Are You Helping Crooks with Burglary in Mind?

You might have seen an email circulating recently warning of a sneaky new burglary trick that starts with the loss of your wallet.

According to the story, a woman had her wallet stolen from her purse, which she had foolishly placed and left unattended in a grocery cart.

She reported it to security at the store. Later, when she got home, she received a call saying the wallet had been found and that she should come collect it immediately.

What she didn't know was that the caller was actually the thief who'd found her contact details in the wallet, phoned her to get her out of her home, and then, while she was out, burglarized her home.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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VIN Switching: Identity Theft for Autos

It's not just us humans that are identity theft targets -- it happens to autos too, only then it's called VIN switching.

VIN is your unique Vehicle Identification Number, etched on labels that are supposed to be permanently fixed to the body and other parts of your car.

It's the only, mostly reliable, way of being able to accurately trace a vehicle's history and help to confirm title ownership.

It's totally illegal to change a VIN -- even for restorers who might be building a car from numerous different parts.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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Hidden Premium SMS Malware Invades Smartphones

Smartphones are being used for a new scam that involves infecting them with malware that secretly sends high-priced premium SMS text messages.

Victims don't know their phone is sending the messages. Instead, they end up with inflated charges on their phone bills, which go straight into the pockets of the scammers.

This premium SMS service is often hidden inside an app the user has downloaded onto their device. It may also include a monthly charge.

Unless they take the time to check bills carefully, users may not spot the scam for months.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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This Shortcut Could Help Delete Account Details

Have you ever found yourself battling to delete accounts you set up online, in an effort to make yourself less vulnerable to spam emails and identity theft?

Every time you sign up or register on a website, you give away your contact details and add one more group or organization that now knows how to contact you.

Of course, if you've already wised up, you may have created a "throw-away" ID and got yourself one of those one-time email addresses that you can delete later if you want.

But what about all those places where you already registered and now wish you hadn't?

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

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FIVE KEYS TO KNOWING WHO YOUR CLIENTS ARE

To build your business successfully in a crowded marketplace, it's essential to know exactly who you're marketing to. Knowing your target audience is critical to everything you must do to market yourself as a self-employed professional. Whether you're writing web copy, choosing networking events, or deciding what goes on your business card, you must have a clear picture of who you wish to engage with.

Here are five keys to consider when choosing, defining, and working with the right target audience for your business.

1. Market Niche ― Carving out a specific market niche will make your marketing easier, cheaper, and more powerful. You may already have a fair idea about what your niche should be. But how well have you defined it? In my view, the elements of an effective niche for a self-employed professional are: 1) target market, plus 2) specialty. Your target market is the group of people or organizations you wish to target as prospective clients. Your specialty is the particular area in which you provide service.
   For example, an executive coach could target high-tech companies and specialize in helping technical professionals become better leaders. A financial planner could target professional women and specialize in finding them socially responsible investments.
2. Ideal Client ― Inside your market niche, there is a subgroup of prospective clients that you would especially like to work with. These may be clients that fit certain demographic criteria, or those at a particular stage of business or life. For example, the executive coach above might identify her ideal client as one stepping into a new leadership role, rather than an existing leader who the company believes is failing.
3. Concise Description ― To make your niche work for you, it's important to have a concise description of it that almost anyone can understand. When you can describe who you most want as a client in just a few words, it's much easier to attract those clients' attention, and generate referrals from others who might know them. The financial planner above could say, "My favorite clients are professional women with $500K or more to invest, who'd like to make their portfolio more socially responsible."
4. Reaching Decision-Makers ― If you market to businesses and organizations, you already know you need to find the decision-maker for any project you'd like to work on. Part of your market definition needs to be not just the type of organization you wish to work for, but what people in that organization are the ones you need to connect to. Depending on what you do, this could be department heads for a department such as Training, Marketing, or Accounting. It could also be a department that handles all contract hiring for the company, like Human Resources or Purchasing.
   Keep in mind that individual clients have other decision-makers in their lives as well. A college student or teenager may need a parent's buy-in, a business owner may need the consent of a partner, and anyone may need to first consult with a spouse. Be sure you know who these people in the background are that may require more information or persuasion.
5. Understanding Your Business ― To make decisions about your niche and ideal client, be able to describe them concisely, and know who the right decision-makers are, you must have a through understanding of how your business fits into the larger world. If some of these areas seem a bit fuzzy, take time to find out more. You can interview colleagues or people in your target market, read the trade press for your field, or surf the websites of organizations, businesses, and professionals who might be prospects ― or competitors!

With these five key elements in place, you'll have built a solid foundation for marketing your business. When you truly know who your clients are, you'll have a much better chance of finding them.
Copyright © 2014, C.J. Hayden

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Small Firms & Chess Players Targeted in Latest Advance Fee Scams

We've almost lost count of the number of different tricks advance fee scam artists use to try to get their hands on your money.

They've certainly come a long way from the early days when they used to offer victims a cut of millions of dollars they claimed to be trying to smuggle out of the country.

But all of their scams are based on a single idea -- offering a payout or a big order with strings attached, involving payment of an upfront fee.

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©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

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10 Actions to Avoid Medical Identity Theft

A united effort has been launched to tackle medical identity theft, which now affects almost two million Americans every year.

Public and private sector organizations, consumer groups and medical agencies have joined forces under the umbrella of the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA) with the aim of tackling this insidious crime -- but it's an uphill battle.

So, what do we mean by medical ID theft?

This is how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) describes it: "A thief may use your name or health insurance numbers to see a doctor, get prescription drugs, file claims with your insurance provider, or get other care.

Click here to read the full article. 


©Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission.

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