Chuck Whitlock's Scam School [Paperback]

Chuck Whitlock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1997

They are Out to Get You! Chuck Whitlock, the world's leading scam-buster, wises you up to the incredible variety of cons just waiting to rid you of your wallet, your health, and your pride. Renowned to viewers of Oprah and Hard Copy, Geraldo and Sally Jesse Raphael, Inside Edition and CNN, Chuck Whitlock has exposed hundreds of con artists and reenacted scores of scams on camera. In his Scam School he reveals the tricks of the con artist's trade as he recounts his adventures going undercover to expose the most common and crafty scams circulating today — scams like:

• The faith healer who sold "human fat" candles at $900 a pop
• The new hire who wooed his boss and then bilked her out of her life savings
• The Three-Card Monte game that cost one man $25,000
• The nursing home that double-charged patients and Medicare, pocketing the profits

At once shocking, entertaining, and empowering, the true stories in Chuck Whitlock's Scam School will give you a Ph.D. in street smarts. "In a culture where people are increasingly being victimized by fraud, Scam School is a must read." —Vincent Bugliosi, Author of Helter Skelter "Chuck has educated millions of viewers about the dangers of con artists. This book can help avert tragedies." —Sally Jesse Raphael "Knowledge is power. Scam School will make you powerful." —John G. Di Liberto, President & Ceo, National Insurance Crime Bureau "Through his investigative reporting and on-camera scams, Chuck has probably cost con artists millions of dollars in lost revenues" —Terry Murphy, Hard Copy Visit us Online at http://www.mcp.com/mgr/macmillan

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (October 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028621395
• ISBN-13: 978-0028621395
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,114,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not memorable, September 27, 2002

By 

CARDSHARK Online (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chuck Whitlock's Scam School (Paperback)

This book has some good descriptions of scams. However, I found it annoying that he keeps name-dropping. Totally unnecessary, if you ask me.

I also think that the book is miss-titled. To me "Scam School" would mean that the book should be written more as a manual for scam artists. Not that it should be a real manual, but more like a tongue-in-cheek attitude. In my opinion the book should have been entitled "Scam Busters" (or something along these lines).

Another point to mention is that the book is written as an exam text-book. Each chapter ends with a lesson that summarizes the chapter, and then there is a final exam at the end of the book. I believe that this format is the reason why they decided to call the book "Scam School" (or they put these lessons in because they already entitled the book as such, whatever...). I personally found these lessons and exams annoying and quite honestly I started skipping them after the first couple of chapters. I simply don't know if there is a necessity for them. Why would I want to read a brief synopsis of a chapter that I've just finished reading?

I still think that it is worth your time if you want to read it. There is some sound advice and some good stories. But the book is far from top-ten.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not great, June 1, 2000

By 

T. Schmitt (Issaquah, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chuck Whitlock's Scam School (Paperback)

Chuck Whitlock's book is a collection of his stories from radio and TV spots exposing scam artists. He tells a few stories around a central theme for each chapture and then extracts the lesson to be learned. All stories are told from the victims point of view (because that's how the stories are reported to him.) All are good, but presenting a stronger approach from the con artists side and law-enforcements side would bring a stronger balance to the book. Also, the chapter on Internet fraud is pretty dated now.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE BEST 2 BOOKS ON FRAUD AND SCAMS !!!, December 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Chuck Whitlock's Scam School (Paperback)

This book and Brett Champion's book, "AMERICA'S GUIDE TO FRAUD PREVENTION" are by far the best 2 books on the subject of fraud and scams. Not only do Whitlock and Brett Champion write books on scams, they also provide the great public service of appearing on national television across America on a regular basis to help educate us on how not to become victims. My hat's off to these terrific two gentelmen and great authors!