SCAM-PROOF YOUR ASSETS

An attorney offers an all-encompassing exposé of financial scams.

This Rich Dad Advisor book departs from the primary focus of the series—business and investment advice. Instead, Sutton, a practicing attorney and the author of numerous other Rich Dad titles, focuses his attention on financial fraud schemes and how to prevent them. According to Sutton, “over 3.2 million Americans report incidents of fraud each year, and that’s only the people who actually said anything—a great many don’t.” Most chapters offer case studies of a particular type of scam followed by the author’s observations. Each study is engaging and often disturbing; clearly, it was Sutton’s intent to raise concern, if not fear, among his readers about the many ways in which people can be deceived. Some scammers, such as Charles Ponzi, whose name lives on in the term Ponzi scheme, and Bernard Madoff, who was convicted of perpetrating one such scheme that raked in billions of dollars, will be familiar to many readers while others are more obscure. However, these people are less important than the nature of their deceptions, about which Sutton goes into impressive detail. Particularly notable is the sheer breadth of his content; his examples include in-person, telephone-based, and online scams and address such crimes as identity theft (which affects more than 17 million victims annually, according to Sutton); phony sweepstakes; email solicitations; “vanity scams,” such as ineffective weight-loss products; and fraudulent real estate investments, among others.

Sutton cautions that anyone, regardless of age or class, is susceptible to con games, but he notes that “Seniors age seventy and up lose more money, by far, to scam artists and fraudsters than any other generation.” Indeed, some of the more heartbreaking cases here involve the elderly. One such example tells the story of an 85-year-old woman who was bilked by phone into believing that she’d won a Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes in 2018. She lost close to $28,000 to the con artist for “taxes and fees” before the hoax was discovered by the victim’s daughter. Some readers may find these dramatic accounts of personal tragedies to be quite unsettling; for the most part, though, the case studies are instructive and cautionary in tone, showing exactly how several deceptions work in the real world. What’s more, Sutton provides both general and specific guidance on how to identify and protect oneself against such scams. For example, his “profile of your typical scammer” is an insightful list of 11 richly described attributes, such as “They like to tell you how the clock is ticking”; that list is followed by 13 equally insightful “things that make for a good mark,” which may give pause to any reader. The closing chapter’s excellent suggestions for developing “scam radar” supply a comprehensive checklist that’s as solid a resource as one could possibly find. Overall, Sutton’s prose is informative, easy to read, and authoritative without being stodgy. His detailed descriptions and expert advice will be valuable assets to consumers and business owners alike.

Timely, relevant counsel on how to avoid con artists.