Protecting Your Money
Five lessons, in order: how investment scams work, how impostors borrow a name you trust, why money sent on an app works like cash, what a credit freeze does, and the first steps after a scam, by payment method. Every protective step is sourced to the FTC, the SEC, or the IRS.
About this course
This course is a sequence. Work through the lessons in order; each one builds on the last. You can skip around, but the order is intentional, and the math compounds in the order written.
Lessons in order.
How investment scams actually work
Nearly every investment scam runs on the same moves: a promise that sounds safe, a reason to hurry, and a way of paying that is hard to undo. Here is how each one works, using the red flags the FTC and the SEC publish.
Impostor scams: the fake bank, the fake IRS, and the fake boss
Impostor scams borrow a name you already trust, add an emergency, and ask for money in a form that is hard to get back. Here is how the three most common versions work, and what the real organizations say they never do.
Payment app scams: why sending money on an app is like handing over cash
Federal law limits what you can owe when someone else uses your card or account without permission. Money you send yourself on a payment app works more like cash. Here is the difference, and why scammers so often ask to be paid by app.
Credit freezes, decoded: what a freeze blocks and what it doesn't
A credit freeze stops new credit accounts from being opened in your name. It is free, it does not affect your credit score, and it can be lifted when you need it. Here is how it works next to a fraud alert.
The first hour after a scam: who to contact, and in what order
If money or personal information has already gone to a scammer, what happens first matters most. Here is the sequence the FTC lays out, organized by how the money was sent.
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