Last week I decided to reduce my cable bill. I called Comcast, got a rep, and started talking about my plan and how to reduce what I was spending. Currently, I’m spending around $119 a month, so when the rep told me I could get on a plan for 160 channels and have fast internet for $65 a month I was excited. Then, it got even better! He told me for the next year they would reduce the plan to $45 a month AND have a technician out tomorrow morning to get me all set up! Sounds great right? The only thing standing between me and HUGE cost savings was that I need to pay a shipping and handling fee right then over the phone. Wait, what?

During the call, I started feeling my BS radar going off, and as the deal got better and better, my radar got louder and louder. Asking for my credit card number was the final straw. Clearly, it was a scam. But how? I had called the number on Comcast’s website. So I quickly looked back at the number I had dialed, comparing it to the number listed on the website (as I had done two other times as the deal starting sounding fishy). Finally, my brain kicked in, and I noticed that I had miss-dialed and called a number one digit off from the real Comcast number. Scam confirmed, I hung up.

Next, I called Comcast and got a real Comcast rep on the phone. I pretty quickly determined that I can significantly reduce what I’m getting and pay less, or I can keep my current plan. This was expected, as I do get very fast internet and a ton of channels (I have five kids, got to have those kids channels and whatnot).

I’m telling you this story because I feel like this is what people often do when shopping for a website. They end up on the phone with a hack that promises the world for next to nothing. They don’t know any better, so they say yes. Then they end up over their head in an incomplete project and out more money than they were planning to spend, only to realize that they need to spend more money now to get it done right.

I said all of this, all of this to give a little advice. Too good to be true is too good to be true. Run. And, if your BS radar is going off, make sure to talk to some other people about it and get some solid guidance.