How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)

Review by Tax Writer for How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)
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For those reviewers who said this book was “simplistic”– they were right! This bok is “simple” to UNDERSTAND, that is! Which means you’ll read it. And, unlike some of the other dry financial books out there, you’ll actually get some useful information that really can prevent you from getting scammed.

Remember those old “Fight Back” shows? This book reads like THAT. It’s fast paced, funny, and the author has really tried to make the book easy to digest for the average person. I liked it. The ideas are sound, and I think that the main goal of the book was to warn people how NOT get taken by a fraudster. In this respect, the book succeeds admirably.

Now, a word of caution. If you are a financial professional, you might find the book a bit simplistic. But I doubt the author was writing for CPAs. This book is for everyone else.

There were a few points that I thought the author could have covered a little better, but overall, the book is a fun read, and it’s worth the purchase price. Recommended.

Review by Loyd E. Eskildson for How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)
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Fisher offers five signs of potential financial fraud. The good news is that they seem useful, and the book’s an easy read; the bad news is that the book could have been shortened to a page. The rules are: 1)Never hire any form of money manager or advisor who takes custody of your assets. That is the #1 biggest, reddest flag. (What about mutual funds – they take custody of your assets?) 2)Returns are consistently great – almost too good to be true. Bad years indicate integrity, says Fisher; schemers don’t want complaints or reasons for investors to redeem their money. 3)The investing strategy isn’t understandable, “too complicated” for him to describe so you can easily understand. 4)Your advisor promotes benefits like exclusivity – eg. secrecy, lack of advertising or bragging. Or he tries to make it sound difficult to get into – need to know somebody. 5)You didn’t do your own due diligence.

I would add another criterion – don’t buy anything sold by salesmen on commission. While perusing this book at a store I overhead a securities salesman talking to a friend about the money he was making selling securities, while bragging that his knowledge was limited. Scandalous!

Review by Ellis Emery for How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)
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Thankfully I’ve never been duped (knock on wood) out of my hard earned investments and I can only express sympathy to those who have. However, if you asked me to come up with a sure fire way to sniff out individuals with nefarious intentions I could come up with maybe one or two. I believe most people would say the exact same thing. However, Ken Fisher and Lara Hoffmans provide FIVE key traits, which I believe help uncover the entire gamut of possibilities that unscrupulous investment firms design to grift money from honest and hard working investors.

This book is invaluable and straightforward. It was incredibly easy to understand and is written in a way that any everyday investor can understand. This book doesn’t try and masquerade as anything other than a deeply honest and telling account of the financial scandals that occurred over the last 2 years.

Anyone looking to avoid being misled should use this book as a manual for interviewing their next money manager. “How to Smell a Rat”, could have been titled “Choosing the Right Investment Manager – Things to Ask and Look For In an Advisor”.

Review by Mary A. Walters for How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)
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This book was excellent, to the point, and will be invaluable to me. I am taking it with me next Thursday when I am having a meeting with a possible money manager. I’m opening it a page 36 and asking those questions and checking his answers. Thanks to this book I will not be scammed.

Review by Dodger18 for How to Smell a Rat: The Five Signs of Financial Fraud (Fisher Investments Press)
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Not only is this another entertaining read, it is important education which all investors should absorb. In today’s day and age, you must avoid being naive to the investment industry. Fortunately, Ken is also a well-regarded & ethical wealth manager for high net worth investors like myself, so I don’t worry. Thanks Ken for another great read.

Review by Norman Goldman for Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Age
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There is a well-known wise saying, Caveat Emptor, which is the Latin for Buyer Beware. In other words, when purchasing goods or services it is essential that the buyer take all precautions in examining the item or services they are purchasing.

The editors of the Silver Lake Publishers have produced an excellent and pragmatic book, Scams & Swindles: How to Recognize and Avoid Internet Era Rip-Offs that focuses on many of the common con tricks and scams that deceive individuals and consumers, particularly if we are involved in some way or another with the Internet-be it email or otherwise.

It is noteworthy to mention that although some of these scams seem to be relatively new, their modus operandi dates back hundreds of years in that they are based on the con artist’s imagination and the victim’s gullibility.

The book takes a very realistic look at Internet scams and lays bare important details pertaining to such frauds as eBay auctions, the Nigerian emails emanating from some fake high government official requesting the use of your bank account to transfer funds, scams that involve investment, business and banking, fake charities, sweetheart and Russian bride swindles, drugs and pharmaceuticals rip-offs.

The authors also include weighty specifics as to how Internet hackers operate and commit their crimes, as well as something that is becoming more common today- phishing. This basically is when you receive emails from a financial institution that cleverly resembles one you are presently dealing with and you are requested to provide some very personal information. A further variation of the same theme is that it may originate from a site that appears to be Ebay requesting your pin number and some other important data. Internet criminals have become even more sophisticated in their implementation of phishing, wherein an email, instant message or other Internet communication is sent to you in someone else’s name. As the authors point out, it really boils down to a form of identity theft.

Other topics examined and that we are often subjected to in our daily use of the Internet are the nasty and very often annoying practices of spam and spyware. Spam today is not only restricted to pornography, it also involves get-rich-quick schemes or a miracle drugs. In fact, as the authors point out, a study by a British computer security firm, Clearswift Ltd, discovered in 2004 that finance spams topped the list of the most popular with 39%, whereas pornography was at the bottom of the list, 4.8%.

The authors have obviously done their research and they have completed an impressive job in putting together all of the information in a clear, upbeat and conversation style that present readers with valuable insights into the world of Internet crime.

The message is unmistakable, think twice before clicking something within the body of an email or giving out information to anyone and always bear in mind caveat emptor. Moreover, the authors’ elaborate suggestions that appear throughout the book as to how to prevent problems should not go unheeded.

Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures

Review by Midwest Book Review for Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Age
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Scams & Swindles: How To Recognize And Avoid Internet Era Rip-Offs is a basic primer packed with insights any Internet user should be aware of. From Nigerian schemes and money laundering to phishing, id theft and investment frauds, Scams & Swindles covers method, purpose, and how to avoid becoming a victim. Mortgage fraud, spam and spyware receive insights too all with an eye to Internet dangers.

Review by W Boudville for Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Age
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The book is a hallmark of our current Internet experiences. The editors go through the various scams circulating on the Web. Like the Nigerian 419. Or the Russian/East European mail order brides. Or the fake prescription drugs. An amazing compendium of the darknet. Some readers may be scared off the net. But more likely, you will gain some protection simply by being aware of the book’s advice.

One chapter is devoted to phishing. Where an email purports to be from a bank, and breathlessly urges you to log in to your account, to ascertain some important detail. Or the email might say it is from eBay or Paypal, with similar urgencies. The chapter is instructive for many readers. But please note that the editors do not offer anything in the way of a technical antiphishing solution. Their methods involve manual effort on your part. Alas, there will always be gullible or inexperienced users to fall prey to phishers.

Review by Mindy Koch for Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Age
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I think this book really should be a must read for anyone who in online. Internet security is a big problem, and as truly unpleasant as spam is, as malware is, as viruses are… they are NOTHING in comparison to identity theft and to internet cons that drain bank accounts.

According to the first chapter there are ten million americans scammed and swindled every year. That number is staggering to me. To put it into perspective… there are 120 countries on the earth that have less people in their borders than the number of people swindled in America every year. Portugal. Sweden. Switzerland. The Domincan Republic. Chad. Finland and Norway combined. There are more people swindled in America than even live in the countries that I just named. That is insane.

Here are the things I liked about this book and why I think it should be read:

1. It is an easy to read writing style. Not too techy. Not too legalese.

2. It tells about real life stories. Not just hypothetical scenarios. Lots of actual cases of scams and swindles.

3. It gets the information and advice and perspective from not just the law enforcement involved, but from the victims and from the actual con artists.

4. It breaks the scams down step by step, including the variations, and shows how to know when you are being scammed.

Internet security is so important in this day and age of identity theft, internet cons, and hacking of personal information. There is only so much that software can do to protect us. Frankly, we have to be knowledgeable and protect ourselves.

Review by Bookworm2 for Scams & Swindles: Phishing, Spoofing, ID Theft, Nigerian Advance Schemes Investment Frauds: How to Recognize And Avoid Rip-Offs In The Internet Age
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This small sized book identifies and explains the identity theft spectrum and how it occurs. It tells how we are taken in by con men and women and how to prevent it. In some cases, we are even shown how to bring to justice these heartless criminals.