The music on the show is eclectic Americana, with Old Time music, cowboy, blues, jazz, jug band, string band, ukelele and eccentric music from the 1890’s to the 1930’s.
Each selection is chosen for its medicinal qualities, creating a perfect prescription for healing the stress and purging the infelicities of the 21st Century.
please can u tell me if Golden glow holidays at 9 Marion Walk, hoppers crossing Phone 0399886329 is a genuine travel organisation or is this another con. They wanted to send me a $1000 voucher & lifetime travel discounts, bu I refused to give them the number of my creditcard as verification.
This email came through today from a reader in Victoria.
The company is called Golden Globe rather than Golden Glow.
They are a worldwide company who tele-market in Australia, UK, Europe and US.
The idea is that they offer you $1000 worth of free holidays. It is not until you agree and give them your credit card number that you find out you will be charge £299 to join the program.
The deals that you are given are usually packed full of qualifying conditions. For example, people swindled by similar deals have claimed they had to spend a minimum of $100 per day in the hotel restaurant.
Suffice to say, they are not based in Hopper Crossing. The address given is actually for a company called Unisoft.
The promo for my new DVD project on the street scam Three Disk Monte.
Very little has been written about this scam and it has rarely been captured on camera.
In this DVD, I’ll not only explain how it works but also show hidden camera footage of the real deal.
Here are some questions I’ve been asked.
WHY SO LONG?
I originally planned the project early in 2010. However, we had to work through the legal aspects of showing criminals act work in the hidden camera footage. Also, I wanted to provide the disks that the con artists use in the game. .
IT COMES WITH THE DISKS?
Yep. These are the real deal, based on the design used by European con men. It took me a while to source the correct materials to make them the exact same size, shape and weight as you’ll see on the streets. I, like other people, have tried making my own but they have not work as well as these fine disks. Also - these babies are INDESTRUCTIBLE.
WHEN IS IT COMING OUT?
We are currently editing the final video, including a special routine for magicians and entertainers who want to use the disks for good instead of evil. I’m working with television producer Robert Mond who is a perfectionist.
I’ll let you know as soon as we have a release date.
HOW MANY SETS WILL YOU MAKE?
Initially, I will be producing one hundred sets. Since I have fifty people in the waiting list, they won’t last long. I have no decided if it is worth printing more.
If you want to join the waiting list, email me or comment below.
But after reading James Morton and Susanna Lobez’s book Kings of Stings, I’m having second thoughts.
The book, about the history of Australian scams insists on using the words conman and conmen over and over.
And the book is so well researched and exhaustive, it’s hard not to assume they’ve got the spelling right as well.
From the arrival of European con man criminals (con-victs?) to Christopher Skase and Brenton Jarrett, Kings of Stings is an easy to read yet encyclopedic tome dedicated to Australia swindlers.
The two authors have not only included all of the famous stories we know and love but have delved deep in newspaper archives, finding obscure tit-bits of information long since forgotton.
There isn’t a lot written about the history of Australian con artists (Hoax Nation and Rich Uncle aside) and it’s great to see such this incredible book finally in print.
My only complaint, and it is a small one, is that the prose can be a little dry. The authors are lawyers and journalists and it shows. It often feels like you are reading court reports.
I, like most readers, want to know what drives the Australian con man. How does he differ from other swindlers?
But this is a minor quibble.
Kings of Stings is a great book that makes me want to be a better con man.
I had an letter a few weeks ago about IGS and whether it was a scam. Thanks to another reader of the blog, I can know tell you more.
Kerrin writes:
I have been contacted by IGS Investments with a LINK DELETED software programme for horse racing. Do you know anything about it? Total outlay for software $11,900 for a return of approx $1,900 per week for 14 hrs spent on computer laying bets.
When we would not commit to that amount, started offering deals - deposit and pay off etc. I must admit the software programme is very enticing - you bet on a horse not to come first. If it wins you must pay the $20 bet times the odds. If it comes anywhere else then you make $20 less commission (about 50c). It is run through bet fair - I have never heard of them.
This sounds a hell of alot like a rehash of the sniper horse racing betting system, I mentioned on my old blog couple of years ago.
I have never heard of betting system that works. If they worked, people just would not sell them.
My advice is to keep away. It’s just not worth the risk.
I was reading a bit of Danny Wallace’s 2004 book Join Me on the toilet this morning. But you didn’t need to know that.
The true story is a great one. Wallace, a comedian and writer, decided in a fit of boredom to start a cult. He put an advertisement in the paper seeking people to “Join” him. All they had to do was send a photo to an address.
With no other information, people started to Join. Soon, Wallace had over 300 joinees and nothing to do with them.
So he sent them out to do ‘good deeds’. Every Friday, his cult members would hit the streets to help out.
One afternoon, a group of five joinees helped a man named Raymond Price who was lost in London, money stolen. They joinees gave him a huge amount of cash, their good deed for the day.
the floating head of raymond price
It was only later that the group discovered that Mr Price was in fact, a wanted con man, who had been pulling the same stunt all over the UK.
But the Joinees had the last laugh. Because of the book, Raymond is now a minor celebrity and is constantly being stopped from perpetrating his scams by the books tens of thousands of fans and joinees who recognise him and want to have their photo taken.
