Price check anything with Google Lens

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Well, first up we have your digital life hack and after that I'm going to play a call for my weekend national radio show. You're standing in a store staring at that espresso machine, wondering one thing. Is this actually a good price? Stop guessing. You can know for sure. I'm Kim Commando. For the current it's my five star daily newsletter read by nearly a million people. You can sign up@getkim.com here's the smart shopping trick. Use Google Lens. Yes, it works on both iPhone and Android. Open the Google app on your phone, tap the camera icon, point it right at the product on the shelf, and in seconds, Google shows you where else it's sold and exactly how much, whether it's online, nearby stores, sometimes even used listings. This works great in thrift stores, outlet malls, grocery aisles, anywhere. You can also upload a photo you already took and price check later. That $70 air fryer in front of you might be 50 bucks online. That rare mug? Turns out it's everywhere. Now you're shopping with facts, not hope. Again, it's the Google Lens app. It's free for both iPhone and Android. Do it now while you're thinking about it. Sign up for my free newsletter@getkim.com Next up, a call for my weekend show, the Kim Commando Show. Enjoy. Ever heard of the audience effect? It's when we change our behavior when we think we're being watched. While online, we're always being watched. Your Internet provider tracks everything you do, even in private mod.

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Hi there, Ann.

3:13

Hi, Kim. It's great to speak to you.

3:14

Well, thank you.

3:16

I'm a longtime listener and follower of yours. Thank you. And I kind of thought of you honestly, randomly having gotten involved in a Facebook scam. And I know you've talked about scams so many times and I can't believe I got sucked in. So what happened? Well, I decided that we had a multi poo puppy that had passed away last year and it was very attached to my mom and she lives in the cottage next door. She's 98. I take, I've got my whole family here. We call it the money pit ranch compound. But anyway, so I was was trying to find a replacement and I couldn't find anyone local. I went to every, you know, humane society. I tried and tried and tried and finally I said, you know what, this thing popped up on Facebook about multipoo puppies for adoption and rehoming near me. So there's more than one? There are a number of them, as a matter of fact, and I happen to pick the wrong one.

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So.

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Bottom line, I thought $800 was not a bad price and I thought $150 to get the puppy here was not a bad price. So I decided. She sent me videos of puppies. I said, wow, this would be the perfect one. I selled her the money, but it started and then the transport company, which she called her nanny agency, reached out to me and all of a sudden they started adding on, well, we need a refundable deposit for an air conditioned crate. We need a refundable deposit for a permit. We need a refundable. It kept going on and on and on and you know, bottom line, I wound up out a lot of money.

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How much?

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Well, originally was 4,000, but one of the, one of the $500 didn't go through. So it's the bottom line was $3,500. Luckily, my bank, who is Charles Schwab, kind of, I don't know if they caught on or whatever, but after I had Zelled out some, you know, like three or four times, they kind of put kibosh on it for me. I couldn't use Zell.

5:06

Right.

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And then it was PayPal, but my chase Visa is, is connected to that. So I've contacted obviously the bank. They're working on trying to get some of working with Zelle to see if they could get any money back. My credit card refunded me temporarily to see if any of that's coming back as well as PayPal. I guess my bottom line question to you is I've reached out to, you know, the FBI, the sheriff's office, you know, every possible entity, the senior, you know, the national, the Frauds for Senior program, you know. So I've sent my story out to everyone I could think of, but I was wondering if there's any way to actually try and even Facebook, which I never got a response from. But now her site has changed. It's now it's just a multipu site, but she's got over like 6,000 members to this. And, and I know I'm not the only one in this situation.

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Well, what you can do at this point is you can write up your entire story just like you told me, okay? Write it all up. Put screenshots of anything that you have.

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I have everything.

6:48

Here's the video that the person sent me. And the reason why is that, number one, you're going to put this on your Facebook page. You're going to link to it, okay? And I'd like it to be on the Internet. I want you to buy a website and just slap up one page about your experience, okay? And you know, you can do that relatively inexpensive by. Inexpensively rather by going to like WIX or Squarespace or Weebly or something like that.

6:50

Here's the reason.

7:20

Why is it when somebody might want to find another Maltipoo and they go on Facebook to do this, what a lot of folks do is they'll do a review. They'll type in the words review and multiple and then whatever this person's name is, okay. And to see what pops up. The whole idea is that if they see your story, they're not going to be taken as well.

7:21

Right?

7:48

And you're going to be putting the word out there that this is what happened to me and I Haven't been able to get it back, my money back. And not just that. It's also the emotional energy and the time and the waste of resources that you have expended at this point. I mean, how many hours do you.

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Think you got into this?

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Oh, probably 36, 48. I don't know. It's been eating at me because it's been going on since the day before Thanksgiving and every single day. And she's still. But the thing is, she's still messaging me. I zillowed her address. It's like a shack in Tifton, Georgia. Nobody could possibly be living in that house. I think everything about it is a scam.

8:09

It's all bogus. It's all bogus. You got taken advantage of.

8:32

I did.

8:37

Did you ever have a FaceTime call with her?

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I tried. She will not. She doesn't pick up.

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See, that's always a red flag if you can't actually see them with the dog. And that doesn't mean you're actually gonna get the dog. There's the pup. Scams are all over Facebook. You know, it's. I mean, they could sell the dog to somebody else, right? Or sell to three or four people at one time. And nobody ever gets the dog because now they're going to move on under with a different Facebook ID and they're.

8:45

Going to do it again.

9:09

Right.

9:10

And so I would encourage you to write it all up. You know, it's not going to be defamation because you're. You're going to be talking about the facts. Right?

9:11

Okay.

9:19

And keep all the facts there and keep the documentation on it just as if you would want to see this. As if you should. What you should have done is done some research on her, on her name, and maybe in review and do that now just Google search some different terms. See, you may find out that somebody.

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Else was taken, too.

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And maybe there's a way that you guys can get together to create a force. Maybe they use even a third person. Now, I will tell you that when it comes time to add a contact form to the page that you put up, make sure that it's not just an email address that you're putting on a webpage. Make sure you use an actual contact form so that this way you get the. You get the information in the form. Put a captcha onto it as well. And be careful, because scammers are going to fill out that form too. So if you have any questions about anything after this, you just want to run something by me.

9:41

And.

10:13

And I'm always here for you. You can count on that. Hey, wanna stay in the tech now.

10:13

Without wasting your time? Join nearly a million folks who get my free newsletter the Current, where you see the latest in tech in just five minutes every single day. You're just gonna love it.

10:17

It has a five out of five.

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Star rating over on Trustpilot. Sign up right now@getkim.com that's getkim.com.

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