SCAM ALERT concerning your Economic Stimulus Check!!

This may be coming a little late, but I'm pretty sure that this e-mail is still going around. It was reported by the Internet Crime Complaint Center on May 8th with a warning date of May 10 in it, but alot of us (myself included) still have not received their checks yet so this may still be a very lucrative scam for those that are doing it.

Remember: The IRS will never email you asking for your bank account information. Those that are receiving their check via direct deposit already have their account information on file, the rest of us are receiving paper checks in the mail.

This is the Alert Bulletin direct from the Internet Crime Complaint Center website:

PHISHING RELATED TO ISSUANCE OF ECONOMIC STIMULUS CHECKS

The FBI warns consumers of recently reported spam email purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which is actually an attempt to steal consumer information. The email advises the recipient that direct deposit is the fastest and easiest way to receive their economic stimulus tax rebate. The message contains a hyperlink to a fraudulent from which requests the recipient's personally identifiable information, including bank account information. To convince consumers to reply, the email warns that a failure to complete the form in a timely manner will delay the issuance of the rebate check.

One example of this IRS spam email message is as follows:

"Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit before May 10th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on May 10th, 2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus refund, please click here."

CONSUMERS ARE ADVISED THAT THE IRS DOES NOT INITIATE TAXPAYER COMMUNICATIONS VIA EMAIL. IN ADDITION, THE IRS DOES NOT REQUEST DETAILED PERSONAL INFORMATION VIA EMAIL OR ASK TAXPAYERS FOR THE PIN NUMBERS, PASSWORDS, OR SIMILAR SECRET ACCESS INFORMATION FOR THEIR CREDIT CARD, BANKD, OR OTHER FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS.

Please be cautious of unsolicited emails. It is recommended not to open emails from unknown senders because they often contain viruses or other malicious software. It is also recommended to avoid clicking links in emails received from unknown senders as this is a popular method of directing victims to phishing websites.

If you have received an e-mail similar to this, please file a complaint at www.ic3.gov.

My favorite (and highest paying) survey site - Opinion Outpost

I know that alot of you are looking for sites like Pinecone Research and today I've got one that I hold in even higher regard than Pinecone, Opinion Outpost.

Why would I make such a statement when Pinecone Research is so highly regarded. Easy, I've made alot more money in alot less time with them. I've averaged around $1.50 - $2 per survey, but have received and completed invites of up to $15 for a survey. Add that to the fact that I receive on average invites to take 3 surveys a day and it's a clear moneymaker.

I also really like how Opinion Outpost includes the dollar amount and estimated time it will take to complete in their emails. For example, this is an invite that I received today:

SURVEY HOSTED BY:
Survey is hosted by an outside company

LENGTH:
This survey should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.

OPINION POINTS:
If you qualify and complete this survey, then you will earn 25 Opinion Points!

Opinion Points will be rewarded immediately. This survey will resolve back to our site automatically awarding Opinion Points if you qualify and complete.

Opinion Points are the way that Opinion Outpost pays out. 10 point is equal to $1, so in this case a 5 minute survey would pay out $2.50..not too shabby. You must have a minimum of 50 Opinion Points to cash out ($5), which as you can see is pretty easy to do. The payout takes longer than Pinecone, a matter of weeks instead of days, but you can have a pretty nice size check coming to you within a matter of weeks of taking surveys.

I posted a scan of my first check I received from Opinion Outpost awhile back and here it is again (click for very high resolution). This time around should be even more impressive (I'm currently at $76.50 in my account...holding out until I reach $100).



If you've been looking for a survey site similar to Pinecone Research and with bigger payouts, look no further and start doing surveys with Opinion Outpost!

Feed your family healthy and cheap - $45 and $70 a week mealplans for a family of four

Most of us have been there before. When you're either behind on bills or right about to get into that bad spot, you know that you're going to need to change your shopping habits . Don't make the same mistake I did and depend on Ramen and boxed macaroni & cheese as your primary source of food. I ended up losing 13 lbs. during my 4 month stretch of hard times and anybody that knows me will tell you that, as a slender guy, I can use every pound I have

Instead of going down the alley of malnutrition, check out these $45 and $70 a week diets provided by hillbillyhousewife.com. They are designed to feed a family of four, so if you live by yourself or less than 3 others, you should have leftovers that can stretch your dollar even further.

It may not be up to gourmet standards (or even close), but it's definitely more nutritious than the ramen & macaroni diet. Be sure to check out her recipes as well for some other food ideas.

Be smarter than a computer and get paid with Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Named after the famed chess-playing "robot" that supposedly beat Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte, Amazon.com offers another way for humans to prove they're smarter than machines..and to get paid for doing so. The site that Amazon has set up for doing this is mturk.com, or The Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Now, just as a forewarning, you won't get rich by doing tasks on this site, but it is a great time killer if you need something to do and the payouts do quickly add up. A good review of this point can be found in this article from Salon.com a few years back (although the title is in a negative context, you can easily make much more if you want).

How do you become smarter than a computer? Well, you already are. Many of these tasks involve simple things that a computer cannot figure out. One of these things, an example of what I was working on last night, is finding pictures of items based on product descriptions (I was working on this project for Pricegrabber.com through this site). With a payout of $.02 per picture, it's nothing extravagant, but while you're sitting through commercials it gives you something to do that can quickly add up to a few bucks within a day or so.

I've seen projects ranging from $.01 to $7.50 depending on what you want to do, so the amount you can make from this is all up to you. Projects range from picture finding, to posting on blogs, to commercial transcription, and many other assorted projects (right now there's one that involves drawing a picture of a fork and submitting it, how's that for random).

Cashout points are at only $1.00 if you choose Amazon.com credit (great for using at The Ethical Grifter's Amazon Store!!) or $10.00 if you want a cash payout. There's always interesting items on here to do to make a little bit of money, and signup is free and non-binding so check out Amazon's Mechanical Turk and check out the variety of ways to be smarter than a computer and make some extra cash!

Deals of the Week now added to the Ethical Grifter store!

Well, it was promised, and now it's finally here! I've added the Amazon Deals of the Week page to the front of my Amazon aStore!

I've scoured through many of the deals that they are currently offering and handpicked the ones that have the best percentage discount or are a good mix of price and quality so that you can use it as a weekly consolidated resource. My store page will update weekly on on Mondays with the weekly deals on the front, so bookmark it now and keep an eye on it, you never know what kind of bargains you might find!

Check out the store here.

Video Time: Be vigilant when using ATM machines

I've received many briefings from various law enforcement agencies concerning this scam. It is a prevelant in the US as it is in the UK, so please be wary when using ATM machines. The reader in the video is more high-tech than some of the other methods, so also pay attention to those behind you and shield your PIN when entering it. Those without the video camera device will try to capture your PIN by shoulder surfing, watching you enter it from behind.

Not only is the facade card entry point a main method, but there are also smaller card readers that can be attached. These readers will make the card entry point stick out more on one side, so if you notice a reader that is not symmetrical, avoid it, there's usually always another ATM close by.

Make money with your digital camera

Here's a good one for all of you amateur or professional photographers out there. There are many sites that will allow you to upload your photos you take and pay you a commission each time the photo is downloaded. All that you need to do is create an account and upload your pictures. Add the appropriate tag (caption) and sit back. Most of these sites average $.20-$.25 per picture download so upload as many as you can and keep taking photos. The more you saturate the market, the more of a chance you have at earning more commission.

Sites that pay you for your pictures:

Shutterstock
BigStockPhoto
Usphotostock
Dreamstime
Scoopt
iStockPhoto

So dust that camera off and get out there for some photo taking if you haven't already. There's money to be made!

Skype is now offerrering unlimited long-distance calls for $3 per month

Skype is at it again, now offering unlimited long distance phone calls througout the US and Canada for only $3 a month. This is by far the best deal they've offered in a long time so I'd hop up on it while you can. On top of this offer, if you buy 3 months of service before June 1st, you get one of those months for free (3 months of unlimted calls for only $6!!).

For those of you not very familiar with Skype, it's a VoIP service that allows you to make phone calls from your computer over your internet lines. The only equipment required is a computer, internet service, and a microphone/headset for use. There are actual telephone devices that they offer here
if you don't like the idea of wearing a headset or need to purchase one.

The clarity of the calls is now up to par with tradtional telephone landlines (and trust me, as an early adopter I know how bad it used to be) and the price is much, much better. As a note, this $3/month plan only includes calling out to landlines, if you want to be able to recieve calls to your Skype number from landlines you'll need to purchase the SkypeIn plan as well, available here.

Give it a shot, I've been happy with their service for years and this new $3/month offer they have going is a steal!

Get from 1 to 25 GB of free online storage

All respect to Louis Ramierez for this great summary on dealnews.com:

"Hard drive prices have taken a serious tumble, but despite the notable price drops, many people still don't want to splurge on a new internal or external drive. Fortunately, the Internet is bursting with online storage sites like Box.net and MediaMax, which offer you anywhere from 1GB to 25GB of free online storage space. Most of these sites are platform-independent, so all you need is a computer with a solid Internet connection and you're good to go. While there are many sites available, we chose to check out four of the most popular, ranging in space from 1GB to 25GB. We neither recommend storing your sensitive data on these sites nor think it's wise to use them as your only means of backup. However, if you're looking for a spot to house your summer vacation photos or a place to store your non-essentials, these sites will do the trick.

Box.net
Need to access your files from the road? Box.net makes it easy by offering its members 1GB of free storage space. The site's Windows-based interface is simple to maneuver with tabs that let you organize and browse through your data. If you have a clutter of documents or pictures, Box.net lets you perform searches so you can track down files by name. You can even share selected folders with up to three people by entering their email addresses in your account settings. The amount of storage space you get is somewhat paltry and SSL encryption is only available for paying members, so you might want to use Box.net for storing non-essentials only. Box.net offers monthly subscriptions, but pricing starts at $7.95 per month for 5GB, which comes out to $95.40 a year (which is about the price of a 500GB external hard drive). We recommend sticking with the free option.
Likes: Simple, icon-based interface. Easy to share files.
Dislikes: Just 1GB.

MediaMax
If your video and music collection is outgrowing your hard drive, chances are you're going to need more than just 1GB of free space. That's where MediaMax comes in. A boon to digital pack rats, this site offers a whopping 25GB of free storage space. There is a big restriction, however. You can only download up to 1GB per month from your account. Otherwise, the site operates much like its competitors, letting you upload individual or batches of files. Shared files are sent via email from your MediaMax account. You can choose to send them as attachments or as links. As an added bonus, Windows customers can download MediaMax XL Beta, a small application that automatically backs up the contents of your computer's hard drive to your MediaMax account. Simply select the folder you'd like to back up and the app will do the rest. It's worth noting, however, that the site can be buggy when uploading to it. On one occasion, we had to upload the same file twice before it was recognized and stored.
Likes: 25GB of space. Easy to back up with MediaMax XL.
Dislikes: Buggy. MediaMax XL a Windows-only application.

openomy
For a no frills approach to online storage, you'll want to head to openomy. Offering 1GB of space, openomy has no pretty graphics, no fancy interface, and practically no features. In fact, the site doesn't even let you create folders. However, it's this bare-bones interface that makes openomy easy to navigate. Instead of relying on folders, openomy categorizes your data using tags, which you assign for each file you upload. All of your tags are then listed in the dashboard when you sign in. openomy plans on offering additional storage space in the future (along with paid subscriptions), but for now the cap is at 1GB. Developers take note: openomy has an open API and encourages member-created apps that integrate with the service.
Likes: No frills interface. Infinite potential uses via its API.
Dislikes: Just 1GB. No drag and drop support.

DivShare
With 5GB of free storage space, DivShare has a slight advantage over some of its competitors. Interface-wise, it's easy to use, with a clean, uncluttered dashboard that automatically categorizes your uploaded content into image, video, audio, or document folders. DivShare also offers its members the added convenience of online streaming. Its built-in Flash player lets you play your media files straight from your Web browser, so if you have a folder full of MP3s you can stream them while you're logged in. To share a file, just click on the "Share" link and DivShare provides you with URLs for sharing your items. They also offer a handful of plug-ins that integrate the service with Facebook, Wordpress, and Apple's iPhone. Need to know how much memory you have left? DivShare was the only site to feature a small counter keeping track of your available storage space.
Likes: 5GB of storage. Online media streaming. Counter keeps track of available memory.
Dislikes: Site can be slow at times.

	Box.net	MediaMax	openomy	DivShare
Free Storage	1GB	25GB	1GB	5GB
Drag & Drop Support	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
SSL Encryption	None	None	None	None
Pricing Plans	5GB @$8/mo	100GB @$5/mo	N/A	10GB @$8/mo

Box.net, MediaMax, openomy, and DivShare are just a small example of what's out there. Google Mail subscribers, for instance, can download GMail Drive, a freeware extension that lets you tap into your Gmail's 6GB of storage space and use it as a virtual hard drive on your Windows PC. This app isn't supported by Google, so if you go this route be warned that any changes to the Gmail system could lock you out of your data. Otherwise, the sites mentioned above might help you save money or keep you from purchasing a new hard drive."

Louis Ramirez is dealnews' Features editor.

Stop theives from stealing your laptop (or at least make them think twice)

Today I came across this summary products that PC World recommends to prevent laptop thefts. Some products overlap, but all have been proven devices when keeping your laptop in your possession. It covers devices such as locks, motion-sensors, tracking tags, and lojack-like software to locate a stolen laptop. Reading about the lojack-like software that reminded me of a story I read of a MacBook that was taken awhile back and it caused the built-in webcam to take pictures while in use. Well, the pictures were of the thief sitting on the toilet, so I don't know if I'd want it back afterwards, but it was proof that this software does work.

Another good source that I found was put out by Microsoft. Some of the information was pretty basic, but one that stuck out was the encryption of your data. Of course they recommend their products for encryption, but myself and lifehacker.com prefer the free, open-source TrueCrypt (a very nice encryption program). To take your personal data encryption even a step further, check out the IronKey USB stick. It's pricey for the size of data it holds, but it's mil-spec ruggedness makes it stand alone on the market. That's not even to mention the fact that all data is encrypted and after entering 10 wrong passwords (you can reset the count via a web interface and answering some questions you set) the chip self-destructs...very Mission Impossible-like.

That's just a few of the options that are available, but they are some of the best and easiest to implement.

Video Time: Penn & Teller - cashier/change money scam

First off...if you're offended by off-color language or at work, Penn & Teller might be something you'd rather not watch. I am including this because it shows an excellent example of how the miscounting of an exchange of money (usually from change as shown in the video) can leave your wallet or purse a little lighter than intended. Now, don't get so worried that you no longer give change for a $5 out (I've asked people for $1's on a few needed occasions), but be mindful of the count of bills.

Great cost of living calculator for those planning on moving

For those that have been considering moving to a new area you've probably wondered about what the difference in the cost of living will be between where you live now and where you want to go. Homefair.com has an excellent cost of living calculator on their page that makes it easy to find out what that difference is.

The steps are as simple as it can be:

1. Select the state that you currently reside and the state that you are moving to.

2. Enter your current salary then choose the city you live in and the city that you are moving to (the list is quite thorough). Also choose if you prefer to rent or own (it doesn't seem to change the results).

That's it! It will show you what you currently make and what you will need to make in the city you're planning on moving to in order to keep the same standard of living.

The best way to get started in stock investing

This post came about from an experience I had at work today showing the coworker I share my office with the best way to get your feet wet in stock trading. I've dealt with many online traders and even after their merger with ING (which turned out to be a change for the better) I led her to Sharebuilder.com

This wasn't because of any kind of kickback I would receive (actually, there's a better $50 added to you account kickback you can get that's much better than I can offer you, check the article at hustlermoneyblog.com), but if you're planning on making reoccurring transactions and don't have a limitless budget, this is definitely the way to go.

First, with the market state right now I'd definitely recommend the dollar-cost averaging that the monthly reoccurring transactions will provide. If the market falls, you'll gain more shares so when the market turns around, you'll be in a good position to make a lot of money. I'm not one of those "the sky is falling" market pessimists, but I do have my doubts about what will happen in the next year or so. If you're looking for short-term gains this isn't the approach for you, but if you're looking long-term, i.e. retirement, you might want to give this a serious look.

Next, for the budget that can't afford purchasing 100 shares of a stock flat out, this is where Sharebuilder won me over. If when you sign up you choose the automatic investment plan (required for the $50 bonus btw), not only are your stock purchases only $4, but you can buy fractional shares. This means you can buy by dollar amount and not share price amount. How do they do this? Well, they pool all of the money from those investors that want to purchase the stock and then split the stock evenly by the purchase price. This way you can purchase a fractional share of even Berkshire Hathaway (currently $133,600 a share) and be a true shareholder.

You can still do trades on the fly ($9.99 since the ING buyout, used to be $14.99) and options trading, but if you're getting started I'd stay away from both...they'll come at a later time.

I may put out some of my stock picks in the future, but incase they fall through I'm not comfortable doing so at this time. I will follow Warren Buffett's tip and tell you that index funds are the best way to get started. Kiplinger's is a great magazine for indications on what funds to look at and general personal finance information, so I'd highly recommend checking it out if you're looking for some funds to invest in.