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How to avoid being scammed on the internet recommendations by Mytrendingstories online platform? 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.

Trending news with Mytrendingstories blogging portal: Stay Vigilant. You’ll want to keep a close eye out on your credit and financial account statements so you can alert your financial institution as soon as possible if anything appears amiss. If you’ve spent time job searching online lately, it might seem like there are as many scams as legitimate job openings on the job boards. The Better Business Bureau reports that job scams are on the rise and are the No. 1 riskiest scam in terms of prevalence, likelihood of losing money, and monetary loss. Each year, about 14 million people are exposed to job scams. Victims lose more than $2 billion per year, not counting the value of their time or the emotional impact of being defrauded. To safeguard yourself, it pays to learn as much as possible about employment scams.

mytrendingstories.com anti-scam advice: Maybe you wouldn’t be frightened by this scam or that scam. People are getting better at recognizing the common scams and ignoring them. But scammers keep adapting and they specialize in pushing emotional buttons with just-credible-enough claims. One day a scam could “get to you.” It will be a situation where you’ll be afraid that what you’re being told could be true. The scammer will put tremendous pressure on you to act before you have time to think or control the adrenaline rush, just like the couple in Hingham. Take the opportunity now — as with a fire drill — to plan for how you and your family and friends will deal with an “alarming news” message threatening to lead to some “dreadful” potential outcome. See more details at mytrendingstories scams.

MyTrendingStories teaches how to defeat scams: Say you come across an ad for 95% off your favorite item. You click on the ad and are taken to a website where you can shop for deals. You subsequently put in your personal information to redeem the ad and get your product. At that point, the scammer has got your information and will leave you high and dry. If you’re skeptical of a deal, see what the item is selling for at other retailers. Conducting a simple price comparison can help you spot if the deal is truly legitimate or just an attempt to lure in you into throwing money at a product or service that doesn’t exist. Be careful when using a public Wi-Fi connection, and avoid it completely if you intend to buy products and enter payment information. The chance for identity theft increases when using public Wi-Fi. Sometimes online criminals will set up a similar Wi-Fi network to the one you’re expecting to use, hoping you’ll connect to it, according to AARP. If you do need to use public Wi-Fi, make sure you’re also using a virtual private network.

Over the Phone Scams: Be aware and cautious of numbers that you do not recognize or not expecting. Do not be tricked by their attempts to threaten you with false ploys of cutting off electricity, water, etc., or saying you or a loved one will be in legal trouble if you do not act now. If a scammer starts to demand payments through gift cards, that is an automatic giveaway for fraud. Scam calls will try to steal your money and information through non-legitimate methods, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office stated that they “do not call citizens demanding payments and threatening arrest. Some scammers will go as far as using actual names from agencies, but they are still angling for the same result – to deceive you out of your money.” Read additional details on Mytrendingstories scam.