Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals

by Christopher Elliott

A leading consumer advocate reveals how to protect your money, time, and integrity from corrupt businesses Once upon a time store prices were simple and fair, businesses stood behind their products with guarantees free of fine print and loopholes, and companies genuinely seemed to care about their valued customers―but those days are long gone. In this groundbreaking exposé, consumer advocate Christopher Elliot reveals the broken relationship between American consumers and businesses and explains how companies came to believe that fooling their customers was a viable, and profitable, business plan. Scammed explores how companies control information to mislead, distort the truth, and even outright lie to their consumers. Protect yourself, your time, and your money from the predators of the consumer world. Armed with knowledge, readers will become far more discerning and every business's worst nightmare.

Genres: Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2011

Reviews

[Ixby Wuff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A leading consumer advocate reveals how to protect your money, time, and integrity from corrupt businesses Once upon a time store prices were simple and fair, businesses stood behind their products with guarantees free of fine print and loopholes, and companies genuinely seemed to care about their valued customers--but those days are long gone. In this groundbreaking expose, consumer advocate Christopher Elliot reveals the broken relationship between American consumers and businesses and explains how companies came to believe that fooling their customers was a viable, and profitable, business plan.

Scammed explores how companies control information to mislead, distort the truth, and even outright lie to their consumers.

Exposes the various ways companies have led their war against information--from seductive ads, disingenuous fine print, and unconventional promotions that involve seeding discussion forums and blogs with company-friendly comments Offers consumers insider knowledge of the system, reasonable expectations, and a clear understanding of the games businesses play Christopher Elliott is one of the nation's foremost consumer advocates Protect yourself, your time, and your money from the predators of the consumer world. Armed with knowledge, readers will become far more discerning and every business's worst nightmare.

[Pug · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and entertaining book, for a typically dry topic. Definitely things that all consumers need to be aware of: watching out for scams, making wise choices to avoid foolish expenses, and how to properly fight back to get what you deserve. Nothing too ground-breaking for me; thankfully, it seemed to reaffirm what we already knew and practiced.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scammed is about 200 pages long. I could write a 1000 page book telling, page by page, what I didn't like about this book. In a nutshell, the book is snarky, sometimes offensive, mostly unsubstantiated, and is rather elementary in the advice it gives. Granted, some people may need elementary advice, and so they may find some benefit. (What? Airlines bait and switch? Cell phone companies penalize you for breaking a long-term service contract? Ads aren't always truthful?) But I think most thinking adults won't find this book particularly enlightening.

Let me present a few excerpts to demonstrate why I don't like this book.

Page 48: Elliott is talking about marketing tactics. He gives the example of American Tobacco staging a patriotic rally to encourage women to smoke. He says "At this time it was de rigueur for a lady to smoke in public...". What he meant to say was that it was rare for a lady to smoke in public, and American Tobacco wanted to change that attitude. Elliott clearly doesn't know that de rigueur means "expected" or "as a matter of course" - just the opposite of the meaning he intended to convey.

Throughout the book, Elliott's assumption is that most companies are out to screw you. He states that most seller-customer transactions are win-lose. I disagree with this mindset almost 100%. A company offers a product or service. The customer needs or wants that product or service. A voluntary transaction takes place whereby the customer gets what he wants and the company makes a profit. I see that as a win-win in many if not most cases. Yes, some transactions aren't so idyllic, but my experience is that the bad transactions are rather rare.

Page 159: This is from the chapter "Turning a No into a Yes". In a section called "Taking Extreme Measures", Elliott suggests you might write directly to the company's CEO. He says, "...something FedEx'ed to the top exec has an excellent chance of being read by that person. (That assumes the CEO has a high school diploma and is literate.)" Really? Comments like that make me want to dismiss virtually everything Elliott writes. I want advice from someone who has so little respect for the average CEO? Thanks but no thanks.

Page 61: Elliott tells of the time when he and his college roommate bought a "new" in-box TV for $40 cash from a guy in a grocery store parking lot. "Don't open it here," the man said. They didn't, and when they got home they were stunned to see that the TV was a worthless, nonfunctional piece of junk. As I alluded to earlier, if this story is an eye-opener for you, then you might find some value in this book. For me and I think for most people, I'm not learning anything here.

I could go on and on, but that's enough. Scammed was a waste of my time.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this book also writes a website on being an advocate for "travel scams" which I read pretty much every day. I like to think I am a "smart traveler" and I do like reading issues that less smart travelers come into and think what I would do in these situations. There is always a poll at the end of post on if the author should advocate for the issue or not and I do love guessing with the masses, though I always guess with what I think I would do. Something I am right and sometimes I am wrong, it's all very interesting. This book was a more general idea on getting scammed and how not to and how to stick up for yourself. It was pretty interesting. In the middle of the book, it was like the author stopped and wrote more about why there are less advocates today then years ago, which I find interesting too. They are expensive to maintain, and the outcome is usually very small, especially with the demise of lots of print papers these days. But the author made a strong point on why we need to support people like this, not only to "save" his job, but not to let the big corporations win. All in all, very interesting. An easy read, definably recommended.

[Kristina Aziz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pros: Going into this book, just starting it, I had no problems. Though, I was a bit mislead because I thought it would be a financial version of "Eat this, not that." I appreciated that the writing was easy to understand, held my interest even if it didn't encourage the best speed-of-reading (took me about four days to trudge through this one). and I liked that it didn't seem biased toward either consumer or company.




Cons: There was definitely SOME kind of bias there. It was towards the Consumer advocates. Other idisyncracies that got under my skin: The use of "gotcha" and "getcha", abundant cliches--"By hook or crook", "Heck of a lot of...", and this little gem of a quote: "...or whatever Frankenstein's monster was afraid of." that popped up around the same time that the author was disparaging consumers for only reading fluff and not "real" news/reading.




Movie Potential: No. Definitely Not.




Writing style: Easy to follow, but towards the middle just made me angry. This is NOT a book that made my brain happy. In fact, it aggravated me.




Format: Physical book.




Overall Rating: 2/5

[Karen! · Rating 3 out of 5]

I often read the columns by this author on Frommer's website, so I decided to pick-up the book. Much of the information included here is basic. I enjoyed that it was not simply dumping facts and commandments at me, but instead broke-up the heavy content with anecdotes and examples.

I must admit, I was expecting a bit more than common sense, but many of the resources provided are useful for those new to the adulting game.

I quick read, but I would like to see a more extensive guide to avoiding getting screwed in the modern world.

[Brittany Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great advice for the average person!