Sometimes You Have to Spend Money to Lose Money
We all know that watching your money is as much about increasing your income as it is about controlling your spending. Nothing beats adding a few passive income streams to provide that extra little bit of income. One great way is by putting a few ads on your website – or possibly signing up for an ad-revenue service.
It sounds great, doesn’t it?
That’s what a friend of mine’s sister thought. So she grabbed the credit card and happily paid the two dollars to sign up.
That’s where her troubles began.
See, even though this company had “Google” in the name it wasn’t actually associated with Google. Instead it was a classic scam: She signed up for a $2.00 offer – and two weeks later the first regular charge for $75.00 per month hit. Needless to say, she was not happy. Neither was my friend, who was the one actually responsible for the credit card.
Still, the point of the story isn’t what happened to my friend, or his sister.
The point of the story is that anything that looks too good to be true probably is, and never provide a credit card number unless you’ve read the fine print. The unfortunate truth is that the internet is rife with people who want nothing more than to take your money. If they can get you to pay them regularly, so much the better! At least from the scammer’s point of view.
There is good news, though, too. Not everyone on the internet is out to rip you off. It’s also pretty hard for people to rip you off unless you let them. That’s actually the key. Most scam artists rely on their victims’ desire to get rich without doing anything. In fact, many of these schemes appear as if you’re going to be the one ripping them off. So simply by avoiding greed, you can often avoid the worst of the scams.
It’s all about staying on top of your money and not doing anything without thinking it through first; and that’s the real key to to frugality. It’s your money, you need to be in control.
So next time you’re looking for a little extra money, take the time to do your research and find out what you’re really signing up for. You’ll be glad you did.