Dear Friends,

I get more than a dozen e-mails a month from publicity agents touting new books about improving your credit score, how to retire a millionaire, investing in real estate, and myriad other topics related to financial planning.

About 99% of the time I decline. One reason is that, unless I’ve read it myself, I don’t feel it’s fair to tell you that a particular book is: 1) wonderful, 2) mediocre, or 3) sucks. And, while I love to read, I also need to pay the bills. I frankly don’t have time to consume even one book per week.

But occasionally something crosses my desk that I can’t put down--either because the information is either new or because of some other compelling feature. The Truth About Avoiding Scams by Steve Weisman falls into both categories.

The book’s 61 chapters provide practical advice on how to protect your identity. Here’s a sample of some of the "truths” Weisman covers:

• Clever crooks have ingenious ways of getting access to your PayPal account;
• Using a debit card exposes you to greater risk of identity theft than a credit card;
• Credit monitoring services “are of dubious value”;
• Your home may be your castle, but scammers see it as a potential piggy bank;
• Think your medical records are private? Fagedaboutit

The unique thing about The Truth About Avoiding Scams is that Weisman has left out all of the tedious statistics that weigh down similar books. Frankly, I’m really not interested in the exact number of Americans who were victims of identity theft in 2005, or what age groups are hot targets. I simply want to know how to avoid becoming a victim myself.

And, although there are 61 chapters, each “scam” is covered in a couple pages. It’s as if Weisman has taken all of the books on how-to-protect-yourself-from-crooks and all of the news reports about how gullible we can be and distilled them to sound bites of essential information. This allows you to quickly zero in the information that pertains to your particular situation. For instance, did a family member serve in the military? Check out “Truth 36, Veteran Scams.” Planning a vacation? Head to Truth 25, Rental Car Insurance.

Since Weisman is a journalist, the reading is easy and surprisingly entertaining.

Another PayPal scam involves an e-mail that purports to be from PayPal informing you that you have received money from someone. (In many instances, the name used is Betty Hill, which, interestingly enough, was the name of a woman who said she was abducted by aliens in New Hampshire in 1961.)

Weisman gets right to the point, sprinkling each chapter with frank comments not common from other authors.

According to Weisman. scammers often target members of a religious, ethnic, fraternal, or other group that they appear to belong to and offer “special” investment opportunities that ultimately turn out to be worthless. Often, to sweeten the pot,… the scammer tells the …victims that a portion of the profits of his investment program will be used for a charitable purpose near and dear to the hears of the victims.

What’s clear from book is that Weisman considers those who prey on others personally distasteful. He points out that “con artists are the only criminal known as ‘artists.’ They have knowledge of psychology that Freud would be envious of.”

Their success lies in their ability to understand and manipulate human nature, says Weisman. “They prey on our fear, our greed, and our better instincts. After Hurricane Katrina, scam artists were there before FEMA pretending to be from the government and insurance companies.” The scammers collected processing fees and information from victims that was later used for identity theft.

Con artists know no borders. Whether it’s a domestic tragedy such as Sept. 11 or the recent earthquake in China, they’re hard at work trying to separate you from your money by claiming to represent a legitimate charity. “They not only take our money, but they’re hurting the victims of these tragedies who don’t get the money,” Weisman writes.

One particularly despicable scheme going on right now involves con artists contacting families of soldiers serving in Iraq, something they might pick up in a local newspaper story. Claiming to be from the Red Cross, the scammer tells the person answering the phone that their relative has been seriously injured and needs to be flown to U.S. medical facilities in Germany. Then they ask for a donation, saying the Red Cross needs money to help defray the cost of the flight. “It’s totally bogus,” writes Weisman.

I know what you’re thinking: “Who would ever fall for that?!”

More people than you might imagine.

“When you think about it dispassionately,” according to Weisman, “you can understand where the flaws [in the scheme] are. But when someone has just heard from a source they think is legitimate, they just don’t stop to evaluate it.”

If they did, they’d realize that the U.S. government, not the Red Cross, covers the transportation of troops, whether they’re healthy or ill. In addition, notification of a soldier’s death or injury is made by the appropriate branch of the military.

Making matters worse, often the scammer asks for verifying information about the “injured” soldier, such as his or her date of birth and Social Security number. This sets up the soldier for identity theft.

There are numerous variations of this theme. Such as those involving a call/email/letter from someone claiming to work for the IRS and asking for additional information such as your Social Security number, bank account numbers, etc. Instead of preying on our concern for a loved one, these target our fear of the tax man.

There’s even an eBay scam where you receive an e-mail offering you a second chance to bid on an item you wanted. Sometimes it will explain that the individual who originally won the bid backed out. All you have to do to collect your prize is send money.

Protecting yourself from this kind of con is fairly easy, a long as you’re thinking clearly: Contact the source directly yourself instead of providing answers over the phone or clicking on the link embedded in the message. Call the military command at a number you know is legitimate. Get in touch with a government agency such as the IRS by using the information on its government Web site or from the phone book. And remember that eBay doesn’t contact “runners-up” to give them a second chance.

With gasoline hovering around $4 a gallon, it should come as no surprise that con artists are taking this opportunity to concoct new schemes to get their hands on your money. “They’re out there with devices that can [supposedly] get you 100 miles per gallon,” says Weisman.

I’ll go out on a limb and make a prediction: Sooner or later we’ll hear about a con artist pitching a break-through technology that will allow you to fill up your tank with ordinary tap water and offering to “allow” you to be among a select few investors.

Actually, though, stealing your gas money doesn’t even have to be that elaborate. You know those credit cards you can wave at the pump to pay for your gas? According to Weisman, armed with a relatively simple device, a con artist sitting in a parked car nearby can also “read” your account number as you drive through.

With the family budget stretched by rising food and energy prices right now, you might be more vulnerable than usual to falling for a scammer’s enticing offer. So be extra-vigilant.

They’re out there.

Hope this helps,

Gail

If you have a question for Gail Buckner and the Your $ Matters column, send them to: yourmoneymatters@gmail.com, along with your name and phone number.