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Hello Global B2B Friends,
This issue is being sent out to you on Thanksgiving Day.
Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, I wish you well.
As I mentioned in the last edition, please pay very close attention to the upcoming 2-3 editions. One or more of them will contain information that will be very important.
So as to not seem so secretive, because of the new junk email laws here in the USA, I was considering, very seriously, the discontinuation of this newsletter.
After discussing the matter with the Getresponse.com people yesterday, we may have found a solution to keep the newsletter alive. However, at this time I am not ready to discuss more details of these options until we can get them in place.
This issue may be slightly longer than usual but it is for a good reason. We have included an article titled "THE ESCROW SCAM" from an old publisher friend of ours from Singapore.
This article is "very" important for you to read for both personal and business transactions. So if you read nothing else in this issue, read "THE ESCROW SCAM".
We also have another great marketing article from Bob Leduc. One that I am sure you will find interesting and useful.
For our Spanish speaking friends, be sure to check out the news brief and web site for the NO COST Small Business Administration 9-session course My Own Business that covers such topics as writing a business plan, marketing and e-commerce.
We also have several Products Wanted and Products Available trade leads. Be sure to check them out, they might mean new business for you in the upcoming New Year.
That's it for me - I smell the Turkey and fixin's getting ready - hope you have a great day and great week. Stay Happy - Healthy and Thankful.
Until next time.
Ron Coble
Coble International -
World Business Exchange
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The following article is brought to you courtesy of our friend Gene at http://www.expatworld.org
THE ESCROW SCAM
BEWARE OF FAKE ESCROW SERVICES ESPECIALLY ON THE INTERNET
Think you're too smart to be fooled? So did this veteran Internet user He's a veteran Internet user, and an accomplished dentist. He has a friend in the FBI, and they have discussed Internet crime. Bruce L. is not your typical Net scam victim. But in November, just after the birth of his third child, Bruce decided his family needed a larger car. He was tempted by a great deal on a new BMW M5, and optimistically wired money to the German seller. Now, Bruce finds himself out $55,000, with no new sedan, and no chance to recover the money, a victim of one of the most successful and widespread Internet scams to date. Bruce AGREED TO SHARE his tale because it might prevent others from suffering the same fate. Many victims of the widespread scam have been silent, Bruce thinks, which in the end only helps the criminals. Bruce was the victim of a fake escrow site, a sophisticated scam that actually turns victims' skepticism against them. Suspicious Internet auction buyers have long been instructed to use escrow services to insert an added layer of safety and security into their high-priced transactions. Typically, escrow services act as a third-party go-between: buyers send money to the escrow company, which holds the funds until the seller delivers the merchandise. Both buyer and seller are protected - unless the escrow firm is really controlled by the seller. That's basically how Bruce lost $55,000.
BABY ON BOARD
It all started on Halloween, the day Bruce's third son was born. The dentist decided it was time to get a 5-seat car, and began test-driving BMWs at dealerships near his Scottsdale, Arizona home. He was smitten with the M5 series, which can cost $70,000-$80,000. But no local dealers had one, and there was a long waiting list. "So I thought, 'Maybe I'll look online,' " Bruce said. "My (business) partner has a friend in the FBI, I talked to him, and he said the safest things to buy online are golf clubs and cars." Bruce ended up at Autotrader.com, the eBay of online car sales, where there seemed to be an ample supply of M5s for sale, particularly 2002 models. Eventually, he started negotiating with a seller who said he was in Munich, Germany, and bargained the price down to $55,000. "That's a screaming deal for a 2002 M5," Bruce said.
SELLER INSISTS ON ESCROW
And it seemed safe enough. The seller instructed Bruce to take extra precautions. He was to wire money using the electronic currency system called E-gold.com. The funds would then be moved into Escrow-deals.com's E-gold account; then, once the escrow company verified the deposit, the seller would ship the car. The instructions included one oddity; Bruce was told to place the money into six different E-gold accounts. The seller explained that breaking up the transfers kept the payment amounts under $10,000, which helped both seller and buyer evade some taxes. Bruce sent the money to E-gold, but as he prepared to transfer it to the six Escrow-deals.com accounts, he had misgivings. "I talked to E-gold, and E-gold said once you move funds, we can't help you. I was leery about wiring all that money," Bruce said. "Then when I clicked on the (escrow company's) E-gold account names, there were six different names of people, and I'm thinking, 'What is this?' " Hours later, as he communicated his misgivings to the seller, E-gold closed the six accounts "for possible fraud." The e scrow company set up six new accounts, and Bruce got an e-mail apology allegedly from the president of Escrow-deals.com. But the dentist listened to his gut, and told the seller he wouldn't have anything to do with the escrow company.
THE FATAL ERROR
Unfortunately, he didn't listen closely enough to the little voice inside, and gave the seller another chance. "He said there's another escrow company I work with," Bruce said. This second escrow company, Premier-Escrow.com, appeared much more convincing. "Their site seemed a lot more legitimate. It said they were part of the Internet Security Alliance. It had a direct link to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. It was a really slick site, and I'm thinking, OK, this looks good." So on Nov. 9, Bruce transferred the money - again into six separate accounts. On Nov. 12, the escrow company sent an e-mail confirming receipt of the funds, and the seller said the car would be shipped via Lufthansa air cargo and arrive in five days. Weeks went by with no word from Lufthansa or the seller. "By Thanksgiving, I'm starting to get nervous," Bruce said. "When you hear escrow you think it's safe," he said. "Now I'm thinking, 'This is unbelievable." He called his friend at the FBI, and filed a report with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. The next day, the seller sent a new e-mail, claiming that he was hung up at the NATO conference in Prague, and promised to ship the car on Dec. 4 for a Dec. 9 arrival. That's the last Bruce heard from either the escrow firm or the seller.
TOO EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED
"It's a sad story, but hopefully other people can learn from it," Bruce said. "It was a good lesson for my son, we've talked about it. You don't get emotionally involved in anything like this. Our third son was born Oct. 31. I figure I get a 5-seat car. But when you do, what you lose sight of is asking, 'Is everything on the up and up?' "Autotrader.com confirmed it is aware of the incident but refused to comment on it. "We are aware of this situation and are working with authorities, which prohibits us from discussing or commenting on the case," said spokesperson Lisa Uhl in an e-mail. "I apologize for not being of more direct help ... Hopefully, the more people become aware of these scams the less likely they are to be hurt by them."
PLENTY OF VICTIMS
But plenty of victims are being hurt by a combination of auction fraud and fake escrow sites. In December, a major new network revealed that a single fake escrow site had probably netted well over $1 million from victims like Bruce . And at any given time, about 20 fake escrow sites are operating, according to Paul Moreau, who runs a Web site devoted to exposing fake escrow sites called SOS4auctions.com. At least some of that is big-ticket, car auction fraud. Another victim who requested anonymity said that he lost $44,000 in May when he tried to buy a Porche on eBay. He claims to know four other victims who've lost similar amounts. Moreau says the con is so successful that criminals are starting to create fake escrow sites devoted exclusively to car auction fraud. Two of the sites, Automobile-escrow.com and Energy-Escrow.com, were still operating when this story was first released to the press. And the con artists are becoming more sophisticated, creating more realistic car ads. In November, scam artists posted at least a dozen fake auctions on eBay Motors using pictures and information stolen from a Clearwater, Fla., auto dealer named Dimmitt Chevrolet. Ralph Goddard, the dealer's director of Internet sales spent several days writing e-mails to eBay bidders warning them they were about to be scammed. The auctions were particularly realistic because each car was listed with a compliment of eight photos, an authentic Vehicle Identification Number, and other very specific car information, Goddard said. "They even went to the trouble to use a paint program and black out our logo," Goddard said. In each of these scams, the con artist told auction winners to wire 10-to-15 percent in earnest money within 48 hours to an overseas account. Fortunately, Goddard managed to stop many winners from sending the money. But he can't be sure other victims didn't fall for the trick. "Practically, it's impossible to search all eBay to see if more of our cars are being listed on there," he said.
DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
In each fake auto auction listing, the con artists are willing to provide extensive details about the car, the location, the reason for the sale, and the reason for a slightly complicated electronic funds transfers. For example, use of an authentic Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) in a fake car auction can really give a potential victim a false sense of security, Moreau said. "Some of the victims do a lot of research. They check the VIN... and the information checks out. The car is where the 'owner' says it is, for example," Moreau said. "What people don't know is the con artist just steals the VIN." It all serves to create the image eager buyers want to see - a great deal on a new car, a new collectible, a valuable piece of jewelry. Even afterwards, the stories continue, a sudden family illness or an emergency international trip, like Bruce's NATO story. That serves as a smoke screen, which helps the criminal buy time to move and launder the stolen money.
"The con artists are professionals, and they'll tell you what you want to believe," says online auction watchdog Rosalinda Baldwin of TheAuctionGuild.com. "But the problem is one of carelessness (by the consumer). These people take this online stuff at face value without doing the most rudimentary checking. They do things they would never do in 'analog' life. You know how easy it is to put up a Web site; why would you trust a Web site as being real without checking it out?" Baldwin said eBay Motors currently offers a very inexpensive escrow service called "Secure Pay," through partner site Escrow.com, exclusively for auto auction sales - the flat $22 fee is considerably less than most percentage-based escrow transactions. Instead of agreeing to use a seller's recommended escrow service, auction car buyers should insist on using eBay's inexpensive service, she said. "For $22, you are protected against this kind of fraud," she said. Bruce, who found his car on Autotrader.com, didn't have any protection when he sent away $55,000. Still, he's luckier than many victims: thanks to his FBI agent friend, he knows federal investigators have at least taken a look at his case. But even with the inside help, he knows he's unlikely to see any of his money, or any justice. "My friend called; he said he was talking with the supervisor in Phoenix who said he might want to review my case. So I called the local agent. She said, 'Have you already reported it to the Internet Fraud Complain Center? Then here's the phone number, you can follow up with them. ... The FBI has gone from the war on drugs to the war on terrorism, and it seems white collar crime has taken back seat," he said. He's also lucky in that he makes enough money that the $55,000 loss sets him back only about a year, he said. But plenty of other victims aren't in that situation, so he wants to offer advice to potential victims. "If you're going spend that kind of money (online), you'd better be prepared to lose it," he said.
Article brought to you courtesy of our friend Gene at: http://www.expatworld.org
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10 Important Marketing Tips
Copyright 2003 Bob Leduc http://BobLeduc.com
Each of the following Ten Marketing Tips is based on a highly effective - but often overlooked marketing tactic. How many are you using? How many have you overlooked?
Tip 1: Insulate yourself against the impact of change by increasing the number of products and services you offer ...and by using a variety of different marketing methods. Only a small portion of your total business will be affected if the sales of one product declines or the response to one marketing method drops.
Tip 2: Customers are prospects too. Stay in contact with them. Find or develop other products or services you can offer them. It's easier to make a sale to a previous customer than to someone who never bought from you.
Tip 3: Avoid making any claim that sounds exaggerated ...even if it is true. A bold claim creates doubt in your prospect's mind and jeopardizes the sale. Reduce any bold claims to a more believable level.
Tip 4: Express numerical claims as odd numbers with fractions or decimals. For example, "Our clients save 17.7 percent" sounds more believable than "Our clients save 20 percent" ...even if 20 percent is the accurate number.
Tip 5: To create an absolutely irresistible offer, combine a special discount price and a set of valuable bonuses in the same offer.
Tip 6: Develop a series of 4 or 5 different special offers. Use them one at a time with an expiration deadline. When one offer expires, replace it with the next offer and a new deadline. Continuously recycle through the same series of offers. This enables you to keep using special offers to generate sales without taking time to develop new ones.
Tip 7: If you're attracting many prospects who really don't have (or can't get) the money to buy your product or service ...you need to change your market. Target a market where prospects have an intense desire for the benefits produced by your product or service - AND the money to buy it.
Tip 8: Set yourself apart from competitors by offering an exclusive benefit your competitors cannot copy ...or one they're not willing to copy. One business owner I know includes his personal phone number on every order. His competitors don't - and they are not likely to start making themselves that accessible to customers.
Tip 9: Advertising copy produces the biggest response when each reader can believe the message was written specifically for him or her. As you write any sales message, visualize you're writing to one person instead of to a large group of people. This will help you write in a less formal and more personal style.
Tip 10: Most sales are not made on the first contact. Develop a method to capture and save the names and contact information of prospects who don't buy from you. Follow up periodically. A little gentle coaching will eventually convert many of them into buyers.
Each of these 10 marketing tips implements a simple but highly effective marketing tactic. Take action now to apply those you overlooked. You'll be surprised by how much business it produces for you.
Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV
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SELF-LIQUIDATING (Arbitrage) LOANS
Are Self-Liquidating Loans legal? - Do they really exist? - Can you qualify for such a loan? - What are Prime Bank Notes? Where & how do you get one? - Why do most bankers cringe when you ask them to act as a fiduciary for your Self-Liquidating Loan? After all, all you are asking them to do is disburse the funds against your orders. - How can it be a rip-off if there aren't any front-fees involved? - Who really puts together Self-Liquidating Loans? - Could you do a Self-Liquidating Loan in a smaller amount and have a better chance of success? - Can you do a Self-Liquidating Loan locally; in your own home town? Arbitrage Loan
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The U.S. Small Business Administration is now offering an interactive online course for Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs. The 9-session course My Own Business covers such topics as writing a business plan, marketing and e-commerce. The online course is f-r-e-e. Just go to http://www.negocios.gov
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product: wine
message: I will like to contact someone who would import wines from Chile, especially buyers related to the sport of golf.
Claudia González For more information contact: mailto:Ron@importexporthelp.com?Subject=WINE-1
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product: gifts & novelties
message: leading impoter in gifts n novelty supply to 200 outlet holding in our own brand name.
name: abdulsattar Email: atoztrading@hotmail.com
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product: license plate frames
message: I am not sure whether or not I'm on the correct trail, but this is what I want... License plate frames. And I want them in quanity, and I want them direct. I have a business that accommodates them well.
g. tasseff Email: stickerzforyou@aol.com
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product: Rugs made with ABACA fiber.
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I am a manufacturer of fiber glass products for exports like planters, flat sheets, lamp shades, decorized base etc.. I am base in Paranaque, Manila, Philippines. My exporter is TN Philippines. I want to expand my market network. Anybody who is interested to market my product is very much welcome.
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WHO really makes money in Real Estate?
The Seller makes money. The Real Estate agent, Bank, Appraiser, Lawyer, Insurance Agent, and even the City, County and State (tax collectors) make money -- but -- the BUYER pays (even if the 'lucky' buyer buys a distressed fixer upper for no money down, he pays).
But, each year, poor souls across this country who want to 'Get Rich in Real Estate' fall for the same old sucker-pitch and pay out millions upon millions of dollars for courses, tapes, manuals and books on 'How To' -- buy distressed properties -- buy with No Money Down -- buy tax lien properties -- buy fixer uppers.
Real Estate BUYERS are the ones who have to make the monthly payments (if they can get the financing to begin with); pay the interest; pay the taxes and assessments; pay the cost of upkeep and maintenance; and pay the commission to the Real Estate agent when they decide to sell. (How do you get rich "paying?")
Doesn't logic tell you that to make money in Real Estate, you MUST be on the 'selling' side of the deal? But ...
How can you 'sell' something if you don't own (buy) it first?? Find out ..."How To Get Rich SELLING REAL ESTATE YOU DON'T OWN!" Real Estate Options Investing
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Copyright 2003-2007 by Coble International. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter may not be included in any compilation, electronic or printed, or as part of any commercial endeavor without written permission.
Although we believe all the information contained is legitimate, we cannot he held responsible for any dealings you have with any of the people and firms mentioned in this issue.
Ronald Coble
Coble International
1420 Steeple Chase Drive
Dover
PA 17315-3784
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