What To Do If You Get Ripped-Off While Traveling

Being away from familiar territory puts you at an increased risk of having your money swindled from you. The scammers know that it won’t be easy for you to get back to them, and you’re unlikely to notice you’ve been ripped off until you get back home.

Here’s what to do if you are unfortunate to get caught up in a scam and have your money stolen. Specifically if you end up buying crap defective goods.

• Make Sure That The Goods Are Infact Defective, or False Advertising - Before you do anything, verify the cost of what you’ve bought vs. the actual price and brand. Do a Google of the serial number to see if it’s stolen and check if there is a manufacturer’s warranty (most likely not). Contact any “former” owners and contact the local police (this may not work in many countries), or the manufacturer to report the defect and see if you can get a replacement.
• Call The Credit Card Company – The only thing you should pay with in cash while you’re on the road are restaurant tabs. Otherwise, make sure you use your credit card so you can refute charges later. Explain the situation clearly and most of the time the scammer won’t put up a fight and you’ll be credited the money back.
  • If you happened to have used cash, there isn’t much you can do.
• Change Your Credit Card Number - During the phone call to the credit card company, make sure you cancel and request for a new credit card and number. The scammers may not put up a fight if you refute the changes, but may have kept a copy of your Visa and are buying anything they want.

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10 Days Left To Enter And Win Gift Cards

Including today, you’ve now got 10 days to enter the End Of Year Contest. The top prize is $75 Apple gift card. Read here for more details and check out the post on My Blog Contest.

The Holiday Season A Good Time To Travel Business Class

Most of us avoid flying anything other than coach unless the company is paying. The New York Times reports that the holiday season may be the time to upgrade.

With most business travelers on hiatus for the holidays, those cushy seats at the front of the plane can be relatively empty. Rather than give those seats away as upgrades, airlines have increasingly been trying to fill them with sales.

Frequent flyer miles are almost impossible to redeem for anything other than upgrades. Take advantage of sign-up bonuses, or if you already have a bunch of miles, redeem them before they expire.

5 Tips For Cruise Virgins

This guide might not help if you’re actually a virgin on a boat, but if you’ll be going on your first cruise check out these 5 tips for newbies.

Find Hidden Wireless Networks At Airports and Bus Stations With NetStumbler

Airlines and other companies often have unencrypted, but hidden, wireless networks for maintenance workers. The free download NetStumbler detects all wireless networks in range, even if they’ve had their SSID hidden, so you can browse the Internet without paying fees.

NetStumbler (Windows only) displays the signal strength, name of the network (SSID), and encryption status. Most airlines and bus companies use some variation of their company name for their maintenance network. Before you go through the effort, check to see if there are free networks around, and don’t connect to computer-to-computer networks.

Donate 20 Grains of Free Rice By Defining Words

Next time you’re bored online, increase your vocabulary and be a philanthropist at the same time. Free Rice is a United Nations sponsored online game that asks you to define words (multiple choice). For each correct answer a 20 grain contribution will be made in your name.

The questions begin easy enough and increase with difficulty. In addition to Free Rice, vegetable oils, cereal blends, and other essential foodstuff are also send. There are plenty of free ways to contribute to causes online, like clicking for free mammograms – of course, there is also the old fashioned way. For example, donating $5 to our UNICEF site.

Thanks Peaceluvbug!?

Rating The Fare Watchers

The Washington Post has rated some of the most popular fare notification services. These sites send you emails when the price of a particular flight drops below the limit you set. Farecast received the highest rating (B+) and Kayak got a respectable C+ rating.

Slightly Orgasmic Animals Dancing For Juice In French Commercial

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything French, but this Orangina commercial was too strange and utterly “France” to pass up.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck14LKBI9GM[/video]

foXnoMad End Of Year Contest Submissions Coming In

I’ve started receiving some pretty good entries for the End Of Year Contest. If you have submitted something, don’t forget the other 2 requirements – leave 3 comments and sign up for email updates (or subscribe via RSS). If you haven’t gotten on the ball yet, you’ve got until December 8th.

If you simply can’t get enough contest-fever out of your system, Contest Beat has a list of many others, including ours.

Questions? Just drop me a line, or ask right in the comments!

40% Of Flights Delayed At JFK

It’s actually the worst airport in the nation for on-time flights, but you already knew that.

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