Customer Reviews

Chuck Whitlock's Scam School

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Scam School provides a good look at the various types of con artists out there and the different avenues from which they may approach. Unfortunately, there are just too many different scams being run, and each likely to have numerous variations, that little more than a sampling can be presented in 200 pages.

The message of the book can be boiled down to "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is." You could print that on a 3x5 card, laminate it, and save the purchase price of this book, but someone unscrupulous could probably still get to you (then again, if you're that tight, maybe they couldn't).

Whitlock stresses that we need to be eternally vigilant against those who would rip you off, that a con man (or woman) cannot be identified by appearance alone, and that desperate people a capable of doing any thing (and being either scammer or scammee). While it's nice to have this knowledge, it's in the examples Whitlock provides that these points are really driven home.

While other books may go into more detail on any given con artist approach (charity scams, social engineering, online cons, etc.), Scam School lets you see some approaches you might have not have realized were possibilities. In an appendix it also gives you suggestions of who to contact in case you think you are being or have been scammed.

I found this to be an interesting and informative book, and since I finished reading it earlier this afternoon I haven't been scammed once. Maybe you think you're already scam-proof without this book's help, in which case I have a 3x5 card that can save you millions - I'll sell it to you cheap.

there is much more to the world of scams than the scratch and win cards in your mailbox. excellent stories, that will help you from being conned. buy it and read it!

Grab a beer. Sit out on the patio - relax and read about all the gimmicks that are out there. Hey - you won't be able to put it down! Enjoy!