Are you that person who always feels like people are taking advantage of you? Do you feel like someone “got over on you?” Have you ever felt ripped off? Well, maybe you were fooled.  Here are three tips on how not to be fooled.

1.       If something doesn’t seem right, research it more.

You know that gut feeling that you get, that tells you something is not right? That gut feeling has been researched. Research shows that this feeling is a combination of your past experiences and the current situation being assessed at an unconscious level to give you a result, a feeling that something is not right. In most cases, people trust other people. Research shows that when participants are given a list of questions and told that most of the answers are lies, the participants still tend to answer that most questions are true! The point is, if you feel something is not right, or, you are almost sure something is not right, look into the situation more before reacting.

2.       You don’t always have to give back what you receive.

At times, especially in sales, you will find that people will give you something (for free or discounted) for something in return (let’s say, your time). For example, when I had my first son, a water softener company offered me a free pack of diapers, and in return asked me for my time to tell me about their product. The problem with these situations is people often push you for the sale or back you into a corner to make you say yes. In this situation I ultimately said no to the purchase, but the lady would not leave my home for 3 hours, even after I asked her to leave! (Lesson learned). The point is, you don’t have to give that return to someone who gave you something. You can back off and say, “this is not right for me.”

3.       Speak up.

At times, we are provided information about a situation, product or circumstance and we are lost or confused. And, out of the fear of being embarrassed, we don’t speak up. We fail to ask what we need to ask. We just agree with what has been put in front of us and in return we are often fooled or tricked. Instead, if you don’t fully understand or you question something, be sure to speak up.