I started the day doing an FBI news story that you really need to read, and then, strangely enough, saw an ad later on that caught my eye.

The web site I ended up on is called Swipebids. Now, first and foremost, I did NOT create an account. I will tell you it looked awful tempting, BUT I’m savvy enough to first investigate.

Always look before you leap.

This auction site looks impressive at first glance. It’s ratings in terms of traffic are through the roof. The products shown on the front page, in real time bidding, also impressive. Information on what’s what, well I did not go by what the site says, I first put it into Google to do a “background check”.

Turns out that when you open an account, it works the opposite of say eBay. On eBay you can bid, but it doesn’t cost you anything unless of course you are the lucky winner and get what you wanted.

Swipebids makes you pay upfront each time you bid. For example, say you see something for $2 and there is, oh an hour left on that item. According to sources online, your $2 is removed from your account right then and there. You literally put your money where your mouth is… and then you wait. If someone else bids, and you still want it then you bid again.

This time say you want it badly enough to outbid the last bid by another $2 (let’s assume the other person bid $4). It now costs you $6 on top of the first $2 you initially placed.

And, yes, the money is taken… gone for good, unless you win the bidding war and get that precious whatever for $6.

I found comments at Yahoo! Answers ranging from “don’t go there” to “swipe bids is ‘legit’ but you need to know what’s up with these sites”.

So there you have it, my advice for the day. Plus you really, really need to read the FBI news story. It, too, is advice you don’t want to disregard.

Have a great weekend!

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This post will be deliberately short. Not only am I spending more and more time doing followup stories about the unemployment situation over at WorldNewsVine, and keeping track of what Congress is (or isn’t) up to, but today we received some shocking news.

My son was all set to head to his friend’s house (right next store) when he said, “I’m back!” even though he’d never left. His friend had IM’ed him that he apparently was “going out” and would contact my son soon.

Well, we did hear back – he was in the hospital!

Turns out he not only is anemic, but also his kidneys are shutting down. A blood transfusion later, and kidney biopsy still not back (they shipped it out of Nevada over to UCLA and it could take a week to get the results back!), but he was clearly bleeding internally.

The root cause of his condition may – but no one is sure – be based around the fact that he was “dieting”. And not in a good way.

I’ve spoken about “dieting” before – how important it is to get proper nutrition, to know your body mass index, to understand the concept that “dieting” never works, but eating healthy and exercising are the only way.

Lots of people want to believe in the c-r-a-p claims out there, but please stop! First educate yourself on not the old-fashioned food triangle we were all taught years ago, but the true way to balance good eating habits to achieve good health.

I’ve known “the kid next door” (who is 20 btw) for about a decade now. And I could not be more worried if he was my own son. I’m trying very hard to be positive. Yesterday he looked a heck of a lot better (after they found and stopped the bleed), but he’s most likely going to end up on the kidney transplant/need a donor list.

Prayers all around please. You don’t know him, and I won’t use his name, but he’s a great “kid” and we all really love him!

So if I’ve been distracted, and if it’s not Congress driving me insane, you’ll know why I’ve been “missing in action.”

Thanks for reading and say a prayer please!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

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