Word: cons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
America, a country born with a sense that divine providence was paying close attention from the start, has always had a weakness for prophecy. With its deep religious history but no established church, this country welcomes religious free-lancers and entrepreneurs. Both the visionaries and the con artists have access to the altar. It took the shocking events of the last mid-century to draw apocalyptic thinking off the Fundamentalist margins and into the mainstream. The rise of Hitler, a wicked man who wanted to murder the Jews, read like a Bible story; his utter destruction, and the subsequent return...
Everybody knows that most junk e-mail--or spam, as it's called--is phony. What you may not know is that much of it is sent by con artists--real-life bad guys who are after your money. According to the National Consumers League (NCL), Internet scams cost Americans more than $6 million last year--up from $3 million in 2000. Crooked Web auctions account for much of that, but 15% of online scams come directly via e-mail. How do they work? Susan Grant, director of the NCL's Internet Fraud Watch, has seen them...
...most common con, accounting for 9% of all e-mail fraud, is the infamous Nigerian Letter. I got one from a Mr. ABBA ABACHA (his caps-lock key appears to be stuck) who claims to be a Nigerian official with $25 million that he needs to smuggle out of the country. If you try to help, he will hit you for processing fees and "advance loans," and you will never see a dime. In the past few months, this well-worn scam has been evolving, so watch out for new variants involving Afghan war booty or a secret trove...
...formerly sociable mom become taciturn and isolated? Does Dad suddenly find paying the bills stressful? Does he have trouble seeing when he drives at night? Have there been serious lapses of memory or judgment, a pot left unattended on the stove, a large check written to a con artist...
...radioactive material or any other bomb-making equipment. Nor had he chosen a target, or formulated a plan. And while his connections with al-Qaeda operatives were never in doubt, he suddenly began to look a lot more like the accused shoe-bomber Richard Reid (i.e. another disaffected ex-con from the West desperate to get in with al-Qaeda) than like the sophisticated professionals who put together September...