Scam season is upon us!

Scam season, unfortunately, is now upon us.  ‘Tis the season to be jolly, Merry Christmas, etc., etc.  But while many are excited about celebrating the holiday, some are wondering how to pay for the gifts they want to get for their loved ones, while others are working overtime to take advantage of them!

Christmas is supposed to be a time set aside to remember the greatest gift of all, the Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Christian Bible describes this Savior as the Son of God, the Creator God (John 1 in the Bible) and the Mighty God in Isaiah, chapter 53, also in the Bible.  According to the Bible, he laid aside his power and glory that he had in Eternity to become a human child, just like us.  This was so that he could one day, after living a perfect, guiltless life, he could satisfy justice for the entire world by sacrificing himself. 

So, according to that account, he was born of a human virgin in a cattle trough filled with fodder, because there was no room in the local hotels.  That’s why there are scenes set up in various places at this time of the year with a baby in a manger, surrounded by people and animals. That, in a nutshell, is the #Christmas story.

Eventually, as time went on, this event was celebrated on December 25th in most of the Western World.  That’s probably not the day it happened, but that’s another article.  

People began giving gifts in honor of the event, and eventually, began to forget the real meaning, coming up with all manner of others.  Some are warm and mushy, while others are just plain commercial.

The bottom line is, people who celebrate the holiday love Christmas and love being able to shower their loved ones with gifts.  They also love to be able to buy lots of food and drink, to indulge themselves and their friends.

This is why #scammers also love the season.  This is the time of year when you’ll see chain letters, rotators, pyramid schemes and other disreputable scams pop up.

What are the giveaways?  They all promise that if you join and PAY UP, you are guaranteed to make some money.  Even better, they tell you that you don’t have to do ANY work.  They will do it all!

What they don’t tell you until you pay is that it will work a lot better if you do advertise.  What you quickly discover is that you don’t make ANY money like they said, so you start advertising like crazy, yourself.

But that doesn’t work, either! Frantic, because you know it’s working for so many others, because the website you first went to, that you’re advertising now on all your social feeds, TOLD you you’re GUARANTEED to make at least X dollars, all without any work!

So now, after not making even your investment back, you think you must have done something wrong, or that you just have to “prime the pump,” so you start BUYING advertising..

Of course, you don’t have much of a budget – you’re trying to save for Christmas, so you go cheap, at least at first. But after getting zero results, you start buying increasingly expensive advertising, but still with no results.

The bottom line is, you’ve been scammed, and if you don’t stop, you’re also going to be broke, or broker than you already were.

So, what is the answer? What would you suggest at this point? Your ideas are welcome in the comments below.