Instagram Scams Fool Hundreds of Thousands

It sounds hard to believe but an estimated 100,000 people have willingly given away their usernames and passwords in an Instagram scam.

Instagram is one of the big players in the latest craze for image-sharing social networking sites.

It's owned by Facebook and has more than 150 million members, many of whom use it to legitimately share family, fun and friendship photos.

It's also used legitimately by many celebrities and businesses to visually promote themselves.
Often, Instagram photos are cross-shared via other networks, like Facebook and Twitter.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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Security Threat to Mobile Card Readers

Things have come a long way in the world of debit and credit card readers -- and the crime that goes with them.

Remember those contraptions that merchants used, with a paper triplicate form they laid on top of your card and then swiped a rolling head across to create a carbon impression of your card number?

You still see them sometimes today, but usually only when the electronic digital reader has failed at the cash register, or point of sale (POS) as it's usually called.

But, as with most things, there's a price to pay for progress. We've previously reported on how scammers hijack POS card readers by replacing them with doctored devices that capture victims' card information in Gas Pumps Targeted in Latest Card Skimming Scam.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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AARP Launches Fraud Watch Network For All

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has stepped up the fight against scammers with a new campaign -- the Fraud Watch Network -- that goes beyond the organization's traditional audience of people over 50 years old.

AARP has long been a powerful Scambusters ally, contributing to and featuring in many of our issues over the years.

As we've reported, elder fraud is one of the most common and costly forms of con-trick crime, but ultimately, every age segment of the population is vulnerable, so AARP has directed its new campaign at the entire population.

"We're inviting anyone, of any age, to access our website and network of resources free of charge," it says.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

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DON'T GIVE UP ON FOLLOW-UP

Follow-up may be the most underrated marketing technique in existence. Self-employed professionals spend an enormous amount of time and money on attracting or meeting people who might do business with them. They build websites, go to networking events, purchase ads, set up social media profiles, and more. But marketing activities like these are aimed at making contact with new potential clients for the first time. Follow-up is missing from the picture.

You've probably heard the following truths about marketing and sales before:

• People prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust.
• It takes five to seven contacts with a prospect to close a sale.
• Marketing is a process; not an event.

These are all different takes on the same essential message: you must follow up with prospects, over time, in order to get their business. People who have met you or heard about you only once hardly ever buy. But even though the typical entrepreneur knows this, we frequently forget it when designing our marketing approach.

I've written before about why follow-up seems to be so hard and the many different forms effective follow-up can take. But every time I talk about putting more focus on follow-up, readers and students have questions. Below are the five questions I'm most often asked, with some answers to help you overcome the obstacles that may be keeping follow-up out of your marketing.

1. Why should I follow up; won't people call when they need me?
No, they won't. The person they will call is someone they remember. If they haven't heard from you recently, that person won't be you. If there are two appropriate people they remember, they will call the one they trust the most. Following up consistently over time builds trust.

2. Isn't following up being too pushy?
Respectful, timely follow-up isn't pushy; it's professional. When you tell prospects you will contact them again, they expect to hear from you. When prospects let you know they are interested in your services, they expect to hear from you. If you disappear after one contact, prospects either forget you, think you don't care about them, or wonder whether you are still in business.

3.How often should I follow up with a prospect?
That depends on how strongly you believe that prospect needs you. In general, if you think a prospect's need is urgent, follow up immediately, again in a couple of days, and again after one week. When he/she has a need, but it isn't urgent, follow up the first time within a few days, then again every thirty days. If you're not sure he/she has a need, but the prospect fits your target market, follow up the first time within a week, then again at least once per quarter.

4.What should I do if a prospect never responds?
Lack of response tells you nothing. When a prospect doesn't respond to calls, emails, or letters, you have no way to know why. Keep following up on the schedule that matches what you know about the prospect's need for your services, as in #3 above. You'll be glad you did every time you reach a prospect on the umpteenth try and he/she says, "I'm so glad you called." Trust me, it will happen.

5. When should I stop following up with a prospect?
Usually, never, unless he/she asks you to stop, or you come to believe that prospect would not be a good client for you. A helpful guideline is to measure the value of any potential sale against what follow-up is costing you. A $100 potential sale may only be worth a phone call or two plus an unlimited number of emails. A $10,000 potential sale is probably worth many calls, letters, and emails, plus lunch or coffee.

Follow-up deserves a central place in your marketing plan. Every marketing approach you devise needs to have follow-up built into it. Plan in advance to follow up multiple times with every prospect you attract or meet. Don't give up on follow-up, and it will deliver for you.
Copyright © 2014, C.J. Hayden

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Journey Through Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota Urban Legends

We're traveling through the north for this week's episode of our ongoing alphabetical urban legends tour of the US, with visits to Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota.

On this trip we encountered the usual crop of haunted houses and Bigfoot variations ("Dogman" in the case of Michigan), so we'll give those a miss this time around.

Even so, we still uncovered some weird stories of space aliens, college mythology and crazy laws. Read on to learn more.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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