I received exciting news in the postal mail. Apparently, Prizemasters International has undergone a rigorous selection process for their lottery offer, and I qualify for a chance at my share of $4,000,000.00! I wasn’t aware that a multi-stage evaluation was ongoing, but apparently in stage one I received a grade of 100 and made “selected – unrestricted status.” In stage two I received a grade of A qualifying me for the “elite offer.” In stage three I made first grade giving me “bonus 1 & 2.” It took a while to figure out from the various bits of paper that the offer was to enter a lottery, or a draw to get into a lottery, or something like that. In fit of altruism, I decided not to accept the offer because it would reduce other people’s lottery winnings. I also figured that Prizemasters would likely want their papers back to use again. So, I folded up all the papers that didn’t have my name on them and stuffed them into the reply-paid envelope to send back to Prizemasters. It...

The Better Business Bureau reports a scam that has worked on grandparents from California to New Hampshire. The scam is a variant of the loved one in trouble. In this case, a caller claims to be a grandchild traveling in Canada, in trouble, and needing a few thousand dollars. What makes this scam so effective is a combination of factors. Grandparents are very likely to want to help a grandchild. Voices can be difficult to recognize on the phone, especially if the grandparent hasn’t seen a teenage grandchild in a while. Traveling in Canada is quite plausible for a young American. Lastly, Canadians are far too nice to run a scam like this. I’m disgusted with these thieves, but somewhat impressed at the same time. This scam is quite clever. If these criminals put their abilities and some hard work into an honest venture, they probably would do well. Some people are willing to work very hard to avoid having to do any work.