Year: 2009

It’s been a while since we did a scam post.  Fake reputation scams happen on-line and off-line and can be one of the toughest frauds to detect or avoid.

On E*Bay it’s well known that malicious users will build up a reputation by selling small, inexpensive items (paperback books are popular) or by running an honest-to-goodness real E*Bay store.  They will follow through with the transactions and get a large amount of positive feedback.  Then they make a number of fraudulent auctions / sales and not fullfill any of them.

One of the worst (or best depending on your perspective) parts of electronic commerce is you can usually abandon an identity.  This allows the scammers to then start doing the exact same thing again under another name.

Off-line a friend of one of my relatives got burned by the real-life version of this.  He ran a computer business, and started doing business with a man for the first time.  They did a sequence of transactions, each larger than the last.  Each time there would be something unusual about the transaction, but it would work out, and he would get paid.

It turned out the con man was feeling him out, determining what he could get away with, and the maximum order size the friend could handle.  Eventually it was time to pull the trigger and the con-man managed to make off with dozens of computers without paying for them.  It destroyed the computer store owner, who abandoned his business (and his marriage) and basically had a nervous breakdown where he wandered the continent sleeping in the back of his SUV.  He was talking at one point about trying to hire a hit man, which luckily friends talked him out of.

Since these sorts of scams work by gaining our trust, there’s no sure-fire way to prevent it other than to be suspicious of everyone (which would cause its own problems).  When the friend who got conned was relating the experience to me, he remembered clearly that with each deal it seemed a bit funny.  It can be a hard thing to say “no” to someone, or to admit that we don’t understand a deal that’s being proposed.  Some people will prey on this reaction to try and take advantage.

When I was trying to rent my condo, a man showed up who was interested in a rent-to-own and we talked about that extensively (he was going to do a sandwich lease where he rents-to-own from me, then rents to his own tenant).  Discussing the details, he was very accommodating (and tried to buy me dinner).  Later, he tried to change elements of the deal that he had previously agreed on.  When I pointed out that what he was saying was different than what he’d previously agreed to, his response was “I have to admit I love the way you think , very detailed too detailed at times , just kidding” (notice that in the same sentence he’s complimenting me, then telling me that I’m “too detailed”).  He told me about 5 times that he didn’t think we should involve lawyers in the transaction (and I told him 5 times that I’d be involving a lawyer in the transaction and encouraged him to do the same).  Throughout our interactions, he also told me repeatedly how much he liked me (while it’s true that I *AM* a very likable guy, it’s just creepy to say it out loud).  I kept asking him questions and he eventually told me it was “none of my business” (when I’d asked him who he was planning to rent to).  This was enough red flags for me at that point that I just killed the deal and kept looking for a normal tenant.  I could be wrong and maybe everything would have worked on with the rent-to-own guy, but I hasn’t regretted for 1 second walking away from it.

Years ago when I went backpacking across Europe an aunt told me to trust my feelings and if I was getting a bad vibe about a person or situation to just leave.  I’ve found it was good advice when traveling, and is probably good advice for business and life as well.  There are times when you’ll be nervous about a deal, just because it’s larger or different than you’re used to.  But if you’re honestly getting a bad vibe about doing business with someone, make sure the safe-guards are in place that they won’t be able to “take the money and run” (and don’t be afraid to just not do business with them if they fight you when you try to put those safe-guards in place).

Have you ever had someone gain your trust, then steal from or defraud you?

Dave Ramsey is a fairly well known personal finance celebrity who is somewhat controversial for his methods. His fans love him and his detractors can’t find anything good to say about him.  He created the Dave Ramsey baby steps and if you really keen – you can attend the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. It seems there are large numbers of people either for him or against him.  One of the terms which is often applied (or self-applied) to Ramsey is that of “financial expert”.  This article will take a look at Ramsey’s various methods to determine if that title is accurate or not.

In short I would say that Dave Ramsey is definitely not a financial expert.  His main field of expertise is debt reduction motivation which is he very good at so maybe he should be called a “Debt Reduction Motivational Expert”.  This is not intended to be a criticism since the “financial expert” label implies a high level of knowledge of all things finance which is pretty much impossible for one person.

Dave Ramsey debt reduction snowball method

Ramsey’s “snowball” method is one of his most effective strategies as well as his most controversial.  Basically the idea is that if you have more than one loan – you should pay off the loans in order from smallest to largest in terms of the amount owing and ignore the various interest rates.  Someone who had a car loan of $5,000 at 7% and a credit card debt of $9,000 at 15% should pay off the smaller car loan completely before paying any extra on the credit card loan.
This strategy is purely psychological – it is quicker to pay off the smaller loan and the person trying to get out of debt will be able to experience some debt reduction success which will enable them to then tackle the larger loan.  If they try to pay off the larger loan first they have a higher chance of getting discouraged (because it’s taking longer) and giving up.
Logically the loans should be paid off in order of interest – highest to lowest regardless of the size of the loan.  To do differently will result in higher interest costs.
I’m a pretty numbers-oriented type of guy so there isn’t a chance in hell that I would pay more in interest just for the pleasure of paying of a smaller loan first, but Ramsey’s results speak for themselves – I’ve read about many people who were able to pay off or reduce their debts because of his methods.  Bottom line is that you have to do what works – if the end result is that the debts are paid off (and they stay off) then you’ve won the debt battle.  It’s as simple as that.

Dave Ramsey “gazelle intensity”

Another one of Ramsey’s methods is his attitude toward intensity – he says that if you are going to pay off debt then you have to hate debt and do everything you can to get rid of it.  He calls this “gazelle intensity“.  I didn’t know that gazelles were all that intense but that’s not important.
I can’t argue with this strategy – whether it’s reducing debt, cleaning your house, getting shape or just about anything that is difficult – there just isn’t anything wrong with making it a top priority and getting it done.  Of course you have to be reasonable – eating sub-standard cheap food to save money is not something that a self-respecting gazelle would likely do (intense or otherwise).

Dave Ramsey – “Pay off debt completely before investing”

This rule is so extreme that he even says don’t contribute to a 401k if you get an matching amount from your employer.  This might make sense for someone who is drowning in debt and every penny is important but most people should go for the 401k employer match even if they are trying to reduce their debt.  Once you get a handle on your debts then starting an investment plan is not a bad idea – if you are not quite ready for investing you should still spend some time learning about the basics of investing.

Some would argue that if expected equity returns are higher than your loan interest costs then you should invest before paying off the loan.  However they are ignoring the different risk characteristics of different asset classes (or comparing apples and oranges).  Paying off debt is a guaranteed return like investing in a high interest savings account.  Investing in equities or stocks has a higher risk.  There’s nothing wrong with either of those investment types but you have to consider your financial goals, investment time horizon and risk tolerance when choosing where to put your money.  The other thing to consider is that most unsecured debt probably has a higher interest rate than the expected equity returns anyways (I assume 7% for long term equity returns).

Investment knowledge

This is the area where Dave Ramsey is not very strong – he continues to say that equities will get 12% return which is not very realistic and he makes a lot of basic errors on his radio show.  Another problem is that he recommends using financial advisors who are paying him for the referrals so there is a conflict of interest.  For all the good that Dave does – investment advice is not part of it.

Is Dave Ramsey a financial expert?

Not really – but he has helped a ton of people to manage and reduce their debts so if you need help with debts then he’s a great option.  Just don’t listen to any of his investment advice.

If you want to learn more about Dave Ramsey then go check out Dave Ramsey – Financial guru review.

Photo credit to Durotriges