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Beware the Latest Call Scam: The National Tax Relief Program Hoax

Just the other day, I received a voicemail that raised my suspicions immediately. It claimed to be from the “National Tax Relief Program,” offering to help clear back taxes. Intrigued and a bit wary, I decided to dig deeper into this, and what I found was a classic scam playing out. Here’s a rundown of the call and why you should be on high alert if you receive a similar one.

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Guarding Your Digital Wallet: Navigating the Emerging Scam Menace on Social Marketplaces

Today, we’re drawing your attention to a sinister new scam flourishing on social marketplaces like Facebook’s Marketplace. This time, digital wallets are under threat, with the likes of Venmo, PayPal, and other cash transfer apps falling victim to these deceptive practices.

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The Sneaky Way that Amazon May Refund You Less Than What You Paid

Here is a sneaky way that Amazon can end up refunding you less than your purchase price for an item that you have returned. Actually there are a couple of ways that you can end up being refunded less than what you paid, but one of them is particularly sneaky, and there is really only one way to make sure that it doesn’t happen to you, which is, unfortunately, not great for the environment.

GoDaddy's .01 Second Year GoDaddy Domain "Offer": Screw Up or Intentional Bait and Switch?
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GoDaddy’s .01 Second Year GoDaddy Domain “Offer”: Screw Up or Intentional Bait and Switch?

When you do a GoDaddy domain search for a new GoDaddy Domain, GoDaddy is currently offering a “Buy a new domain, get the first year for a penny with a 2 year registration” promotion. Only, at least for some people, when you register that new GoDaddy domain for two years and then go to check out, that first year is actually being charged at full price, with no way to reduce the charge to a penny. And when their feet are held to the fire about it, GoDaddy agents trot out a scripted reply that is, as we in the biz say, BS. So be very careful when you are checking out when purchasing a new GoDaddy domain, and double check the prices if you think that you are getting two years for the price of one year plus a penny.

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Google Maps Street View Leads to Divorce

Google Maps has just been implicated in a divorce, its Street View having captured an image of a woman undeniably cheating on her husband. In the past we have written about various Google Maps oopsies, including it causing the wrong house to be demolished, and Google Street View capturing the image of a woman urinating in public. But to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that Google Maps has led to divorce.

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About the Amazon Purchase Limit Policy You Didn’t Know You Lived Under

Amazon offers some things that are unlimited (such as their unlimited photo storage service, and their Kindle unlimited service), but did you know that your Amazon purchases can be subjected to the generally unspoken Amazon Purchase Limit Policy?

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What is Google Alphabet? It’s Google’s New Parent Company – But the Domain Belongs to BMW

Google announced this week the formation of a new parent company, Google Alphabet Inc. This will be akin to a Google holding company, the parent company of such Google businesses as Google Ventures, Google Capital, Google X, Next Labs, and Google Inc. itself.

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List of Numbers that Telemarketers Use to Call You

Have you ever wished that you could have a list of numbers from which telemarketers call or robocall you, so that you could block or blacklist them? Well, we have started such a list of numbers that telemarketer autodialers use to call you – please feel to grab the numbers from this list, and also to add other numbers as you find them. The only requirement is that they actually called you (as is the case with our list), and that you know it was truly a telemarketer or telemarketing firm that either called or robocalled you.

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Site Reads and Explains Terms of Service for You

Terms of Service; Didn’t Read (ToS; DR) is a site that essentially distills the Terms of Service from hundreds of online companies and sites, provides a synopsis of those Terms of Service, and rates those terms of service for you. The ratings range from Class A (meaning very good) to Class E (meaning very bad). Not surprisingly, the larger the company (cough – YouTube, Twitter), the lower the rating, while smaller, more privacy conscientious organizations (such as DuckDuckGo, the “search engine that doesn’t track you”) tend to rate more highly.

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Issue with Quickbooks Can Cause Under-Reporting of 1099 Income

An issue with the 2014 version of Quickbooks 1099 creation module has led to the under-reporting of some 1099 payments (and so 1099 income on the 1099 recipient’s side).

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People Who Comment on Your Facebook Posts Aren’t Always Your Friends

Facebook recently made it so that when someone comments on one of your posts, the friends of that commenter will see that comment, and your post, even if they are not friends with you. And, they can comment on that post of yours, even though they are not friends with you*. Now, commenting on your post seems a rather friendly thing to do, so you may be tempted to send these people a friend request. After all, they came and posted on your timeline. And you have at least one friend (probably more) in common. Sending a friend request seems the neighbourly thing to do with someone who writes on your wall, and with whom you share common friends.

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Positive Pregnancy Tests for Sale on Craigslist and eBay

Men, beware. Before you propose in order to ‘do the right thing’ after being presented with a positive pregnancy test, be sure that you take your intended to a doctor for a blood-based pregnancy test, and that you personally see the results. Or, at very least, buy a new pregnancy urine test, hand it to your girlfriend outside the bathroom door, and have her come out with that test in hand, to see the results. Because there is a new cottage industry of selling positive pregnancy tests online, in both Craigslist and eBay.

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How the HR Industry’s Candidate Management Systems Might Not Be Working For Everybody

More and more in an economy that’s squeezing the number of jobs — and relying heavily on the online resume submission — jobs sites and employers alike are using candidate management software to screen applicants. Gone are the days of people-intensive metrics as keywords, buzz words, and software dominate the way resumes are processed with talent management software. Is it a trend that’s not really working the way applicants and employers would like?

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Rickrolling: The Benign Form Of Phishing That’s Never Gonna Give You Up While It Teaches Online Security

What is rickrolling? Well, if you’ve never been rickrolled, the best description is a zesty combination of an imaginative but harmless phishing technique, 80’s pop sensation Rick Astley, and a fun but cautionary lesson in taking care before you click ANY link online.

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Loyalty Frequent Shopper Card Programs Gaining Access to Your Facebook Profile for Cross-Referencing Your Purchases and Shopping Preferences

Once again Facebook, your friendly social media hotspot, is the target of marketers wanting and gaining access to your personal data — as a loyalty frequent shopper card program can use that data to cross-reference your likes and interactions to target your pocketbook. And all of it is correlated to you, personally, without so much as a choice to opt-in.