Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Stephen Trantel Wall Street Insider Serial Bank Robber July 12, 2009

A Wall Street trader, Stepen Trantel, lived a secret life as a serial bank robber.

Stephen was on top of the world. He had worked for a trading company but was now self-employed, betting his own money, on the future price of oil.

Stephen said in his best year he made about $300,000 and thought he could finally afford to buy his wife Jeanne the house of her dreams. “Bought the bigger nicer house in Rockville Centre and we were on our way you know. Just didn’t plan enough ahead,” he admits.

The mortgage and other expenses had tripled. There were fancy cars, private pre-school, and Stephen was struggling to keep up with the bills.

As his troubles and debts mounted, Stephen decided not to tell Jeanne or anyone else how bad things had become. On top of that, his mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Stephen’s attention became divided, and he began to lose big money. He says he probably lost well over $200,000.

He had to do something, so he joined a prayer group.

“Stephen would be at the prayer group every week,” remembers family friend Pat Reynolds. “He eventually stopped coming and I wondered why. And I asked him and he said every time he would come on a Tuesday and pray for financial success he would go to work Wednesday and get crushed. He would lose more money than ever.”

Read more details here.




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BlackBerry Tour 9630 Reviews July 14, 2009

The BlackBerry Tour 9630 by Research in Motion (RIM) has been reviewed as the best CDMA BlackBerry smartphone available.

Two reviewers called the BlackBerry Tour “the best Verison smartphone,” while one just wrote that the BlackBerry Tour is the “no-brainer” choice for CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) networks.

The reviewers liked the QWERTY (the most used modern-day keyboard layout) keyboard, sharp, crisp screen, standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and push email.

The BlackBerry Tour is a world smartphone with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Moduale) that will work in 220 countries on GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks with a Verizon SIM that is pre-installed or an added SIM.

Many reviewers also liked the integration of contacts calendar with social networking services such as Facebook and Myspace.

Lack of Wi-Fi was a major fault of the BlackBerry Tour found by reviewers. Wi-Fi should be coming in later models. The camera was not highly rated for shutter delay and quality of the auto focus. And the video capture had a few glitches. Call quality and battery life were reviewed from good to excellent.

Read more details here.



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MyBlackberry Social Network July 14, 2009

Research in Motion (RIM) is launching MyBlackberry, a social network community July 14, 2009 for device owners to rate and review applications. This will be the first officially-sanctioned online space for BlackBerry fanatics.

MyBlackBerry will feature three basic social features.

Personal profiles for MyBlackBerry users will apparently center on the device you own. Level of detail and user profiling is up in the air at this point.

A key feature of MyBlackBerry will be ratings and reviews of applications. Reviews should become an important outlet for BlackBerry application developers.

Community forums is another feature of MyBlackberry where a threaded conversation can take place among BlackBerry owners for mutual support.

Read more details here.



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BEING UNIQUE IS A GOOD THING… ISN’T IT? C.J. Hayden, MCC July 17, 2009

New entrepreneurs frequently hear the advice to “be unique” in their marketing. The basic idea is a valuable one — to get attention in a crowded marketplace, you must stand out in some way. Distinguishing your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective. Crafting a novel marketing message can attract the notice of more potential customers.

There’s no question that an element of uniqueness in your marketing can make your business more memorable, competitive, and special to your target audience. These are all reasons why being different can be good. But how different should you be?

A student in one of my classes had noticed there were no display ads for management consultants in his local Yellow Pages. “What a great opportunity,” he thought, “to make my business stand out to prospective clients.” He spent over $200 per month on a large ad for a full year. The result was not a single phone call, unless you count the ones from vendors trying to sell him photocopiers and phone systems.

He had neglected to ask his consulting colleagues WHY none of them had ads in the Yellow Pages. It seemed like a good idea to him, and no one else was doing it, so he pulled out his checkbook. What never occurred to him — and what any experienced colleague could have told him — was that companies don’t choose management consultants from ads in the phone book.

Sometimes you can be too unique for your own good. There’s a lot in sales and marketing that is tried and true. If you decide to forge a completely new trail, you may be attempting an experiment that many others in your field have already tried with no success.

It’s not always just your marketing techniques that are a little too different. The same problem can afflict the product or service you are marketing.

I met a fellow while networking who had a “unique process” for helping companies resolve conflicts between employee groups. When I asked him to explain his process, he said I would have to experience it to understand it. I inquired how it compared to solutions like mediation or team building, and he told me it was a totally different approach that defied comparison.

Since I knew a company that needed help with a problem like the one he described, I would have liked to refer him. But I couldn’t picture myself calling my friend at the company to say, “Hi, I know someone who says he can fix your problem, but he can’t explain how. You’ll just have to hire him and see.”

Being noticeably different from the competition can help you attract customers and close sales. But claiming that you have no competition is naive. Comparisons to a known quantity can help prospective customers understand where your product or service fits in the range of solutions they are considering. If they can’t compare it to anything, it’s doubtful that they will be able to see how your offering could work.

Your market, too, needs to be a group of people who already exist and can be readily identified. A reader once wrote to ask me for some advice on getting her new book published. I asked what market category it fell into, and she replied that she hadn’t really thought about it.

I pressed her bit, explaining that her book needed to be categorized in order to be marketed and sold. Even something as simple as where to shelve it in a bookstore depended on having a category to print on the back cover. Was it self-help, spirituality, careers, business? Who did she see as the audience for her book?

She asserted that she was creating a new paradigm, and if I was going to help her, I needed to think more creatively. My reply was to tell her I couldn’t help her at all. Her idea may have been brilliant, but no publisher was going to touch her project.

Creating the perception that your product or service is one of a kind can help you capture people’s attention and make them remember you. But you have to be able to identify the people you want to reach and communicate how you can be of service in words they can understand.

You know those car commercials that go, “Zoom, zoom, zoom?” I had to see those ads dozens of times before I could remember that the car being advertised was a Mazda. “Zoom” was unique alright, but what did it have to do with Mazda? Or with the benefits of owning one? A catchy slogan like “Inspiration Beats Perspiration” may be clever and unusual, but what the heck is it marketing?

Definitely look for a unique way to express the benefits you offer to your clients, but make sure it still communicates what you actually do. It’s okay to get creative with your marketing, but don’t bet the rent money on untried techniques.

If you really want to make your marketing more effective, cheaper and less stressful, stop re-inventing the wheel. Find models that work and replicate them. I’m not suggesting that you plagiarize your competitors’ marketing copy, but when you see someone successful in your field, find out what they are doing right, and follow their lead.

Don’t let your business be a victim of “terminal uniqueness” — the belief that you are so different from anyone else that none of the rules apply to you. Being distinctive is good; being eccentric can be unwise.

Copyright © 2004, C.J. Hayden

Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter.



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Texas Instruments (TXN) 2Q Profit Down July 20, 2009

Texas Instruments Inc.’s (TXN) second-quarter (2Q) profit dropped 56% on lower sales and margins.

TXN or TI revenue grew from the first quarter on strong analog chip sales and a seasonal increase in sales of its calculators.

Chief Financial Officer Kevin March said that demand in the United States and Europe remain weak.

“In Asia and China, in particular, with the stimulus plan, there does seem to be signs of increased demand,” he said.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE(New York Stock Exchange): TXN report, combined with an outlook for the current quarter that topped Wall Street expectations, follow encouraging results from chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) last week and offers more hope that conditions in the semiconductor sector are improving.

TI or TXN shares have reflected that improvement, rising 75% from their seven-year low in December and trading at their highest level since last September. However, in after-hours trading, the stock fell 1.4% to $23.31 following the company’s earnings release.

Chief Executive Rich Templeton said TI or TXN is seeing “healthy trends” in its profitability, but “it will likely take some time before the economy strengthens.” He added that revenue is also more closely tracing demand after two quarters of severe inventory corrections.

Read more details here.



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Horses, Dogs, Birds Targeted in 5 New Animal Scams July 25, 2009

With pets in two out of three American households, lucrative animal scams have a huge potential target.

From drugging difficult horses before selling them and dumping unwanted ones on unsuspecting stable owners, to phony DNA tests and bogus certification, there’s no end to the tricks.

Click here to read the full article.

©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org





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Layoffs, Palm Pre Coming to Verizon July 28, 2009

This recession is a long way from over if Verizon’s latest earnings are anything to judge by. Reporting second-quarter earnings that were a penny better than the 62 cents per share Wall Street had been expecting, the company said it suffered a nasty 21 percent drop in profit thanks to the econalypse, which is pinching enterprise customers pretty hard these days.

Click here to read more.

Digital Daily

by John Paczkowski




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SMS Hack Can Hijack iPhone Easy July 31, 2009

Security researcher, Charlie Miller discovered the SMS Hack of iPhone a month ago. Miller and fellow researcher Collin Mulliner will make the discovery public at today’s Black Hat cyber security conference in Las Vegas, where hosts and attendees exchange information on Internet threats and security.

The hackers could use this technique to take control of Apple Inc. computers and iPhone’s in order to steal data, disproving the long believed theory that Apple products are more secure than PCs.

The hack involves sending a series of SMS messages to hijack the iPhone. At that point, the hacker could make calls, steal data, send text messages, and basically control all functions of the phone. The hacker could even use it to hijack more iPhones.

Charlie Miller told Forbes:

“This is serious. The only thing you can do to prevent it is turn off your phone. Someone could pretty quickly take over every iPhone in the world with this.”

That is a bit of an exaggeration. First a hacker would have to know the appropriate phone numbers to use to hack an iPhone.

The researchers also found a similar “remote control” texting bug in Windows Mobile, and other bugs in Android and the iPhone that can let hackers boot the phones off the network.

Miller and Mulliner also found a hole in the iPhone’s Safari browser way back in 2007 when it was first launched.

Get More Details Here on SMS Hack of iPhone



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Tutor Scam Alert for Work-Seekers August 5, 2009

A recent email from streetwise Scambusters’ subscriber Scott about a tutor-help-wanted ad he answered in Craigslist put us on the trail of tutor scams for this week’s issue.

We weren’t surprised to uncover multiple variations of basically the same theme, along with a number of other, different tutoring scams — all aimed at taking money for nothing.

Click here to read the full article.

©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org



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Affiliate Marketing: Succeed Online by Michael Fleischner

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways for website owners to earn some extra cash. Millions of products are sold each and everyday online, and with each transaction, many individuals earn a commission.

So how can you get a piece of this ever-increasing affiliate product pie?

Simply stick to the tried-and-tested methods that have worked for many years and still continue to work well in the affiliate marketing world of today – you’ll be sure to win! With the top three affiliate marketing strategies given here, you will be in a very good position to increase your sales and be successful in the amazingly profitable sphere of today’s affiliate marketing programs online.

1. Having unique web pages to promote each separa
te product you are marketing. Do not just throw them all in ‘en masse’ to save a little money on web hosting.It is desirable to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Actually, having said that, there are quite a few web hosting companies that will allow you to host Unlimited Domains on your account – so hosting charges should not be a problem if you go down that road.Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial appreciation on what the products can do for those who purchase them.

Try to include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure, however, that these customers are willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles displaying the uses of the product and include them on the website as additional pages. Try to make the pages attractive and compelling. Also, don’t forget to include a few requests for them to act on the information.

Each headline should attract the readers and encourage them to try and discover more, possibly even to contact you. Draw attention to your product’s special points. This will help your readers to learn what your page is about and will possibly make them want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible, locate them at the very top of your page so they simply cannot be missed.Try to create personal-type auto responder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign-up box.

According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospective client.Only one of two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: a) a closed sale or b) the prospect leaving the web page never to return again.By placing useful information into their in-boxes at certain specified periods, you will later remind them of the product they were interested in and may find out that the sale is soon closed.

Do make sure that the content of your messages is directed toward specific reasons for buying the product. Never ever make it sound like a sales pitch.Focus on important points showing how your product can make life easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email.

As much as possible, avoid having the word “free” in there because some of the earlier spam filters dump those kind of contents straight into the junk so no-one even gets the chance to read them beforehand.Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing out on something big if they do not take advantage of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are promoting, they will be among those who move on and never come again.
Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that are focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest. Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.

Always try to remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or subscribe to your services. If you can generate as many as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, this means that you can make 10 sales, based on the average statistics.

The methods defined above are not really difficult at all to do, if you think about it. It just involves a small amount of time and a definite plan of action on your part.Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end up doing something that not every affiliate marketer can do and that is, maintaining a really good source of income and being successful in this business. Besides, when you become successful, think of those regular massive pay-checks you will be receiving!

About the Author

Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and owner of The Marketing Blog. Learn how to improve search engine rankings with The Webmaster’s Book of Secrets.



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If Affiliate Marketing is tough for you, see the easy side.

I have discovered a completely cool site that helps affiliate marketing novices get on the road to success. And this is not any old marketing site. It is designed specifically to make affiliate marketing easier for its users.

If you are "no good" at affiliate marketing like I am, this is the right place for you.

I never would have thought of looking at this site, except that my trusted friend from my social network of 5 years told me about how good this place was. I would have passed it up as a scam or fly-by-night scheme if I had not paid attention to it.

This place is called ACME People Search

You create your own niche people search engine here, And you can get 8 income streams going all at once. Tissa the APS(ACME People Search)owner will help you get started for free for one month. Then after that you can still get your fees paid by Tissa if you become a super sponsor in the ACME People Search Forum.

I admire Tissa's site for requiring education. You can learn step by step how to market online at WAU (Wealthy Affiliate University.) They have a forum there where you can get help on many of the details about marketing online.

I give ACME People Search an A+ for effort on educating and helping it's newest affiliates.

Be prepared to do some work when signing up as an affiliate at APS.




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Monday, October 19, 2009

Obama to Propose Strict New Regulation of Financial Industry June 17, 2009

This week the Obama administration will propose the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression which includes a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers’ interests.

The new plan is expected to be released Wednesday. Our government would have new powers to seize key companies like insurance giant American International Group Inc. whose failure jeopardizes the financial system. Currently, the government’s authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks.

“We had a system that proved too unstable, too fragile. . . . Those are things we have to change,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Monday at an economic forum in New York.

In addition, the administration wants to impose regulation over the market for derivatives; the murky financial contracts used to hedge risky investments including new reporting and disclosure requirements. Institutions that originate loans would be required to retain 5% of the credit risk when the loans are turned into securities.

In the heat of the financial crisis last year, there were widespread calls for the government to merge several banking regulatory agencies into one to reduce gaps in oversight and stop what might be called “regulator shopping.”

For example, AIG was able to choose the Office of Thrift Supervision for its non-insurance financial business when it bought a small savings and loan in the late 1990s. That office has been viewed as a weaker regulator, and was strongly criticized in a government report this year for ignoring repeated warning signs about Pasadena-based IndyMac Bancorp before the thrift’s failure last summer.

Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America said, “I’m concerned that people think we’ve stepped back from the brink of disaster and so they’re not as committed to seeing real meaningful reforms adopted.”

Scott Talbott, chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents large financial institutions, said there was still a strong impetus in Washington for regulatory reform and dismissed the suggestion that the Obama administration had missed its chance to implement it.

“This has moved at lightning speed,” he said. “You’re talking about a historic piece of reform.”

Read more details here.



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Business Bad for Nestle’s Toll House Refrigerated Cookie Dough June 20, 2009

The Nestle company is recalling an estimated 300,000 cases of the cookie dough as a precaution after reports of food-borne illnesses in 28 states.

The pre-made dough may be contaminated with the bacterium E. coli 0157:H7, which causes abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea, said the Food And Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Young children and the elderly are more effected by the bacterium E. coli.

“While the E. coli strain implicated in this investigation has not been detected in our product, the health and safety of our consumers is paramount, so we are initiating this voluntary recall,” stated Nestle.

According to Laurie MacDonald Nestle spokes woman, raw dough was one of the things the sick people reported eating.

“The health and safety of our consumers is our No. 1 priority,” she said. “We felt the best thing to do is a voluntary recall.”

She said Nestle was informed by the FDA Wednesday night “and immediately took action.”

“We really want to remind consumers that raw cookie dough should not be eaten,” said MacDonald.

The CDC says, 66 people have become sick in 28 states after eating raw cookie dough since March. Twenty-five people were hospitalized and no one has died.

The FDA and the CDC say people who have become sick after eating refrigerated Toll House cookie dough should contact their doctors.

Read more details here.



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Take the Right Steps to Prevent Identity Theft When Your PC is Replaced, Lost or Stolen June 27, 2009

There’s probably only one failsafe way to totally prevent identity theft when you sell or give away your computer. That’s by removing the hard drive first and putting it through a commercial crushing machine!

But maybe that’s a bit over-the-top for your needs, especially if you want to give away a complete system for someone else to use.

Click Here to read more.

©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org




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Was whole economy a Ponzi scheme? June 30, 2009

LONDON — It was perhaps inevitable that we ended 2008, the year we learned we were up the creek, with a great financial scandal: the Madoff Ponzi case.

What is even more remarkable is the way in which the alleged fleecing of wealthy people and charities – investors who should have known better or employed people who did – of many billions of dollars serves as a mirror for the broader culture. It shows how we went wrong and where we are left, now that we realize our errors.

Click Here to read the full article.

By James Saft
The New York Times


Published: Thursday, January 1, 2009




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Cybercrime spreads on FacebookJune 30, 2009

Fraudsters prey on users who think the world’s top social networking site, Facebook, is a safe haven on the Internet.

Lisa Severens, a clinical trials manager from Worcester, Massachusetts, learned the hard way when a virus took control of her laptop and started sending pornographic photos to her colleagues.

“I was mortified about having to deal with it at work,” said Severens, whose employer had to replace her computer because the malicious software could not be removed.

Cybercrime costs U.S. companies and individuals billions of dollars a year. Scams target and exploit those naive to the dark side of social networking, security experts say.

MySpace was the most-popular hangout for cyber criminals two years ago. Experts say hackers are now entrenched on Facebook, whose membership has soared from 120 million in December to more than 200 million today.

“Facebook is the social network du jour. Attackers go where the people go. Always,” said Mary Landesman, a senior researcher at Web security company ScanSafe.

Scammers break into accounts posing as friends of users. They send spam that directs them to websites that steals personal information and spreads viruses. Hackers take control of infected PCs for identity theft, spamming and other mischief.

Read more details about Cybercrime on Facebook here.



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Watch Out for Mortgage Reconstruction and Foreclosure Scams July 3, 2009

This issue focuses on avoiding foreclosure scams — and helping others do so as well. Although this issue is targeted to the US program, similar scams likely exist in other countries as well.

Mortgage reconstruction — on the face of it — sounds like a good step towards reversing the real estate market collapse: a government program to help up to 7 million Americans save their foreclosure-threatened homes by significantly lowering their repayments.

Click here to read the full article.

©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org





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SCAM: The Nigerian Advance Fee Scheme June 17, 2009

The Nigerian Advance Fee Scam has been around for quite awhile, but despite many warnings, continues to draw in many victims. In fact, the Financial Crimes Division of the Secret Service receives approximately 100 telephone calls from victims/ potential victims and 300-500 pieces of related correspondence per day about this scam!

Click here to read the full article.

©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
Subscribe free to Internet Scambusters at
http://www.scambusters.org




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Senator John Ensign Announces Extramarital Affair June 17, 2009

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev) announced at a Las Vegas press conference Tuesday that he had an affair with a campaign aide who was married to another Ensign staffer.

“They both worked for me,” said Ensign.

“Last year I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage,” said Ensign. “It is the worst thing I have ever done in my life. If there was ever anything in my life that I could take back, this would be it.”

The news was the latest setback for a Republican Party that suffered losses of at least 13 Senate seats in the past two elections.

It was unclear why Ensign decided to disclose the affair Tuesday. He took no questions from reporters at the news conference.

Ensign’s wife, Darlene, also released a statement about the affair.

“Since we found out last year we have worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation. This has been difficult on both families. With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger,” said Mrs. Ensign.

In his statement, Ensign indicated he will not resign his Senate seat, adding, “I know that I have hurt and disappointed my wife, Darlene, my children, my family, friends, my staff and all those who believed in me. To all of them, especially my wife, I am truly sorry.”



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Madoff Is Sentenced to 150 Years in Multibillion Dollar Ponzi Scheme June 30, 2009

Bernard Madoff was sentenced to prison today after he admitted to running one of the largest and longest financial frauds in recent history.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan ordered Bernard Madoff who is 71 years old, to serve the statutory maximum sentence in prison of 150 years.

“Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil,” said Judge Chin.

“By giving this sentence the judge tried to send a clear message to victims he heard their pleas for justice,” said Paul Radvany, a Fordham University law professor. The judge also wanted to send a message to would-be Madoffs “you’ll face very serious consequences,” said Mr. Radvany.

The news about Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme has some wondering what exactly is a ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a type of pyramid scheme that promises a huge return in a very short. The Ponzi scheme relies on giving big payouts to early investors to lure in new investors and using new investor money to pay off the early investors. If a Ponzi scheme is working the early investors will often reinvest their money in the corrupt scheme. The term originated with Charles Ponzi who bilked investors out of millions in the 1910s and early 1920s. At his peak Ponzi was bringing in $250,000 a day. Here’s an explanation from the U.S Securities and Exchange Commision.


Ponzi schemes are a type of illegal pyramid scheme named for Charles Ponzi, who duped thousands of New England residents into investing in a postage stamp speculation scheme back in the 1920s. Ponzi thought he could take advantage of differences between U.S. and foreign currencies used to buy and sell international mail coupons. Ponzi told investors that he could provide a 40% return in just 90 days compared with 5% for bank savings accounts. Ponzi was deluged with funds from investors, taking in $1 million during one three-hour period—and this was 1921! Though a few early investors were paid off to make the scheme look legitimate, an investigation found that Ponzi had only purchased about $30 worth of the international mail coupons.



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The Case of the Missing Referrals by C.J. Hayden, MCC

One day, the phone just stopped ringing. At first, you may not have noticed it. You were busy serving your clients, keeping up in your field, and getting the bills paid, like all good professionals do. But then a project ended or a client quit, and you didn't have a replacement waiting in the pipeline. Suddenly you realized that it had been quite some time since any new prospects were referred to you. Yikes, what's going on?

Whether you've been in business ten months or ten years, it can take you by surprise when referrals suddenly dry up. When business is thriving, referrals routinely arrive in one of two ways — either you hear from prospects who say they were referred by someone else, or people in your network pass along the name of prospects who need you. If neither of those things are happening, you have a problem. Without referrals, you'll have to work much harder to get new business.

But where have your referrals gone? You may need to put on your detective hat and do some sleuthing to find out. Here are some of the most common reasons why referrals disappear, and what you can do to get them back.

1. You've dropped out of sight. When was the last time you attended a networking event? Volunteered on a committee? Wrote an article? Spoke in public? Sure, you've been busy, but if you stop being visible in your target market or professional community, people forget about you.

Clues: The only appointments in your calendar are client meetings. When you run into colleagues, they say, "I haven't seen you in a long time."

Solution: No matter how busy you are with client work, make it a practice to do at least one thing each month that keeps you visible.

2. Your network has stopped expanding. When your contacts are limited to people you already know, your referrals are limited to only the people that they know. Without anyone new in the circle, there's nowhere for fresh referrals to come from.

Clues: You haven't added any new names to your contact database in months. You can't follow up with your network to stimulate more referrals, because you've already talked to everyone you know.

Solution: Ask the people you know to introduce you to any of their contacts who might be helpful. Spend some time getting to know these new folks. Then they will become your contacts, too, and your network will automatically expand.

3. You're networking with the wrong people. Perhaps your clients are consumers, but your networking contacts mostly have a corporate market. Or all your networking is through your professional association where most of the members are direct competitors.

Clues: You're in touch with many people on a regular basis, but no one is referring to you. When a referred prospect does contact you, their needs aren't a fit for what you do.

Solution: Identify categories of people who have regular contact with your target market, and are likely to encounter needs you can fill. For example, a small business accountant will be more likely to get referrals from networking with attorneys, financial planners, and bookkeepers than by spending time with corporate consultants, health practitioners, or other accountants.

4. People think you're too busy. When you give the impression you're overwhelmed with work, your contacts will stop referring to you. But if you wait for your workload to lighten before putting out the word you're ready for more, it will usually be too late.

Clues: You hear that one of your old referral sources sent business to a competitor. Someone tells you, "I thought you weren't taking new clients."

Solution: Return phone calls and emails from referred prospects promptly, even when you're too busy to help them. Refer them on to someone else you trust, then thank the person who sent them to you. This will encourage your contacts to keep referring in the future, as they know their referrals will always be taken care of.

The secret to avoiding the "feast or famine" cycle that plagues many professional service businesses is to stay visible instead of hunkering down in your office, and nurture your network even when you don't need it. In order to keep a constant flow of referrals coming, you need to give your referral-building activities the same high-quality, consistent attention you give your client work.

That way, you'll be able to focus your detective skills on solving problems for your clients instead of having to worry about where your next client is coming from.



Copyright © 2009, C.J. Hayden

Read more free articles by C.J. Hayden or subscribe to the GET CLIENTS NOW! E-Letter.



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Smishing Scam

It's easy to guess what "smishing" is all about. It's the use of SMS messages -- texting -- as an aid to identity theft, which is still the number one cell phone scam.


The practice of sending text messages that claim your bank account or credit card has been blocked has been around for years, but obviously it still works well for the mobile phone scam artists, since police in both North America and Europe have reported a rise in incidents.



Click Here to read more.
 
©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

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