Filtering the Mail

I recently picked up a hand out at the post office. It was all about mail fraud. I know we all get junk mail...every day, but some times the con artists say just the right thing or have just the right colors or font to look authentic. In our age of computers any thing is possible.

So how do you identify the junk and place it in 'file 13'? Visit United States Post Office reading room. It's free and there is more info than the booklet I picked up.

The info that made the best impression on me was, "by law any unsolicited material (ie magazine, stickers, books, watch...) is mine to keep, throw away or return to sender." I don't have to give the con artist any money no matter how much pressure s/he puts on. Certainly, never give out your personal information.

Some tools of a con artist are talking fast, fear of running out of time or missing some thing great, requiring money for information. If you become confused or stressed during a phone conversation, it is probably on purpose.

A genuine business person will never make you feel frazzled. So, take your time in making decisions. You can defuse the confusion by making the person on the other end of the line repeat slowly what they have said, you can ask them to repeat it many times. Remember, your time is valuable too. If they don't want to take the time to explain some thing, it can't be worth the time to listen. If it doesn't make sense, it was probably designed not to.