Lazy Man and Money

The Apocalypse is Coming! Buy Gold Coins!

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gold ira scam
gold ira scam

No, no, no!

Don’t.

Stop it!

Al Bundy gives some great advice here:



If you can’t watch the clip, here’s the quote:

All kidding aside, run. Run hard, run now, run silent, run deep, run like Mexican water through a first-time tourist, but the key word here is “run!”

Should I Buy Gold Coins?

In case you missed the answer in the previous section, the answer is NO!

I’ve thought about writing this for some time. However, I figured that none of my readers would be caught by the gold coin or gold IRA trap. Hopefully, none of you have.

The Washington Post has a very good article (alas, paywall) about gold IRAs and the conservative media.

If you don’t have a subscription or just don’t want to read it, here’s my brief synopsis:

If you’ve watched any of the conservative television shows, you’ll see old network hosts make a political argument that the world is ending (or at least the financial world is ending. According to the commercial, gold is the way to protect your money. (We know it is advertising, right?)

When you look under the surface of what the companies are selling, they take a large percentage of the money for themselves. You get a little gold in return. Gold prices are almost at the high that they were in 1981. That’s not a good return on 40+ years of investing. If you managed to buy low, you might make a little profit, but we know that diversified corporate stocks and bonds have historically done much, much better.

The strange thing is that you rarely see these types of ads anywhere else. You won’t see Hulu ad-supported commercials for these gold IRA companies. They aren’t mainstream or liberal cable news networks. They aren’t on ABC, CBS, or NBC. The commercials and companies seem to be designed to take advantage of one audience and their fear, uncertainty, and doubt (often abbreviated FUD).

There are another couple of places where you’ll see these kinds of advertisements. You may see them on my site, as I don’t control the advertising. I saw an ad in Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine this month. They’ve openly stated how difficult print media is when it comes to financial information. Most of the information is months behind schedule due to the lead time they require to print all the magazines. I can imagine that they may have to take subpar advertisers just to deliver the great content that they do.

Finally, some bloggers will take money for sponsored posts like this. In that case, the article was kind of neutral but said that the fees were low, that there are pricing mark-ups, and pricing data is not listed on the website. It also implies Consumer Affairs is a reputable review site, which it is not.

Let me get back to the main point. The Washington Post article found several conservatives who have lost a large chunk of their retirement savings. They trusted the spokespeople.

So stay away. Don’t get scammed by the gold sellers!

Green Bay Packers Stock Scam

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Green Bay Packers Stock Scam

I came across this interesting news item the other day Green Bay Packers Sell Shares in NFL Team. I vaguely remember reading years ago that residents of Green Bay own the team.

I’m a New England Patriots fan, but whenever they get eliminated, I gravitate to a team in the NFC. The Patriots haven’t been eliminated often in recent years, but when they have, I found that Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers are the closest matches to the team.

Green Bay is doing its best to lose me as a fair-weather fan. It started with the misinformation of Aaron Rodgers and vaccines, but this stock scam is just piling it on. (In fairness they lose exactly zero winks of sleep caring about whether I’m a fan for a few weeks.)

Let’s break down the Green Bays press release:

The title starts clearly, “Packers stock sale to begin Tuesday, Nov. 16.” Excellent, I’ve always wanted to own a sports team. I’m excited to do this!

There’s a bunch of information on who is eligible to buy shares and how many. Perfect, I’m qualified! Let’s do it!

Green Bay: In contemplation of the offering, interested fans should note:

Me: *Okayyy,

Green Bay: Stock in the Packers does not constitute an investment in ‘stock’ in the common sense of the term.

Me: Well that’s confusing. Humans have tacitly agreed to use terms that tend to convey the common sense of the meaning.

Green Bay: “Anyone considering the purchase of Packers stock should not purchase the stock to make a profit or to receive a dividend or tax deduction or any other economic benefits.”

Me: Hmm, those seem to be the main reasons why anyone would buy stock. Let me check with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about “Why do people buy stocks?” Here’s what it says:

  • Capital appreciation, which occurs when a stock rises in price
  • Dividend payments, which come when the company distributes some of its earnings to stockholders
  • Ability to vote shares and influence the company

So without the ability to make a profit (capital appreciation) or receive benefits, I’m left to the third bullet point, “Ability to vote and influence the company.” It’s disappointing to miss out on any economic benefit for my hard-earned money, but I like the idea of playing the small role of general manager of the Packers and voting about what transactions they make.

Green Bay: We didn’t say anything about giving you voting rights

There’s no mention of voting rights in the press release at all.

Me: I should probably not assume that I’ll be able to vote on transactions. They’ve sold “stock” in the past and I haven’t heard of anyone getting voting rights.

Green Bay: The Packers believe offerees and purchasers of Packers stock will not receive the protection of securities laws with respect to any offering or sale of Packers stock.

Me: Hmmm, so the Packers are selling stock, but don’t expect stock security laws to apply to them. Would Musk or Zuckerberg brazenly disregard laws like this? Nope.

Green Bay: “The Packers bylaws and NFL rules severely restrict transfers of Packers stock.”

Me: So it looks like this stock might not be able to be sold or traded to others (it’s unclear what circumstances allow this and there’s no further explanation).

Evaluating the Packers’ Stock Scam

The good news in all this is that Green Bay is being open about scamming people. However, when that’s the “good news” there’s a lot of room for the bad news. Hopefully, buyers are looking at it as something like buying a Brent Favre jersey. Of course, that would seem to be a better purchase as it would have some utility (you can wear the shirt).

I’m kind of the mind to dismiss this as a fun little thing they are doing. Some of you may even be saying, “It’s all in good fun, Lazy Man, don’t be so such a curmudgeon.” That’s fair, except that Green Bay expects to raise $90 million from this offering of stock that isn’t stock.

I understand that there are fans that support their team to no end. I’ve been known to be one of those fans. However, it’s beyond shameless to “raise” $90 million and give nothing of value in return.

This website is often about getting value for your money. Everyone is in charge of their money and the sense of value that they receive from it. I simply can’t understand someone who has $300 burning a hole in their pocket that they’d rather give for this cause than any of a million other better ones.

5 Tips for Not Getting Scammed Online

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It’s tax season and that means that you should expect me to write about tax scams. That would be too easy. Everyone else is writing about it anyway.

Instead I’d like to look at just a few online scams. It would be impossible to cover everything online in one article. One of the problems with some online scams is that they are advertised on the traditional and social media. I’ve been hearing a lot of Noxitril male enhancement ads, which reminds me of the old Enzyte marketing. I certainly won’t be giving them my money, but it seems like some people are or else they won’t be able to run the ads.

One of the reasons that there are so many scams online is that it’s easy to put something out there. I used to be able to put a website up in under 10 minutes on Amazon Web Services. It’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to crack down on all the scams out there. More computer tricks are being invented to scam online users their hard earned money. Potential fraudsters have a lot of tricks to try to get your personal information.

Here are my best tips to fight back against the fraudsters:

1. Be skeptical

As my long-time blogging friends at Money Crashers says

Conmen have dubious ways that make their scams appear sound and legitimate. I’m not sure how to help someone develop critical thinking skills, but you have use them whenever you come across anything online. There are many email offers that are phishing scams. People on social media can push MLM scams as well. There are fake testimonials and product reviews on many sites.

It’s hard to know what to trust, so your best defense is to be skeptical.

2. Protect Your Personal Information

As I wrote above, there’s a lot of different kind of online attacks out there. Fraudsters employ a variety of tricks to access your details and password. From that article, I learned there is a thing called “SMiShing” that’s like phishing with SMS messages.

While this isn’t an online attack, I often get calls from banks about certain things and they look for me to confirm my information by giving it to them. I always ask to call them back, so that I know it’s not a stranger on the other end pretending to be the bank. Sometimes I find it hard to remember to do this though.

And it should go without saying, but it should be very rarely necessary to give out your Social Security Number over the phone. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had a reason to do that. I’ve done it online a few times with some banks and medical institutions that I am confident aren’t scammers.

3. Beware of counterfeit checks

Most people don’t have this problem. However, we sell products online. Sometimes we find something really discounted at a T.J. Maxx or thrift shop and can get more by posting it on Craigslist or OfferUp. I’ve read that scammers send you a fake check with more money than the agreed amount. They will do it intentionally and request that you refund the extra amount. When you make such refunds, they ghost you.

4. Take time before making decisions

Never allow someone to rush you to make a buying decision. I always like to compare several products before deciding to buy. This is especially true if the product is is going to cost more than a few hundred dollars. You also need to be aware of “exploding offers”, which is a limited time deal that’s only good if you decide that day. If it’s good company, they’ll be confident enough in their product or service to know you’ll get back to them after you do the research.

Here are some more training materials on tips to avoid being scammed. It’s a great collection of videos, articles, and infographics. Also, it’s all free.

5. Always use written contracts

I’m toying with the idea of getting rid of my phone number. Seriously. I’ve been thinking of going full out Kramer in Seinfeld when he wants to opt out of receiving mail. I only like to talk on the phone with about three people and the number of robocalls makes about 90% of calls to me useless.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. What I meant to write is that you should be sure to get everything in writing. When someone offers me a deal on the phone, I ask them to mail it to my house. If it’s a scam, that sometimes is enough to end the call. Once you have everything in writing, it’s important to read all the fine print. I know that few people do (and I’m one of them). This is one of those times you have to balance being skeptical with the offer itself.

Final Thoughts

I know I gave a lot of “homework” in reading other resources in this article. It might seem like protecting yourself is difficult. However, most of this stuff is something that you learn once and you have it forever. The scammers are usually going to try to target the people who aren’t going to take the time to learn the basics in the first place. It’s not worth their time to try to get someone who is knowledgeable, so they’ll likely move onto their next “mark.”

* The thoughts expressed in this article are my opinions only. I make no suggestion that any particular company or product is a scam or fraudulent. However, it is important to note that such expressions are legally protected opinions as court judges have previously cited my article about what a scam is.

So Claw Machines are a Confirmed Scam?

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It’s been awhile since I’ve written a good article on scams. I used to cover MLM scams all the time, but since now everyone does it, it doesn’t seem like I need to any more. However, I recently read about claw machines being a scam and figured that I need to write about it.

We’ve all been there. Or maybe you’ve just been smart enough to avoid the claw machines in the first place.

Claw Machine Scam
Claw Machine: Sure, smile while I scam you out of your money!

I can’t remember ever really playing with one… until recently. When you have a 4 and 5 year old, a fun game to get an awesome toy is a great idea. I give them each one shot at the local arcade and they oh so close every time.

I figured that the claws were rigged to never work. I’ve never seen anyone win. At least I’ve seen people win at carnivals.

What I never knew is that the claw machines are rigged, but they DO work a small fraction of the time. What appears to be a game of skill is actually essentially a slot machine that relies totally on the luck of machine picking you as the winner.

Don’t believe me? Watch the video:



Or if you don’t happen to be a good place to watch a video, you can read the Vox article Claw machines are rigged — here’s why it’s so hard to grab that stuffed animal.

If you are too lazy to do either, I’ll give my short version of the story. Claw machines can by programmed by the operator to throttle the number of times that the claw has any actual gripping strength. There are things like “drop percentages” backed into the machines. So essentially the machine owner can set whatever profit level they want by using the price of the toy, the cost per play, and the percentage of having the claw work properly.

Of course, when Vox reported that these document were available online, BMI Gaming took them down.

I’m curious how this is legal. It seems little different than just a slot machine. Maybe you don’t get money directly, but you get something of value. At least the slot machine doesn’t deceive people into thinking it is a game of skill… it’s pretty obvious that it’s a game of luck, right?

Finally, this scam is often played on children. That’s pretty low. So little Johnny or Jill start a lemonade stand to make a few dollars and then get tricked out of it by a grocery store or restaurant owner? It’s almost literally taking candy from a baby.

Am I making too much of this? Let me know in the comments.

Looking for further reading? Kotaku had a detailed this back in 2012. There’s also some good news as some game companies promised not to rig them any more.

Also, they’ve also been part of the this Quartz obsession

Beware: Supremo Call Center Scam

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Yesterday I got a call from a scammer saying that my computer was infected with a virus. If anyone ever calls you saying such a thing, it’s a scam 99.99% of the time. I’d say 100% of the time, but it might be a call from your workplace IT. The rest of the time, the person on the phone will try to get you to download some software that will give them control of your computer.

Ars Technica outlines the scam here. Another blogger details his call.

Note: Supremo itself is a legitimate company with legitimate software for good and useful purposes. However, it seems that if a computer operator gives permission to a nefarious third party, they do some really bad things. It’s a little like how a hammer can be used as a tool to help build a home, or a weapon to inflict damage. This isn’t a criticism of Supremo, but the only way to describe the scam is through the software.

I kept the scammers on the line for awhile playing dumb. This is the only way I can think to really “harm” these scammers. A minute that they are on the phone with you is a minute they aren’t defrauding someone else. It’s really easy to keep them on the phone by asking them repeat stuff. You can even do it while you are doing some other activity.

Eventually, I let them talk me into entering “www.supremo.com” into the search bar (which for Firefox is a separate bar that initiates a search). They asked what I saw and I went with the Ars Technica result that explained that call centers are scamming people.

They hung up as soon as I mentioned that.