Social media scams that all most fooled us.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and deliver your life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
My name is Jen, my name is Jill.
And today we are talking about the latest scams on social media that were not as evident as we thought they would be.
This is such an important topic because scams are becoming so much more complex, nuanced. They're using AI and we just got to be on top of our game. So we're helping to equip you today.
But first, this episode is brought to you by being at the end of your brow. Today Jill and I were talking about how I think we're both at the end of our rope. We are. We like to I'll let you lit on a little behind the scenes. We like to say how we each have seventy five percent of a brain and together we create one business owner with one hundred and fifty percent capacity, and this week we're operating at a combined one hundred percent.
You know what, some people would say, you're still doing great, and that person's me. I don't know if anybody else would say it by you know what, we're together, we bring one hundred.
But me, I'm saying I'm at the end of my ropes. Only thing that is saving me is having things written down before I descended that rope, kind of like in the real world, having a budget or at least some kind of loose plan for your finances, because there's no shame in hitting the end of your rope. It's the end of the school year, summer's about to hit, and you can turn your brain off. But before you descend into chaos, you should write down things like that you
want to remember once you're already in chaos. If you're spending is one of those things which we think it should be head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Budget. We have a really robust budgeting spreadsheet planner that I think you're really going to enjoy, thinking it's going to be very helpful for you. And always be checking our social media and things, because we often will have some sales,
some legitimate sales sometimes that are not scams. Sometimes because I'm at the end of my rope right now, I didn't write down what our current one is or if we even have one. I don't know. We do.
Actually we are running a sale currently.
You know what, I find it being on a friend letter fread letter, it's going to be in there percent because the people who write for us, shout out Kim Misty, they're still operating.
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You're swinging on the end of your rope in your car doing dropoffs, and that's who.
We made this. I mean, don't text and drive and don't budget and drive.
But well, if you're parked, you know you can you can be looking at your finances absolutely.
All right, let's get into some social media scams and I want to make a major shout out to Pleasant Green on YouTube. He was really the inspiration for this episode because sometimes I get enthralled in something and I get hyper fixated on it, and I don't Surely there's a neuro something titled for that that I could be diagnosed with, but I don't know what it is. I don't want to know what it is. I tell me
right now, Bay fixation is good hyperfixation. And his YouTube channel has been that hyperfixation for me for a little bit. That and Hannah Alonzo Pleasant Green. He gets the scams. Hannah Alonzo she covers MLMs and influencers, and so those are two YouTube channels that I am loving. This one. He is going into all of these scams that we're covering today, because I checked, and not only are the videos he's doing recent, the scams are also continually updating.
So right now these are new scams. They are as violent and on the rise as ever, and we don't want you to lose money.
To them, so keep your money.
The first one is sad old People.
That's the first scam.
That is the first scale.
Playing upon the elderly, pretending to be the elderly to get you to spend money.
So these are AI generated ads for old people's businesses, and there are of old people and they're saying either I have to they're changing, I have to close my shop. I'm doing a closing sale. Or my grandma or grandfather struggling in his business, and nobody's buying these things, and then cut to sad old AI generated man.
It's hard to tell that they're AI generated though. That's part of the difficulty now and how on high alert we have to be.
Yes, so pleasant Green. We will link to these the inspiration YouTube videos from the channel. But so he found one of a watchmaker, and so the video is of an older man who is selling his watches and.
Luxurious, high quality handmade and.
So is either going out of business or isn't getting sales. And I also wanted to put in Shellene Johnson is somebody who I followed for like probably a decade in the fitness world. She also posted a video on her social media which we will also link. She almost fell for an old person selling slippers. Same story, it's nobody's
buying my grandmother's or grand grandfather slippers slippers. Cut to video of an older man buy a selling machine making slippers, and it's just tugging on your heartstrings, like I got to give grandpa some money to keep making a slippers. So here's the anatomy of the scam. It is a paid ad on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, any social media platform. It's a paid ad. It's going to be
manipulating your emotions. So maybe it's not as extreme as the old person, but it is something that is making you feel bad for the person or for the person's grandfather or whatever to buy what they are selling. And she'll tell us what they're selling.
Oh, they're selling anything from watches to slippers to wreathes apparently.
And really what.
This is is from these larger, mass produced factories where you could be getting these products for ninety nine cents to a couple of bucks, and they are up charging it, which is this is a way that people make money. I mean, this really is the whole fast fashion industry. Drop shipping is a thing where they will bulk order a bunch of stuff from a site like ali Baba and then mark up the price and you purchase it.
That's not necessarily what's a scam. It's the marketing that is super scammy and exploitive, trying to claim that this item was handmade by somebody's grandfather or it's a family business and they're just being super secretive and a manipulative in their marketing of it to you when really they're just getting it at bulk order pricing and then driving the cost up.
Yeah. So in the Pleasant Green YouTube video, what he did was he tested it. So what this and this is a way that you can test to see if the product is Ali Baba Tamu Ali Express stuff like that shean is. He captured the image on the website and then Google image searched it and found it on Ali Express and so what he did and they were selling it the watch for a dollar, so he actually bought the watch for a dollar. He literally paid a dollar six no shipping costs, so crazy got it immediately.
And he same day bought the you know custom the watch made by somebody's grandfather. That one took a little longer to get there ended up coming in a nice blue box. So that's something that's uh for drop shippers, that's very common. They'll get the you know, the dollar one just came in a bag, no padding, no nothing. And this one that he spent forty dollars on came in a you know, something that you would imagine it's packaging would look like that's very common for drop ship
versus too. A charge for better packaging opens it up. It is the same exact watch down to the brand name is on the face of the watch, and it is a Chinese retailer of mass produced watches. Both of them felt like basically hollow inside. The strap was not adjustable. It was very much a dollar watch from Ali Express. And like Jill said, the drop shipping is not the issue, though it could be another issue in and of itself.
It is the manipulative marketing making you think you're getting something that is custom and not even custom, making you think you're getting something high quality, making you think you're helping someone. And we'll talk about quote unquote helping in one of our you know later scams. But it's manipulating on your goodness. So and we also saw some commenters on the video saying that they saw this with leather goods small like purses, which you'll actually see in his
video if you watch it too. It's not just watches or versus, it's all kinds of things. And like what Jill said about the wreath, one commenter said, I purchased what was supposedly supposed to be a huge, beautiful wreath for forty dollars from a quote unquote family business that was forced to liquidate due to the economy. That's a standard that is a very standard across the scams forced to liquidate due to the economy. What I got a month later, that's another thing. It is not two day shipping.
It's not Amazon. Was a very small plastic grief that would have cost me three dollars at the dollar store. Crazy. Okay.
The next social media scam is around home services. So this example that also came from Pleasant Green talked about an air duct cleaning service and how this company would pretty much act as a third party. Generally they are in another country and they will try to find leads for various home services. So in this example, again it's air duct cleaning, where they're going onto sites like Facebook Marketplace, joining local Facebook Marketplace groups and posting really sometimes like
recommendations for these types of services. So it's like the eighth page of Google air duc cleaning service. They will go on and say, oh, this cleaning service was so good. If anybody's looking for to get their air ducts clean, I highly recommend them, And a lot of times there's just trust in local Facebook market market marketplace groups are just fit on Facebook and.
It's usually city groups. Yeah Saint Pete Florida Facebook group.
Yeah yeah, sorry, not marketplace. And so people will see, oh, yeah, you know what, I might need my air ducks cleaned. I'm going to reach out to them, and then they will often charge you like an upfront payment and act as the middleman. They will then find somebody to come do the thing. Maybe it's an air duck cleaning service maybe, or maybe it's just some dude that they're able to find on Fiver, which we learned from the Pleasant Green who gave some examples from other people where they said
that they had somebody come out. They called the company, a guy showed up. So somebody will show up. It's not going to be the people that you had given the money too.
It's going to be some random from another like Facebook group for Saint Pete, Florida looking for work on Facebook group.
And then said that they did no work, sent pictures to that person that they had been in contact with of this guy showed up. There was a real person here, but work got done. Thankfully, they were able to file a chargeback with the bank so that they would get their money back. That's not going to always be the case, depending on how you end up paying, because a lot
of times they want Zell, they want Venmo. There's different ways that they might do something that is not FDIC insured or doesn't have some of the same protections that maybe using like a credit or a debit card might provide to you.
So that's another one.
To be super aware of who you're actually hiring and who's referral you're taking that we can't be as trusting even on these local groups on Facebook of who's being recommended.
Yeah, this could be air duct cleaning, it could be a number of home services. But the scammer themselves is either making money on selling the lead to a person in one of these you know, willing to work groups, or to one of these companies that's not getting any leads because you know, they're on the eighth page of Google, so it's it's gonna be one of those so and they're not. There's a reason they're going to be on
the eighth page of Google. And you can't even be sure if they're in one of these generic working groups that they even know how to do the service or have the tools to do the job. Under the comments for the video, we saw a couple that were interesting. One is I moderate a local Facebook group and the number of scammers I ban from requesting is ridiculous. Glad you mentioned the red flags always posting public news, same people who like the posts, So that's another thing when
you're looking to verify is this a legitimate recommendation. Go to the person's page who's recommending it if you're seeing they are only posting public news. But if you're looking the people who like the post of the public news, go to their profile. If they are also only posting public news and the same person's liking their post, that's
an ancestuous little hacker scammer group of profiles. So that is going to be a really key indicator that that was Either that profile was either farmed, whether so they make the profile, they set it up, hold it for a couple of years to make it look like it's an older profile, and then use it, or it was
hacked from somebody just happened to my mom's. She couldn't get her Facebook profile back and they changed the name, and it looks like you've got all of her posts from years and it looks like a legitimate thing, but then the only thing in the last few years has been scam posts.
Wow.
So yeah, so this happens quite frequently. Another one is I'm a locksmith and get calls from people with very heavy accents asking if I'm available for a job. I didn't know what was going on and found out they were using my website the same way. So it's not just air duct cleany, it's also locksmith services. Just got done talking to a scammer on Facebook. They use a
fake photo and profile. They said they were from Texas, but I got them to click on Gravify and it turns out they were using a VPN but the time zone was the same as Nigeria, and they said I learned that from you plus a cream. He has all kinds of tips on his videos on how to identify if somebody who you're talking to on social media is a scammer.
And that then Gravify is one of those resources. So he will talk about some of these ways to be able to check. And I think all of this can sound so overwhelming and it makes me want to reach for all. Right, then what can be done if I don't feel like I've got the time to dig in on this profile page and identify whether or not it's real or fake, or if I even feel like I've got the skill set for that. I honestly think it's
turning to your actual network. And we talk about this a lot about building our network and community and how important that is. And I think all the more reason to kind of live in the real world in the places where it's going to matter, asking our friends and family, Hey, who do you use for this service. It's not as
if we can't entirely trust Google. I think some of it then would just be to then go on to Google itself, look for some of these places, look at their reviews rather than kind of these third party sites like Instagram or Facebook where you're not entirely sure is this a third party, because it's a lot easier to kind of intersect as a third party.
And it is. It may seem overwhelming and something like you do, but it's important to have this information in the terminology, know how to explain it in case somebody you know it might become susceptibul to it and you're like, oh, I can tell that's a scam, but I don't know how it's a scam, so I can't help you avoid it because you know you're not going to believe me. But like, if you know how it's a scam, then
you can more easily help other people. And when you see it, because I was searching for these things, I'm like, surely after you know this has been up for a couple of months, people are catching on. They're not doing this. Literally within the last two hours of us recording, getting the same word for word posts and it's it's going on. Sometimes you know, it changes from you know, grandpa to grandma to uncle to in laws, whatever, but it's the same scam.
That's why this third one is extra important. It has to do with Facebook marketplace scams. And you know why market because we tell you to buy on Facebook marketplace, we tell you to buy secondhand. We think Facebook Marketplace is one of the best spots to do that. So here we go. This one's important. They will gain access to legitimate Facebook accounts and post listings for expensive items
at attractive prices. These are real photos of real things that other people have sold before, but again often being run from other countries. They are not who they say that they are you can't actually go and pick up that item from that person. So here's how it then ends up working. They will post you will say, hey, I'm interested in this thing. Well I'll start off first. A lot of the postings are very similar language, so that was a helpful. Here's what to do to be
on the lookout for this scam. A lot of times it'll be like my elderly father is moving into a retirement community and trying to liquidate his items. I am able to deliver to you for a small fee, let me know if you're interested in anything. And it's kind of like a whole lot that they're selling, and they've got different prices listed for a variety of things, but all reasonable prices. So it looks like, oh man, that
looks like a nice house. Those are good products. Even the staging of the thing looks good, Like if I'm looking for a kitchen eighty yeah, I want it to come from a kitchen with that kind of backsplash and countertop.
That's amazing.
So then you say is this still available? Can I grab it? They say, yeah, when do you want to come get it? Then you might list a day and a time and they're inevitably going to say I'm not available. What had happened in this example scam was that they then sent pictures back to the guy asking for the item with a screenshot of all of the people who are interested. Now this is a fabricated screenshot, but easy
to create. It just looks like a ton of people are asking about the item, and so then he's like, well, put down a deposit, I'll hold it for you. Then you'll be able to pick it up and be able to pay the full price. So that's where they get you. I'm paying money for that's the thing we have.
I haven't.
I know.
It's a trick that Travis will do, although in his circumstance he'll do it like he is the one offering that, Hey, I'm so interested in this, I'll give you. I'll then mow you twenty five bucks if you hold it for me.
So that it still could be a strategy. It's not. It's we don't advise it.
But anytime they are asking for upfront money before picking it up, your red flag should be going off because there is no you then actually meet up and you get your item.
Yeah, it's a little if they're just selling one thing like if you go to their Facebook marketplace profile and they are legitimately only selling one thing, it could still be legitim. That's why it's so hard, Like, that's why this is this episode is like social media scams we would almost fall for, right, Yeah, but it's just getting to a point where it's better safe than sorry. But a tell tale sign is if the person has uh it's you know, they're saying something like, hey, hey guys,
we're clearing out stuff from my dad's house. He got moved to aged care. You can literally copy and paste that forbatim, and it was posted two hours ago by somebody, three hours ago by somebody. It's ridiculous, and they're just posting it on their profile. Sometimes they're posting it in a group, but most of the time they're just posting
it on their profile because it's a hacked account. So they just want the person's you know, thousand, five hundred whatever how many followers to see this and believe them. They're not doing a large scale scam like somebody in a local Facebook group. This is more targeted, so it'll look like someone, you know, they may have tagged one hundred people. That's another thing. If that's one hundred percent red flag if they've tagged the mats amount of people.
But I'm seeing that they're not always doing that, so that's another thing. And yeah, so I've seen Dad's house, uncles in laws, but they just want they're trying to they're no longer need because they're moved to age care and they want to make some extra money. We have a truck and can deliver at a small extra fee. Send a DM if interested in any item.
But then they typically would have you venmo somebody who is not them. It would be a different name, and then if you ask about it, like in the example they're giving, it was well who is Tiffany?
Why am I venmoing? And then the person was like, oh, that's my cousin.
They live with me. There's something wrong with my Zell so hers is easier.
And that's the other red flag. That's another red flag and in a different direction.
But that's another potential.
This is a maybe deeper scam that ends up happening is they're using money mules. So a lot of times they are in other countries where Zell and Venmo doesn't work, so they have to use someone in the United states to be their money mule whose zell Venmo does work to then be able to in the example they were giving by bitcoin and be able to send bitcoin to whatever nation the scammer is actually in and the way that a money mule, they are also being scammed into
this as well, often again pulling on your heartstrings. This one woman had received a DM from somebody claiming that they were in the military and their child had cancer and he's not able to get money to his kid, and she needed to be able to get the money and then transfer it to him so that he would be able to help his child.
But he's overseas and blah blah blah.
It wasn't even a romance scam. It was just she thought she was friends with this soldier and that he was telling her a sob story and she felt bad for him and she was trying to help him because she's a kind person.
Yeah, so playing on patriotism, you know, appreciation for the military for a child with cancer, and it's not really costing her any money, right, so she can kind of say, well, they're not taking from me, And it's not that she knows that she's scamming somebody else. She's just, yeah, I receive some money. This is meant for you. I'll get
it to you. No big deal. And so when this guy who was uncovering the scams was actually able to reach out to her and he's like, hey, am I supposed to venmo you for this kitchen aid, She's like, I don't have a kitchen aid we're we're talking about And he's like, oh, okay, have you ever received money and then sent bitcoin to somebody? And that's when she described, yes, I have, but it's for a child with cancer. And then they dug in deeper and the child with cancer
was actually no longer alive anymore. This child had passed away nine years ago. These photos had been taken from an account that still kind of lived on in memorial to this child that they took those pictures from. I mean, really gross stuff happening that these scammers are doing. So
she thought she was doing something legitimate. Her emotions and kindness and good naturedness is being preyed upon to then like this other person's just thinking that they're buying a kitchen aid and the old things just.
All messed up. Yeah, And so these are how complex these scams are getting and so we want you to be able to identify them and be able to pretecked yourself. A few of the other Facebook marketplace scams are fake payment confirmation scams, so scammers will pose as buyers, send counterfeit payments via email or screenshots, claiming to have paid through sell Venmo or PayPal, and assert that the seller
needs to. So you're selling something and they send you a screenshot that they paid, but you're not getting it because they never paid, and they say, oh, you just need to upgrade to a seller account to get my payment. Well, then you pay for a seller account and you're out that money. And then also they just didn't pay, so you're not going to get it. So you've got that and then they just are banking on that you'll send them the thing. The other is over payment and refund scams.
This one's been around for a while. The scammer sends a fake payment exceeding the price and request the seller to refund the difference, and then once the seller sends the refund, they discovered the original paint was fraudulent or never processed, and then you're out that money. So I don't think a lot of people would you fall for that anymore? But it's actually still something that is going on right now.
Yeah, and it can seem so legitimate. And they'll also use a sense of urgency, making you feel bad like you've done something wrong. So depending on your awareness of what's going on in the moment, sometimes it's just I can't even think straight, and that's their goal, is for you not to have an awareness to even be able to give full thoughts to this, but just push, push, push, making you feel bad, and that's what can kind of lead people to fall for this. So here's some overall
tips to protect yourself. Verify profile, so checking when you're on social media the user's profile for activity history, reviews the age of the account, how long has it been around, Being very cautious of newly created accounts, those with limited information, those with limited friends, or weird requests from somebody that you are friends with. Always be aware that accounts can be hacked. Use secure payment methods, avoid transactions outside of
trusted platforms. This is one of the reasons that we do like credit cards because of the protections that they offer and the ability to get refunds when payment doesn't go through. It's also why we say. Do not have a Venmo credit card. Do not have a PayPal credit card. You can use these platforms to pay your friends. Do not keep money in them. Don't get the credit card. They do not offer the same protections as a Visa MasterCard something like that.
Always meet in public places. Go meet these people in person. Do not deal in internet. If you're mind something on the internet, go to the website. Don't do it over Facebook, mark Place. If you're going to buy something on Marketplace or get a service done, deal with the website directly or deal in person. Always be skeptical of unusual requests, so deposits, overpayments, urgent transactions, anything of urgency red flags. It's so hard because you want to be able to
make a blanket statement. Be like every account that's new is going to be a scam, but no accounts get packed, and people create new accounts because their old accounts got packed. So sometimes they are real people. You just don't know, So you have to just, you know, put on your thinking cap a little longer to verify.
And when a doubt, ask somebody else to help you sauce it out. You don't have to be the expert on all of these things. Somebody else who maybe does Facebook marketplace a lot, ask them, Hey, what do you think about this? There's something that feels a little off, but I can't quite pinpoint it.
What do you think You don't have to know it all.
Ask people in real life. Don't assume that you're ignorant, because and then everything that's usually what I do. I'll go with something because I just assume I'm ignorant and everybody else knows it. Don't ask people in real life. If you work in an office, ask coworkers, or get in your slack and ask people. Ask people that you know are real people.
And finally, report suspicious activities. So use Facebook's reporting tools to flag anything suspicious. The listings the users.
They they want to.
Be a platform that continues to exist, so it only helps them if you're able to identify and kind of just weed out these people.
But they are cropping up every day and you've got to be won't.
Do anything about them, but you should still report them.
You should still and you should still be aware. You know what else you should be aware of that is never suspicious?
You should always be doing it.
The bill of the week, that's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill clean, this is the bill of the week.
Hi, doan to My name is clean mansh in my childer week.
Lena, take a dollar every Sunday, and.
Then I take antoll to church every Sunday. Love your pie baked Bye.
Oh we're losing our side, losing.
She's already at the end of her rope. All right, I'm gone. I'm so sad for your ears. That pitch. I'm so sorry. Oh my goodness, I am done.
This was This is amazing, Quinn.
We are so thrilled that you're listening to our podcast and that you've got a very cool adult taking care of you and helping you be able to hear this podcast.
What a cool thing to be connected and friends with you, And.
What an awesome bill of the week you have. It sounds like you are very generous taking a dollar to church every Sunday.
How fun, so.
Fun, Quinn, ha be free.
I'm sure you are helping so many people with your weekly dollar that you're giving, and we just love the generosity that you're showing. We hope that you continue to cultivate that generosity and keep listening. We hope that this ends up being so helpful for you in your life. Quinn, thank you so much. If you all listening, have a
bill you want to submit. If you're four years old and you want to talk about your generous giving, or you're eighty eight years old, your name is Bill and you want to talk about a time you did not get scammed or just what your life is like. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We can't wait for it, and now it's time for I actually spit a little.
Earlier.
Oh wow, Okay, last time you felt like you got scammed or you've been scammed or really were scammed.
You know that, you know I was. You just want to make me talk about it again?
And I didn't do this one, Jill. I couldn't even remember if I'm the one who wrote the outline for this episode. Okay, I'm gonna be very honest. When we got into the office this morning and I looked at the outline, I was like, did I write this or did Goldie write it?
And we don't know.
I'd figured out that it was me wrote most of it, okay, and Goldie did add some things.
I'll tell you again so you know what the more of a merrier and if my faux pause can help you all, then then I'm here for it.
Sorry if this is a repeat story for you all, this is very recent, very recent.
And again this was when Jen and I were not in person together, so again that fifty percent brain fifty percent brain.
I didn't have her fifty percent to think this.
All the way through was on social media.
I was on Instagram because now I handle our Instagram account and responding to dms, and this woman had reached out saying, hey, I know this seems really weird, but I am just reaching out to anybody that I'm friends with, letting them know about my friend who's going through a really tough time. Their child is in the hospital, looking for donations. And we had already exchanged DMS, so her account at least was a listener who had reached out
in the past. We had talked to them about a product that we were selling, so to me, the account seemed legitimate because we had been in communication in the past. I clicked on the link. I read through the whole thing, and I even had the thought, I don't know this person, that this child might not actually have cancer, these people might not act actually exist. However, I was like, what's the big deal, though, If I'm out twenty thirty dollars I've given if it is legit, and if it's not legit, NBD.
So I did do that? What I didn't Okay, well, I'll finish the story and then I'll tell you what I didn't realize. So gave a little bit of money. Then responded to the person. I was like, hey, I'm so sorry this is happening, like, yeah, we did just send some money.
I hope, I hope. I hope the best.
For you and your friend. The next day that person reaches back out. They're like, oh my gosh, you guys were so sweet, but my account was hacked. Hope you can get your money back, and we were able to because thankfully we gave through a credit card. But what I didn't think about was that we had put down an address like we gave so I'm thinking we're protected by the credit card, and if this is a scam who cares. But we put down a billing address and
at the time, the billing addressed was Jen's house. Now we have a real office, so we are like a little bit protected.
But that was the flaw in my thinking. And I'm so sorry.
It's fine, I felt.
And that's the thing too that we have mentioned here. Scams can happen to anybody, and like there might be some where you are, you are locked up, you're not going to fall victim to that, but then there's others that, you know what, you might be a little bit more vulnerable too.
So they found my vulnerability.
Uh, and I was like, yeah, sure, what could what could go wrong? Thankfully, nothing really actually did go that wrong with it, but I did feel like such a dummy.
And I hope that that story helps our listeners because you've got usually seventy five percent of a.
Brain usually now and then between you and Eric you make up the rest.
It's and that was the problem is that you didn't consult.
Yeah, I know, I just send money to somebody on Instagram because I just think that everyone truly is my friend.
And we are frugal friends podcasts.
We have an Instagram account of people are dming me like it is us responding and you all feel like my friends. Although I hate to break it to you now, I'm jaded and if you ask me for money, I'm not giving it to you.
Yeah, there was a.
Small window of time where I might have given you money, but it's over now of like eight years, however.
Long we've been doing this, and I don't know, just.
Stinks like can you never give to a gofund me again? I mean you can, because you just have to know that.
Yeah, but sometimes it's a co workers.
You know.
There still can be some layers where it's like do.
You know that?
Do you actually know that?
Yeah?
That's you can google image search. That's a really good way to help verify or just ask a question. Don't think your questions are duck like, yeah, trust, but verify.
Okay, John, how about you? Your turn to be vulnerable? Almost scammed? You feel like marketing? Ever kind of scams you? If you've gotten scammed in any trends.
Maybe a fashion trend. I am at the end of my rope, so I'm sure there is a scam and maybe I just don't realize that I have been scammed yet. I am actually super cynical, and I don't well, and maybe that's why I get hyper fixated on scams, because I think everything's a scam and I just like to be verified in that.
So I would say, as an observer, the only thing that really does get you is marketing. Good marketing for something that's going to solve a problem for you, you will do.
That's not a scam adjacent.
Okay, So here is one. I had been following this digital marketer for quite a while in the printable space, and I wanted to get into selling downloadable principles and she was selling, of course on how she had made a million dollars selling these really robust printable packets, really doing a lot of them for free, and that was
a form of marketing. And I wanted to buy the course it was two thousand dollars and found out that my friend Caroline, our friend Caroline Benseil, she actually had the course, but she hadn't spent two thousand dollars on it, and so I had told her I wanted to take and she's like, oh, i'll give you the log in. You're not and you're gonna know why as soon as I give it to you, because typically that's not a good thing, like you want to respect somebody's intellectual property
and purchase it. But I understood why when she gave me the log in. It was the worst course I've ever purchased or not purchased. I'm so glad I didn't. It was so bad, and like half of the course was about trusting God with your business. It wasn't about principles. She set her sex success what's do And so I'm really glad I didn't pay for it. I wanted to email her and just give her some constructive criticism. I
realized later that she had a mental break. She was actually featured in a couple in a couple places for doing illegal things because of her psychotic break, And so because of her psychosis, she thought she was a successful printable business owner who'd made a million dollars, and she was not.
So telling everybody that everybody would believe her, no reason to not no way to really verify.
Oh and crazy.
Yeah.
So so that was the closest I've been to being scammed from marketing that I can remember off the top of my head. Again, I think I'm dumb on the internet, and I assume that I don't know, and I just go along them. Yeah, so that is That's my story. And I hope that this episode has helped you avoid some potential scams and you can be that real life person that helps other people avoid scams.
It doesn't stop with you avoiding scams. You need to also help others to avoid scams. It takes a team and a community. Yes, thank you all so much for listening. We love being a part of your community, and we love reading your kind reviews on the book.
Which that's not a scam. We actually wrote a book you can buy.
And here's an example of a review on our book from Teak in five stars says, buy what you love without going broke is unlike other personal finance books I've read,
and only in good ways. Jenn and Jill wrote this book to show the work on the things you can do without selling a course or coaching program like so many, to achieve your goals using values based spending instructions, Stories, applicable statistics, and funny anecdotes are sprinkled throughout the knowledge they present on simplifying finances and life for average people and families. I love their focus on community and contentment. A quote from the books she loved. We can buy
when we can buy ourselves out of our problems? What happens to belonging, sharing, knowing, and supporting. With the new but much needed trend on social media of under consumption along with more people trying out no spend challenges, this book is perfectly timed and could make such an impact on anyone's life. I am a longtime listener to FORR Girlfriend's podcasts, and this book conveys the foundational messages of many of the episodes.
Yes, thank you so much, Tiegan. This is so nice to hear, and I'm really glad that our listeners have been jiving with the book. I want everybody to jive with it. But it is truly a love letter for anybody who enjoys the podcast that I think you will enjoy and get a lot out of the book, and it'll save you sometime. You won't have to listen to five hundred other episodes. You can just read the book and get the gist.
Yeah, and if you liked the book, please leave us a review. If you like this podcast, please leave us a rating and review and we'll see you next time.
Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. So this episode releases on June sixth, which is six six. I graduated high school in two thousand and six, and I remember after I graduated, I went on a europe trip with some people from It was like school sponsored. But we left on June sixth, two thousand and six, six.
And it's about to be in a year six o six twenties, right, But.
I remember being on a plane over the ocean on six.
Six six, and You're like, this feels right.
I live to tell the tale.
Wow, you graduated high school two years before me.
I graduated high school a year early, so I know I'm only three months older than you.
Yeah, and my parents held me back, so I graduated a little bit later.
So that's how we got there.
Yeah.
Wow, yeah, similar age. But you're just you just got work done so much faster than me. And that's why I fall for scams and you jus I gets.
I gets like that, but wow, no happy June