Top 10 Scams and Rip-Offs of 2009
From Abracadabra to Zombies | View All
topical index:
frauds & hoaxes
Airborne Agrees to Pay $23.3 Million to Settle Lawsuit Over False Advertising of its "Miracle Cold Buster" (Read Terra Sigillata and Respectful Insolence)
Geller, Uri (accused of being a fraud by James Randi, but he denies it)
multi-level marketing (MLM) harassment
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
pyramid schemes, chain letters, & Ponzi schemes
Other Sources
new The Trashing of Margaret Mead How Derek Freeman Fooled Us All on an Alleged Hoax ...the hoaxing argument is easily challenged using Freeman’s own unpublished interviews with the Samoan woman on whose testimony Freeman so heavily relied....Freeman stated his argument so boldly and presented it with such certainty that it seemed believable. In fact, it seemed foolish not to believe him. Almost no one thought that it might be a good idea to look at the actual interviews with Fa’apua’a and to ask if Freeman’s certitudes about the value of her testimony were warranted. These unpublished interviews with her demonstrate that there is no compelling evidence that Mead was hoaxed. It was a good story — a story that many people wanted to believe. Alas, it was a story that was too good to be true.
note: the comments on this article make for good reading.
Brian Brushwood lectures on YouTube 1. How the shortchange con works 2. Science vs. Pseudoscience 3. How Astrology & Divinations Work 4. UFOs: What are the odds? 5. False Memory & Eyewitness Testimony 6. Bigfoot and Cryptozoology 7. Crop Circles 8. Spiritualism, Table Tipping & Dowsing 9. ESP & Probability 10. Homeopathy, Magnets, & Quackery 11. The Placebo Effect & Psychic Surgery
Too Good to Be True
Warning sounded on web's future
Michael Shermer and "the pigeon drop" con (YouTube)
"The Serpent’s" Tale by Kurt W. Burchfiel (Strange Magazine)
Alias Carlos Allende:The Mystery Man Behind the Philadelphia Experiment by Robert A. Goerman
Cliff Pickover's Internet Encyclopedia of Hoaxes
Eric's History of Perpetual Motion and Free Energy Machines
Fairy Tale An Untrue Story Fairy Photographs, Piltdown Man, and Faked Vermeer Paintings The Debunking of Three Hoaxes by James Opie
Federal Consumer Information Center
Federal Trade Commission Home Page
FTC: Miracle Health Claims - Add a Dose of Skepticism
Internet Crime Complaint Center
It's a Fake! by Lee Moller
Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
National Fraud Information Center
National Institute for Consumer Education
New "Shroud" Claims Challenged as Spurious
Piltdown Man by Richard Harter
Urban Legends Reference Pages snopes.com
What's Wrong with Multi-level Marketing?
Recommended Reading
Judson, Horace Freeland. (2004). The Great Betrayal : Fraud in Science. Harcourt.
Keene, M. Lamar. The Psychic Mafia (Prometheus, 1997).
Randi, James. The Faith Healers (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1987).
Randi, James. Flim-Flam! (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1982)
Randi, James. The Truth about Uri Geller, (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1982)
Stein, Gordon. Encyclopedia of Hoaxes (Prometheus, 1993).
Stein, Gordon. Hoaxes!: Dupes, Dodges & Other Dastardly Deceptions (Visible Ink Press 1995).
Swierczynski, Duane. The Complete Idiot's Guide To Frauds, Scams, and Cons (Alpha Books 2002).
Last
updated 01/31/10
When you purchase something from Amazon.com through one of our links we earn a commission, which helps pay for the maintenance of this site.
* AmeriCares *
,