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!

I received this from my father (don’t know who sent it to him), and I almost didn’t listen. However, curiosity getting the better of me I clicked the link in his email (whereas I’ve just posted the video below to make it easy for you).

Here’s the email that came with the link:

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled “u @ 50″ by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it.

(If you have a good monitor and a great graphics card you’ll be able to read along. However, even if you cannot see the words, listen with your soul wide open.)

Strangely enough, six weeks ago everyone was excited around here. Our son graduated high school this past June, and after what we thought was even debate, enrolled into ITT’s Computer Network program.

Unfortunately, after the first six week’s he’s also unenrolled and here are several reasons why:

1.  No one properly explained the funding sources nor the repayment schedule – now granted we should have been more up on this ourselves, but with only one “child” (now an 18 year old “adult”) and no prior experience with FAFSA or any student grants and loans, we did rely heavily on ITT being upfront and honest about all aspects of it. (more…)

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, and this is actually going to be a very short post, but for the millionth time I’ve just been visiting a “highly recommended” program’s web sales page.

The only problem is – is anyone looking CLOSELY at the “data to prove it works?”

What I’m seeing are lots of screenshots of payments allegedly from say Clickbank or Paypal or any number of merchant accounts. There’s nothing wrong with that BUT is anyone looking at the DATES?

We are in 2009. Do you know how many websites I see making large and small (but steady) claims of income, and their “proof” are screen shots going back to as early as 2006. I even saw one the other day where the website was created in 2008, had a copyright of 2007, and a paycheck “proof” dated November 2002. (more…)