MyTrendingStories brings advices about avoiding online scams 2021? Free trial offer! (Just pay forever) How it works: You see an Internet offer for a free one-month trial of some amazing product—often a teeth whitener or a weight-loss program. All you pay is $5.95 for shipping and handling. What’s really going on: Buried in fine print, often in a color that washes into the background, are terms that obligate you to pay $79 to $99 a month in fees, forever. The big picture: “These guys are really shrewd,” says Christine Durst, an Internet fraud expert who has consulted for the FBI and the FTC. “They know that most people don’t read all the fine print before clicking on ‘I agree,’ and even people who glance at it just look for numbers. So the companies spell out the numbers, with no dollar signs; anything that has to do with money or a time frame gets washed into the text.” That’s exactly what you’ll see in the terms for Xtreme Cleanse, a weight-loss pill that ends up costing “seventy-nine dollars ninety-five cents plus five dollars and ninety-five cents shipping and handling” every month once the 14-day free trial period ends or until you cancel. Avoidance maneuver: Read the fine print on offers, and don’t believe every testimonial. Check TinEye.com, a search engine that scours the Web for identical photos. If that woman with perfect teeth shows up everywhere promoting different products, you can be fairly certain her “testimonial” is bogus. Reputable companies will allow you to cancel, but if you can’t get out of a “contract,” cancel your card immediately, then negotiate a refund; if that doesn’t work, appeal to your credit card company. Not all websites will lose you money–Youtube can make you a fortune.

Live news by Mytrendingstories.com writing platform: Before you apply for a job, review warning signs to help you determine if a job is a scam. If you’re not sure, take the time to research the company to make sure the job is legitimate. Here are ways to tell if a job is a scam. Research the Job and the Company: Visit the company’s website. Look for potential red flags indicating that the company is not what they seem. Review the Company Website: Does the site fit with how they describe the company? Is it secure? How professional does the site look? Is there contact information? Are jobs and career information posted on the site? If the company doesn’t have a website, that’s a bad sign. Most legitimate businesses have a web presence. Small, local businesses may do most of their marketing on social media, but then they should be known in your community.

Mytrendingstories anti-scam advice: “The phone scams keep on coming — here are tips on how to avoid them” was the headline of a recent Boston Globe consumer protection column. Tips to avoid scams? Nice in theory, but with so many scams coming from so many directions, your best bet is to be generally aware of the new twists out there while you actively prepare for what you’ll do if one day you’re on the receiving end of a threatening message that actually makes you anxious or even terribly frightened. Talking to a local businessperson the other day, the “Professional Photographer/Copyright Infringement” scam came up. An email arrives filled with threats of legal action and a link the recipient is supposed to click to see the supposedly outrageous “copyright infringement” for themselves. This gentleman had just gotten the “Professional Photographer/Copyright Infringement” email again that morning, but he was not alarmed because he’d seen it about three times before. Find additional information on mytrendingstories scam.

Mytrendingstories.com teaches how to defeat scams: “Somebody can place a property on their website, make it look like as legitimate as possible, but at the end of the day, it’s actually just a shell of a listing,” said Duquesnel. Talk to the homeowner by phone — not just through email. That way you can ask detailed questions about the property and local attractions. If they give vague answers, that’s a red flag. Look up the address online using Google Street View to confirm the property exists and matches the pictures you saw. Always pay with a credit card – not a debit card. Don’t wire money or use a pre-paid card. That’s like sending cash. “My sister-in-law was scammed out of a vacation rental because she sent a check. She got down there, and that house didn’t exist,” Duquesnel explained. If you pay with a credit card, charges can be disputed.

WARNING: The coronavirus pandemic has seen a rise in scams. There has been an increase in criminals looking to exploit financial and health concerns by asking for money for fake services upfront, collecting personal information or bank details, or offering temptingly high returns on made-up investments or pension transfers. For full information see our blog on coronavirus scams to look out for and how to protect yourself. Scams are fraudulent schemes that dupe people into parting with their personal details and/or cash. They’ve been around for as long as we can remember, but they’re no longer confined to shady door-to-door salesmen or dodgy second-hand car dealers. See more details on https://mytrendingstories.com/.