Land of Oz

Scams

I recently read in some newspaper advice column that someone was amazed and dismayed that there were already scams about Katrina. Why on earth does that come as a surprise to anyone. Let's face it, whatever the event, no matter how bad or how good, there's going to be someone (probably a great deal of someones) who will try to take advantage of others.

I have no doubt that even as I write this, and even as another hurricane may be bearing down on the Gulf Coast, there are hundreds, if not thousands of vultures trying to scam some poor sap down south. I would imagine there's fake State Farm ID cards floating around, shingles that exist only on paper and cleanup crews whose only cleansing will be to your bank account. Buyer beware - the vultures are out to get you.

Which brings to mind the spammers again. I just read another article about some idiot losing his shirt down in Nigeria. Oh please! Do you really think guy down in Nigeria or Estonia or Bulgaria is going to offer you a couple of million to help him recover his millions? Honestly, if you do, you deserve to be taken. I'm not going to say I'll never be caught in a scam, the scammers are too good for me to promise that. But I'll make them work at it. That is one advantage to my lack of faith in humanity. I figure just about everyone is out to get me. If not on purpose, by circumstance. The final word, which is almost worn out, is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.