New Scammers!

are after the three-digit pin number on the back of your credit card

Here is yet another card scam to add to the seemingly endless number of existing scams.

Be aware of callers claiming to represent the Security and Fraud Department at either Visa or Mastercard.

This new hoax is especially tricky since the caller does not ask you for personal information. Rather, they provide YOU with all your information except for the one thing they’re really after – the three-digit pin number on the back of your credit card.

The ploy usually involves the caller informing you that your credit card is being verified for fraudulent activity, ie. a phony purchase. You are asked to confirm that your card is indeed in your possession by providing the three-digit security pin number from the back of your card.

With this three-digit number, the scammers now have carte blanche to purchase whatever they want with your credit card.

Again, here is another hard lesson in protecting yourself against con artists who will go to any lengths to steal your money. To keep yourself protected, always remember that you should NEVER give any personal information and/or money to ANYONE, unless you know exactly who you are dealing with.

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?

“Stewardesess” is the longest word typed with only the left hand

“Lollipop” is the longest word typed with only the right hand.

“Typewriter” is the longest word that can be made using the letters on the middle row of the keyboard.

No words in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

“Dreamt” is the only word that ends in the letters “mt”

There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous” : tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous.

There are only two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious and facetious.”

Lower Home Prices are Good

Don't Fear Falling Prices

Yale Professor Robert Shiller, whose Case-Shiller 20-city home price index has become an industry standard, says people shouldn’t fear gradually falling home prices."There's nothing troubling about a gradual correction of home prices.

If we keep our incomes at the current level and home prices go down we are richer, we can buy more housing," Shiller says.

But if home prices fall suddenly, Shiller says that could undermine housing as well as consumer confidence and the economy.

There has been a misperception that houses will constantly appreciate, Shiller says. "Sometimes people will try to imagine that we can have both high home prices and affordable housing. But I can tell you that doesn't add up," he says."

You either have high home prices or lower home prices. And lower home prices are what we want, and people shouldn't be afraid of that," Shiller says.

"Most of us care about our children and grandchildren, and these people have to buy houses so why would we want high home prices? We want economic growth, we don't want high home prices."

Source: Reuters News, Lynn Adler (02/21/08)

Real Estate Market Facts

Tired of Media Spin...Consider the following

1. 35% of homes in America don't have a mortgage

2. Subprime mortgages represent 25% of all mortgages in America. 75% are performing.
By calculation we see that 94.88% of the total loans are performing.

3. The forclosure problem in America is really about 7 states. The biggest forclosure problems are in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Those are manufacturing States that had terrible job losses.
These States would have had problems no matter what the market was doing

4. The other 4 States - California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona - experienced significant overbuilding. 25% of the foreclosures are on properties that are held by investors who were speculating.

5. In the other 43 States forclosures have fallen in 2007 from 2006