NOPE. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!  Who would have thought a credit score of 720 would no longer get you a great interest rate? Now the magic number is more like 760. Banks are tight and money is tighter.

So how do you improve your score? You need to get it up by at least 40 point increments to get the next best financing deal.

1. Check for mistakes and correct them. Mortgage brokers can help you do that.

2. Keep balances on revolving credit to a minimum. Definitely below 30 percent of available credit.

3. Keep stable lines of credit. Stay with two or three credit cards and don't open and close accounts. Keep balance low and try to get as much of a line as possible to improve your credit to debt ratio.

4. Always pay bills on time. Set up a computer calender or money program through online banking to ensure you don't mess up.

5. Credit bureaus can be slow to reflect your current situation. If you're under the crunch to get financing you can pay extra to get a rapid score. It will take about a week to reflect changes that you've made to improve your score but help you get a better deal with the bank.

Every week we get complaints from people being scammed by phony checks.

Lottery winnings: You've won and they've sent you an advanced check to cover the "taxes" just cash and wire the money. 30 days later you found out the check was a fraud on you're out the money.

Craigslist: Someone offers to buy your item. They send you a check but make a "mistake" and have paid you too much. No problem. Kindly wire or send the over paid amount back to them. Then you learn the truth. The check was no good.

Mystery Shopper: Sounds great. Go shopping. Fill out surveys. You're sent a check. Told to cash and spend but are given a story about why you need to send some money back. By now you know the rest of the story.

The Consumer Federation of America has put out a great press release about this and how to protect yourself. Read it by clicking here. (English Version)

(Spanish Version) click here. 

This is alarming stuff! I was skeptical at first about the programs you see for sale on the internet to allow you to spy on your spouse, significant other or anyone else you choose.  It's highly illegal! Except if you're putting the program on a phone that you own. Beware of anyone giving you a cell phone as a gift! Your sweetheart may be bitter about something and want to know more about what you're up to.

So how did we do it? Some of the websites don't deliver and do take your money, as we discovered when we tried to download one of the programs. But who's going to file a complaint, right? "Excuse me Mr. FTC, I was trying to download a program that could potentially be used to intercept private conversations and be could be potentially be breaking the law and I got ripped off!" I don't think so.  But consumers are buying programs that do work, and to get to those programs we brought in the experts. We invited Dr.Priya Narasimhan , a computer engineer, from Carnegie Mellon's CyLab  to come to the Nation's Capital to do a demonstration with us.  Click here to see the story then come back here for more details.

What We Learned

1.The 'smarter'  the phone the more vulnerable it can be. Example: It has blue tooth capability, gps enabled, internet access, conference calling etc. There are more 'ways in'.

2. Symantec has developed scanning programs for mobility devices to detect spyware activity.

3. Every time new detection is developed, hackers come up with a way around it. For example IPhones are now for sale that have spy ware already installed, meaning hackers found a way around IPhones security protocols.

Warning Signs

1. Your smart phone is working slowly. That could be an indication spyware software is operating in the background.

2. Your data charges (text messaging) are going up because the monitor spy phone is getting that data downloaded as well

3. Your battery is draining faster than usual because it's not only having conversations with your party but 'conversations' with the third party spy phone.

What you can do?

1. Keep your phone in your possession. The spy ware software has to be physically installed on the phone for someone to monitor you, meaning the culprit doing the spying must have access to it for a period of time to set it up.

2. Take the battery out when you are suspicious that you could be monitored. Except that won't help when you're making a call.

3. Beware of someone offering you a phone as a gift.

4. If you think your phone has been compromised buy a new phone. Once the software is on your phone, anyone who knows what they are looking for can find the embedded code that will activate monitoring.

Let's open this up to discussion. Post your comments and links below.