Dear Cheri! Thanks for bringing these scams by scums to light. Another issue that is concerning a number of us is all of the mortgage offers/solicitations we receive. The ones that are especially alarming are the ones that show the amount that I owe. This is private information and we believe the perpetrators are breaking the law by obtaining the amount of our mortgage and Line of Credit or Second mortgage. You should always shred credit card offers and similar things, but in this case we are saving these mortgage solications in case the District Attorney needs them to file a class action lawsuit. Best regards,

Hi, Alan How nice to see you here! I do shred all unneeded documents that have so much as our names and addresses on them. My husband thinks I go overboard, but we're recycling the paper so it seems doubly useful. I'm afraid your complaint about the mortgage solicitations rests on a faulty belief, though. In my state at least, all documents that relate to property ownership, including mortgage or trust deed notes, are public record. It is annoying, but not illegal, that anyone can access the original document and extrapolate the amount owed by running an amortization schedule. The more alarming thing in my opinion is that some (probably most) of those documents include the social security number of the borrower, opening the door to misuse by unscrupulous persons. If I were going to join the fray, I'd work on making that more secure. It ought to be right up your alley in the identity theft protection business. On a lighter note, I saw a bus bench the other day with this advertisement: "Identity theft associates wanted." I wondered if that were one of your colleagues in the Pre-Paid Legal business seeking recruits, or someone who wanted co-conspirators, lol. Cheri

Norm, Thank you, I intend to raise interesting subjects. I appreciate your validation that I'm selecting them well. Cheri

Counterfeit drugs in your neighbourhood pharmacies? Are you saying that pharmacists are so stupid that they will buy drugs from someone who is not an accreditted dealer and whom they do not know? I cannot believe that a person who has dedicated his/her life to aiding the sick would take this sort of risk - unless, of course, they are perfectly aware of the ilicit nature of the drug and have succumbed to the lure of extra profits. Maybe drugs are more expensive in America because the bills for many are picked up by the insurance companies rather than the individual? The trade in endowment life policies is fairly well established in Europe though not especially popular. The two big risks are that you lose a lot (if not all) of the 'bonus' if you make the policy paid up or you find out there has been a miracle and you end up paying the premiums for a much longer time than anticipated. Particularly galling if you had assumed a reasonably short term to settlement. As you say, the major benefit of these deals tends to reside in the middle men.

Art, that's a good question about the pharmacists, and one I can't answer. I don't know how the supply chain works. Here's a guess, though. Quite a few of our pharmacies are associated with large chain stores, either within a supermarket or stores that have the pharmacy at the core but provide convenience items as well. I'm sure the pharmacists in this type of store simply orders from a central warehouse. I'd bet it would be relatively simple to corrupt someone in the warehouse. It's that aspect of viaticals you call 'galling' that makes it distasteful to me. What a horrible thing, to be wishing someone would hurry up and die so one could have one's money! Not much different from an unloving family with a wealthy elderly relative, I suppose, except that one would have chosen to be in the position, rather than landing there by an accident of birth. Not for me, thank you. Thanks for coming by, Art. I value your input. Cheri