Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet
You just keep lecturing, Boomer. At least I appreciate it.
I bought the book you recommended and my hubby is still sore a bit about the debit cards I confiscated because of the warnings. (Had to give them back because he actually uses them when he can’t use credit cards.) But there are many other ideas in the book like the micro cut shredder, gel pen etc. that are useful.
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Thank you, Velvet.
At least, I can promise not to give any pop quizzes.
I have read the book but am not yet through reading every one of those 60 one-page articles that can be opened from that list I recommended. Even the titles bring visions of terrible consequences for victims.
Speaking of books — a couple of years ago, I read a book titled
Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of FlimFlam by Pope Brock.
“Charlatan” is the true story of John R. Brinkley, who in 1917 made a fortune performing insane surgeries on men who thought he could restore their virility.
He had a staggering number of eager “patients” and became one of the richest men in America and a celebrity.
Brinkley was quite adept at using advertising and the media, including broadcasting, to rein in his willing victims — and this was in 1917. He certainly would have been even richer if he had today’s cyber-alleys and television available to him.
The quack-buster Morris Fishbein was on a mission to get him.
It is an interesting, chilling read. It is sad, too, because we know that when it comes to the human natures of scammers and their victims, there is “nothing new under the sun.”
And (sigh) just like in the title of the book about 1917, that “Age of FlimFlam” is still with us and thriving beyond what could ever have been imagined.