14 Halloween financial horror stories
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3. Web of worthless checks
On two separate occasions, I have received checks, in good faith, from popular banks, each with a letter encouraging me to cash the check and forward money. I would then receive additional funds.

For the first one I received, I took it to the bank printed on the check and asked if it was (real) -- the whole situation was very suspicious. I subsequently ripped up both checks, knowing it was too good to be true. I also remembered some articles where something similar happened to a lady who was not as suspicious and was taken for thousands of dollars. It pays to advertise these scams. It certainly helped me.

4. Insane logic
In the past year I have received several dozen of what have to be considered scam e-mails from the United Kingdom and Nigeria. These are usually variations on ... "I am stuck in a hospital dying and have to find somebody to help me get $50 million out of the country; will you help me?" They never ask for money up front and the scam offers me 20 percent to help.

5. Frightfully sweet justice
Not long ago, I was ripped off by two employees of "Macabre" Department Store. I charged a $5.37 purchase to my account and three weeks later my Macabre bill totaled $704.

Only the sales clerk and I had access to my card. Three weeks later, my bill arrived with the enormous total coming from four separate Macabre stores. I immediately called the store, closed my account and reported the theft to the Houston Police Department.

I later learned that two sales clerks were stealing customers' account numbers and were running the scam because no other sales clerks had any reason to question them. Four police officers and the manager of the store I had visited marched into the store and arrested the sales clerks. The sales clerks were tried, convicted and sent to the Texas State Penitentiary, Women's Unit, in Huntsville, Texas.

6. Rotten recording trick
A while back, "Goblins" or "Ghouls" representatives called us. They said they were checking to see if we were satisfied with their telephone service. (Goblins was the long distance service; Ghouls was the local service at the time.) They asked many questions, some of which I said yes to.

Later in the year, I found on my phone bill that I had signed up for something I did not ask for. When I called them about it, they replayed the recording of my saying yes. That was all I said. It had been cut.

I know I did not sign up for this, as I had been scammed before and am very careful, but this was a company I had dealt with for years. I was not leery -- but now I am of anyone.

I practice never saying yes to anything on the phone. When they say, "Is this Sharon?" I repeat back to them not yes, but, "This is Sharon." You can be taken so easily without knowing what is happening -- even with groups you have trusted for years. They are only hiring outside groups that get paid for everyone they recruit to their product.