Chuck Whitlock's Scam School
Author: Charles R. Whitlock, Chuck Whitlock
List Price: $14.95
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ISBN: 0028621395
Publisher: Hungry Minds, Inc (October, 1997)
Sales Rank: 83,028
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 3 out of 5
Good, but not memorable
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.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Ya gotta love this baby!
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!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Good, but not great
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. Similar Products
The Art of the Steal : How to Protect Yourself and Your Business from Fraud, America's #1 Crime
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