of it.
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com May 8, 2010

President’s Choice to CIBC – Are You on Board?

PC Financial Free Banking Ends

On August 16, 2017 the news broke that CIBC is ending its almost 20-year relationship with President’s Choice Financial and will offer free banking through its own Simplii Financial. This news put 2 million PC Financial (PCF) customers in limbo as everyone is trying to make sense of this breakup.

The main reason people signed up with online banking provider PCF was to avoid big banks like CIBC (and pay no banking fees for basic banking) and now customers are all back under the same giant. CIBC mentioned there will be no change in anything such as account information or fees and business will be as usual under CIBC’s new free banking division Simplii, but confusion and uncertainty remain palpable.

There are talks about CIBC’s cutting some features customers have been enjoying for free with PCF and also declining in customer service satisfaction. PCF offered excellent customer service provided by call centres located in Canada. So it will be interesting to see if it starts to move over to India or somewhere else. A PCF representative mentioned to me that CIBC is moving over all PCF reps under its wing and customer service will be provided by the same group of people as before.

For now, customers remain cautious and will wait and see how the transformation plays out. There are other free online banking providers out there and if things go downhill, CIBC will definitely lose a good chunk of loyal customers who have been with PCF for years.

I have a video on this and you can watch by clicking the link below or on the picture at the top right.

The End of President’s Choice Financial

West African Letter Fraud - A Perfect Example

West African Letter Scam

In my book Invest Now I dedicated a whole chapter to Internet Scams. West African letter Fraud is a common form of Internet scam. You receive a letter in the mail convincing you to give out your personal information, and then scammers empty out your bank account. This type of scam can come from anywhere, in any form. It does not have to come from West Africa. Today I have a perfect example of West African Scam to post. I just got this email and picture in my mail box. First, I am going to give you an excerpt from Invest Now, and then I will show you the letter and picture I received.

The following is an Excerpt from my first book Invest Now. Invest Now is jam-packed with timely information and timeless advice for the beginning Canadian investor. Invest Now covers a broad range of topics including Internet Scams. To purchase a copy, visit Chapters Indigo or click here to buy online - Invest Now: A Canadian's Guide to Investing

The Excerpt

West African letter fraud: You meet a 20-something-year-old girl in a chat room. She sends you a few hot pictures. Then she mentions that her dad was a high-ranking government official or industrialist who left her millions of dollars. She explains that she is not able to move this fund from her dad’s account due to regulations, and she needs your help. All you have to do is to give her your bank-account information to transfer her money out of the country; in return, she will give you 40 or 50% of her 10 or 20 million dollars. Wait, even more incentives remain. Since you are such a nice guy, she even would not mind spending a couple of months in a resort with you. You don’t waste a second to grab this lifetime opportunity, handing over your banking information. A few days later, you find out that your bank account was emptied out. Your dream of spending quality time with a beautiful girl as a freshly minted millionaire is gone—and so is all the money in your bank account. Sometimes, the scammer claims to be from Nigeria, but it’s always the same scam. Be aware.

A Perfect Example

from Angie Keong <giveslife@yahoo.com>

reply-to giveslife02@yahoo.com,

to giveslife@yahoo.com,

date Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 3:37 PM

subject FROM MRS.ANGIE KK

mailed-by yahoo.com

signed-by yahoo.com

Images from this sender are always displayed. Don't display from now on.

hide details 3:37 PM (4 hours ago)

Reply

FROM MRS.ANGIE KK
THE CRY OF A WIDOW
Do accept my sincere apology if contacting you through this medium goes against your moral values and code of conduct. My name is Mrs. Angie KK, the wife of late Mr. Sherif Keong who happen to be an international business man dealing mainly in contracting.There is something I personally need your urgent attention and assistance in, hoping that you are living well with your family over there in your country. I want you to personal assist me to safeguard a reasonable sum to your country or any other place where you are familiar with for a productive investment. The fund were generated through a legal means by my late husband but due to some issue between my late husband and few foes, I am mandated to make this transfer and the onward investment on my own.

The fund in question is the sum of Twenty One Million United State of American Dollars which was deposited on a vault by late husband in a Financial Institute, and it is due to be transferred, but the major problem I was facing for quite a long time now is finding a capable person who will help me to make the transfer, and also negotiate some areas of lucrative investment down on-behalf of my son Franklin

Due to my medical condition(Cancer of the large Intestine which was not noticed at the early stage) and situation of things around me, I can't effect the conveying of the project on my own and for the safety of my son without an aid of someone. This was the major reason that drew my attention to contact you personally for an assistant regarding the execution of this project. I am in a critical position since the doctors have confirmed that the cancer was not noticed at the early stage and it is only a miracle that can heal me. Thus, I am doing all this because I want my son to have a future incase if anything happens to me.
I will give you all the necessary information you would require to know about this project when I read from you. I will be expecting to hear from you any moment from now
Regards
Mrs. Angie Keong

The Lesson

Do not give out any financial or personal information in an e-mail or chat room.

First Published: ADawnJournal.com Apr 24, 2008

Forecasting And Multiple Scenario Planning And How To Use Them

Forecasting and Multiple Scenario Plans

No one can predict the future, but that does not stop people from wanting to find ways where they can get an idea of what is to come. Forecast planning and scenario planning work on this principle by giving you the ability to have an idea of what is just around the corner. Forecast planning and scenario planning are used in a wide range of business sectors, as well as in our personal life. If you have thought about asking your boss for a raise and have gone through how this request will go, then you have done forecast planning. When a company releases its budget for the coming year, they are forecasting how their sales will be in relation to the costs that they will need to pay.

It is all about determining, to the greatest degree of accuracy, just what is going to happen down the road.

Forecasting is the process by which you make statements about events when you do not know what the outcome is going to be. It is often called making a best-estimation of what is going to happen. When someone asks you if it is going to rain, you make your best-estimation by saying that it might, but you cannot guarantee that it will. There are plenty of sectors and applications that use forecast planning, including:

1. Supply chain management
2. Meteorology
3. Transport planning
4. Economics
5. Technology
6. Earthquake forecasting
7. Land use forecasting
8. Product forecasting
9. Sport team performance
10. Political forecasting
11. Sales forecasting

Scenario planning is a strategic planning method that many organizations and individuals use to create long-term plans that are typically very flexible. Military intelligence will often do strategic planning through scenarios like simulation games that test whether or not a certain strategy is going to work. Business, which is often a war zone of its own, has latched onto the concept of strategic planning. Royal Dutch/Shell is one company that has done so, using scenario planning to determine changing mindsets from around the world.

The main thing to remember with scenario planning and forecasting is that they are typically wrong. This is not because the forecasters do not know what they are doing, but simply that it is not possible to predict the future with any certainty. There are far too many variables to make any sort of prediction concrete. This is why weather forecasters no longer say “Rain tomorrow”. They say “40 percent chance of precipitation.” They do this because if there is only a light drizzle, they are covered by the precipitation part and if it does not rain, they can show there was only 60 percent chance of it not raining.

Scenarios are very important for business, military and people in their day-to-day lives. The reason for this is that people can determine what course of action is going to be best. Here are some examples:

1. A military campaign against an enemy needs to be run through scenarios. Various tactics will be determined and put against how the enemy is predicted to respond. The tactic that gets the best results over several scenario runs will probably be the campaign that is used.
2. Investors want to know how the market is going to move. So, they run scenarios using specialized tools to determine, based on past data, how the market may move down the road. This gives them a better understanding of how to invest, thereby hopefully lowering the overall risk that they face. With scenario planning and forecasting, investors can see both the upsides and downsides. For example, they may determine there is a good chance that the stock they have is going to fall in price. So, they sell the stock and when it does fall, they have saved themselves from losing money.
3. Weather forecasters will use data from the past to formulate an idea of how the weather is going to turn based on data they have at that moment. What we mean by this is that if a low pressure system is approaching, and it is April, the weather forecasters will look at how low pressures affected April weather in the past and use that as a way to determine what the weather is going to be like.
4. Individuals will use scenario planning to determine how they should respond to things in their life. For example, a person will be looking at buying a car but they will have to run through scenarios of how they are going to pay for it. So, they run a scenario that figures out the costs of having a high-priced sports car, with its lower gas mileage and higher insurance, versus a hybrid that will cost less and save the person money. Through the scenarios, comparing costs with income, the individual can determine if they will be able to afford the sports car. Without this scenario planning, the person may buy the sports car and end up not being able to pay for it.

It is important to remember the difference between scenario planning and forecasting. Scenario planning looks at several different futures that may come about, while forecasting only looks at one. Therefore, scenario planning offers you more of an opportunity to make the right decision since forecasting can only see one future and there is a good chance that future will not happen.

Scenario planning gives us the ability to foresee, plan for and deal with surprises and problems. If we do scenario planning that shows us moving to a new town will cost us more than benefit us, we can eliminate the regret of moving to the town by not moving.

With scenario planning, unlike forecasting, you can have a backup plan. You can have several scenarios so that if one does not pan out, you can move to the next most likely scenario and so on. Remember the adages of ‘Plan for the worst, hope for the best’ and ‘Chance favours the prepared mind.’
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Apr 24, 2010