Business Pro-Tip #3: Mind your competition

consider your competitionBetter Business Bureau is celebrating the 50th anniversary of successful small business owners by offering a Business Pro-Tip each day this week.

Here’s tip #3: 

Are you keeping up? Always consider your competition.

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Scam: Caller tells consumer utilities will be cut off unless bill is paid with Green Dot card

scam-alert-pic-150x150An Austin consumer has reported a suspicious call that was most definitely a scam. A caller from a 936 area code told her that her bill hadn’t been paid and her utilities were about to be cut off in a few hours.

The caller said the city would not accept a check as payment and to go to CVS or Walgreens and get a Paypal Green Dot card without either a Visa or Mastercard logo and to call them back with the number.

The consumer did the smart thing instead and called the city of Austin, where she was told her utilities were not about to be cut off and that the call did not come from them. The 936 area code was a pretty big giveaway. Austin’s area codes are 512 and the recently-added 737. Also, a city or private utility company would not ask a consumer to pay immediately with a Green Dot card.

BBB receives a lot of reports about phone scams asking people to wire money. Sometimes the caller claims the consumer has won a prize and needs to pay some kind of tax or administrative fee. Watchyourbuck post in April describes such a scam from someone pretending to be with BBB.

BBB offers the following tips to avoid being scammed: 

  • Don’t give out information. Never provide any personal information to unknown callers, including bank information, Social Security Number and contact information.
  • Don’t wire money. Never wire money to unknown individuals.  Wire transfers are untraceable and there is no opportunity to recoup money if you have been scammed.
  • Don’t pay up front.  If you’ve really won a prize, you don’t have to pay anything in advance — not a penny for taxes, fees, or anything else. It’s illegal to charge upfront for a prize.
  • Hang up and don’t call the scammer back. It may be tempting to have the last word, but returning the call could give the con artist information he can use.
  • Report phone scams to the FTC. If you experience telemarketing fraud of any type, report it online to the FTC or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
  • Report scams to BBB. For more on how to avoid scams, or to report a scam, check out BBB Scam Stopper.
  • Get on the Do Not Call registry. It won’t stop scams entirely, but joining the national Do Not Call registry can help reduce the number of unwanted calls you receive.
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Vote for us in Round 2 of Austin Business Journal’s Social Madness competition!

Our BBB has made it to the 2nd Round of Austin Business Journal’s Social Madness Competition. We would love advance to nationals. If that happens, we could win $10,000 towards a charity of our choice –  BBB’s Education Foundation.

If you find WatchYourBuck.com and Central Texas Better Business Bureau helpful, consider giving us your support as we try to make it to Round 3 and hopefully the national level.

You can vote for us at the following link (click the Medium tab to find BBB):


http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/socialmadness/

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Business Pro-Tip #2: Use accurate showcasing

Better Business Bureau is celebrating the 50th anniversary of successful small business owners by offering a Business Pro-Tip each day this week.
watermelon

Here’s tip #2: 

Is your product the real deal? Don’t scare away potential customers with your suspiciously labeled “watermelons.” Showcase your products in a genuine manner.

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Don’t strain your finances — BBB offers trips for buying exercise equipment

Looking to get in shape this summer–with an option to stay in the air conditioning? Exercise equipment is the way to go. If you’re looking to buy exercise equipment, BBB has the following tips:

  • Avoid one-spot trainers.
  • Buy only what you’ll use (something practical).
  • Read the fine print.
  • Don’t be fooled by the fit models you see in the ads.
  • Check the seller’s BBB Business Review at bbb.org.
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Business Pro-Tip #1: Warn customers about allergy-causing ingredients

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Nuts are a common ingredient that affects customers with food allergies.

National Small Business Week is June 17-21 and Better Business Bureau is taking this opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of successful small business owners by offering Business Pro-Tips.

BBB will post a tip each day this week.

Business Pro-Tip #1: If your products contain ingredients that your customers may be allergic to, it’s your responsibility to inform them.

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BBB greets media in Austin, celebrates opening of San Antonio office

media dayYour BBB would like to thank everyone who came out to our big events this week – our Ribbon Cutting/Open House in San Antonio and the Media Appreciation Luncheon in Austin. We had an amazing time, and hope you enjoyed yourselves as well. We appreciate your support and all you do for the community!

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BBB and WU’s Scam Stopper site protects seniors

ID-10044387With our Watchyourbuck.com blog, our BBB frequently talks about scams, many of them targeting seniors. We would like to put a stop to as many of those scams as possible, and we’re not the only ones.

Tomorrow, June 15, is the United Nations-designated World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, so the global payment service Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) and Better Business Bureau (BBB) announced efforts to promote awareness of scams that target seniors.

BBB Scam Stopper was jointly launched by BBB and Western Union to help consumers reduce their chances of being victimized by scammers.

A common scam that targets seniors involves prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries. Another is the emergency or grandparent scam, where the scammer pretends to be a family member in trouble and makes an urgent request for money.

BBB Scam Stopper explains how scams work and the tricks scammers use to gain their victims’ trust. Sign up to receive BBB Scam Alerts and weekly e-mails about the latest scams reported to BBBs across North America.

Wire transfer is a legitimate way to send money, but Western Union promotes three basic money transfer “never evers”:

  1. Never use a money transfer service to send money to someone you have not met in person.
  2. Never send money for an emergency situation without verifying that it’s a real emergency; confirm the emergency through other friends and family and ignore the caller’s plea not to tell others.
  3. Never send funds received by check until it officially clears in your account, which can take several days, or more.

Information on scams and how to protect yourself is also available at Western Union’s Consumer Protection Center:
http://www.westernunion.com/stopfraud
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Two Romanian phishing scammers sent to federal prison

ID-100128578Sometimes you get the feeling that phishing scammers always get away with it, that the best you can do is warn people not to click links in their bogus e-mails and other messages. That isn’t the case, however. The FBI just broke up a phishing conspiracy run by some Romanian citizens and  two of them were handed prison sentences.

Bogdan Boceanu, 30, was sentenced to 80 months in prison, and Andrei Bolovan, 29, was sentenced to 27 months of in prison by US District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven, Connecticut for participating in an extensive Internet phishing scheme.

The scheme, largely run from  Craiova, Romania, sent out numerous e-mails seeking to gain Internet users’ banking information. The e-mails falsely claimed to represent numerous institutions including People’s Bank, Citibank, Capital One, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Comerica Bank, Regions Bank, LaSalle Bank, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo & Co., eBay, and PayPal.

The co-conspirators used the information they obtained to access bank accounts and lines of credit and to withdraw funds without authorization, often from ATMs in Romania.

After a seven-year investigation, criminal charges were made against 19 Romanian citizens. Seven defendants were indicted by a New Haven grand jury for offenses stemming to the scheme in 2007. In 2010, an additional 12 defendants were indicted, including Boceanu and Bolovan.

The first three defendants to face charges were extradited from Bulgaria, Croatia, and Canada. Boceanu, Bolovan and six others were extradited from Romania after the 2010 ratification of an amended treaty on mutual legal assistance between Romania and the US.

Check out the FBI’s release for more details: Two Romanian Citizens Involving in Phishing Scheme Sentenced to Federal Prison.

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Medical alert phishing scam targets seniors

scam-alert-pic-150x150Your BBB has received quite a few calls lately from consumers who received suspicious phone calls about a “free medical alert system.” The calls have been reported nationwide, but we’ve had a lot of calls from seniors in the Midland area this week. If you get a call like this, hang up and don’t give out any information.

Consumers reported getting calls from someone claiming a free emergency medical alert was ordered for them. The caller didn’t give a business name or number and could not say who actually ordered the product; consumers stated they didn’t order anything. The number the call came from goes to an automated “number is not in service” message.

In some instances, calls reported to BBBs in other areas have been automated and those who responded by pushing a number received calls asking for bank information. In the ones reported to our BBB, the caller was an actual person.

BBB.org warns that seniors who answered with bank information were billed a monthly service charge for a product they never received or they received a device they didn’t want  and had difficulty returning it for a refund.

Again, if you receive one of these calls, don’t respond or even speak. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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