• Ah, Craigslist.  If you haven’t met Craigslist, it’s time you two were introduced.  Not only can you find jobs, gigs, and items for sale, you can find free stuff.  And it’s not simply people’s broken junk.  If you’re searching at the right time, you might hit the jackpot.  For example, one day I found a listing from someone in my area that had an entire garage full of stuff that he was giving away—for free.  This turned out to include many things that were in great condition that he probably could have sold for a decent amount of money, but he was moving and simply wanted it all gone!  Many times, you need to act quickly before someone else snatches up the free stuff.  Not finding what you’re looking for?  You can post a “wanted” ad or look under “barter” if you have something you’re willing to swap.
• Freecycle.org.  Here you can save perfectly good items from being dumped in a landfill.  You can find furniture, toys, appliances, etc. that might otherwise be thrown away but are in good or salvageable condition.  You’ll help the environment and gain something for free!
• Swaptree.com.  Let’s face it: CD’s, DVD’s, books, and videogames (especially videogames!) can be pretty expensive when bought new.  And if you have an item in one of these categories that you just don’t care for anymore, the resale value is pretty low.  At swaptree.com, you can literally swap your old item for one that you want, and it’s completely free!  How’s that for a good deal?
• Swapstyle.com.  Are you ready for this one?  I’m pretty excited!  At swapstyle.com, you can swap clothes for free!  Resale value on clothes is just as low as your videogames and DVD’s, and unless you’re shopping strictly on the clearance racks, new clothes are almost always overpriced.  So what do you do if you no longer wear something or you’ve lost weight and you’re in the market for a wardrobe overhaul?  I’m going to swapstyle.com.  This is completely free; you can become “address verified” for $10 if you desire, though.  Address verification is used to help members feel more secure with their transactions.
• Couchsurfing.org.  If you’re a traveler and you’re looking to spend as little as possible, you might want to check out this website.  Think of it as crashing at a friend’s house for free while you’re on a road trip…anywhere in the world.  You find people to stay with in the area you’re traveling to, and you stay for free.  You might be thinking that it doesn’t sound safe to sleep in a complete stranger’s home in a different state or country, but you select who you want to stay with and have every opportunity to check them out beforehand.  The site describes itself as having a “neighborhood watch” program; you can check members’ references and verification, as well as their friends before requesting to stay with them.

Another way to stumble upon your free treasure is to do an internet search and type “free” and the item you’re looking for.  On other websites, you may have to fill out a survey or ensure pop-up ads in order to get the free stuff; if you’re comfortable with that, go for it.  You’ve found what you wanted, and the price is right!

Knowing that this wasn’t my brother sending me this message, I did the typical things I do when I get spoof emails. I double checked the “reply to” or “return path” field (not the “from” field because anyone can fake this) to see where the email really came from.

In this case the “reply to” address was in fact my brother’s address, which really got me scratching my head. I figured he had a virus on his computer that was sending emails to the people in his address book. Instead of replying to the email, I forwarded it to him and manually typed in his email address just to be sure there wasn’t something I overlooked. Never reply directly to an email when there is fraud suspicion.

What I eventually found out was that someone had actually figured out his password and broke into his yahoo account, emailed everyone in his address book and changed his password so my brother could no longer login to the account.

Yikes! I was wondering why the email I received did not give me an address or account number to wire money. The impostor was waiting for me to reply and ask for that information.

This made me a bit nervous and I immediately started to think about all the things anyone can do once in someone else’s email account:

• Email friends and family to receive personal information, such as addresses, Social Security numbers, etc.
• Search the deleted mail box to find out what online service are being used, then go to those web pages to request a password reminder be sent to the email on file.
• Search emails that were sent from the account to obtain personal information and records.
• Once in, they can use your personal information to commit identity theft, charge your credit cards, empty your bank accounts, read your email, and lock you out of your online account by changing your password.

How Do They Steal Your Email?

There are a couple ways that hackers can break into your email account.

• Use a random password generator that tries and retries the password until it gets it right
• Installs spyware on your computer that tracks keystrokes
• Use phishing techniques, which is an email that appears to be from a service you belong to, such as Hotmail or PayPal, and tricks you into thinking you are logging into your actual account.
• Use fake time-out or re-login screen, which makes you think you need to re-login to your email account because it timed out, when really this is just a tricky html email.

These are just a few common ways. Hackers and online identity thieves are getting more and more creative on how to steal your identity and scam money online.

How Do I Avoid Being Scammed?

Here are some tips on preventing getting scammed online through your email account:

• If you are using a public computer, make sure the “remember me” feature is disabled
• Make sure you completely log out and close all browser windows on public computers
• Look at the “return path” or “reply to” address carefully on emails you receive
• Do not post your email address online where it is hot linked. If you want to leave your email address posted in a discussion board, put a space between the username and @ sign so spam bots do not find your address
• Change your password regularly
• Use more characters, symbols and numbers. Use other characters other than the ones found by using shift + a number key.
• Use a lengthy password, and do not use a word or phrase that can be found in a dictionary
• Do not use your login name as your password
• Contrary to popular belief, writing your passwords down and keeping them in a safe place is much more secure than storing them online in a document or with password storage software

What Do I Do if I am Scammed?

If someone breaks into your account, assume they have access to all of your information. This includes bank accounts, credit cards, anything with a login.

• Notify your email provider immediately so they can close your account or reset the password.
• Change all of your passwords for every other service and monitor those accounts for suspicious activity
• Contact everyone you know and tell them about the situation and to stop using that email address to contact you
• If fraudulent activity continues on your other accounts, file a police report and notify the respective service provider immediately

Millionaire Money Habit: Identity theft is a serious crime that continues to grow as web popularity and access is increasing around the world. You can help prevent the stress and losses that can occur from online identity theft by being aware and following some preventative steps. Don’t waste another moment keeping yourself vulnerable to email theft. Go make those passwords extra secure.

Here are a few strategies that you can put into action right now to improve your success — the first is a strategic, actionable method, the second method describes how to keep your goals on track, and the third is the Super Ninja Method to quickly reaching your goals.

These strategies are not limited to creating wealth either. You can use these methods to improve your relationships, increase self-confidence, or push yourself to lose more weight.

First the strategic method…

The first step is to identify your goal. What is it that you want to accomplish? Make sure these are measurable goals that you can achieve. Go ahead and write it down — even if you think it is a far fetch goal, give it a shot.

Now, paraphrasing Timothy Ferriss, if you you absolutely had to achieve this goal, you would find a way to reach it. If a gun was to your head and the trigger would be pulled unless you achieved this goal, your creativity, resourcefulness and motivation would reach new levels.

1. Think about your goal and what the outcome will be like. What circumstances need to be in place in order to help you reach your goal? What has to change, what do you need, what resources do other people have that you could tap into to help you reach your goal? Write them down.
2. Now that you know the circumstances that need to be in place in order to make your goal a reality, start thinking backwards from the end result to where you are today. Try to “reverse engineer” the achieved outcome in your mind and think about what steps will you need to take?
3. Now take action and and move the gears in motion. If your goal is properly set, it will require you to step outside your comfort zone, make yourself growth and think in new directions, and will require a level of determination that you may have not realized you had.

Creating the right mindset…

To keep yourself engaged and on task, it will take as much mental energy as it does physical. Reaching your goal will take planning and preparation, some sacrifices, and at times will be exhausting. There may be days you lost track of benefits and decide to give up your pursuit.

The only thing worse than not achieving your goal is looking back 10 years from now and thinking to yourself “I can’t believe I quit then. If I just stayed the track I could have accomplished this a long time ago.”

Now there are a couple ways you can keep yourself motivated:

1. Keep a picture or some reminder with you at all times that triggers an emotional response
2. Create additional goals that go beyond your primary goal, which cannot be accomplished without first reaching this primary goal
3. Generally speaking, we will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. Set up a system to reward yourself when you accomplish tasks, but also have a system that punishes you for going off track

Super Ninja Method…

Some of the most successful people I know create their own reality. By visually achieving your goals, you can accomplish things you had no idea you were capable of. Watch this short video from an Aussie named Ryan Higgins to see what I’m talking about…

 
==> Make Your Mind Movie
 
 
There’s literally hundreds of Mind Movies on YouTube. Visit Mind Movies to get started with making your own (they have a 2 month test drive), or just borrow a movie already posted on YouTube. Here are a couple I enjoy…

Make Mind Movies Here

Here are 12 of my favorite movies about money. Ironically, most of these are also pretty violent movies.

1. Wall Street
2. Glengarry Glen Ross
3. The Sting
4. The Godfather
5. Trading Places
6. Indecent Proposal
7. American Gangster
8. Casino
9. There Will be Blood
10. Ocean’s 11 and the sequels
11. Jerry McGuire

. . . and quite possibly one of the worst movies ever, but I still get a kick out of is Boiler Room. Remember this scene?

Warning - this clip has a lot of profanity

Millionaire Money Habit: While I don’t recommend crime and killing as a means to make your first million, these movies make for great entertainment and can provide some motivation.

What are your favorites?

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