By now, if you’ve been on the Internet
for even a small amount of time, you’ve gotten your share of scam emails. These are called "phishing" or
at least a breed of them is called that, and unless you are either really old or really stupid, you know that the best
way to deal with these emails is to simply hit delete. Yes, get rid of them. In fact, for the most part, if you get any
kind of email from your financial institution, African Princes, or purveyors of potency creams, that ask you for money
or offer to send you to a login screen to "update" their records, well, just stop and ask yourself a
question: am I really that dumb?
Fraud is everywhere. In fact, where travel is concerned it may be even more
prevalent. Why? Because people hold out the hope, (call our species Homo Spaiens-Optimistiens) that somewhere, just
waiting for us is a great deal, that somewhere somehow we can get a free lunch, that we’ll be the lucky one that wins
the lottery or is the recipient of some person’s largesse for free.
Folks, ninety nine percent of the time,
that is hokum. And so we turn to ABC News
and a story that seeks to help you navigate the world of travel fraud. The article is OK, but I confess its a no
brainer to me that you don’t accept or follow up on a travel offer "prize" that comes to you in the
mail…but others I guess are not so skeptical. But it’s worth a read at the very least to know what kind of traps you
need to prevent your grandparents from falling into.