Repeating a question

If an individual you are talking to repeats the question before answering you, he or she is probably trying to come up with a lie. The individual is verbally repeating the question while mentally raking for the “right” and believable answer. Non-answer statements and a pause before answering can be other signs that you are about to receive a lie.

Answers considered convincing statements

Without being prompted, an individual who is trying to deceive you may try to provide convincing answers and even justify the answers. The answers the person gives are more inclined to convince you rather than give you the correct answer. You may be expecting a simple straight-to-the-point answer but the individual gives you an answer to influence his or her perception.

Touching eyes or mouth

The body language can tell you a lot about the person you are talking to. Old people should look out for this natural reaction. Touching the mouth, eyes and throat can be a great indicator that the person is trying to deceive you. The gestures try to suppress the deceitful lies that are being told.

Dressing up a lie

Protesting too much by swearing, talking about God or religion is another sign of deceit. Bringing up religion is a tactic used by liars to show they believe in their religion not to do wrong, which includes lying.

Restlessness

A person who is lying may not sit in one position for too long. He or she may shift in the chair, wiggle a foot, rub hands together, scratch, inspect nails or even adjust clothes.

Tips to Bring out the Truth

So, before you lose all your hard-earned cash to bogus individuals, you can tease the truth out of the person you are talking to.

a. Ask short questions
b. Don’t use a confrontational approach
c. Enquire more about an answer given if you are not quite satisfied

Clauses such as “no guarantee of suitability” in consumer agreements should be carefully discussed with the company before you sign the contract. In such clauses the company admits that their services do not really work as advertised but it is not clear on exactly what does not really work. This is common in software and cell phones consumer agreements and thus you should be keen not to buy a product that will not meet your requirements.

Another contract gotcha you should be keen to avoid is where litigations arising out of an agreement are restricted to a specific jurisdiction and venue. The suitability disclaimer might not sideline you from suing the company but you might end up being unable to make a long trip to a specific location to file a case through the legal process. If you find such clauses in the agreement forms you should give it a careful consideration before sealing the deal.

Other clauses that you should really consider are such as arbitration clauses and those relating to your right to jury. At first glance such clauses seem fair but closer look and careful consideration reveals terms that you just cannot consent to. Some may bar you from your right to a court trial or class action in favor of binding arbitration and this could place you to the losing end even when you have a right.

One more clause that you should read closely is the “free trial period”. The phrase lures you that you will get a chance to evaluate the product before risking your money but the period might just be an impossible one. For instance you might find a company giving you only a day to test a security system and cancel the deal where you cannot assess such a system in such a short time. Also the limited time is quite convenient for you to forget canceling the deal and this can really end up being so harmful. Before sealing any deal with your signature just read every part of the agreement carefully to avoid pitfalls that may seem quite fair at first glance.

Everything that has benefits always comes with a few cons and internet has not been left out of the list. With the rise of the internet there has come up another kind of crime which is referred to as cyber crime. Cyber crime involves savvy criminals who systematically collect information illegally from the communication networks. These criminals sometimes pose as some shady organizations which will require certain data for various seemingly good reasons. They collect sensitive information about people and corporate and can use the same information for other activities which can affect the parties negatively. They collect the information continually and thus may end up collecting all information that gives a clear outline of one’s life which is very dangerous since it can be used in many ways and many times.

It is therefore very essential to avoid sharing sensitive personal information with people online. You can share a little bit of personal information with close people but you should completely avoid sharing such information with the wrong and strange people. Exposure of personal information is a very big risk but fortunately it is something that you absolutely have control over. You are always in control of whatever personal information that you can or cannot share online. It is thus very important to determine the kind of information to share online and the kind of recipient to share with. This way you can avoid sharing information with the wrong people and risk exposing your personal information. You should only share certain information with the people that you are comfortable with. You should also desist from sharing very sensitive information in social media facilities even to close people to avoid the risk of it ending up in the wrong hands.

There are “supposedly” deaf callers using Telephone Relay Services which are used by crooks to mask their identity. While Federal Communications Commission ordered that this type of calls must be registered by stating their name, address and contact number, scammers on the other hand, are using pay as you go mobile phones so that they can’t be tracked. Scammers use TRS to place orders and to conceal their identities at the same time. Small business owners have to pay particular attention to this kind of calls especially if they are ordering bulk of goods. We have to instruct employees that it would be best if we could verify the credit card identity and status with the issuing bank. If not, go the extra mile to confirm if the call is a valid order.

We might also come across emails from Better Business Bureau that are labelled as customer complaints. It comes with an attachment and if opened, can potentially get confidential information from our work computers as it is infected by a virus. Our protection would be to regularly scan our computers from this kind of malwares and also use Microsoft’s Sender Policy Framework that automatically evaluates incoming emails whether they are legitimate or not.
Scammers might also pretend to be calling from Yellow pages to update contact details of your business. We must orient our storekeepers never to entertain directory listing calls that would send invoice or ask for the company’s billing details. Remember that simple page listings are free and only boldfaced listings and those that come with advertisements are charged.

Swindlers might also take advantage of our most commonly ordered office supplies. Their modus operandi is to send unordered supplies and bill it to the store. Swindlers of this kind will call us and get the name of the person in charge of purchasing supplies so they can properly address the invoices. There are also times when decimal points are moved in price first quoted, for example $50.00 for one ream of bond paper originally priced at $5.00. We might overlook these details and pay what is not due to us.

Dupe online shops. In truth, your search engine a.k.a Google, takes time before they catch dupes – those websites that copy legitimate websites hoping to deceive consumers into entering their personal information (credit card details included) and making transactions with their site. Of course, if you happen to use dupe websites, don’t expect for your ordered items to ever reach your door, instead, brace yourself for your next credit card’s billing statement since that dupe site, must have by then, maxed out your credit line. When shopping online, make sure you are using the right website and not a dupe.

• Online shopping directories. A little bit same when using your search engine and end up in a dupe site however, those found in shopping directories are more organized as they will present themselves as legitimate sellers, their websites all legit looking, designed to only operate during holidays and be gone soon after. If they are not after your credit card details, they are most likely to infect your computer with malware.
• Gift cards from racks. Gift cards must be the most sensible thing to give to loved-ones especially if you don’t have any idea what to get them! Young adults love receiving them as it allows them to shop and get whatever they want and not just contend with a horrible, knitted sweater every single year. However, authorities warn public from buying off department store racks as they are very much exposed to unscrupulous people who steal gift card codes and use it as
  soon as it is activated.
• Online greeting cards. Anything that has a link and the sender asking you to click it should send you doubting big time! Most ecards or electronic cards – the kind that you view on your computer – can be embedded into the email itself which won’t prompt the receiver to click any link anymore. Others will just give you a code which you can use in their website to view your electronic card.
• Undeliverable package notice from your local courier. We’ve had reports from several seniors receiving emails and calls from purportedly “couriers” telling the seniors that they have been trying to deliver a package and wasn’t able to do so. That they needed for the senior to claim it personally or call a number where they can claim their holiday package. Of course, at the other end of the number is a scammer waiting for you call.

•    Your Social Security card does not belong in your wallet eventhough it must be the first place you’ll ever think of putting it. It should be stored in some place safe and personal. This will keep wallet snatchers from getting your social security card details and use it as their own.
•    Never give away your number even if the request looks legitimate enough. I have posted about it twice: your email addresses are the number one target of scams requesting for your social security number and quite horribly, they even duplicate legitimate pages to fool you. A legitimate request won’t have you providing numbers on unsecured places, they will notify you to report to them personally most likely in the secured confines of their offices.
•    Stolen properties should be reported at once, so does your lost wallet. Even if it might only be a bad case of forgetting where you last put it down or a real case of a stolen property, a lost wallet should be considered as a serious situation since you are most likely to put your personal numbers in there where unscrupulous people might see them and use to their advantage.
•    Be vigilant. It’s okay to ask questions when you need to especially if it is about your debts you are asking. The only way to know if there are transactions made not by you is to check your account regularly. Credit reports can be requested online so take advantage of it. This way you will be able to keep track of your accounts thus protecting it against thieves.
•    Remember, thieves abound. There are thieves who do things the traditional way, that is, scamming you and squirreling away your hard earned money under your nose and there are those savvy enough to con the unknowing you. One good example is cyber thieves who target seniors who are merely doing their transactions online. To combat this, you will need to practice safe online measures such as installing and updating your anti-virus programs and not be as trusting as you normally would.
•    Your Social Security Number is CONFIDENTIAL. No matter how difficult the situation might be, do not and absolutely never give your number to anyone except when requested by law.

For us seniors, there are two main factors which make us fall for a scam:  the prospect of easy money and strong family ties. Remember the sweepstakes scam or perhaps the grandparent or grandchild scam? These two are the most popular—not to mention the longest standing—scams to ever hit the senior group. It is because these scams played with our softest spots, our fears and our emotions in general. With this said, it is important that we remember scams from years back as they tend to turn up again years later while being vigilant for new scams being played against us. To keep seniors updated, here are some of the scams discovered lately:

•    Phishing. Sometime ago, I posted Phishing 101 here but it only discussed what it is and how it works. Phishing, as it was then, largely attacks social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter however, phishing is also used for tricking you in providing your access info to some of your more sensitive accounts such as PayPal or even your bank so it is best to practice safety measures when logging into your account. It may also help if you change passwords on a regular basis.
•    Smishing. A close cousin of phishing. This is when you receive a text message (naturally through your mobile phone) asking you to call a number for whatever reason only to be tricked into giving your sensitive details such as account number and password. Before you give anyone or anybody your details, make sure you are giving it to a legitimate body by checking if the number you called truly belongs to the company you are calling.
•    Pop-up windows and ad banners. You would think these innocent looking thingies that keep on popping up on your computer monitor are harmless.. well, think again, one wrong click and they will hijack your legitimate purchase from a legitimate online shop. Of course that means your credit card is now charged with something you really didn’t buy.
•    Stripped gift cards. You remembered a loved-one’s birthday coming up and you decided to give a gift card inside. You went ahead and bought a gift card, loaded it and gave it to the celebrant. The celebrant went to buy his or her gift only to find out the card has nothing on it. Sounds familiar? It’s because your gift card has been stripped even before you bought it from the store.

• Your password is the most crucial. You need to change them on a regular basis so that your account won’t risk being cracked by identity thieves. Try to do combinations of letters and numbers that are not in anyway connected to your personal information such as birthdays, anniversaries, and even names.
• Never pay your bills on public computers since you can never be sure if these computers are safe or if they are infected with malicious programs that can steal your bank information.
• Never respond to emails requesting for your information such as username and password. If your bank needs these things, they will wait for you until you personally access your account and will make you do updates while you are in the site itself.
• Make sure you are doing transactions with the right URL. FYI, URL is the address of a website located at the upper bar of your browser alongside reload, back and forward buttons. This usually starts with letters “http”. Consider this as your home address or the address of your bank for that matter. Payments should only be done within the bank’s premises.
• Always check your account balance so you can spot discrepancies at once. Report to your bank whenever you feel funny about something.