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What I learned this holiday shopping season will forever change how I buy gift cards, and I wanted to share this hard lesson I discovered with you. Avoid buying gift cards from retail stores Con artists are latching onto gift cards as a convenient form of payment in their scams. In fact, gift card scams are up when shopping for cards in a retail store where criminal scam artists tamper with some cards – making them worthless after you add hard-earned cash value. Why do scammers love gift card payments so much? Virtually untraceableReadily availableEasily converted to cash or bitcoinAbility to move large amounts of money in small parcels. NEW YEAR'S QUIZ! HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THESE FACTS ABOUT RINGING IN A NEW YEAR? Here are some of my lessons learned about gift cards this year. (iStock, File) Only purchase from cash-back gift card sources If you buy gift cards through cash-back sources, you earn money and incentives just for buying gift cards. Cashba...

Getting a free drink at Starbucks might cost you extra money. To get free rewards from the store, reward members need to trade in their points or "stars" for items. Members earn points when they make a purchase from the Starbucks menu. Read more: Starbucks 2022 holiday menu: Peppermint mocha, reindeer cake pop and more One dollar spent equals two stars when using a Starbucks card. For credit cards or other payment, members get one star per dollar spent. As of now, members need 50 stars to get a hot or iced coffee or tea, a bakery item or a packaged snack or to-go cup. They need 150 for a latte and hot breakfast item and 200 for a salad, lunch sandwich or protein box. However, those numbers are about to change. Starbucks rewards announced Wednesday that starting on Feb. 13, reward members will need 100 stars or points to get a cup of hot or iced coffee or tea, a bakery item or a packaged snack or to-go cup. Reward members will need 200 stars to get a free latte, Frappuccino or...

Finiko was popular in Russia in 2020-2021, marketing itself as a crypto investment fund. The company, which had been conducting public events and openly advertising itself, operated as a multilevel marketing scheme, offering rewards for bringing in new users and targeting mostly women from 30 to 50 years old, according to the Russian investigative outlet The Bell. It could have gotten away with as much as $95 million of investors' money, The Bell said.

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D ermatologists Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields had hit the jackpot with their skincare firm Rodan + Fields. Two years ago, private equity firm TPG bought a minority stake that valued the multi-level marketing company at a whopping $4 billion, turning each of these flawless-skinned entrepreneurs into billionaires. But since then, the sheen has come off Rodan + Fields, which relies on an army of more than 300,000 independent "consultants" to sell sets of scrubs and creams that cost $200 or more for a two-month supply. Revenue has fallen to $1.3 billion, from $1.6 billion in 2018, according to Moody's, which downgraded the credit rating on Rodan + Fields' $600 million of debt in April this year. The credit rating firm said it expects revenues to fall further due to a drop in enrollment of new independent sales consultants. The weaker revenue and lower public market values for the skincare sector led Forbes to drop our estimate of the net worths of Katie Rodan an...

A Malaysian businessman convicted of masterminding a stock scam that wiped S$8 billion ($8.75 billion) off Singapore's exchange has been sentenced to 36 years in jail by a court in the city-state. Key points: The pair used their knowledge of financial markets to inflate share prices They set up dozens of trading accounts and borrowed large sums to manipulate stock prices The scheme came to light in 2013 when prices collapsed John Soh Chee Wen orchestrated the scheme, according to court documents, and his accomplice, his Singaporean girlfriend Quah Su-Ling, was also given a 20-year jail term following a four-year trial.  Both were convicted in May of using more than 180 trading accounts to inflate the share prices of three companies in what High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng called a "scheme of substantial scale, complexity and sophistication". "Armed with a good understanding of the securities and financial markets, and tapping on their extensive conne...

Lawsuit-plagued clothing company LuLaRoe—famous for its leggings—is the subject of Amazon's new docuseries LuLaRich, premiering September 10. By Julie Miller September 8, 2021 Courtesy of Amazon Studios. DeAnne Stidham is a Mormon mother of 14 with Barbie-blonde hair, studded designer stilettos, and a cozy Kris Jenner charm who, with her husband Mark, founded the billion-dollar company LuLaRoe. (You've probably seen their leggings, available in loud cat and pizza prints, peddled in your Facebook feed.) According to a 2019 suit filed by the Washington state attorney general, their multilevel-marketing company is also a pyramid scheme that bilked thousands of people out of millions of dollars. According to the attorney general's office, LuLaRoe made some of their retailers believe that if they invested between $500 and $5,000 in startup costs, they could "rescu[e] their families during financial crisis." (The suit was...

Having spent 10 years in custody for allegedly cheating over 2,000 people in the 'stock guru' scam, the main accused Ulhas Khaire has been granted bail, with a Delhi court taking note of the time he has spent in jail. Khaire has been in judicial custody since November 10, 2012. He has been accused of inducing investors to invest their money in M/s Stock Guru by making false assurances. The investigators had alleged that Khaire and his wife duped investors to the tune of Rs 11,00 crore by travelling across the country and attending seminars to induce their victims. They were booked under several criminal cases across several states, and lived under false identities by purchasing 13 properties. Khaire's lawyers sought bail under Section 436A of the CrPC, which mandates that an undertrial prisoner who has spent half the maximum period of imprisonment shall be released. The court observed that the objective of this provision was to ensure the implementation of the cardina...

It was supposed to be a revolution. Vemma billed itself the "Young People Revolution," marketing mostly to college students as a way to get easy money. Then the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit, calling the nutrition company an illegal pyramid scheme. The company sells nutritional supplements and vitamin drinks under the Vemma name; Verve, an energy drink; and meal-replacement shakes and weight-loss products called Bod-e. Vemma and the FTC reached a settlement in that lawsuit last week. The Tempe-based company agreed to change its earnings structure and pay a $238 million judgment, although that settlement figure could drop to just over $470,000. As provisions of the settlement, Vemma and its CEO, B.K. Boreyko, are banned from paying distributors, known as "affiliates," for enrolling new recruits, linking affiliates' pay with their own product purchases and paying affiliates for work other than outside sales. The compa...

Key Takeaways Use the money you have lurking in the form of unreturned purchases or old gift cards. Save on purchases you were planning to make by scoring free shipping or using discount codes. Find non-monetary ways to celebrate the holidays with loved ones. It's the most wonderful (and expensive) time of the year. The winter holiday season alone is responsible for $889 billion of spending in the United States. Many Americans find themselves looking for extra cash to fund their celebrations during the weeks leading up to holiday gift-giving, parties, travel, and other festivities. This is particularly true since high inflation has been a bit of a Scrooge this year. And in the weeks following these big expenditures, you can enact some cost-saving measure to make sure your holiday cheer didn't sink your 2023 financial plans. If you're looking for ways to boost your end-of-the-year budget, here are several options to save extra cash between th...

What You Need to Know The American Rescue Plan Act changed the IRS reporting threshold for income via payment apps to $600 from $20,000, starting in tax year 2022. The IRS recently announced it would delay the change for a year, to tax year 2023. Taxpayers who earn income via payment apps need to report it, whether they get a 1099-K or not. Many of us use peer-to-peer digital apps such as Venmo, Zelle, PayPal and others to pay friends and family for things such as our share of dinner. These payment apps also are used frequently for business payments, and your clients might need to know about changes to rules affecting Venmo and PayPal tax reporting . When and How Are the Payment App Tax Reporting Rules Changing? The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021  required payment apps to report  transactions for goods and services in excess of $600 to the IRS  starting in the 2022 tax year. Under previous rules, the IR...

Kelsy Schlotthauer A Tulsa County special judge and assistant district attorney remain in the running for a district judge position after edging out a private attorney in their Tuesday primary. Out of about 75,500 total votes cast for the 12th judicial office of Oklahoma's District 14, Special Judge Tanya Wilson received 33,449 or 44.3%, and Assistant District Attorney Kevin Gray received 30,018 or 39.7%. Todd Tucker, of the Welsh & McGough law firm, received about 12,070 or 16%. Wilson and Gray will advance to the November general election in the nonpartisan race. District 14, which serves Tulsa and Pawnee counties, has 14 judicial offices; two are being contested. Wilson and Gray are competing for the seat District Judge Martha Rupp Carter will vacate upon her retirement.  Office 13 was vacated in March after Gov. Kevin Stitt...

Owensboro, KY – Richard G. Maike was sentenced this week to 10 years in prison for running a pyramid scheme in 2013 and 2014. Doyce G. Barnes was sentenced today to 4 years in prison for his role in the pyramid scheme. The defendants were convicted after a federal jury trial that started in Owensboro, Kentucky on July 12, 2022, and concluded with the jury's verdict on September 7, 2022, after four hours of deliberation. U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen of the FBI Louisville Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Bryant Jackson of the IRS Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office, made the announcement. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Richard G. Maike, 55, of Owensboro, Kentucky, and Doyce G. Barnes , 73, of Goldsboro, North Carolina sold positions in Infinity 2 Global, or I2G, purportedly a multi-level marketing company, which the United States proved at trial was ope...

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