HEY! Who took my kibbles?!!?!

Ok boys and girls, listen up! Its time for the dog! (that’s me!)
Today I’m going to talk to you about protecting yourself from scams. Now, if there is one thing I hate—its people who try to scam you out of your hard earned kibbles and bits. I mean, you run around all day playing with your chew toy, and then they come along… and eat your food (and take your doggy treats). What jerks…

There are three main types of scams you need to be aware of: the door to door scam, the telephone scam, and the email scam. Now before I discuss these, I want to make it clear, that the best way to protect yourself from these wretched things is to check your account balances every day. Yes, EVERY DAY. Why? Because it takes only seconds to do, and if something goes wrong—you need to know about it as soon as possible! That way you can cancel the credit card, or bark to your bank about the debit card, or whatever it is!

The First Scam: THE DOOR TO DOOR SCAM
In this scam, someone will come to your door asking for you to buy something. If you have a trusty dog like me, he will start barking! (this is your first sign something is wrong) They may say they are a college student trying to earn credits for a vacation, extra credit, job experience, or something similar. They may say they are a bug spraying company, or maybe they will be selling products of some sort (magazines, makeup, knives… pretty much anything you can think of). But there is one dead giveaway that they are trying to scam you… they will ALWAYS ask for money after their sales pitch—be it a check, a credit card, or cash. There is no way to avoid people coming to your door. But the best thing to do is to NEVER buy ANYTHING from people who come door to door. That way there is no way you will ever get scammed. This is the only concrete way to never be taken advantage of. If they are selling a service or item that you actually would like, then go research the item after they have left, and go buy it from a legitimate business. Never buy ANYTHING from people who go door to door.

The Second Scam: THE TELEPHONE SCAM
In this scam they will contact you by phone. They will say they are your bank, your credit card company, your friend, an investment advisor, or any number of things. They may even tell you a “hot” stock tip! (hint: no one to be trusted will ever call you to give you a stock tip—this is a stock pumper calling to try to take your money—never invest in what they recommend—I mean if it’s so great, then why call and tell YOU about… someone they don’t even know?) Usually the person on the other end will ask for your credit card number, your checking account number, or other personal information. The secret to avoiding these scams is to give out NO information to any company or service that CALLS YOU. Now it is different if YOU CALL THEM (like your bank or your investment firm), then it is OK to give out info—because you made contact first! But NEVER EVER give out any credit card numbers, debit account numbers, checking account numbers, or other personal information to someone who calls you on the phone. I don’t care if they say they are your bank! Just don’t do it! (Or growl and bark at them! WOOF!)

The Third Scam: THE EMAIL SCAM
The most popular one of these is the Nigerian Prince contacting you to transfer a gazillion dollars into your account in exchange for your checking account number. Please fellow doggies, don’t fall for this one (because this is the dumbest scam of all). Another common one is an emailed “stock tip,” just like in the telephone scam, don’t listen to this “stock tip.” This stock tip is all about getting you to invest in the stock, and then the other party will dump his shares and take your money (called a pump and dump). Email scams are various and hard to track, therefore the best way to really protect yourself against these malicious attacks is to NEVER send out information to anyone who YOU didn’t contact first. Don’t send out any monetary info! Also, be very careful of fake bank or investment firm emails. These emails will pretend to be your bank/investment firm, and then they will ask you for more information about your account. Trust me, banks and investment firms never contact YOU to learn your account information (I mean WHY WOULD THEY—THEY SHOULD ALREADY HAVE IT… because they ARE your bank after all). Don’t ever email credit card numbers, debit card numbers, checking account numbers or any other information to someone who sent you an email first or to anyone you feel might take advantage of this knowledge.

And finally let me warn you to be careful out there! The world is a big dangerous place—just the other day I was climbing on a table to eat my human’s bowl of cereal (when she wasn’t looking), but when I saw my reflection I was so startled that I fell right on my face! Woof! Sometimes I’m a clumsy doggie! Time for a nap.