Curious about Fraud: Have You Experienced It? How Do You Feel about It? What Do You Do to Avoid It?

Definition of Fraud: Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem; deceit; trick. An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose of obtaining some valuable thing or promise from another. A trap or snare.

“But I'm acutely aware that the possibility of fraud is even more prevalent in today's world because of the Internet and cell phones and the opportunity for instant communication with strangers.” - Armistead Maupin, American novelist

This week’s blog is about fraud. Why? Because this past week I was a victim and I want to warn as many people as possible so they won’t also become victims. It’s not any fun, but I realize that it can be avoided. I admit that I had become rather complacent and, like you, I tend to trust everyone. Oh, yes. I do have updated virus protection and a strong firewall. I am also careful about phishing. I don’t go to sites that ask for passwords and other information in my e-mails.

I have been working on and answering a variety of surveys. Some are interesting and fun, and some don’t warrant any extra attention. But, I did give information to a survey that supposedly would send you your free credit scores. I say “supposedly” because I did not receive them. And then, a couple of days ago, I noticed a strange addition to my bank account activity – a charge for $14.95.

When I stopped at the bank to find out what it was, I was told that it came from Mini Credit Report.com. I looked it up on Google to discover hundreds of complaints from other victims. They suggested that this fraudulent group continues to recharge and recharge you again and again. I called the bank’s customer service number and cancelled my current debit card and will receive a new one in three or four business days. I hope that this is the end. I learned the importance of checking out everything on Google before becoming involved, and to become more diligent about sharing information.

When I looked up fraud quotations to share with you, I found a large number that address political fraud – including voter fraud – and corporate fraud. So, I will share only a few in this blog, that I think are interesting:

• “Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.” – Sophocles, Greek poet
• “There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny.” - Frederick William Robertson, English clergyman
• “Style is a fraud. I always felt the Greeks were hiding behind their columns.” - Willem de Kooning, American artist
• “Some people think that prayer just means asking for things, and if they fail to receive exactly what they asked for, they think the whole thing is a fraud.” - Gerald Vann, British theologian
• “Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth.” – Phaedrus, Roman poet
• “Why, I ask, isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising men who create it?” - David Riesman, American sociologist

And a few more:

• “Identity theft involving these cards is a growing form of white collar crime, facilitating illegal immigration, banking and accounting fraud, tax evasion, and other nefarious activities.” - Ron Lewis, American politician
• “Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.” – Sophocles, Greek poet
• “With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.” - Otto von Bismarck, German leader
• “Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” - Jean-Luc Godard, French director
• “For the most part fraud in the end secures for its companions repentance and shame.” - Charles Simmons, British gymnast
• “The greatest threat to the constitutional right to vote is voter fraud.” - Lynn Westmoreland, American politician

Yes, after working on this blog article, I have become more skeptical than ever before. I hate the fact that there are so many scams on the exciting Internet and that we can’t be trusting of the majority of people. How about you? Have you had to deal with fraud? If so, do tell us about it.

Curious about Dreams: What Are Yours? And, What Do They Mean to You?

“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” - Jesse Owens, American athlete

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau, American author

I chose “dreams” for this week’s theme, because this is the time of year when I make plans for the upcoming year. Part of the planning involves setting and stating the goals and dreams I want to accomplish in the coming year. I know that several self development gurus scoff at dreams – they feel that they are just wishes and don’t have the power of goals. So, I was delighted and surprised by the positive quotations about dreams, along with the certainty of realizing them.

I am not even sharing my dreams with family members this year, because I fear there will be negative reactions. I am heeding American journalist Erma Bombeck’s quotation, “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”

I am also considering involvement with a different home business company that provides every member a coach. My coach is set to call me on Monday night to discuss my dreams and how to realize them. I am excited and ready!

Now, for some of the great and uplifting quotations:

• “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” - Walt Disney, American cartoonist
• “All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.” - Elias Canetti, Swiss author
• “Dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets.” - Robert Bulwer-Lytton, English statesman
• “Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet
• “Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.” - Marsha Norman, American dramatist
• “Dreams are necessary to life.” - Anais Nin, American author
• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, American First Lady
• “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” - Robert Kennedy, American politician

And a few others with a different "twist”

• “Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.” - Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher
• “If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.” - Les Brown, American businessman
• “In dreams begins responsibility.” - William Butler Yeats, Irish poet
• “Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.” - Tupac Shakur, American musician
• “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” - Christopher Reeve, American actor
• “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” - Paul Valery, French poet
• “Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.” - Terry Pratchett, English author
• “People need dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.” - Dorothy Gilman, American novelist

And, a couple more to chew upon this coming week and as you prepare for next year:

“I don't design clothes, I design dreams.” - Ralph Lauren, American designer

“I tell people I'm too stupid to know what's impossible. I have ridiculously large dreams, and half the time they come true.” - Debi Thomas, American athlete

What do you dream about? I wish you big, huge dreams that even more than half the time come true.

Curious about Environment: There Are So Many Features and Issues That Pertain to Our Environment. What Are Yours?

Definition of environment: That which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development.

“The environment is everything that isn't me.” - Albert Einstein, German physicist

“We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.” - Napoleon Hill, American writer

I am thinking of moving to a new apartment, but also realize that I love my current one. I have created an environment that I love – spacious, modern, and minimalist. It actually is on the large size for one person and sports eight large closets, two baths and two bedrooms. And yet, because of its size and accommodations, it is a bit pricey. I go from thinking about a smaller space to setting goals for working harder, so that the rent won’t be a monthly strain.

Have you ever made a list of what kind of environment is important to you? What features are necessary and what are nice to have, but not a necessity? And, there are other environmental concerns, like our location, the type of community that surrounds us, and even the people we hang out with. Everything has an impact, influence and shapes us and our futures.

As I suspected, I found many excellent quotations about environment. Of course, there were many that addressed recent environmental concerns – I must admit that we are having unusual weather conditions here in Ohio. I chose quotations with a good variety of focus, so let’s go:

• “There's a kind of dynamic quality about theater and that dynamic quality expresses itself in relation to, first of all, the environment in which it's being staged; then the audience, the nature of the audience, the quality of the audience.” - Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer
• “That's the great thing about having your friends around you. I've known these guys forever. I really enjoy their company just as people. You couldn't ask for a better work environment.” - Drew Carey, American actor
• “If my parents had discouraged me, I would have turned out very differently. They raised me in an open-minded, liberal environment.” - Tom Ford, American designer
• “If you're not adapting to the very rapidly changing environment, if you can't think creatively, you lose big in this society because there are very few jobs for you left.” - Robert Sternberg, American educator
• “My wife and I now live in the summers in northern Michigan in an environment which is wonderfully conducive to research, and where most of my work in the last 15 years has been done.” Douglass North, American economist
• “But I think you have to - whatever the environment looks like, it does enter into people's art work one way or another; it's very remote or it isn't. It's remote in my work but it has to have a certain degree of ordinariness.” - Donald Judd, American artist
• “I think the younger generation, the people poised to dominate the workforce, are more socially conscious. They are more demanding in terms of environment and how that environment contributes to their life.” - Helmut Jahn, German-American, architect
• “Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.” - Learned Hand, American judge
• “It's important to determine which surroundings work best for you, and then build that environment to suit your needs.” - Marilu Henner, American actress

And, a few more:

• “Man is largely a creature of habit, and many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment.” - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist
• “We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.” - Spike Lee, American director
• “Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day.” - Orison Swett Marden, American writer
• “What is sacred among one people may be ridiculous in another; and what is despised or rejected by one cultural group, may in a different environment become the cornerstone for a great edifice of strange grandeur and beauty.” - Hu Shih, Chinese philosopher
• “After all, sustainability means running the global environment - Earth Inc. - like a corporation: with depreciation, amortization and maintenance accounts. In other words, keeping the asset whole, rather than undermining your natural capital.” - Maurice Strong, Canadian businessman
• “If people have a basic understanding of right from wrong, possess a strong desire to better themselves and persist in there cause, they can break the chain of any negative environment.” - Dave Pelzer, American writer
• “There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.” - Warren G. Bennis, American psychologist
• “Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.” - Earl Nightingale, American entertainer

So, is your environment working with and for you? Or, could it be holding you back. Just a few tweaks and adjustments can make a huge difference! What can you add or take away?