Government Grants for All

Nurse Handed Over $400,000 to Web Scam Despite Fbi Warning

An American woman has revealed how she was swindled out of $400,000 (£269,000) by Nigerian internet fraudsters, in what is believed to be one of the biggest cases of its kind ever recorded.

Janella Spears, a registered nurse from Sweet Home, Oregon, said she started sending money to the scammers in 2005 after she received an email promising her several million dollars from a long-lost relative. In what is commonly known as a 419 scam – named after a section of the Nigerian criminal code – the fraudsters randomly contacted Spears over the internet, claiming they would offer her a substantial cut of $20.5m fortune in return for the cash injection which would help move it out of the country.

“I kept thinking it’s only a couple hundred dollars – I can get it back,” she told local news. Over a period of two years, the fraudsters strung her along and encouraged her to send more payments of up to $14,000 at a time. In the end she became obsessed and sent the fraudsters more than $400,000, which she raised by remortgaging her home and spending her husband’s retirement savings.

Despite advice from bank officials, police and even the FBI that the scheme was a ruse, Spears said she continued to send cash in the hope of a large pay-off. Even fake emails claiming to be from the President of Nigeria and US president George Bush could not dissuade her.

“I said how come you’re using this non-government address? ‘Oh, because our computer has a worm’,” she said. The 419 fraud is one of the most common internet deceptions, and like most similar schemes is reliant on sending millions of spam messages in the hope that they land in the in box of a gullible victim.

Although finding victims requires luck rather than judgment, the incredibly low cost of sending email means that such fraud can be highly profitable. A study by researchers at University of California showed that it took an average of 12.5m spam emails for each response – but that large operations sending billions of messages could make as much as £2m a year.

Although Spears is an exception she is far from being alone. Last year British police helped crack a similar fraud ring, which was holding fake checks worth more than £1bn, which had links to groups in the Netherlands and Nigeria.

Although it is difficult to calculate the value of such swindles because many victims are too embarrassed to report the crime, the government has estimated that such frauds could cost £3.5bn a year in Britain alone.

Spears claimed she was sharing her story now in order to prevent others from falling victim to similar scams. “You’re sitting there going ‘how can I fall for something like that’,” she said.

Tags: $400000, Despite, Handed, Nurse, Over, Scam, Warning

Warning Signs That Your Lawn Needs Professional Help

Who knew that lawns were so smart? They are so brilliant that they will actually give you clear-cut signs when they are in need of professional maintenance. And you don’t have to be a professional gardener either, just observant. If you pay attention to what your lawn is trying to tell you, it should be relatively easy to keep it looking healthy all year round.

Here are the visual signs your lawn will send when it needs special care and attention:

1. Bare spots that never seem to grow back

2. Plenty of weeds that refuse to go away

3. Grasses in patches from other people’s lawns

4. Yellowish ‘dead’ spots from pet’s eliminations

5. Worn out areas from high traffic

6. Anemic-looking areas under trees

7. Strange moldy growths

8. An overall look that says the lawn has seen better days.

All these problems are correctible, but it takes someone who is knowledgeable about what causes each problem and what to do about it. You could do it yourself assuming you own all the required tools, know what chemicals or fertilizers to buy, understand soil chemistry, seeds and sod and have a lot of time to commit to restoring the lawn to good health.

A much better idea is to call in a professional who understands all the problems, has the tools, chemicals, seed or whatever else is necessary and deals with problems like this. When choosing the right person for the job, be sure that they have years of experience behind them and some good references to boot.

Once the professional has been chosen and has done the job of restoring your lawn to good health and good appearance, you can either learn to maintain it and prevent future problems or contract with a professional service for regular lawn care.

What Makes Lawns Go Bad?

The average homeowner is not a lawn care professional and tends to make simple errors that cause problems. Over time, these problems accumulate to the point where it seems beyond your help and an expert is clearly called for. Here are some typical mistakes that people make:

Watering during hot daytime hours or in evening hours during the summer months. This invites fungus to grow and the water mostly evaporates instead of doing what you intended. Early morning watering is usually best.

Watering too frequently leads to both fungus and excessive growth, not to mention the need for extra mowing instead of Sunday football. Over watering will also cause a shallow root system hat means in periods of drought, the lawn won’t get enough water.

Too much fertilization will end up burning your lawn instead of making it look green and healthy. You need the proper fertilizer for the type of grass you have and to use it in the quantities suggested by the manufacturer.

Cutting the grass too short is a very common mistake that homeowner’s make. Your front yard should not resemble the greens on an 18-hole golf course. A lawn that is cut too short is highly susceptible to drought, insects and disease. Usually, lawns need to be mowed when the grass is three to five inches high, but cutting it to a height shorter than two inches invites trouble.

And as for aerating doing it properly requires a special machine that most professionals have but you undoubtedly don’t. Just making a bunch of random little holes on your own is more valuable to insects who want to live there than the lawn.

One thing professionals excel at is dealing with lawn-destroying insects such as grubs, sod webworms, chinch bugs and billbugs as well as moles and voles. When a lawn is dense and not mowed too low, these pests will be mostly replaced by beneficial bugs such as ants, spiders and beetles that will control as many as half of all the destructive insects that want to take up residence, by eating their eggs. Just five munching white grubs in a square foot of bad grass with short roots can destroy a lawn quickly. If the lawn is healthy with deep roots, there can be fifteen or twenty grubs per square foot and you will never know it.

To recap, if the overall condition of your lawn is poor and disheveled with dead spots, brown or yellowish spots and lots of weed, it’s time to call-in professional help. You can locate experienced professionals on line by searching the web under lawn care. You will also find the right people in the yellow pages of your telephone directory or even by asking a nearby neighbor who has a beautiful lawn.

Tags: Help, Lawn, Needs, Professional, Signs, Warning

Warning Signs That Your Lawn Needs Professional Help

Who knew that lawns were so smart? They are so brilliant that they will actually give you clear-cut signs when they are in need of professional maintenance. And you don’t have to be a professional gardener either, just observant. If you pay attention to what your lawn is trying to tell you, it should be relatively easy to keep it looking healthy all year round.

Here are the visual signs your lawn will send when it needs special care and attention:

1. Bare spots that never seem to grow back

2. Plenty of weeds that refuse to go away

3. Grasses in patches from other people’s lawns

4. Yellowish ‘dead’ spots from pet’s eliminations

5. Worn out areas from high traffic

6. Anemic-looking areas under trees

7. Strange moldy growths

8. An overall look that says the lawn has seen better days.

All these problems are correctible, but it takes someone who is knowledgeable about what causes each problem and what to do about it. You could do it yourself assuming you own all the required tools, know what chemicals or fertilizers to buy, understand soil chemistry, seeds and sod and have a lot of time to commit to restoring the lawn to good health.

A much better idea is to call in a professional who understands all the problems, has the tools, chemicals, seed or whatever else is necessary and deals with problems like this. When choosing the right person for the job, be sure that they have years of experience behind them and some good references to boot.

Once the professional has been chosen and has done the job of restoring your lawn to good health and good appearance, you can either learn to maintain it and prevent future problems or contract with a professional service for regular lawn care.

What Makes Lawns Go Bad?

The average homeowner is not a lawn care professional and tends to make simple errors that cause problems. Over time, these problems accumulate to the point where it seems beyond your help and an expert is clearly called for. Here are some typical mistakes that people make:

Watering during hot daytime hours or in evening hours during the summer months. This invites fungus to grow and the water mostly evaporates instead of doing what you intended. Early morning watering is usually best.

Watering too frequently leads to both fungus and excessive growth, not to mention the need for extra mowing instead of Sunday football. Over watering will also cause a shallow root system hat means in periods of drought, the lawn won’t get enough water.

Too much fertilization will end up burning your lawn instead of making it look green and healthy. You need the proper fertilizer for the type of grass you have and to use it in the quantities suggested by the manufacturer.

Cutting the grass too short is a very common mistake that homeowner’s make. Your front yard should not resemble the greens on an 18-hole golf course. A lawn that is cut too short is highly susceptible to drought, insects and disease. Usually, lawns need to be mowed when the grass is three to five inches high, but cutting it to a height shorter than two inches invites trouble.

And as for aerating doing it properly requires a special machine that most professionals have but you undoubtedly don’t. Just making a bunch of random little holes on your own is more valuable to insects who want to live there than the lawn.

One thing professionals excel at is dealing with lawn-destroying insects such as grubs, sod webworms, chinch bugs and billbugs as well as moles and voles. When a lawn is dense and not mowed too low, these pests will be mostly replaced by beneficial bugs such as ants, spiders and beetles that will control as many as half of all the destructive insects that want to take up residence, by eating their eggs. Just five munching white grubs in a square foot of bad grass with short roots can destroy a lawn quickly. If the lawn is healthy with deep roots, there can be fifteen or twenty grubs per square foot and you will never know it.

To recap, if the overall condition of your lawn is poor and disheveled with dead spots, brown or yellowish spots and lots of weed, it’s time to call-in professional help. You can locate experienced professionals on line by searching the web under lawn care. You will also find the right people in the yellow pages of your telephone directory or even by asking a nearby neighbor who has a beautiful lawn.

Tags: Help, Lawn, Needs, Professional, Signs, Warning

Warning: Don’t Be Fooled!

” May bilog , may bilog na hugis itlog….. “, the popular line that I’ve been humming reminds me of the unstoppable coming of the May 10 Election Day. I hurriedly check my heart about who i long to to handle the rend of our government. Will I be on the side of the famous color coded vest ( which is yellow , green , orange shirts, he he he ) or with thoose who are ” kulelat sa survey kuno”? It sounds like I am having my mini-mini-moo moments in ” sa pula o sa puti” in a dirty game show called “POLITICS”!

Actually, I am really perplexed. As I try to “stop, look and listen” on their boasted platforms, I can’t help myself from smiling bitterly. I don’t know if they can fulfill it whenever they’ll win the throne. Their proposed action plans for the betterment of the country are quite impressive. But, heck, I am tired of their big mouth. They are screaming that they are the right one to be in the power. Hmmmp….Some claimed that they will resolve the poverty in the country. huh??? what??? How? By means of corrupting again or being a trustworthy servant? They exclaimed that they will develop infrastructure , enhance educational system and a lot more blah blah blah! It’s a cliche. Will they please, please, please walk their talk!

Some even displayed their accomplishments while they were still in the government service. As I believe, they don’t have to boast it for those are their responsibilities prescribed as a public servants. Let me remind them that they were in their respective position before to serve and not to be served with their personal interest.

On the other hand, my dear compatriots, I am still one of the hopeful Filipinos for the brighter side of our nation. I urge you to make the right choice on the day of election for the leadership of our soon to be rulers.

Just truly know your candidate. Don’t be color blinded nor hypnotized at all.The right candidate must be the one who sets best example to us. As the saying goes, ” A good leader is a good follower. ” One of the good illustrations is how they follow simple rules in electoral campaign. Those who can’t even afford to follow that simple yet other find hard to heed , well, think not just twice but thousand times for that candidate if he is the right one for the post.

Be vigilant . Make a wise decision. Finally, wag mong hayaang ulo’y mabilog kagaya ng isang hugis itlog! ( Dont let your head be fooled like a round egg.) Will you let them?

Tags: Don't, Fooled, Warning

Warning Signs That Your Lawn Needs Professional Help

Who knew that lawns were so smart? They are so brilliant that they will actually give you clear-cut signs when they are in need of professional maintenance. And you don’t have to be a professional gardener either, just observant. If you pay attention to what your lawn is trying to tell you, it should be relatively easy to keep it looking healthy all year round.

Here are the visual signs your lawn will send when it needs special care and attention:

1. Bare spots that never seem to grow back

2. Plenty of weeds that refuse to go away

3. Grasses in patches from other people’s lawns

4. Yellowish ‘dead’ spots from pet’s eliminations

5. Worn out areas from high traffic

6. Anemic-looking areas under trees

7. Strange moldy growths

8. An overall look that says the lawn has seen better days.

All these problems are correctible, but it takes someone who is knowledgeable about what causes each problem and what to do about it. You could do it yourself assuming you own all the required tools, know what chemicals or fertilizers to buy, understand soil chemistry, seeds and sod and have a lot of time to commit to restoring the lawn to good health.

A much better idea is to call in a professional who understands all the problems, has the tools, chemicals, seed or whatever else is necessary and deals with problems like this. When choosing the right person for the job, be sure that they have years of experience behind them and some good references to boot.

Once the professional has been chosen and has done the job of restoring your lawn to good health and good appearance, you can either learn to maintain it and prevent future problems or contract with a professional service for regular lawn care.

What Makes Lawns Go Bad?

The average homeowner is not a lawn care professional and tends to make simple errors that cause problems. Over time, these problems accumulate to the point where it seems beyond your help and an expert is clearly called for. Here are some typical mistakes that people make:

Watering during hot daytime hours or in evening hours during the summer months. This invites fungus to grow and the water mostly evaporates instead of doing what you intended. Early morning watering is usually best.

Watering too frequently leads to both fungus and excessive growth, not to mention the need for extra mowing instead of Sunday football. Over watering will also cause a shallow root system hat means in periods of drought, the lawn won’t get enough water.

Too much fertilization will end up burning your lawn instead of making it look green and healthy. You need the proper fertilizer for the type of grass you have and to use it in the quantities suggested by the manufacturer.

Cutting the grass too short is a very common mistake that homeowner’s make. Your front yard should not resemble the greens on an 18-hole golf course. A lawn that is cut too short is highly susceptible to drought, insects and disease. Usually, lawns need to be mowed when the grass is three to five inches high, but cutting it to a height shorter than two inches invites trouble.

And as for aerating doing it properly requires a special machine that most professionals have but you undoubtedly don’t. Just making a bunch of random little holes on your own is more valuable to insects who want to live there than the lawn.

One thing professionals excel at is dealing with lawn-destroying insects such as grubs, sod webworms, chinch bugs and billbugs as well as moles and voles. When a lawn is dense and not mowed too low, these pests will be mostly replaced by beneficial bugs such as ants, spiders and beetles that will control as many as half of all the destructive insects that want to take up residence, by eating their eggs. Just five munching white grubs in a square foot of bad grass with short roots can destroy a lawn quickly. If the lawn is healthy with deep roots, there can be fifteen or twenty grubs per square foot and you will never know it.

To recap, if the overall condition of your lawn is poor and disheveled with dead spots, brown or yellowish spots and lots of weed, it’s time to call-in professional help. You can locate experienced professionals on line by searching the web under lawn care. You will also find the right people in the yellow pages of your telephone directory or even by asking a nearby neighbor who has a beautiful lawn.

Tags: Help, Lawn, Needs, Professional, Signs, Warning

Business Start Up Grants Alert: Warning! Beware of Internet Scams

Business Start Up Grants seekers are a prime target of internet scams in the latest crime wave that has hit the world wide web by storm. This current surge in internet grant scams has led some of the nation’s top consumer watchdog groups to issue advisories to potential victims. As a budding entrepreneur, you owe it to yourself to proceed with caution when investigating grant opportunities. Let’s begin uncovering the myths by shining a light on the facts related to grants.

Myth Versus Fact

MYTH #1: Grants are a source of free start up money for new businesses.

FACT: The U.S. government does not offer grant opportunities for entrepreneurs starting up new businesses.

MYTH #2: Business Start Up Grants are available to minorities and women entrepreneurs.

FACT: As a general rule, U.S. government grants are rarely awarded for the purpose of starting a new business – and certainly aren’t awarded solely on the basis of ethnicity or gender alone.

MYTH #3: Government grant services can help you find hundreds of “hidden” grant opportunities.

FACT: Government grants are made public through grants.gov. There is no fee whatsoever to view and apply for government Business start up grants. If you have been told otherwise, you have likely come across one of the many internet scams masquerading as a legitimate business.

Internet Scam Buster Checklist
Don’t share your social security number, credit card numbers or bank account details with anyone claiming to be able to find free government grant money for your start up business.
Don’t pay out a fee to any government grant research firms or any company claiming to be able to help you find free money to start your business.
File a claim with the Federal Trade Commission if you suspect you have encountered a fraudulent grant offer, or if you’ve already fallen prey to one of the many internet scams claiming access to free government money.
Legitimate FREE Business Start Up Funding Sources

Don’t allow your dream of starting a business to be dashed by the false promise of business start up grants. You can find free sources of start up funding that are legitimate and honest.

Discover over a hundred free sources of business start up funding and learn the secrets for bootstrapping your business, even if you have very little money. Check out the “The Start Up Business Survival Guide: 101 FREE Products and Services to Help Finance Your Dream of Successful Business Ownership”, by visiting my website.

Tags: Alert, Beware, Business, Grants, Internet, Scams., Start, Warning

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 Grants No Comments