Professor Obvious speaks...

Yet another bout of “this is news?” got thrown my way while spending my morning ritual on the Elliptical of Death™.  Today, on one of the morning news shows, there was a piece entitled “Scam-proof your life”.  They had some Sid Kirchheimer on hawking his new book that is supposed to protect the populous from those who want to rip us off from our hard earned income. The problem I have with this is each and every one of his proposed tactics would have been responded to by me, were I there, with a “No shit Sherlock”.  Let’s take some examples. 

Use the Do Not Call list.  DUH.  Who in their right mind hasn’t put their number on that list, and even then, it still doesn’t stop most of the calls.  Why?  Because any company which you do business with (your cable company, your phone company, you name it) has the exemption from that list.  So while I may not be getting a call from Hair Club For Men, I sure as hell get my twice or thrice weekly call from Verizon.

Shred any personal information.  Again, DUH!  Anyone who doesn’t have a shredder in their house deserves to be ripped off.  For $20 at your local Staples, you can make sure that bank statements, credit card statements, and pictures of old flings are equally unavailable to the next dirtbag that goes dumpster diving in your area.

I suppose I’ll just keep holding firm to my philosophy:  there are a ton of asshats out there looking to rip you off, so keep the cards close to the vest and protect what is yours, and if a deal is too good to be true, it is.  Fortunately, I haven’t had any issues with ID theft yet, and hope never to in the future.

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