Common Identity Theft Methods

You already know what identity theft is, and you are always looking for ways to protect yourself.

This video gives some basic ways that identity theft occurs, including the method I think many people overlook, ‘change of address’:

How to Raise Your Credit Score

How to raise your credit score, for free?

I’m offering this guide on raising your credit score, for free, yourself. Click here to get the guide and keep your money in your pocket.

Your Money for Your Life

Let’s talk for a moment about buying and selling our lives.

Most of us are born with very little personal possessions. Rarely are we born into great wealth, so for the vast majority of us, when we reach working age, we bargain with the businesses offering employment with the only valuable commodity we have: chunks of our life, usually sold in blocks of hours.

In high school, I worked two jobs, which probably accounted for a 45 hour workweek in addition to attending school. To put it more bluntly, I sold 45 hours of my life every week, week after week, for less than $4 for each hour (this was in the eighties). I also missed out on a lot of teenage activities because I was working- or rather, I sold those hours to corporations.
This is where the choices of what we do to spend our money (or gain debt) come in. I was fortunate enough that I did not accumulate a lot of debt, but I did spend what little money I had pretty quickly on inconsequential things. And that’s really the issue: we generally sell of vast quantities of our lives (which are finite), then we take that money and spend it on irrelevant things. As we get older, we tend to earn a lot more for our time, but the spending habits often stick with us.

You must stop yourself as you get ready to buy that next consumable purchase and ask, ‘Is this really what I am working for? To buy this object?’.

This is not to say you cannot purchase anything, ever. It is to say that every purchase comes with a higher price tag than just the one marked on the label, and if we recognize that, we can change our habits.

I recall when this point really occurred to me, and it occurred in an unusual place – walking down the street in a run-down neighborhood, which was all I could afford at the time.

I was usually approached by bums and winos anywhere I walked (I had no car), and they would always ask for a couple of dollars. I barely had grocery money. But the kicker was this: one day, as I had spurned the request from yet another bum, and he yelled obscenities after me, I realized that at my salary I had to work twenty minutes at a back-breaking job I loathed to get the money he was asking for. He, who had been living in the bottom of a bottle, had not worked a moment of that job, but wanted me to turn that money I sold part of my life for over to him for him to use. Pretty convenient for him. I work, he gets the money.

That’s the epiphany; I had sold those chunks of my life, I did have the right to use the money I’d gotten, but what was worth that chunk of life? Really, nobody’s life is worth $4 an hour, or $10 an hour, and probably not even $50 an hour. So if I was selling it off so cheap, what was I getting for it in return? What was I buying with my life?

What are you buying with your life?

The Psychology of Spending

Why, exactly, do we spend so much money on consumables?

I saw stephanerd’s blog post about her trouble dealing with her overspending and it brings to light an issue in how consumers - at least US consumers - view spending money.

US consumers have been pounded for decades with advertising and television programs that tell them they need more to be happy. That they are not metaphysically worth as much as the people they see on television because the clothes they wear are older, the car they drive is less luxurious, and their house is less ostentatious. Salaries have not kept pace in the United States with inflation, and education of consumers has dropped. Although the United States boasts one of the best educational systems in the world, many college graduates hold a degree that means nothing. How many communications majors or philosophy majors were actually interested in those subjects entering college? How can a person expect to earn a major salary with an education they probably weren’t too interested in?

But, I’m digressing from the point a bit: US consumers (and they are even labeled as ‘consumers’, not ‘citizens’, ‘residents’, or ‘natives’) are told from birth that they need expensive things to be happy, and they have no real way to earn the money that’s needed to support that lifestyle. To earn really big money, it takes a lot of work, some abnormal creativity and a bit of luck. It also takes time, which is what nobody wants to invest.

Thus, we find solace from our pain by spending, because that’s what we’ve been told will make us happy. And we rarely buy things that will invigorate us, most people do not buy a new book to read to make themselves feel better, they go to an expensive dinner or buy a $300 pair of shoes. Neither of these will make us financially independent, which is what we really want. So - as dysfunctional as it is - we spend money because we want to be rich.

Video: Credit Crunch?

This video is hilarious to me - maybe just to me, but who knows - I think it’s funny how people who claim to know so much about money are often completely unaware of the long term financial view.

Of course, this video is tongue-in-cheek, but nobody does this type of humor better than the British.

Here’s a Free Credit Repair Book

As a follow up to my post on how to legally fix your credit, I’m giving away some copies of the e-book ‘101 Powerful Tips for Legally Improving Your Credit Score‘.

This isn’t a ‘report’, it’s the actual e-book. I’ve read the entire book and it’s not a ‘legal loophole’ scheme and it covers some of the same information I did, but expands a lot on credit scoring and some other areas.

I think this book will be valuable to a lot of people, but like I said, I only have a limited number I can give away. Maybe that will change in the future, but I suggest if you want a copy, go to this link to download it as soon as possible.

P.S., I had to add a verification link to the page to keep people from linking directly to the book. Sorry, but I want this book to only go to people who can use it.

Cheap Affiliate Profits scam? (Review)

I have to say this book has one thing going for it and one knock against it before I even bought it. First, the positive is that it is written by T.M. Harris, whom I do not know personally and have no idea if he/she even exists. T.M. Harris is an internet marketer who has all of the trappings of other internet marketers: the badly designed web page, the overuse of hyperbole, and the promises of unseemly profits for a low, low ‘investment’ price.

Let me say this, I am always, ALWAYS looking for the con. I guess it’s a desire to stay “street smart” and not get taken. I guess even if I get conned I’d prefer to see it coming, and I really like keeping other people from getting conned. So I bought this book and expected a con job.

I will say that there is something slightly different about Harris, in that he – and I will assume for the purposes of this review that Harris is a real person – writes very openly about the type of marketing he does, exactly what he does and what products his readers should avoid. The other key thing about Harris that almost all of his informational ebooks are about $7. This is a pretty fair price for an ebook, at least a valid ebook. Most major publishers produce ebooks that are equal to or less than printed books, so Harris’s pricing automatically puts him in a more scrupulous category of internet marketers. Not entirely different, in a Captain Kangaroo-is-different-from-J.R. Ewing kind of way, but still different.

So I purchased Harris’s ebook, ‘Cheap Affiliate Profits’ to get an idea of what he had to offer. First off, the book is short, about 11 pages. Not much for seven bucks, but I assume the idea is that the information contained inside is intended to be short and concise, and to be honest, I’m not sure if a 1,000 page tome extolling the massive variations of internet marketing would be very valuable to anyone. Plus, page count isn’t a good indicator of quality – would ‘Romeo and Juliet’ have automatically been a better play if Shakespeare had added 500 words?

Still, within this short space Harris manages to break down some of his list-building techniques and how he promotes ‘squeeze pages’ and how he makes his list ‘go viral’. I read a lot of similar material from Frank Kern but Kern charges $2,000 for a limited course while Harris is offering similar information, albeit, much much leaner for $7. However, there are some key points like where to get a free autoresponder that works and scripts for automatically piggybacking onto other products. I’m not really looking to promote internet marketing products for themselves, but I am interested in marketing in general and how it applies to real world products.

So is the book Cheap Affiliate Products a scam? I would have to say technically, Harris’s book is not a scam, because the book states it is intended to explain how to get ‘cheap affiliate profits’. He offers the ‘cheap’ in a free autoresponder service (can’t really get any cheaper than ‘free’) that he recommends, he offers list building information that seems solid and he explains at least one method of how he builds his own list. The idea is that you implement these things and then sell either your own product, Harris’s products or an affiliate product. I would not say that this is an exhaustive resource, but it does have some good information without much investment. I could definitely see someone buying the book, putting the information into practice and making a little money pretty quickly if they were so inclined. That said, it is not a serious financial resource or more than a good, short informational pamphlet. So, yes, it could make you some money, but it is not an entire money making scheme or resale rights nonsense.

So to sum up, the book only costs $7, it’s cheaper than paying $2,000 for Mass Control but nowhere near as exhaustive, but probably the autoresponder and list building information is worth it. Plus it’s PayPal, so you can get a refund if you buy it.

Cheap Affiliate Profits e-book

UPDATE: After purchasing the Cheap Affiliate Profits e-book, I was sent two more bonuses, (links by email) , one of which was four more downloadable e-books and some links to other internet marketers free products. I have not read through them, but I will. But the other bonus was more of an upsell, which I am not ready to pull the trigger on just yet. Like I said, these products are more for pure internet marketers, and I am just looking to do a little scam busting and maybe learn about marketing.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that even though I do not consider T.M. Harris’s book a scam, I felt I should still let everyone know that he makes his money by selling internet marketing products. In other words, he makes money online by selling products about making money online. However, in the case of this book, there are specific, usable pieces of information that could be applied to any business or marketing endeavor.

All product reviews are reviewed according to my Rook’s Money Blog Review Rules

Review Rules for Rook’s Money Blog

I have decided on creating some rules for products I will be reviewing in the future. This is due to the fact that so many online review sites are just portals for selling money making schemes. I will probably be revising these rules from time to time, such as when a new type of scam comes along.

1. The product must come with a fully refundable guarantee. Honestly, I don’t like returning things at any time, not even to a retail store, but I also don’t like the idea of paying for something completely useless and not being able to get my money back. It also smacks of a scam.

2. Products are divided into several categories. The first of which, are two big buckets, ‘Scam’ and ‘Legit’. Even if a product might not work for me, does not automatically qualify it as a scam. A scam is a product or service that is designed strictly to take someone’s money without really delivering any benefit. For example, if a vendor offers a book on ‘Internet Traffic Secrets’ and the book is promoted as offering ‘new’ and ‘inexpensive or free’ ways to generate quality traffic for any website, then that’s what the book should have. It should not be a 20 page book on buying Google adwords to drive traffic. Following that, I will divide the products into what type of scam they might be or what type of market the book is for. I have several types of scams:

The Stuffing Envelopes Scam: the stuffing envelopes scam gets its name from con artists who place classified ads claiming that anyone can make $1000 a week stuffing envelopes. People send in $5 to the con artist, who then stuffs 250 envelopes containing letters that say “take out a classified ad claiming to make $1000 a week stuffing envelopes”. It’s not only diabolical, it’s illegal. So if there is an Internet Make Money System and it involves making money my reselling the Internet Make Money System, then it is the same old Stuffing Envelopes Scam. Pretty similar to the pyramid scheme- technically it is a Pyramid Scheme, but I hate it so much I wanted to put it in its own special category.

Pyramid Scheme: A Pyramid Scheme is any non-sustainable business model which involves payment for services or a product that may not even exist. For example, let’s say an individual starts selling franchise shares in a new ‘rooftop advertising’ plan, where individual homeowners can make money by putting a billboard on their home. Some people buy in, and get billboards on their houses, and low and behold, they start getting paychecks. The problem is, the paychecks are funded by sales to new ‘franchisees’, not real advertisers. This is not a sustainable business model. A similar scheme is when a person goes online and sells “Money Making Packages” that can be resold by the people who buy it.

Internet Guru Scam: This is a tough one to really nail, because it walks a fine line between legitimate marketing practices and pyramid schemes. I define an Internet Guru scam as one where the only possible way to duplicate the guru’s success is by selling internet marketing information. For example, a person could write a book about making money writing Google ads. This person will skirt the ‘letter of the law’ about pyramid schemes by telling the purchaser of the book up front that the book is a ‘marketing’ book, giving ‘marketing techniques’, and that using these techniques, you can sell products like shampoo and dog walking services. But the book’s examples are things like ‘figure out a way for dog walkers to make an extra $1000 a month, and then market it to dog walkers’. Of course, this makes very little sense. Would a product teaching dog walkers how to make an extra $1000 a month be pretty easy to sell? Of course, the real product being sold is ‘How to make $1000 a month doing X’, where X can be anything. This is pretty much the same as the Envelope Stuffing Scam, except the sellers of this package stuff a lot of known marketing language into their products to hopefully avoid the Federal Trade Commision. Truth is, any Madison Avenue marketer knows that good headlines sell better than bland headlines, and most everyone else does too. I think I could sell $97 ebooks pretty easily with the title “How to make $1000s per year without lifting a finger”, in which I would say “write a book about how to make $1000s per year without lifting a finger”.

3. Products which are not scams must be worth the price tag. I honestly doubt there are very many ebooks out there worth $97. This is not to say there aren’t, but it’s rare. The information would have to be worth a LOT in order to justify paying more than most college textbooks. One of the ways online marketers often justify these prices is by claiming that the information will pay for itself, which may be true but generally isn’t. People always want to feel like money they spend is invested, not spent, so if they think ‘I can buy this ebook on Google Adsense for $77 and it will make me $1400 a month’. Well, it might if you are going to sell a book on making money on Google Adsense, but not if you are going to sell a book on repairing waffle irons. Make no mistake, good marketing can sell most good products, but you can get the two or three HIGHEST rated marketing books on Amazon.com for $77, and the information won’t be much different. So when I review a product, it really has to be worth the price tag.

The Run Your Car on Water Scam

Is “run your car on water” a scam? It is all hype?

It sounds too good to be true - running a car on water. If it were true, why wouldn’t big companies be doing it, right?

And, can it really save you money? Can you run your car on nothing but water?

Okay, so the promotional headlines for the Water4Gas books just seem like hype. But let’s break down the product offering, and cut through some of the hype.

First, despite the headline of “run your car on water”, Water4Gas is not really offering a product that tells you how to run a car from water out your kitchen faucet. It is offering informational books on creating an on-demand hydrogen hybrid from your combustible engine, which sounds less exciting but is more realistic.

Second, the reason it’s more realistic is because, as we all know, large car manufacturers have been building hybrids like crazy as US consumers are moving towards more eco-friendly habits. So, yes, the idea of running of your car on pure water is science fiction (for now), but the idea of converting your current gas-only combustible engine into a hybrid is a reality. In fact, nowadays, it’s downright common.

Okay, so now we know that Water4Gas is actually a legitimate product, how much do the books actually deliver on the promise?

The books do explain how to create an on-demand hydrogen hybrid engine from your existing engine, although if you are not technically inclined I wouldn’t take it on. There are garages around the country that will convert your engine to hybrid (or, convert it to run on vegetable oil), but even if you decide to have it done, I would think these books would be a wise purchase so you have some knowledge before you hire someone.

But, if you are always tinkering in your car or are mechanically inclined, you might decide to do the whole thing yourself and get the better gas mileage while saving money on the conversion. Plus, there is a money back guarantee, so if you decide it is more than you want to take on, there’s no real risk.
Check out Water4Gas to decide for yourself.

Craigslist Hoax Costs Oregon Man Property

After I saw this story about a man who lost a lot of his personal property after some criminal posted his address on Craigslist, and I hope all of these people get prosecuted.

A pair of hoax ads on Craigslist cost an Oregon man much of what he owned.

The ads popped up Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.