Scammers Show the Way to Savings
When Sid Kirchheimer decided to write about smarter spending, he turned to an unusual source: "reformed scammers." The resulting book, Scam Proof Your Life, includes money-saving insights from an assortment of former con artists and other schemers. It also includes honest insiders' tips on how to get better deals on everything from homes to healthcare. Some of the advice may be obvious (delete all e-mail from people claiming to be former members of some royal family), but much of it is not. In one example, mentioned in an 8/6 Chicago Tribune review, Kirchheimer warns car shoppers not to hand over your license before negotiating the car's price. Some salespeople will ask for it, send you on a solo test drive, run an illegal credit check while youíre away, and then use information about your finances against you in the negotiation.
Matt's View
With scams seeming to lurk behind every dinnertime phone call or unexpected knock at the door, reformed scammers are an unfortunately excellent source of ideas for safer spending and smarter living. As writer of the "Scam Alert" column in The AARP Bulletin, Kirchheimer is a trusted authority on scams, those who run them, and those who are truly reformed.
Managing Money by The Book
- "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." - Matthew 7:24-25
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