The Rip-Off Book

The purpose of this book is to outline the basic principles of fraud and specific techniques fraud artists use to milk the public. The reader will learn to protect himself against many types of fraud by understanding the ways in which con men work. He'll also learn to protect his interests in transactions which fall into a gray area. these are transactions which, although not fraudulent in the eyes of the law, are yet shady and filled with danger for the innocent consumer.... The focus of this book will be on frauds aimed at working people and small businessmen, concentrating on the principles and techniques involved. The reader will learn how to forestall fraud by recognizing the methods and avoiding the traps. In this regard, there will be much discussion of borderline areas, not legally defined as fraud, and we shall see that there are many deceptive practices used without infringing the law because the law seems to be one step behind the clever fraud artist.