Full Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Arista Advice! Question of the week is: "Paul, how can I protect myself from so many scammers?" Folks, friends, family, clients, let me help you understand something. This stuff is real. It's happening every single day. Just this morning, I had two scammers tried to ask me my shipping information for a package that's being shipped. Didn't even reference who was shipping it, but they wanted to engage me.
Let me share you some alarming statistics. Around 50% of people contacted by a scammer engage with them. 1.3 million children have their identity stolen every year. When it comes to victims of doorstep fraud, 85% are over 65 years old. In 2018, Internet-enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation were responsible for a massive $2.7 billion in financial losses. In 2019 scams attempts grew by 65%. One in ten profiles on free dating sites are a scam, and impostor scams account for over $488 million in losses every year.
I hate to share too much with you. I need to protect the innocent and our clients, but just three weeks ago, a client came in and he'd been scammed out of $280,000. A month before that, another client came in, successful attorney, very well-known individual, also, a sceptic. He got taken for about $80,000. So clients, friends, family, anybody listening, please, please, please remember to be careful of this information. Always remember, go to AristaWealth.com to get other tools, tips, and resources to help you live a life of significance.