Freshmen can avoid money woes College freshmen, listen up. Get your financial life on track this first semester—or you may wind up making mistakes and paying a heavy price later, warned R.D. Norton, author of “Start Here: Getting Your Financial Life on Track.“ Living away from home with your peers is awesome, isn’t it? But, as a freshman, “there are plenty of things that can get you into trouble,“ Norton said in an interview.

Crooks set sights on bank ATMs Stop and look before inserting your card into an ATM machine. Crooks have been tampering with automated teller machines around the world—and in Virginia, striking last summer in Hampton Roads and leaving behind 100 victims including those from Richmond and Chesterfield County. The victims were robbed of about $500,000, according to the Secret Service in Richmond. An investigation is ongoing.

Scareware won’t shield computers Thieves in the cyber underworld are making a ton of money pedaling scareware—rogue security software—to unsuspecting consumers, a new Internet report says. Symantec, the California maker of Norton brand security products, IRIS
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said consumers unwittingly are downloading rip-offs of real software. Or they’re downloading downright-fake software that provides no protection, giving users a false sense that their computer is protected, or software loaded with the malware that it purports to protect against.

Red flags while job hunting Unemployed and feeling desperate? This is no time to drop your guard and inadvertently expose your personal data to identity thieves posing as potential employers. Plenty of con artists are lurking around seeking personal information that they can steal—or, in a case that the Virginia Attorney General’s Office is pursuing against Virginia Employment Services Inc. of Norfolk, guaranteeing people a job in exchange for an upfront fee, typically $365, and then failing to find them employment.

Web sites manage social loans Do friends or relatives ever hit you up for a loan because they know you have a nest egg? Then they don’t repay the money, or they take their sweet time making the payments? Next time, consider using a social-lending Web site. There are several that, for a fee, will set up and manage loans between families and friends. Virgin Money, LoanBack and ZimpleMoney are examples.

Keep an eye on your credit score If you manage your credit well, you shouldn’t be angst-ridden about achieving a perfect credit score. You don’t need an 850 FICO score to get the best rates and terms, said Rod Griffin, manager, consumer education for the national credit agency Experian. Above a certain score level, he said, it doesn’t make a difference.

Pitfalls lie in mattress purchases My column earlier this month about buying a mattress really riled up some of you. So we decided to let you vent and we’ll provide some lessons. Mattress sellers weighed in, too. Representatives from Leo Burke Furniture, mattress manufacturer and wholesaler Custom Comfort by Winn and even a writer from trade publication Furniture Today said consumers should buy quality mattresses from trustworthy stores staffed with qualified sales associates.

Compulsive buyers drawn to Internet Compulsive buyers prefer the fast, secret thrill of shopping on the Internet rather than in bricks-and-mortar stores. They don’t want anyone witnessing their obsessive behavior, said University of Richmond researchers Monika Kukar-Kinney, Nancy M. Ridgway and Kent B. Monroe. The findings of their survey of 314 customers from 42 states, all customers of one e-retailer, appear in the September issue of the Journal of Retailing.

DTV switch not simple for some John Roberts of Richmond made the switch to digital TV using a converter box but said getting things to work properly has been a major headache. For starters, no one could tell him how to get the box to work with his VCR properly so he could record TV programs while away from home. The converter box shuts itself off after a while.

Parents, talk to your college-bound youngsters about the correct use of a credit card on campus this semester—and about the dangers of racking up debt. Think about these sobering facts from a 2009 study by student lender Sallie Mae: Undergraduates are carrying record high credit-card balances. The average balance has grown to $3,173, the highest in the study’s history.

Act quickly to prevent foreclosure As mortgage delinquencies keep rising, so do cries for help from distressed homeowners. Housing Opportunities Made Equal said it gets an average of 250 new distress calls per month, up from 170 calls a year ago, from consumers trying to prevent a foreclosure. Callers most often ask how they can reduce their mortgage payment to an amount they can afford and how they can take advantage of the federal government’s new Making Home Affordable program, said Mike Burnette, spokesman for the local housing advocacy group.

Has your Social Security number ever been stolen? The Richmond Times-Dispatch is working on a story about which businesses or entities are entitled to know your Social Security number and why it is critical to protect your number from identity thieves. Please contact Iris Taylor at (804) 649-6349 or .

Has your Social Security number ever been stolen? The Richmond Times-Dispatch is working on a story about which businesses or entities are entitled to know your Social Security number and why it is critical to protect your number from identity thieves. Please contact Iris Taylor at (804) 649-6349 or .

Beware of ‘risk-free trial’ offers, phone scams Scammers and opportunists don’t take a break, so don’t stop being vigilant. Heed these latest warnings:

. . . Always read the fine print. A Richmond reader ordered what she thought was a free trial sample of AcaiPure, a weight-loss product touted on television.

Complaints often linked to economy AVirginia woman was miffed over what she said was a botched service job at a dealership repair shop that left her car engine damaged. The dealership denied that it caused any damage. But after the woman complained to the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs, it refunded her money and the case was closed.