The global financial crisis which started in the United States of America following that country’s credit crunch presents an opportunity for many to make money. Unsuspecting, law-abiding citizens of planet earth can fall victim to scams and con artists who are preying on the fears of ordinary people in these troubled times on the world financial market.
Newspaper headlines and the media frenzy in general are creating panic among professional and amateur investors alike. What impact exactly would the US Government’s decision to bail out its banks using $700 billion have on the everyday saver? The number is so big and the media frenzy so crazy that people are wont to believe that it must have some kind of impact on their daily lives. The truth is of course it will but not in the way the phishers, scam and con artists would want you to believe.
However, people are people and it is natural for humans to have fears. The banks that are genuflecting are not small fries. In fact the ongoing financial crisis has brought some of Wall Street’s finest to its knees or at least to the Treasury Department for a bailout. Billions of dollars belonging to hundreds of thousands of investors were in the hands of these banks. Now some of these banks are in the hands of their Governments. So where does that leave the small private investor? Where does that leave granny whose husband left her a small fortune for her to spend the rest of her years in comfort? Granny does not know, and the affected banks – arguably to avoid panic withdrawals – are taking their royal time to let granny know exactly where the bank stands financially and otherwise. The absence of clarity and the presence of doubt is the con artist’s best friend.
The kind of phishing taking place right now as a result of the ongoing crisis includes but is not limited to simple requests for updated data. As far as granny is concerned and as she heard on the news, Merrill Lynch was sold to the Bank of America. US President George W. Bush is pumping billions of greenbacks into Wall Street and the Treasury Secretary is on TV more often than he has ever been in his career. So whatever is going on is so big that the State had to intervene. So it would not be at all strange for the new owners of the banks to want to update their customers’ bio data, PIN numbers, and hey, why not credit card numbers too? This is where the financial crisis is creating room for scam and con artists online and offline and everyone you know should be alerted by sending them this article.
THE GOOD NEWS
The good news is, however, that there is also room to make money honestly during the financial crisis. Investors agree that this is a good time to buy into the United States economy and possibly even the economies of the entire G8 – the seven most industrialized countries of the world plus Russia.