Don't be a scam victim

If you don’t want to be duped or ripped off, stay alert to these latest scam trends.

NSW Minister for Fair Trading, Anthony Roberts, helps identify the biggest scams around at the moment and what you can do to avoid becoming a victim.

Internet and mobile phone scams are the most cost-effective method for con artists. “The days of receiving a dirty old brown envelope with a Nigerian stamp on it are almost gone,” Minister Roberts says.

The most effective SMS scams invite and engage users to respond to a competition or products such as mobile phone ringtones. Such messages may not all represent scams, but these are sophisticated and legal ways to extract money from people (as little as 50 cents). 

As soon as someone responds to the scam once, it’s difficult to end - even if you’re messaging them to stop. Such phishing scams comprise about 35% of all scams. Understandably, new mobile phone users - young kids and teenagers - are most at risk of SMS and Internet scams. 

“If you don’t know who the online or SMS message is from and you haven’t initiated the contact, ignore it,” says Roberts. “Don’t dial 0055 or 1900 numbers unless you know how much you’ll be charged.”

One scam that’s recently popped onto the SCAMwatch radar is a website that pretends to be the Federal government’s Department of Climate Change. The fake government website is fsasshoes.co.cc and may have copied government logos or images of Australian symbols. Don’t be fooled - the site is not the real deal. If you want to visit the real Department of Climate Change website, it’s climatechange.gov.au. 

There are also websites that offer to provide Australians with a birth, death or marriage certificate for a fee, but never deliver. These certificates can only be provided by the Australian government, not a private business (no matter how legitimate it is).

All official Australian government websites will always include “.gov.au”. If you want to find any government website, start your search at australia.gov.au.

Internet romance scams continue to devastate the hearts and finances of Australians, with 1,600 people losing $17 million in online dating last year. The golden rule is to avoid giving your financial details to any person you meet online, regardless of the personal connection that’s developed between the two of you. 

The more traditional phone scams are still around, where someone calls you and claims they are from your bank, or says they’re from the Office of Fair Trading. They then claim you are owed some money and ask for your bank account details to make sure you receive the imaginary funds. 

Another prominent incident involves individuals being asked to send money overseas, often through Western Union. Since Western Union is a business that facilitates legitimate transactions, victims are unable to reclaim that money.

‘Travelling conman’ scams tend to be targeted to more vulnerable or elderly people. This refers to scammers who come to Australia after stints in the UK or US. They pretend to be a domestic cleaner but steal personal belongings.

Minister Roberts also highlights the prevalence of identity theft, commonly linked to criminal gangs. They could be going through the letter-boxes of a certain street to gain access to personal information and steal funds. This can easily be handled by buying a padlock for your letter-box. 

One in 20 Australians have been ripped off by a scam, whether it is from the Internet, mail, phone or in person. However, the actual number is expected to be much higher, since many victims do not know how to report the scam or are too embarrassed to do so.

The SCAMwatch website is one valuable resource for those wanting to improve their awareness of scams. Last November, NSW Fair Trading went mobile and launched the ScamBuster app for Androids and iPhones where people can report if they’ve been duped or ripped off and find out more up-to-date information about scams.

If you think you have been on the receiving end of a scam, you can call NSW Fair Trading at 13 22 20, or report online at the SCAMwatch website. 


Know of a scam? Please post the details on this blog.

Working too hard and need a break?

Sometimes it’s obvious we need a break, but in most cases we figure it out too late. When you work double-digit hours and Sundays are no longer a day of rest, feeling overworked can become the new normal. Even so you’ll eventually hit a wall, and when that happens it can take days and even weeks to recover the enthusiasm, creativity, and motivation you’ve lost.

Fortunately a few of the same techniques endurance athletes use to detect the need for additional recovery can be used to indicate when you need to recharge your work batteries. Where elite athletes are concerned, chronic overtraining can actually defeat the fitness purpose and result in decreased stamina, power, and speed; sometimes the harder they work the slower they get.

The same thing happens to us when we’re overworked. We put in more hours to compensate… and get even less done. So how can you tell the difference between feeling overworked and really overworking yourself?

Jeremiah Bishop offered some simple techniques that anyone can use to avoid hitting a wall. Jeremiah is a professional mountain bike rider for Cannondale Factory Racing. He's a twelve-time member of the U.S. national team and is to mountain bike racing what an NBA All-Star is to basketball .

Here are ways to ensure you stay at your professional best:

Check your resting heart rate. 

Every day, before you get out of bed, take your pulse. (There are plenty of free apps that make it easy. Some even log results.) Most of the time your heart rate will stay within a few beats per minute. But when you’re overworked and stressed your body sends more oxygen to your body and brain by increasing your heart rate. (The same thing happens when athletes overtrain and their bodies struggle to recover.) If your heart rate is up in the morning, do whatever it takes to get a little extra rest or sleep that night.

Check your emotions.

Having a bad day? Feeling irritable and short-tempered? If you can’t put your finger on a specific reason why, chronic stress and fatigue may have triggered a physiological response and sent more cortisol and less dopamine to your brain. Willing yourself to be in a better mood won’t overcome the impact of chemistry, and in extreme cases the only cure is a break.

Check your weight. 

Lose or gain more than a percent of body weight from one day to the next and something’s wrong. Maybe yesterday was incredibly stressful and you failed to notice you didn’t eat and drink enough… or maybe you failed to notice just how much you actually ate. Lack of nourishment and hydration can put the hurt on higher-level mental functions (which may be why when we’re overworked and feeling stressed we instinctively want to perform routine, less complex tasks.) And eating too much food—well, we all know the impact of that.

Check your output. 

Urine colour can indicate a lack of hydration (although sometimes it indicates you created really expensive urine after eating a ton of vitamins your body could not absorb.) The lighter the colour the more hydrated you are. Hydration is a good thing. Proper hydration aids the absorption of nutrients and helps increase energy levels. If your urine is darker than usual the cure is simple: Drink a lot of water.

The key is to monitor each of these over a period of time so you develop a feel for what is normal for you. Pay special attention on weekends and holidays, and if you notice a dramatic change, especially a positive one, that’s a sure sign you need to change your workday routine.

Don’t say this sounds like something only elite athletes need to worry about. We all want to be the best we can possibly be, no matter what our profession, and whenever we slam into the workload wall we are far from our best.

And don’t say you don’t have the time to take a short break or get a little more sleep. You owe it to yourself to find a way.

Eventually your mind and your body will hit a wall and force you, so why not do take care of yourself, and improve your performance, on your terms?

Source : www.inc.com

What do you check to make sure that you are working at your best?