FRAUD - They Are Out To Get You! - part 2

Every single day the fraudsters are looking for ways to infiltrate your defenses and to take advantage of your weakness. Think for a moment about all of the SPAM phone calls that you receive – the kind that block their numbers from caller-id, the kind that come up on your caller-id as a “local” number, the kinds of calls that you are unsure as to whether you should even answer the phone. Allow me to make a simple suggestion. IF YOU DON’T RECOGNIZE THE NUMBER – DON’T ANSWER THE CALL! A legitimate caller will leave you a voice message. A legitimate caller won’t keep calling your phone. A legitimate caller doesn’t make multiple calls in a row without leaving a message. I hear customers say things like the following: I didn’t want to miss a call from my doctor or healthcare provider. I was sure that the number was someone that I knew. The caller-id said that it was a federal agency (FBI, DHS, FTC). The same caller was on my phone 2 or 3 times in an hour. The biggest danger that we face is in answering the phone and beginning a conversation with a potential scammer. Trust me when I say, the person that is calling you is well-rehearsed, extremely convincing, and they will immediately make you feel that you must do something right now to help them or to remove yourself from the trouble they suggest you are involved in. Scammers utilize an appeal to authority and time pressure to make you afraid. They use this fear to get you to do what they ask of you. They will tell you a story about unclaimed property, or cash prizes, or even that you are helping law enforcement with an investigation of your bank. All of these stories are false, but they have just enough truth and a lot of correct sounding jargon to make you believe that you are doing something good that will benefit you. They may even send you to the bank and ask you to keep them on the phone, telling you that the bank employees are going to suggest that you are involved with a fraud – that’s all part of their hook. Finally, the scammer will ask you to buy Pre-Paid gift cards after withdrawing cash from your bank – and to reveal the numbers on the back of the card to them. IF YOU DO THIS – YOUR MONEY WILL BE GONE! There is no Identity Theft Protection that will keep you from doing this on your own. Please take the time to think through answering your phone. I have an old friend who used to say, “I have a phone for my convenience, I don’t answer the phone unless I know who is calling me.” Allow me to make some simple suggestions that may very well keep you safe from the myriad of scammers… If someone calls you from a familiar place and isn’t confirming information that you already know or are waiting to hear, hang up the phone and call that place directly. · Scammers are using technology that spoofs phone numbers – the caller-id may indicate it is from your local bank or the doctor’s office. Your bank will NEVER, EVER, ask for your specific account information – we already have that information. Bank’s do not know your PIN #s for cards, that is your information and is issued specifically to you. Your bank will NEVER, EVER need to ask you for a PIN number. Be careful with your card information. Scammers are very good at talking you into giving away specific information and making it seem like they already know the information. · For example – the three digit card security number on the back of your cards. The conversation will go something like this… · Scammer: I know that your card ends in 1234, and your expiration date is 08/27. Would you please give me the 3-digit code in order to verify your account? · Person: Sure, it is 111. Criminals have access to so much of our data, the simple process of asking you questions is to gain your trust. Please don’t fall for this trick. In closing this piece. Remember the old rule, “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.” Even the biggest prize company in the world – Publisher’s Clearing House states that they will never call you, email you, send mail to you – they will show up at your home when you are the winner. No legitimate organization needs you to send them money in order to investigate another organization. All of these people are attempting to take advantage of you and steal your money. And sadly, once you withdraw cash and give it to them – IT IS GONE FOREVER! Please be safe in this increasingly dangerous world. Michael Herzog President

You may not think that my title goes along with a consistent thought pattern, after all, taxes are one of those normal life headaches that cost us money and typically, savings is something we are doing that provides a long-term benefit. But what if you could save money and reduce your taxes at the same time? Have you considered the tax-deferral available to you by utilizing an IRA? IRA accounts have been around for a long time, and yet, many of us don’t take the opportunity to fund this portion of savings that avoid the taxes that would be imposed upon that income you are setting aside for future use – in retirement. We have a couple of good options for your consideration. Washington State Bank offers these first two options to anyone who wishes to start or continue depositing dollars for retirement planning. Traditional IRA – every taxpayer in the United States has this option, even if you are covered by an employer 401k or other type of retirement program. There are limits to the amount you may contribute, and I would encourage you to speak with your tax preparer about those limits. Roth IRA – this is going to be after-tax dollars, so you don’t receive the immediate benefit, but since you have already paid taxes on these contributions, you will be able to withdraw those funds with very little tax consequences in the future. In most cases, the withdrawals will be tax free. Additionally, we have a partnership with NestEgg that allows you to access investment products that are typically offered in a brokerage with a discounted fee structure. These investments allow you to increase your potential return over the time that you are working toward retirement. Nest Egg is an online brokerage and they offer one on one service as well as the opportunity for you to make investment choices on your own. Let me give you an example of how much you might be saving over a 20-year time frame… For example, you decide that in 2024 you wanted to defer the full amount of $7,000 to an IRA account. And you commit to setting aside this amount each year going forward. $7,000 per year for the next 20 years. I am going to use a conservative 6.0% return on investment over the 20 years. (For this example, I am using the Future Value of Money Calculator at calculator.net) In 2024, you begin and at the end of the first year you have a total of $7,420.00. At year 5 you would have a total of $39,459.00 (while contributing $35,000) By year 10, your $70,000 investment would be worth $92,265.00. In year 20, compounding has almost doubled your investment of $140,000 to a total of 279,949.09. If you are young and can afford this $7,000 annual investment – according to this calculator, you would accumulate $1,000,000 in 39 years. So, if you are in your 30s today, by beginning this simple plan, you would have saved one million dollars by the time you are 70 years old! I think just about everyone would be excited about that number. Start small, finish big. The rules of compound interest are always the same. If you don’t have $7,000 today, start by adding to your IRA on a monthly basis – that would be about $600.00 per month. Maybe the first question is why am I not already doing this? Michael Herzog President