CHRISTIAN SINGLES
GUIDE TO ONLINE DATING ADVICE
And offline, Christian singles, you could be bombarded
with fraudulent claims that you’ve already won one
million dollars but you must verify your personal
information and give them your bank account number so they
can direct deposit the money. Other scams that seek to
separate you from your hard earned money will announce
that you have been selected to win a large prize, but you
must send the shipping fee, taxes, or processing fee
first. Just know that legitimate sweepstakes do not
operate like that. They cannot require that you pay for
processing but they will tell you that you must pay the
IRS the taxes before you can collect the money.
(emphasis is on the IRS- not the phony sweepstakes)
If you have a cell phone only, the telemarketers cannot
use automatic dialing to contact you, so cell phone users
have that benefit. But your mailbox is probably full of
numerous scams, for get rich quick home worker schemes,
and fraudulent charities which use a name close to the
original, respected charity. Be careful not to send money
to one of these knock-off artists, who mirror a well known
charity and appear to be the charity or an affiliate. The
best protection against fraud is to ignore all
e-mails, calls and postal letters that ask you for money,
your personal information, or anything else. When you
want to buy something or give to someone who is helping
people, locate them through your church or Better Business
Bureau, or a friend. You can call your state Attorney
General’s office to see if other people have complained
about some charity or other scam that has contacted you.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (website: www.ftc.gov)
there are in excess of 200,000 complaints each year about
internet scams. They keep a listing of offenders who are
being watched, or being prosecuted. Even a dollar sent to
a con artist is a bad decision because it only encourages
them to continue. They will do anything to avoid working
for a living. Some will offer to send thousands of e-mails
out for your business, and those who have taken their bait
have found themselves in trouble with the law, either for
spamming or for being a part of a pyramid, which is also
illegal.
