Online Scams II: "Phishing" Scams
Bank / PayPal and other "Update your Account" Phishing Scams
Phishing is a high-tech scam that uses spam or pop-up
messages to deceive you into disclosing your credit card
numbers, bank account information, ID number, passwords, or
other sensitive information., Phishing spams are email
messages that claim to be from a business or organization
that you deal with, such as your bank, an online payment
service like PayPal, your Internet service provider (ISP),
or even a former government body (now Gupta-owned) like
Eskom or SARS. The message usually says that you need to
"update" or "validate" your account information, and often
threatens the closure of your account if you don't respond.
When clicked, the email link will take you to an
official-looking web site, which usually looks identical to
the real one (since the fraudster has simply made a copy
of the real site), and will request you enter your account
number, password, etc. This should obviously not be done as
they will then empty accounts of funds or use them to commit
other crimes.
You can usually tell if the website is false by looking at
the address: https://www.fnb.co.za/
is the genuine FNB site, http://www.fnb.co.ru
is a fake Russian one! The "https:" with a picture of a
closed padlock next to it indicates a secure (and probably
genuine) site. If in doubt, never use a link in an email to
go to a banking site.
If you see one of these scams, please report it to the
Anti-Phishing Working Group at
reportphishing@apwg.org and
to your financial institution as follows:
FNB:
risk.online@fnb.co.za,
Nedbank: phishing@nedbank.co.za,
Standard Bank: phishing@standardbank.co.za
Capitec: phishing@capitecbank.co.za
Absa:
secmon@absa.co.za,
PayPal
spoof@paypal.com.
(some information from
www.spamhaus.org)
Got Children at Home? Like Them to Cost Less?
Small Business guru Peter Carruthers writes:
"Do
you have children aged 16 or older at home? Or not yet
working?
I've raised five children into adulthood, with two more to
go. (Just so we're clear, they're not all the fruit of my
loins.)
But raising children is expensive. The list of costs seems
endless. Schooling, food, pocket money, clothing,
entertainment, phones, computers, travel, sports,…
As the sole breadwinner in my family since 1981 all the
money I spent on them came through me. SARS demanded a share
of every cent I brought into the household.
Because all the income flowed through me, SARS regarded me
as rich. So they charged me a much higher tax rate than they
charged somebody needing less money.
How much money do you spend on your kids each year?
I ask this because you pay the tax on the money you spend on
your children. Which means that
what your youngster gets is much less than what it costs you.
SARS calculates your tax rate at the end of each year. Based
on how much money you earned that year. And after it's too
late to change the amount you took home.
Let's assume a child costs R5000 each month. That's school
fees, transport, food, clothing, entertainment, phone, and
so on
To have 5000 left to give you need to earn a lot more. The
amount you need to earn each month to support your youngster
ranges from R6,097 to R9,090. (Your income tax rate ranges
from 18% to 45%.)
That means you must earn between R1,097 to R4,090 extra to
give to the govt. Each month. For each child.
There's not much you can do to improve this if you work for
somebody else's business.
If you own your own business, no matter what it does, no
matter what structure, you can reduce this extra tax bill to
zero.
For one child,
at the lowest tax bracket, your savings this
current year will be (R1,097 x 12 = R13,164). That's a
voluntary donation to SARS because you don't know any
better. Isn't that worth investigating?
At your highest tax bracket, that's (R4090 x 12 = R49,080).
Per child. Every year.
That R13,164 (lowest tax bracket, remember) is waiting for
you. It's not money you must still earn. No extra effort.
You're already earning it. But giving it to SARS. Every
year.
SARS is the worst possible creditor to have.
If you think banks chase hard you haven't experienced the
wrath of SARS.
This is just one example of low-hanging fruit we cover in
our tax course. There are a bunch more. This course is only
for small business owners.
Tax seems complex. But the bits that apply to us are not as
scary as you imagine. You'll find the concepts easy to
understand. We try to reduce it to words of one syllable.
Our tax expert, Peter O'Halloran, has been helping business
owners for 20 years..
It's an online course. You start learning right away. You
can watch each video until you understand it. Or you can
read the notes. Or you can listen to the soundtracks. You
can download everything.
You can ask as many questions as you want. You have lifetime
access to the course.
Your investment would normally be R1497. And you get every
penny back if the course doesn't resonate with you for any
reason.
If you invest in this knowledge before midnight Sunday 2
September you will also save R500 on the price of the
course.
Your tax savings will be instant because your provisional
tax return should be going in soon.
Invest R997 to save at least R13,164 this year. On each
child. And then save that every year in future. How
worthwhile does that sound?
Click here to save R500 right now and at least R13,164 tax
this year. (The R500 discount applies
until midnight on Sunday. The tax savings apply forever.)
Remember, SARS won't tell you when you pay them too much.
It's up to you to use
their rules to pay the lowest tax you can.
If you know anyone with children still at home, please
consider sharing this email.
Warm regards
Peter Carruthers
peter@petercarruthers.com"
|
All the best from Rick at megaplex.co.za,a,
the most helpful website for shops in Sandton.
|
To view other issues of the newsletter, click
these links (same page):
2018: January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
Subscribe here or locate another period.
|
|
On-Line
Business Tip: