cable and standards i did hand out a little flyer for everybody on the back of that flyer that is our consumer coming and going to get is running monday through friday from nine to four thirty and i always try to remember to mention it because it is supreme resource for consumers of massachusetts to call us and ask questions if you want to check the laces of somebody check on a home improvement contractor we want to complain about something so we feel in three or four hundred questions and concerns every week and it's a wonderful screening resource for everybody in massachusetts who is on the back we also have a really wonderful up newly updated website that has lots and lots of information you don't feel like calling us that's that's perfectly fine as well i try to mention three of our big programs that we are charging we run the home improvement contractor program here in massachusetts if you're going to be hiring a contractor who's going to do work eight thousand dollars work of on your own home one for family home they need to actually be registered through our office we have an arbitration program and we also have a guaranteed fun a car massachusetts and it turns out to be a lemon and you're having some problems please call or office we have laws to keep people safe or who are happy to answer them and help you figure out a solution and we also do we whenever there's a and i have actually been collaborating for the last year and a half eighty's with the better business bureau getting out into the communities just to let people know what's available to them free of charge have a question comment concern all of us would love to hear from you hire or what products are going to pay for i'm the users that are here to make sure that you're making those good purchasing and making those good consumer decisions so a better business bureau has been around for one hundred five years and we really just want consumers to know that you c utilize our free programs and services before you make those decisions so a lot of people have utilized just after you've had a problem with a product or service or business you contact us to file a formal complaint we reach out to the business  between the two parties and help come to some sort of solution resolution what we really want consumers to know is that you can contact us support and we have over five million businesses within our database four hundred twenty thousand of those five million businesses are credited those are the businesses that you've seen around town that have the b b b logo on their score printer on their vehicles if it's a business that has branded beyond goals and they just let you know that there is someone that has done some vetting already we know that they have their proper licenses we've double checked with the office of consumer and there's heavy source that's out there to help make you to help you make those educated decisions beyond the business that we have within our database to get information on charity organizations which is incredibly relevant especially as we start to get into some of these scams that we're going to start mentioning and regards to holly from making sure that these charity organizations are legitimate and and that you're speaking and contacting a legitimate organization before making those donations and then everything we're going to touch upon even beyond that don't hesitate to reach out a few questions on a scam and email phone call or a letter you receive that you're unsure about because every day scammers these identities are changing their i usually start with the phone's games because unfortunately their children t v we all get them interests important to realize that you're not being pinpointed no one's calling you out going to college just says the glee you were all getting calls and most likely answering the phone the worse we are if you don't recognize the phone number don't answer let it go on your voicemail even if you think you might might know who's calling let's just say the belmont police department i'm pretty sure there's no real specific reason the police department's probably calling you but my guess is they're calling you has a scam it's in the master saying that they're calling from the heart as the chief police to say oh we have your grandchild your grandchild been arrested he needs of money to get him out of jail let the phone go to the voicemail if it's legitimate they'll leave your phone number and even if you're not one hundred percent sure it would you are not find the correct phone number for the entity that they say who they are let's just say they call and they're really your message and they say that they're from your bank a lot of times you skimmers can be very personable they'll give you lots and lots of information about who you are because that information is could you please call us back and we'd like to schedule and we'd like to schedule meet or sometimes they'll even you might pick it up the phone up and they'll say can you verify your social security number or they might even read off your full social security number in your make count information then they'll let you go further and send you there by the grandmother grew up in northern ireland some small town because all that information can be found and purchased about us so if you have not reached out to that specific entity you have that a lot coming in i suggest firmly hanging up even if it really is your credit card company take out your credit card and call the number on the back of the credit card it's an eight hundred number you can call them back and say hey this s i got i got about four or five emails from u b s saying click here we're trying to we're trying to verify your address we have a big package for you and when i put my mouse over the e mail address of the u they're probably going to tell you no but thank you so much for calling how it's just there are so many impostors out there and they're going to come out full force especially during the holiday season i think what's really important to note the specially around the times of the holiday is that it's more important than ever to be monitoring our pounds because we're not really making more purchases that we than we normally would and throughout the rest of the air and so it might be a little bit harder for us to detect whether there's a small discrepancy within our transactions especially because these scammers when they get ahold of our information they don't do what we think they're going to do with it which is makes them a big outlandish purchase that's going to stand out to us we're going to notice it we're going to see a five hundred dollars charge a thousand dollar charge we're going to say whoa that wasn't me i didn't do that and call the bank and credit card companies and alert them what they're going to do is make small purchases here in their two dollars believe it or not one dollar three dollars four dollars and fifty cents and they do this because they know that we're less likely to notice something small and that even if we do go to said we're less likely to act upon it as opposed to if it were a large charge we are less likely to contact our bank and say i can't remember with this two dollars purchase was or what this one dollar service fee was for and that's like i'll do it those scam five thousand people out of one dollar each before they'll scam one person out of five thousand dollars those are course the scam the smart scammers as we call them we use the term smart loosely but they're pretty smart to do that and they're pretty savvy so just be aware monitoring our accounts is more important than ever and if you want to set up with your mate that you receive that you receive by these statements you can do that check with your bank and your credit card companies individually and say what can best protect me what can what can we set in place some people put spending limits especially around the times of the holidays they will put spending limits and they will say if there is a target for my hardest part for more than you know x amount of dollars on a particular day that's it that's my limit and then that way you know you can just keep better track of your patterns or you can receive alerts on your cell phone nowadays you can receiving a letter that every time you get your card you receive a text message that says that if the dollar amount to where you just major purchase and that you know if you're sitting at home wanted to say i'm watching this is out and you get that text message alert that says that you just spent fifty dollars that wal mart you know to contact your big credit card company immediately and say that that certainly wasn't made so it's really just about finding what's going to make us feel more protected and safer in those resources are out there we are big and be our credit card companies for sure but continue to monitor and because of everything that's been happening lately with with some of the big breaches doing at least one of your credit report here is very very very important if you want to do one before the holiday you want to do it out there whenever it is it's important to run at least everything sorry so that leaves check all three throughout the year and you can kind of monitor everything everything looks ok and task if you're going to critics that information out for yourself to really look through that's fine but to shred it when you're done all of our documents any document that's going our personal information the e mail address account in from the last four digits of social security number last four digits of even your credit card really needs to be shred there unfortunately are dumpster divers who will still steal your trash that's completely legal we don't know where or when they're ever going to do it but if we take a step back and say you know what i'm going to i'm going to make sure that nothing goes into that we have including our medicine prescription medication bottles because that is the region to be stolen and used as well if you can't get the label off you can buy it from a redacting black marker it's a little better than  a regular black markers on the market because you can't read through it so you black out all of that information it will keep you a little bit safer something else that's important to know is if you paid bills by check for during the if you're paying your visa bill and your you have now your statement if you have the bill itself and you have your name your address and your credit card number on there and then you're going to pay by check and you're going to have your signature and a verification of your name and your address and all of that information the routing number for your base on that check the very way that if you're going to be putting things in the mail to be sent out and he says that information that's personal and more likely than not that's probably anything that would be putting in the mail take the extra fifteen minutes a you've placed in there it's really really really important and then i would say probably one of the most important things we can mention is credit card first democratic transactions we really recommend that rather than use your debit card we're using our credit cards as often and frequently as possible i can say honestly i haven't used my debit card in six years and it's because our information can be taken only similarly regardless of whether it's the democrat or the credit card but if someone gets ahold of my debit card that means that they could in theory extract every penny that i have in my account as opposed to the credit card where they might try to make a transaction they might try to make up and i can always dispute it when i see my statement it doesn't mean that you can't dispute it it was used by air it was a transaction done with your debit card but it takes like two to three months to get the ball rolling for we're going all that jazz and so while you're waiting to get your money back for those two to three months you're literally waiting to get your money very quiet another thing we try to mention you'll be doing a lot of shopping online shopping or you can buy a lot of gift cards for friends and family love gift cards are so easy but make sure that  take off the security code and finally find a security hole in the back of the car then the put their own sticker on it so what they're doing is still make sure they know what this is the sixteen digit number is the front of the car and now they know the three or four digit pin on the back of the car so that when you send that card to say a friend a family member they have that information prior to your friend even opening up that card and they will use that cash so what you should do if you're to get a card from a big look at all of the cards that are listed right here but you're saying it's one specific restaurant see look at the back make sure that every single little sticker that is  wrong with that car if you're going to give a car you're feeling a little more secure about one specific card that's great make sure to get a gift receipt for that card and make sure that the the sixteen digit numbers match the one that are going to be on the receipt so that when you give the card to whomever if there's ever a problem with the card you can say well i have to give that i have a gift receipt it will be more helpful i always take even take a step further own wife fight but if you're going to start sending lots of lots of packages to friends and family make sure that you click off the box that they the package that needs to be signed for and not just left that's not that's not right because unfortunately it does happen and people have it hard with trunks full of bugs that don't belong to them so just one of those little things that you can do during the holidays because you just you card ask them is there an expiration date for this gift card or if you want to donate to a charity just make sure that you've done the initiating you reached out to that territory and that you're asking them questions do you sell and distribute my personal information if i make a donation  asking those questions and everybody's personal comfort level and preferences a little bit differently just because the charity that looks a robin likes it i would hate to do it and this seems wonderful for her it might not be the right one for me and for everyone business for everyone charity out there and there are dozens and dozens if not thousands of others that do exactly the same thing but might work a little bit better for my comfort level and just trust your instincts a big thing if something sounds too good to be true it most certainly is too good to be kind of assume that the things coming our way whether it's the phone call or he said mail is it's not legitimate and then tomorrow due diligence to verify whether or not it we're going to save ourselves a bigger headache than assuming that the person calling we appreciate you being here today and don't hesitate to reach out our contact information for them as a consumer