Recognizing the red flags

[Katiek]

Anything that is being marketed, especially anything being sold on tv by a familiar celebrity, but including anything sold by someone emphasizing a social bond like being in the same club, church, town etc.



Anything that has a "rush" quality where you need to act now to get in on this deal.



Anything confusing or unclear.

 

[kgtest]

Whenever a thirty something financial advisor offers their advice...

When they solicit door to door. Anyone crazy enough to knock on my door is crazy enough to get rejected.

True story, an EJ rep (that happened to be a thin, young, vibrantly blonde and good looking gal) managed to get my buddy to sign-up for his first investment account ehem, I mean product with EJ after years of me soliciting him to begin investing...

Guess my hair wasn't blonde enough..or maybe I wasn't skinny enough?

Edit to add, this door knocking red flag is universal and not specific to investing. It can be applied when people are knocking to try and sell you...
1. A new roof
2. Steaks from their van
3. Bug Spray for your land
4. Religious advice

But if you show up with Girl Scout cookies, you won't get rejected, trust me!

 

[RxMan]

Edit to add, this door knocking red flag is universal and not specific to investing. It can be applied when people are knocking to try and sell you...

2. Steaks from their van

I had to laugh when I read the “steaks from a van” line. I remember a couple of years ago I was at a gas station pumping my gas. A van pulled in and a guy jumps out and tried to sell me meat including steaks. He even had a laminated sheet of his products.

I can just imagine inviting everyone over for a cookout and having this conversation:

Friend/Family member: “this tastes great, where did you get it?”

Me: “Well you won’t believe this but I was filling my car up with gas one day and....”

Gas station van steaks probably wouldn’t be the best steaks I’ve eaten.

 

[Chuckanut]

Years ago at a church I attended we had our own version of Bernie Madoff.

A very charming, friendly person joined the church. He quickly become involved in various committees and volunteered to do things like work the yearly Lady's dinner where the men made a nice dinner for the ladies of the church. He treated everybody well. Occasionally, he would drop a comment that indicated he was 'well connected' but he never boasted about it. He had a big house in the hills, drove two nice cars, his family vacationed in fabulous places. Again, he never bragged about it. It just came up in conversation.

Sure enough several people at the church got involved with him in a business venture. It was some sort of deal where the company, using new methods, would redo your bathroom - new tile, new fixtures, new cabinets, refinish tubs and showers etc. in only a few days for a remarkably low price. Needless to say all those who 'invested' in his great business venture never saw their money again. The last I heard he got divorced (apparently he conned his beautiful trophy wife also) and disappeared. The big house and cars were leased. The fancy vacations and the other trappings of wealth where put on credit cards that were never paid off.

My red flag is charming, friendly, helpful, subtle big talkers who I have known less than five years.

 

[OldShooter]

... My red flag is charming, friendly, helpful, subtle big talkers who I have known less than five years.

Your post reminded me of this:

Avoiding brokers and advisors is harder than it seems, since they’re liable to be your old college roommate, brother-in-law, or church or service organization member. The best way of solving this problem is to deftly change the subject when these folks bring the conversation around to finance or, if you don’t mind a little fibbing, to tell them that you have no interest in money management. However you choose to handle this, a ready routine for deflecting approaches from friends and relations in the finance industry is an essential survival skill.
​

It's from a very short and worthwhile paper by William Bernstein: https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

Gold pinky ring.

-BB

 

[jazz4cash]

Ok just found another. Anything that involves a paradigm shift. That one I’d forgotten about. I came across it in a description of the Velocity Banking strategy.

 

[jollystomper]

Anyone or any outfit who tries to make me feel like I do not have enough already.

 

[GravitySucks]

I worry when I see expensive suits and watches.
Doesn't always play out as I just helped mom with a lawyer that wore a watch worth more than my car, but he was very good. Guess "Empty Suit Syndrome" bit me in the butt to many times at work.

 

[SecondCor521]

There is a good book called "Boundaries" by Cloud and Townsend. I have never finished reading it, but I understand the basic premise.

My red flags are any time any one violates my boundaries. If you enter my personal space (including my house, my car, my mind, or me in any context where it's clear I'm not open to interaction - like swimming laps at the pool) without consent. If you ask my opinion on things needlessly or out of context. If you inquire about my finances in any way. If you try to change my opinion or challenge my beliefs needlessly or out of context. If you offer to help me or advise me when I haven't asked you for help or advice.

Nowadays, it seems I can tell someone is selling something on the radio within about 5 seconds of changing the station. Something in their voice or the way they talk gives it away in seconds. I then change the channel elsewhere.

People who really care about me will respect me and my boundaries.

 

[mystang52]

A pitch or presentation using what I consider “trigger words” that are intended to evoke an emotional response vs a rational one:
Wall Street casino
Crash
Crisis
Always
Never
Free
etc

Here's another: proprietary algorithm

 

[davismills]

Big hat, no cattle.

 

[pb4uski]

.... People who really care about me will respect me and my boundaries.

All of that assumes that they know or correctly interpret where your boundaries are... it could be that they care and misinterpret where the border is.

 

[pb4uski]

Big hat, no cattle.

+1 and braggarts in general.... if you're really good there is no need to brag about it or toot your own horn... it'll be know by word or mouth or by your actions.

 

[SecondCor521]

All of that assumes that they know or correctly interpret where your boundaries are... it could be that they care and misinterpret where the border is.

Sure. In practice it has usually been very easy for me to distinguish between the two scenarios (scammer vs. hapless friend) in the very rare cases where the ambiguity exists.

 

[Jerry1]

Red flag today. I saw a post on the Neighborhood site about doing some autumn scrub trimming. I need work done so I PM the person. I get a response back stating to text him because his PM is not working. Problem is, he PM'd that to me. So, if it's not working, how did that happen? So inconsistencies is the red flag for me today. Don't think I'll be texting him.

 

[OldShooter]

All of that assumes that they know or correctly interpret where your boundaries are... it could be that they care and misinterpret where the border is.

This is particularly important when dealing with unfamiliar cultures -- which we are seeing more and more in the US these days.

DW and I were quite surprised when our guide in Ethiopia reached over and poured himself a glass of wine from the bottle we had ordered. As days went by, however, we realized that sharing during a meal is the norm. A couple of times our guide or driver would take someone's unfinished dish and eat it. Food is usually served communally (aka "family style") on a large flat bread called injera. Diners help themselves from little piles of food using their fingers or tearing some of the bread off the edge. Sharing like this is as natural as breathing to them.

​

More to @SecondCor521's point many cultures, maybe even most, have a smaller notion of personal space than we Americans do. The result is that they stand closer to us and may even touch us. I couldn't count the number of times both African kids and adults have asked our ages. Age is something to be respected and it is important socially to know.

I am not diagreeing with @SecondCor521's point here, just pointing out that there is not always a consensus on boundaries and, as @p4 points out, the possibility of misunderstandings.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I probably keep too many articles / graphs / etc around

 

[Teacher Terry]

Old shooter, interesting about the food sharing but I wouldn’t like that at all.

 

[Dtail]

Old shooter, interesting about the food sharing but I wouldn’t like that at all.

One time in a restaurant before a hockey game, my brother and I were already fairly drunk and decided to eat someone's leftover fries from another table.
Youth........

 

[candrew]

One time in a restaurant before a hockey game, my brother and I were already fairly drunk and decided to eat someone's leftover fries from another table.
Youth........

Eating someone else's leftovers - another LBYM strategy.

 

[Dtail]

Eating someone else's leftovers - another LBYM strategy.

Haha
Didn't even know it at the time.
However he is still working at 55 y.o. so far.......

 

[aja8888]

Eating someone else's leftovers - another LBYM strategy.

That's almost new thread material here.

 

[pb4uski]

Eating someone else's leftovers - another LBYM strategy.

And I thought recycling dryer sheets was extreme!

 

[Chuckanut]

Grabbing leftovers at a cafeteria tray return is a time honored way of traveling cheaply.