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You know the saying "If it's too good to be true, it probably is"?

Every once in a while I'll get into a conversation with somebody and it will lead to scams. People have been scamming people for their money basically forever. There are all sorts of schemes. My favorite one, though, I heard about when we lived in California.

A man was selling "flat screen TVs" out of the back of his van. Only when the box was opened, the steal-of-a-deal turned out to just be a steal: a black used oven door. When the cops caught up with the con artist, he also had boxes of "laptops" with floor tiles inside. And he's not the only one... (Story I heard in '07, story I found today, and another story I found today.)