A long time ago before the internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, chain letters made the rounds among friends through the snail mail or hand-delivery system. You’d get a letter from someone telling you that you had to duplicate the letter by hand and then send it on to usually 7, 10, or even 15 of your friends and if you didn’t well, bad luck would be your reward. However, if you did what the letter said, you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

It is interesting to note that nowhere in history is there a story that has been backed up with facts telling of a person who, after answering a chain letter, was ever rewarded with anything other than a feeling of having been had. While everyone wants to believe that chain letters work to bring about good luck, the fact of the matter is they are just another way to make someone look silly for not only believing in them but stupid enough to do what the letter says.

With the advent of the internet, chain letters have taken on a whole new dimension offering gullible readers money for simply forwarding an e-mail on to 10 or more friends, or offering a total stranger a brand new computer or $1000 gift card from any number of retail outlets simply by clicking on the e-mail. And, of course, there is no laptop; there is no $1000 gift card. What there is, by many accounts, is a nasty little virus waiting to attach itself to the first gullible person’s computer with the only message reading “gotcha!”

What are even more insidious than the “forward them on” or “you have just won” e-mails, are what’s called phishing (pronounced fishing) scams that feed off the gullibility of what they hope are people stupid enough to give their most private and personal information over the internet in return for some promised wealth or even just because they’ve been told that their bank or credit card company needs verification of account information in order to serve you better. Phishing scams have parted many a person from their money simply by feeding off the willingness to be helpful.

Here is a word of advice, no legitimate business, be it a bank, a credit union, a credit card company, your employer, your insurance company, the IRS, the Social Security Office, or any other governmental, financial, employment-related, educational or school-related business that you have now or have ever done business with will write you an e-mail requesting that you re-verify your personal information for them. This includes your social security number, your driver’s license number, your banking account or credit card numbers, or any other number that can readily be used to steal your identity.

And for good measure, never, ever use your mother’s maiden name, your favorite pet’s name, or your spouse’s name as a password for anything you sign up for on the internet because, as sure as the sun shines, there are people out there waiting to take advantage of your trustful nature.

Because really, think about it, if Microsoft was giving out money just for forwarding an e-mail, if you could get a $1000 gift card just for clicking on an e-mail, or if all you needed to do to get a new computer in the mail when you weren’t even in the market for a new computer is to give the swell person offering the computer a few private details like your address and banking information, well, what would be the need for anyone having to make their money the old-fashioned way, i.e. working for it?

Forward This to 10 Friends And Win! Modern-Day Chain Letters are the same crock o' crap they were when you got them in the mail.

A long time ago before the internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, chain letters made the rounds among friends through the snail mail or hand-delivery system. You’d get a letter from someone telling you that you had to duplicate the letter by hand and then send it on to usually 7, 10, or even 15 of your friends and if you didn’t well, bad luck would be your reward. However, if you did what the letter said, you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

It's interesting to note that nowhere in history is there a story that has been backed up with facts telling of a person who, after answering a chain letter, was ever rewarded with anything other than a feeling of having been had. While everyone wants to believe that chain letters work to bring about good luck, the fact of the matter is they are just another way to make someone look silly for not only believing in them but stupid enough to do what the letter says.

It was pure superstition back then, full of vague promises, and it still worked so well it was quickly outlawed.

Now you only have to forward an email with a few quick clicks, which is easy, and instead of incredible wealth, the offer is much smaller, but no less ridiculous.

EXAMPLES:
- Bill Gates is paying $250 if you forward this letter to 30 friends and wait 30-days.
- AOL wants to see how many people will forward this letter, and you'll get $100 for participating.
- Forward this email to 10 people and you'll get a $50 gift card to Best Buy, Applebee's or some other merchant with trillions to waste on worthless marketing.

With the advent of the internet, chain letters have taken on a whole new dimension offering gullible readers money for simply forwarding an e-mail on to 10 or more friends, or offering a total stranger a brand new computer or $1,000 gift card from any number of retail outlets simply by clicking on the e-mail. And, of course, there is no laptop; there is no $1,000 gift card. What there is, by many accounts, is a nasty little virus waiting to attach itself to the first gullible person’s computer with the only message reading “gotcha!”

What are even more insidious than the “forward them on” or “you have just won” e-mails, are what’s called phishing (pronounced fishing) scams that feed off the gullibility of what they hope are people stupid enough to give their most private and personal information over the internet in return for some promised wealth or even just because they’ve been told that their bank or credit card company needs verification of account information in order to serve you better. Phishing scams have parted many a person from their money simply by feeding off the willingness to be helpful.

Here is a word of advice, no legitimate business, be it a bank, a credit union, a credit card company, your employer, your insurance company, the IRS, the Social Security Office, or any other governmental, financial, employment-related, educational or school-related business that you have now or have ever done business with will write you an e-mail requesting that you re-verify your personal information for them. This includes your social security number, your driver’s license number, your banking account or credit card numbers, or any other number that can readily be used to steal your identity.

And for good measure, never, ever use your mother’s maiden name, your favorite pet’s name, or your spouse’s name as a password for anything you sign up for on the internet because, as sure as the sun shines, there are people out there waiting to take advantage of your trustful nature.

Because really, think about it, if Microsoft was giving out money just for forwarding an e-mail, if you could get a $1000 gift card just for clicking on an e-mail, or if all you needed to do to get a new computer in the mail when you weren’t even in the market for a new computer is to give the swell person offering the computer a few private details like your address and banking information, well, what would be the need for anyone having to make their money the old-fashioned way, i.e. working for it?

Some of the better known stories about gross finds in foods.

One of the oldest jokes around goes like this:

Man in Restaurant (to Waiter): Hey, what’s this fly doing in my soup?

Waiter: Why, sir, I believe he’s doing the backstroke.

Stories of gross things, including insects and, dare we say, body parts, found in prepared foods go back a long way, probably as far back in time as food history itself. Some of the stories are true and many are false. Some of the stories, while only half true or completely false can have the effect of changing the way whole societies eat or drink.

Case in point—rat urine on soda cans can cause disease and/or death. While in America, this story has pretty much been proven to be false and it has not affected the way Americans drink soda from cans other than the occasional washing the pop top before drinking. But In Brazil, you’ll notice if you go to any convenience store, luncheonette or restaurant and order a can of soda, you will automatically receive a straw to drink the soda with. Why? Ask any Brazilian and they will tell you that the rumor is completely true and there is no way you are going to convince them otherwise. So, instead of taking their chances, Brazilians just play it safe and use a straw.

What about those stories of people finding fingers in food? Is it a reality or a hoax? In the case of a woman in March of 2005 finding a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili in San Jose, California, it was true that there was, in fact, a severed finger in the chili, but it was ultimately discovered that the woman and her partner had planted the finger in the chili in an elaborate plot to extort money from the burger giant. Although early on, it was determined and reported that the finger did not belong to anyone associated with Wendy’s but instead belonged to the perpetrators’ friend, the initial news did a number on Wendy’s bottom line, even after the couple was sentenced to jail for the stunt.

The standard story of someone finding a finger in their jar of gherkins has seen many different variations over the years and this has led most people to believe that the story is a hoax. But the possibility of finding a body part in processed food is very real when you consider that accidents in food processing plants happen frequently. Take the 2008 case of a New Jersey man who fell into a vat of melted chocolate while loading the chocolate into the vat. One has to go on faith that that particular vat of chocolate was immediately thrown out and the vat scrubbed clean before another batch of chocolate could be made.

It’s not easy being green could easily have been what an East Texas woman was saying in July of last year when she was heating some Great Value frozen green beans she had purchased from the local Wal-Mart and discovered half of a frog mixed in with the veggies. We can only imagine that the wheels will be turning in some future con artist’s head when he reads the story and tries to figure out a way to capitalize on finding his own amphibian treat in a bag of frozen vegetables.

But perhaps one of the strangest finds in food recently comes out of a Cininnati Rally’s Hamburgers where a woman purchased two Rally’s fish sandwiches and discovered a small amount of crack cocaine wrapped in with the sandwich. The find didn’t appear to bother her much, because as she put it “There was quite a bit of it, and I thought well this doesn't belong in a sandwich, this is not part of what I should normally get from Rally's, so I ate the other sandwich and called the police.”

Since we’re never really sure if the stories we read about such as roaches crawling out of salads or restaurant employees spitting on food that is returned by diners, and any number of other gross happenings that have us swearing we’ll never eat outside of the home again, are true or false, a good rule of thumb to follow is to make sure you check your food twice before actually eating it and never let your friend talk you into trying to pull a prank on Wendy’s. They’ve now pretty much seen it all.

Is it money? Probably. Is it fame? Sometimes. Is it a fat, balding middle-aged man posing as a hunk on an online dating service to get a date? Could be, but let’s try not to think about that one. Perhaps it’s the desire to get away with something, the thrill of the chase. The general consensus is the reason someone fakes his identity is to just be able to pull a con and get something that doesn’t belong to him, i.e. a credit line or a blank check to a stranger’s bank account.

In the 2002 movie “Catch Me if You Can,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead role as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a real-life con artist who successfully forged checks and made millions of dollars by posing as all sorts of professional men, including a commercial airlines pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and a prosecutor. In the movie, it shows him as so successful that the FBI asks for his help in catching fellow check forgers. In real life, Abnagale now lives in the Midwest and runs a multi-million dollar corporation teaching the good guys how to foil the bad guys’ attempts to steal their money. In fact, Abagnale’s success is quite rare. Most con artists are caught and don’t get a sweet deal that ultimately leads to a successful legitimate career. They just get a one-way ticket to prison.

Computer identity theft, one of the fastest growing crimes on the internet, owes its success to many factors. The simplicity of most technology today, coupled with the increasing intelligence of computer-savvy thieves, makes stealing someone’s identity through his or her log in pages as well as numerous social websites almost as easy as stealing candy from a baby.

The thieves just love it when a naïve person goes on the web and starts putting their personal information all over the place thinking their anti-virus protection will keep them safe. They especially love it when folks click that ever popular log in button on most social network sites that says “remember me.” Sometimes when you are hopping off a public computer such as at a library or cyber cafe, there is someone right behind you happy to see where you’ve been and what’s in your wallet. The only way to protect against identity theft is to arm yourself with knowledge as to how to keep your personal information safe. It’s definitely worth the time to learn so that you aren’t caught with your guard down.

Although Bernard “Bernie” Madoff can’t really be described as someone who faked an identity to take money from people, he certainly falls under the category of one of the most convincing con men alive today, having bilked an estimated $18 billion from investors in the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The fact that he preyed on fellow Jews as well as family and friends, earns him the distinction of one of the most heartless of all con men. Madoff will spend the rest of his life in federal prison, having received a maximum sentence of 150 years.  So, it’s ironic that people up and down the east coast are being warned to think twice before bidding on items purported to having been owned by Madoff, as many fake items are showing up at several auction houses from Miami to New York. Some people never learn.

And finally, sometimes an identity theft can be fueled by nothing more than a misguided attempt at recapturing youth. Take the case of the mom who stole her daughter’s identity and tried out for the cheerleading team before being arrested. Evidently, this not so-mom of the year, Wendy Brown, used her daughter’s birth certificate, social security card and other identifying documents to become enrolled at a Green Bay, Wisconsin high school so she could try out for cheerleader, something she’d always wanted to do when she was a teen.

“Pom Pom Mom” as she’s been dubbed, actually succeeded in becoming enrolled, but, as luck would have it, on her first day of school, she was arrested on an unrelated misdemeanor charge. When she didn’t show up for school, the truancy officer investigating the absence discovered the identity theft. There was no intent to scam money or fame or even a date out of this identity scam, just a mom feeling deprived of a childhood and wanting to fit in at school. One has to wonder why, but then again, some might ask “why not?”