Many people who are blind rely on SSI funds to help themselves pay for utilities, purchase food, pay for online services, and other uses. But some payees who were helping blind website owners often steal their SSI funds! It’s illegal to misuse anyone’s SSI funds for other purposes that are NOT intended for. Well, it did happened to me. And the Independent Connection Services has to help me get out of the abusive situation. This can happen to any blind person who owns a website via a web-hosting service, or domain ownership. However; this can be your worse nightmare,–if your funds were stolen.
Let’s talk about this issue!
When I first ran my blog via a free blogging platform, I rely on the internet to keep publishing my content what I write on a special basis. Whether if I write a new post that will be a chapter of my fictional story, a post with a standalone fictional story, a news article, a tutorial, or any content. I rely on cloud services to write content, and rely on other services that are free.
When my internet connection has been turned off, I couldn’t do anything offline. I have to borrow their internet connection from my other neighbor who is willing to let me use their internet connection,–until my services are restored. I believe something has gone wrong! What I discovered… my mother has illegally used my funds for gambling, and other uses. I was ripped off by my own mother who was involved in stealing my funds. I have to rely on an internet connection to be productive. And that’s the new norm when I create something new. That also enable me to go paperless!
When I was almost left in the dark; a person from the Independent Connection Services has arrived at the door,–offering to help me. My apartment was a mess, and I don’t have any resources.
I was advised to get help from some agencies to hold my mother accountable for her abusive scheme that is dangerous.
This is kind of a serious issue that can happen to you,–if you are a webmaster.
When my mother has died since 2015; she left a dirty legacy! A family what I live in… is a gross mess!!
What To Do If Your SSI Funds Is Stolen
Here are the common activities what you may encounter when your SSI funds were stolen:
- Gambling – This is not limited to going to land-based casinos, casino boats, lottery tickets, poker machines, illegal gambling, and more.
- Buying items that are not suitable to be bought with SSI funds.
- High purchase of tobacco products.
- Purchase of illegal substances.
- Terrorism financing to terrorist groups that are designed to harm our community.
If your funds has been stolen; be sure to contact your web-hosting provider about an issue,–regarding your SSI funds that are stolen by your parent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, or anyone who is involved. You have to contact your utility providers to extend your services. If you had a neighbor that you trust; get help immediately!
If your payee is legitimately helping you paying your bills with your SSI funds; try contacting your payee first.
Instructions for letting your web-host know about your situation
Be sure to tell the webmaster what is exactly happening if you were just running your website,–before you started selling ads on your website, or you just started it from scratch,–or you only rely on donations:
- Make a phone call with your hosting provider, a phone number is always available on their website. Always get a note of it by using your brailler, or your computer.
- Tell them you have trouble with your finances. For example: “I am calling you,–regarding my account, and I have to tell you about my financial issue. My payee has experienced some financial difficulties, and I need help”. If your hosting provider refers you to a hotline to report an issue… regarding your SSI funds, use this special hotline,–if necessary. Or if your payee experiences any difficulties with your SSI funds; try contacting your payee first, and let him/her know you have bills to pay.
- Let the hosting service extend your invoice for some days,–until you successfully got your funds sent to you for paying your hosting bills. If you have ads on your website; don’t let ad networks steal your earned funds, always rely on a reputable ad network that will never take your funds. Some ad networks who don’t do check delivery requires you to have a varified cloud-based payment platform to receive funds. If you only rely on donations… check if your funds what you received will match your hosting bills. Be very careful when you rely on subscription-based payments for your website.
- If you managed to contact your payee; your payee will explain to you what happened, here are the common issues:
- Your payee who is relying with your SSI funds in your banking account has been hacked
- Your payee has notified you about your funds in your banking account has been stolen
- Your payee who is using a debit card is stolen
- Your payee’s credit card has been skimmed by a skimmer
- Your SSI funds in cash has been stolen by a robber
- The bank what your payee is relying on has been robbed
- If your payee discloses what went wrong; and you weren’t aware of this issue, ask questions. And be sure to tell them what is going on. If you already have a banking account; he/she will send you money via ACH (direct deposit), or via a cloud-based payment platform. Wait for your funds to arrive, be patient!
- If you got the funds; use it to pay your bills for a hosting service what you are using. If you managed to pay your bills; you are done!
These steps above are intended for people who trust their payees who were legitimately managing your funds for you. This is common for some legitimate payees who may experience difficulties with their funds. You can also ask your payee to create a savings account for setting emergency funds aside. This is useful if you wanted to setup a reserve for your bills that require catching up. Be very careful when saving lots of funds. Try to give your funds a function,–if you were setting up these funds that are intended for high amount purchases… such as: certain computers, certain foods, clothing, educational services, subscriptions, art classes, etc.
If your SSI Funds Were Stolen
If your payee has stolen all of your funds, and you experienced illegal purchases of items… you need to take action for your financial safety. If you are concerned with your website that will not be used to have ads displayed… follow these steps:
- Contact your hosting provider immediately. Tell them you had a financial emergency, and you have to extend your invoices because, you suspected your SSI funds were stolen. You’ll be prompted to use a hotline to report financial abuse,–if refered by a representative.
- Use the hotline to report financial abuse, be prepared to provide information.
- Your payee will be questioned by your local authorities. It’s their job to investigate what’s exactly happening to your SSI funds. If your payee has been involved, your payee will be end up facing a fine to pay, probation, prison time, or ordered to send funds to you to enable you to pay all of your bills.
- Your payee will be also ordered NOT to use your SSI funds for these other activities.
- If you managed to use ad networks to fund your website; you may need to rely on your earned funds to keep your site running.
- You may need to find a new payee who will help you pay bills for you.
- Implement financial policies
- Ask for extra money to be added to your bills
- Open a savings account
- Save money often
- Check your banking account with your payee for possible signs of fraud
- Think twice before you upgrade your hosting plans
- Have a financial plan at all costs
- Reduce your cable bundle
- Replace traditional light bulbs with LED bulbs
- Don’t purchase any tobacco products
- Recycle cans
- Talk to your payee about your payment strategies what you are planning to do. Be sure to enable your payee to use any program for keeping track of payments. For example; your cable bill should be paid by rounding the amount to the nearest $10. For example: If my electric bill is $229.44… round to $230. If you adding $10 extra to your bill… let your payee know about your financial preferences.
- Check if your policies are active. You can check if your bills are paid by calling your service company to view your account balance, if you had credit on your account; keep track of these credits, and establish a goal.
- Always varify if your bills are paid with your preference.
- Choose a bank you want to rely on. Always choose a bank who cares about our environment.
- Always have your information with you.
- Add funds what you are saving to your account. This is useful if you need these funds later on.
Prevention
Take the following steps to prevent your SSI funds from being stolen:
Implement Financial Policies
Implementing financial policies is important to ensure your bills are paid first with extra money added. If you were planning on replenishing your electrical power service with a higher amount; always add more money to your bills for the purpose of helping keeping your systems turn on. Follow these steps to implement a financial policy:
Ask For Extra Money To Be Added To Your Bills
Depending on your preparation for any event; you may need to add some extra money to your bills. Whether if you are about to go out of town for a while, or go to a fairground, or go to a store for long shopping, or going to see a movie. At this case; your financial situation is in good standing. And you have some saved money in your account; this is useful for only paying for your services such as: hosting bills, cellular phone bills, cable bills, power bills, and more.
This is useful if you wanted to stretch your time with your electricity. If your payee already has a savings account implemented, just like what we’re about to mention later in this article; you can enable your payee to save remaining funds to the savings, and prepare for any event that is critical such as: SNAP outages, or you wanted to move out of your apartment, and move to a new home.
If your bill is $100.99 for electric; you can bump it up to $499.99 to give you extra time to add funds to your power bill. If you are lucky enough to have $1,000 in your savings; but you have $700 in your checking account; you can sort your funds for these bills. If you added more funds to your account to pay for your electric bill; it will take some months for your credit to be used up,–depending on your power usage.
Note:
SSI has limitations set for how much money you are saving in your account. Be sure to check with the Social Security Office for assistance or questions about limitations.
Open A Savings Account
Talk to your payee about setting up a savings account for your preserved funds to be stored,–incase of emergency… such as: Bills to catch up, emergency food purchases, and other critical events.
Here are the instructions for asking your payee to setup a savings account for you:
Save Money Often
I’m experimenting on saving up some coins. I started doing this since a year ago. This is one way to help you save you some of your remaining money. Whether if you are saving up for a new computer; a new TV, or even a repair service for your brailler. You may need to experiment with some ways to save money at home. You may need to get you a safe, or make your own coin jar. If you already have coins. you may need to find the way to save your coins.
Don’t store your coins where its susceptible to be stolen. Alternatively; you can deposit it to your banking account as a way to prevent your money from being stolen,–if you had a banking account.