I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show.

You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you,

so you make better financial decisions in your life.

So I hate to start out this week on a negative nelly note, but there's a new scam that several of our

team members admitted would fool them. And think about it. We got people who work on our team who are so scam aware, and they would have been taken

by this one.

And it's coming to your email inbox.

I'm going to tell you what to watch out for.

And later, I'm hearing from more and more of you about the stress of owing money,

having bills, having debt. I want you to know how to know whether a collector contacting you

is legit. And also, where should you turn for legitimate guidance if you're looking for help to try to get

your debts paid off or under control? We're going to talk about all that today on our YouTube

show and podcast. So there's a scam that has been growing. I've been reading stories about it and thought we would do it

like a week ago and didn't get around to it. And then I read another story from a woman I just

respect so much, Michelle Singletary, who's a personal finance writer, The Washington Post, how it happened to her.

And this scam at one level is very clever, very deceptive.

And another actually pretty simple for criminals to pull off.

So I need to make sure you know, because this will morph and it will become a way

that criminals really make your life miserable. So I want to make sure you know. Here's what happens.

Criminal hacks into somebody's email. And what they're after is your contact list.

And then they send out a fake party invitation to all the contacts of the individual they stole

the information from.

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