A while ago I was out for a walk in Barcelona, enjoying the sights, when my phone rang.
So I picked up.
A serious, older man starts speaking: “Hello, I’m inspector Martinson from the Latvian criminal police. We have to discuss an urgent matter.”
My heart rate shoots through the roof.
I start sweating…
I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. . . but I still got stressed.
“What could this be about?” I thought to myself.
But then I remembered reading lots of articles about scammers calling people and pretending to be the police.
So I said: “Well, if you need anything from me, please use the official government portal to send me a message.”
Then. . .
. . .the guy cursed me and hung up.
So obviously it was a scammer.
⚡️ There are two insights this experience gave me.
First, in most areas of life, the famous saying is really true:
Urgent things are never important.
Important things are never urgent.
When someone calls or e-mails you and pushes you to take action FAST, giving you the impression things are urgent and important and dangerous. . .
that’s almost never the case.
Especially when the government is involved, nothing happens quickly. There’s always time to think.
Those who push urgency are likely to be scammers.
And here’s the other point. . .
I got stressed out when I got the call. . .
but I knew that I had done nothing wrong – and that really helped.
Life is a lot less stressful when you do things right.
Don’t break the law. . . don’t cheat people. . . don’t lie. . . and you’ll have much less to worry about.
I see this happen with investing taxes a lot.
People start investing without taking care of taxes.
And then there’s always the worry in the back of your head. . .
what if the government finds out. . .
what if I get into trouble?
And it’s really not worth it.
It’s best to get educated and do things right so that, if one day you get a call from the tax authority – whether it’s a scam or for real – you will have nothing to fear.