There's a Sucker Born Every Minute: A Revelation of Audacious Frauds, Scams, and Cons -- How toSpot Them, How to Sto p Them

by Jeffrey Robinson

Overview

One in nine Americans will lose money as a victim of fraud

• Every man and woman in the country (and every child with an email address) will be targeted by professional fraudsters-multiple times.
• Seven out of every eight frauds go unreported.
• Most fraudsters will get away with their crime.
• Government agencies and crime watchdogs suggest that there could be up to $100 billion worth of fraud in this country in any given year.

A jaw-dropping exposé of fraud in America today-who's doing it, how it's done, and how you can protect yourself-the world of fraud is laid bare: from personal finance and investment schemes to Internet scams and identity theft, to pyramid cons and the infamous Nigerian advance fee frauds.

Jeffrey Robinson gets inside the heads of the most notorious scam artists to uncover the psychological weapons they use to entice victims. With uncanny clarity and insight, he shows how to spot a scam and how to limit your exposure to fraudsters.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute levels the playing field, arming consumers with the knowledge they need to combat even the most insidious conmen.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101188125
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	256 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeffrey Robinson, described by Britain’s Sunday Telegraph as, "one of the world's leading experts on international financial crime,” is the author of many highly acclaimed books, including The Laundrymen, The Merger and The Sink.

Robinson has written scores of newspaper and magazine articles on financial crime and given many keynote speeches and media interviews on money laundering, fraud and organized crime. He has appeared on NBC (including The Today Show and Nightly News), MSNBC, CNN (including Larry King), Fox News, BBC, ITN, Channel 4 News, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sky News, where he is has been a contributor on American issues, fraud, and international crime for the past 20 years. He has been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including Barron’s (which earned him an Overseas Press Club Award), Playboy (two cover stories on crime), the International Herald Tribune, plus the Times, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday in London, where he lived for 25 years. In addition to books and articles, he has written television dramas and documentaries.

He lives in New York.

Table of Contents

The Patron Saint of Fraudsters ix

Part 1

1 A Two-Way Street Crime 3

2 Footprints in the Sand: Knowing What to Look For 15

3 Greed and Benevolence 29

4 Gullibility and Fear 43

5 Identity Theft 55

6 Smaller Than a 2c Phone Call: Cyberfraud 63

7 Genies in Bottles: Knowing Who to Trust 77

8 Maybe This Time: Advance Fee Fraud 87

9 The Nigerian Yahoo-Yahoo Boys 97

10 Snake Oil 115

11 Defrauding Seniors 127

12 Business Fraud 145

Part 2

13 The Scams: What They are and How to Stop Them 157

Part 3

14 The 39 Steps: What You Need to Do to Protect Yourself from Fraud 219

Resources 229

Acknowledgments 235

Key Word Index 237

Index 249