How to Avoid ATM Theft, Scams and Skimmers

Even though I live in a very safe area of California, I rarely use an ATM machine after dark.  In addition, I avoid using ATM machines that are in remote locations, have loose parts, or seem “off” in some way.  Like most of us, I try to be cautious with my ATM card.  Therefore, I was shocked to discover that there are ATM scams that I didn’t even know existed!

ATM Scams Get More Sophisticated

There are a number of ATM scams that can trick even a cautious person.  Here are a few of the more common ones:

The blocking device:  Someone blocks the ATM slot.  You insert your card and enter your PIN number while someone is watching.  Nothing happens and your card does not come back out of the machine.  You go into the bank to report the problem.  While you are inside, the scammer removes the block, takes your card and leaves.  If they were watching closely, they also know your PIN number. 

Card Skimmers:  These are devices that can be ordered on the internet.  People attach them to an ATM machine and use them to obtain your banking information, card number, PIN number and all the information that the thieves need to make their own ATM cards using your information.

Fake ATM machines and attachments:  Another variation on the card skimmers are phony machines that take your information and then display a notice saying that the machine is out of money.  You get your card back, but the thieves have all the information they need to make another card.

Cash Traps:  These are devices that hold your money inside the machine.  When you go inside the bank to report the problem, the thieves are able to retrieve the money and leave quickly.

Phishing:  There are many types of phishing, the word used to describe emails that are sent to you asking for your bank or other personal information.  The writer may pretend to be your bank informing you that there is a problem with your ATM card.  They then ask you to click on a website and enter information from your card, including your PIN number.  Once you have done that, they can easily make another card using the information that you provided to them.

How to Protect Yourself from ATM Theft

The first step in protecting yourself is to read articles like this one, and stay up to date with new assaults on your ATM card.  In addition, follow the steps listed below as often as possible.  You can prevent most problems.

Use the same ATM machine as often as possible, and stop using it if something seems wrong.

When possible, use ATM machines that are inside banks.

If you have to use a new ATM machine, inspect it carefully.  Avoid using one that has extra cameras, signs or other unnecessary items cluttering up the area.

Never let a stranger offer to “help” you if there is a problem using a machine.

Avoid using an ATM machine if other people are lingering around it.

If a machine confiscates your card, use your cell phone and call the bank.  Wait until assistance arrives.

Do not use your ATM card to pay for restaurant meals or in similar situations when it may be out of your sight for a few minutes.  Unscrupulous individuals can steal the information from your card quickly.

Don’t fall for phishing emails.  Call your bank if you get a strange email, or go in and talk to them in person.

Check your bank account frequently online.  If you notice any suspicious activity, contact your bank immediately.

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You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo courtesy of www.photoxpress.com

College Cheating Epidemic and Ghostwritten College Papers

Over the past few weeks, there have been several posts on this blog about cheating and ethics among high school and college students.  The problem seems to be rampant, often fueled by easy access to the internet.  There have been cheating scandals everywhere from local high schools across the nation to esteemed colleges such as Harvard.

Ghostwritten College Papers

In May, 2011, Reader’s Digest Magazine printed an article entitled “The Cheating Epidemic” by Ed Dante, the pseudonym of a writer who earned a living for several years by ghost writing college papers, including dissertation length documents for undergraduate and graduate students.  By his own admission, Mr. Dante has written papers for students working on their Master’s Degree in Cognitive Psychology, a PhD in sociology, and Bachelors’ Degrees in a variety of subjects including pharmacology, theology, nursing, ethics, law and public administration.  He admitted to writing at least twelve graduate theses that were over fifty pages long.

Until he resigned from his position, Mr. Dante worked for an unnamed online company that provides students with original papers that they can turn in under their own names.  The purchasers of these papers do not have to be concerned about being caught plagiarizing, since each paper is written specifically for them.  They pay sizeable fees of up to several thousand dollars to receive such personalized attention.

Mr. Dante revealed that he has earned as much as $66,000 a year writing these student papers, which may give him a higher income than some of the educators who actually assigned the theses may be earning.

Although I have not listed all the different topics that Mr. Dante covered, it particularly bothered me to think that people who work in the fields of cognitive psychology, sociology, pharmacology, theology, nursing, ethics, law and public administration may not really be qualified to perform their positions.  Does it bother anyone else that your nurse or pharmacist might not have written their own papers when they were attending college?  How would you feel if you knew that the theologian who is preaching about honesty and integrity from the pulpit may have cheated his way through college?

At a time when so many high school graduates are only marginally qualified to perform college level work, the fact that some college students may be cheating in order to get through school should not surprise me.

Solution to College Cheating Epidemic

The solution to this type of cheating is clear.  If we cannot trust students to perform honestly outside of the classroom, then perhaps the college class periods should be longer, and more of the work should be completed in class.  Professors and their assistants may one day be compelled to supervise students while they do their research and write their papers in the classroom.  This may be the only way to be assured that college graduates are actually qualified to perform well in the careers for which they are preparing.

It is a shame that the ethics in this country have dropped so low that students who are majoring in ethics would feel comfortable cheating in order to get their degree!  If we wish to improve the value of a university degree in our country, college administrators need to make it much more difficult for their students to cheat.

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Americans Too Dumb to use the Metric System?

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You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo of library courtesy of www.morguefile.com

Americans Too Dumb to use the Metric System?

The metric system is the international system of measurement that was originally created in France in about 1799, although it was proposed earlier than that by Englishman John Wilkins in 1668.  By 1872, the only major European countries who were not using the metric system were Russia and the United Kingdom.  Since that time, both of those countries have also made the conversion, as has most of the rest of the world.  When it first came into use, different countries still had their own values for the various units of metric measurement.  However, in 1960 the internationally recognized standard metric system was established.

As of 2012, the ONLY nations in the world who do not use the metric system are Burma, Sierra Leone and the United States.  Currently, both Burma and Sierra Leone are taking steps to adopt the metric system, as well.  That means the United States will be the only nation left that is not using the metric system.  Of course, some countries still use local, unofficial systems of measurement in addition to the metric system.  However, the metric system is the official system of measurement for the rest of the world.  Do we Americans really believe that we are too dumb to learn the metric system?  Do we have so little confidence in ourselves that we can sit back and watch both industrialized and third world countries make the conversion, but we think it would be too hard for us?  Perhaps it is our lack of confidence that is causing us to lie to ourselves about our intelligence and ability.

I remember well when our country made a feable attempt to convert to the metric system in the 1970's.  For some strange reason, people got all tied up with the notion that they would spend their days performing complicated math calculations in order to convert everything to metrics.  However, the one hangover from that period is the two-liter bottle of soda.  Have you ever worried about how many quarts of soda were in a two-liter bottle?  Have you ever found a reason to convert your soda from liters to quarts?  Americans were easily able to make that transistion.

I work in an American high school, and frequently watch our students struggle to learn a system that most children in the world have learned by the time they start kindergarten.  While few of our students know how many feet are in a mile, young children in other parts of the world know that there are 1000 meters in a kilometer.  Wouldn't it be easier if we started out teaching this to our children, too?

Cost to the US because we do not use the Metric System

In 1915, Jos. V. Collins estimated in an article entitled "A Metrical Tragedy" that it was costing the US $315,000,000 at that time because we had not converted to the metric system.  The amount of money lost has skyrocketed since then.

According to the website MetricationMatters.com, in an article by Pat Naughtin written in 2008, Canadian architects and engineers charge about 10 - 15% more to prepare detail drawings for the US market, because it involves extra work.  In addition, materials such as plywood and gypsum board have to be trimmed for the US market, causing about a 3% waste in materials.  Similar additional costs occur in business dealings with other countries.

Students go through elementary school learning our American system of measurement, only to be required to learn the metric system in high school because it is essential they know it in order to pursue careers in physics, chemistry, math, medicine, engineering, auto technology, aircraft repair and many other fields.  This is an inefficient way to train our children, confuses them and puts them behind in math when compared to other students around the world who learn the metric system beginning in preschool.  This is reflected in international math examinations.  It also is expensive to retrain our students.

Errors Caused by Our Failure to Use the Metric System

The cost to the United States because we refuse to use the metric system has been high.  According to an article on CNN Tech entitled "Metric Mishap Caused Loss of NASA Orbiter," NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one group of engineers used American units of measurement and another group of engineers used the metric system.

According to the U.S. Metric Association, here are just a few of the other serious errors that have been made in recent years because Americans believe they are incapable of converting to the metric system:

In 2003, the Space Mountain roller coaster at Tokyo's Disneyland theme park was derailed because an axle was smaller than it was supposed to be.  The parts had been ordered using the wrong dimensions.

In 1983, an Air Canada flight ran out of fuel because a maintenance worker made an error in converting the amount of fuel that should be pumped from a fuel truck into the aircraft.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Melvin Lister from the United States was eliminated in his qualifying round because he couldn't figure out where his mark was.  He was unable to use the metric tape that had been supplied to him.  He was not allowed to use the one he brought with him that showed feet and inches.

In 2004, at least one baby was given five times the correct dosage of Zantac Syrup because the doctor had written the prescription in teaspoons, but the pharmacist had labeled the bottle in milliliters.

Are We Really Less Intelligent Than Other Countries?

I believe the idea that Americans cannot convert to the metric system is a lie.  Every other country in the world has been able to make this change successfully.  I have more confidence in the intelligence of Americans than many of them have in themselves.  I believe we are just as smart as people in other countries.  We just have to prove it to ourselves and each other.

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You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo courtesy of www.en.wikipedia.com/commons

The Truth about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene

Since the early days of Christianity, there has been speculation about whether or not Jesus was married and if Mary Magdalene was his wife.  This controversy is still relevant today because the Roman Catholic Church bars women from becoming priests, often justifying their stand by saying they want to follow the model of Jesus who remained unmarried and had only male followers.  However, is it true that Jesus never married?

The Da Vinci Code Theory

Over a decade ago, in the best-selling novel and movie, “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown, the possibility that Jesus and Mary were husband and wife was discussed as a work of fiction.  In the story, a curator at the Louvre in Paris is found shot, and his granddaughter is determined to find out the reason.  She elicits the assistance of a Harvard professor who helps her discover that her grandfather was searching for the Holy Grail.  It turns out that the Holy Grail is not a cup or chalice, but is the tomb where Mary Magdalene is buried.  By the end of the novel it is “discovered” that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and they had a child together.

While it is easy to dismiss “The Da Vinci Code” as an exciting figment of the author’s imagination, there have long been rumors that the early belief in the divine right of kings came about at least partially because the Merovingian kings of France were thought to be descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.  Several books have been written on the topic, including those by Margaret Starbird and Clive Prince’s “The Templar Revelation.”

Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci

Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News researched the rumors that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus Christ, and reported on her findings in a television special called “Jesus, Mary, and Da Vinci” that aired in November, 2003.  At one point in her research she interviewed a Catholic priest from Georgetown University.  He stated that they do not know if Jesus was married but, if he were, Mary Magdalene would undoubtedly have been his wife.  While some theologians agreed, others did not.  Most of them did agree, however, that it would have been highly unusual for Jesus to be single at the time he was alive. In fact, there was not even a word for “bachelor” in the Jewish language at that time.  In addition, they noted the fact that Mary Magdalene was allowed special privileges, such as visiting the grave of Jesus after his death, which would not have been accorded to anyone other than a wife or close family member.  They also pointed out the fact that after his death Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene before any of his disciples.  Of course, none of these statements prove conclusively that Jesus and Mary were married.

New Evidence that Jesus was Married

This week, however, there has been a new development which once again brings up the possibility that Jesus and Mary were husband and wife.  According to a number of news sources, summarized in a Yahoo News article entitled, “Jesus had a wife, newly discovered gospel suggests,” there is new evidence that Jesus was married to someone.  Karen King, a Harvard historian of early Christianity, has verified a fourth century piece of papyrus which contains the words “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife..’” and “she will be able to be my disciple.”

While this statement does not mention Mary Magdalene or prove that she was married to Jesus, it is one more tantalizing clue that indicates it is a possibility.  What we do not know is whether early Christians intentionally covered up evidence of the marriage, or whether this marriage was considered too unimportant and commonplace to mention.  Either way, researchers will continue to study the question in the hope that one day we will learn the truth.

You may also be interested in reading:

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You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo of Mary Magdalene by an unknown sculpture is courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/commons

What Foreigners Believe about America

Like the citizens of most countries, Americans are proud of our country.  We are proud of our constitutional form of government, our active democracy, our freedoms and our ability to succeed.  Because of the national pride felt by the majority of Americans, we are hurt and confused when we see demonstrators in other countries who riot against us, kill an ambassador and our embassy employees, destroy embassy buildings, burn our flag, and seem completely ungrateful for the many actions we have taken to help other countries.

Frequently we ask ourselves why they do this.  How can they not know that we are good, caring people?  Why do they seek to hurt us?  What is it that foreigners believe about America that breeds so much misunderstanding and hatred?

I work with a woman from rural China who immigrated to the United States with her husband in the early 1990's.  They were both university students who were given the opportunity to study in the U.S.  She told me a few months ago that she did not know the United States even existed until two years before she immigrated!  As a bright student in China, she was taught about the continents, and even the names of many of the other countries.  However, she thought all those other countries had governments, economic systems, and social systems similar to what she knew in China.  She was astonished when she moved here! 

Fortunately my friend was not taught to hate America or Americans when she grew up in China.  She was just not told much of anything at all about us.  Obviously, in the twenty years since she immigrated, communication between China and the United States has improved dramatically, and very few Chinese would be completely ignorant of life in America.  However, are they now getting the impression of us that we would like to portray?

Citizens of many other countries often believe that they know a great deal about America.  Unfortunately, what they often think they know is based on promiscuous, silly or violent movies and television shows that are shown around the world.  While we are able to dismiss the content of these films as pure fiction, many foreigners believe that they are seeing a true depiction of life in America and extremists in their coutries are often more than willing to encourage their citizens to believe these distortions.

An Iranian-American writer, in an article called "Inside Iran" on the website http://faqs.shivathespy.com, reports that many Iranians believe that Americans are arrogant, rich, sexually promiscuous, irreligious, liberal, and heavy drinkers.  They also believe that there are no poor people in American and that no one has to work very hard in order to afford all the abundant luxuries that we enjoy.  Many American citizens perceive these beliefs about our country to be complete lies.  However, we seem helpless to convey better information to the citizens of other other nations.

While the writer of "Inside Iran" was speaking only about Iran, these beliefs are common among people in many other developing nations.  These attitudes breed jealousy, resentment, anger and hostility towards Americans.  While those of us who live in America realize that these movies do not accurately depict ourselves or the people we know in our neighborhoods, foreigners do not realize this.

In 2007, Dr. Steven Kuli, the director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs about the negative attitudes of Muslims towards the United States.  His report dealt with the countries of Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia.  These are all countries that have governments that have cooperative relationships with the United States. However, his research indicated that the majority of citizens of those countries believed that the U.S. was engaged in a war on Islam.

According to research conducted by Dr. Kuli, 93% of Egyptians, 76% of Morrocans, 67% of Pakistanis and 66% of Indonesians had unfavorable views of the US.  About half of the citizens of those countries approved attacks on US troops, although substantially fewer agreed that it was acceptable to harm civilians.

With so many misconceptions about America, American life, and our citizens, it is no wonder that citizens in the Middle East erupted in anger against our country when a virtually unknown American produced a low quality film that was highly critical of the Prophet Mohammad.  This movie simply fueled their belief that Americans were arrogant, self-centered and in a war against Islam.

Most of those involved in the riots do not understand our government.  What they have been told is often based on lies and distortions. I saw one person interviewed on television who said that they would not stop attacking our embassies until the US government assured them that no one in the United States would ever make a movie like that again.  It was obvious that this man did not understand how impossible it would be for a government that believes in personal freedom, as well as freedom of expression, to make such a guarantee. 

There are no easy solutions to the communication problems that exist between the ordinary citizens of the United States and the peaceful, religious citizens of other countries.  However, it is evident that we need to work together to promote better understanding and harmony whenever we can.

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

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Photo of Statue of Liberty courtesy of www.en.wikipendia.com/commons

The Disappointing Harvard Cheating Scandal

Were ambiguous test instructions or students with low moral standards to blame for the recent cheating scandal at Harvard?  The 125 students who received letters stating that they were suspected of cheating on the final exam for their "Intro to Congress" class insist that they were doing nothing wrong.  Clearly the administration at Harvard believes that the students committed a serious offense.  According to the Boston Globe, Harvard's Administrative Board wrote these students to tell them that there were suspicious answers on their final and, if cheating is confirmed, it could possibly lead to suspensions or, if they have already graduated, have an impact on their degrees.  How could the Harvard administration and the students have such differing viewpoints regarding this cheating scandal?

Ambiguous Exam Instructions Led to Cheating Scandal

The final in question was a take-home exam.  The professor had instructions on the test that stated that the students should consider it "completely open book, open note, open Internet, etc." according to a Boston Globe article entitled "Harvard Students Bridle over Test Cheating Investigation."

However, the instructions also admonished the students not to discuss their final with anyone else, including tutors, instructors at the writing center, etc. 

Although this seems quite clear, nearly half the students in the class believed that they could still discuss the test with their fellow students, as well as share both their ideas and source material.  The students who were interviewed in the Globe article indicated that they did not see a difference between doing research on the Internet and sharing ideas with their fellow students, as long as they did not actually copy answers that had been written by someone else.  This is despite the fact that the exam instructions clearly told them not to discuss the final with others.

Lack of a Harvard Honor Code

While many other prestigious private universities, such as Virginia's Washington & Lee, have proudly maintained an Honor Code for a hundred years or longer, Harvard has never instituted one.  In fact, the suggestion that one be established at Harvard was rejected in 1985.

Without an Honor Code, many students appear to be confused about exactly what constitutes cheating.  Several students admit that collaboration on other exams in the Intro to Congress class was common.  They also felt that the "open note" rule allowed them to share their notes with others.

Preventing Future Harvard Cheating Scandals

In addition to the current plan to bring the students before the Administrative Board to assess disciplinary actions, there are certainly other steps that Harvard could take to avoid having this situation repeat itself in coming years.

The professors need to give their students very clear instructions regarding what is, and is not, allowed when completing work outside the classroom.

Major exams, such as the final, should probably be proctored and taken in a classroom.  This is the only way to truly assess what a student has actually learned and retained during the semester.

Students should be required to take a freshman class in ethics.  This would be important not only in the classroom but in the "real" business world that these students are likely to enter after graduation.  Does Harvard really want to graduate students who believe that they can use any source they want, legal or not, as long as they do not get caught?

Finally, perhaps it is time for Harvard to establish a clear Honor Code, with specific consequences when it is broken, and promote that Honor Code throughout their campus.  Such an Honor Code would encourage Harvard to graduate young men and women who are not only bright, but who are also people of integrity.

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Photo of Harvard Yard in winter courtesy of www.en.wikipedia.com/Commons

Cheating in High School

Cheating in high school has become so common that hardly a week goes by without a new report on the cheating crisis.

According to a University of Nebraska at Lincoln study, the vast majority of high school students cheat on both tests and homework assignments.  The results of their study indicate that 87 percent of high school kids admitted they had looked at someone else's answers during a test, and 74 percent admitted to sharing their answers with someone else.  An additional 70 percent admitted that they had provided test questions to other students who had not yet taken the test, 91 percent had done their homework with a partner, and 53 percent had based a report on a movie instead of reading the book.

New Types of School Cheating

However, the examples of school cheating mentioned above may be just the tip of the iceberg.  This author sometimes answers questions on a site called WebAnswers.com.  This site allows people to ask all the questions they want, any time of day, and other people will do the research and provide the questioners with answers.  Often these questions deal with subjects such as relationship advice, product recommendations or travel information.  However, frequently the questions sound like test questions or homework questions.  While this author prefers not to answer those questions, other researchers on the site do answer them.  Smart phones make it possible for students to log onto sites like WebAnswers while they are in a classroom taking a test.  Home computers make it easy for them to enter questions into the website when they are home doing their homework.  Either way, they avoid doing any research themselves.  They sit back and let someone else do the work.

Computer technology has also made it easier for students to get other types of unauthorized help with their grades.  They can find pre-written reports online, which they quickly are able to modify and reuse.  Some students are even more direct in their attempts to improve their grades.  A few years ago a student in Newport Beach, California stole the password belonging to one of his teachers.  He logged into the computer system for the school district and changed his own semester grades, as well as the semester grades for several of his friends.  The local newpaper reported that he might have gotten away with changing his own grades, but got caught because so many grades were changed at one time.

Even when grades are not involved, high school students are cheating in order to pass state standardized tests. Last spring, while some students were still taking the California state exams, photos of many pages of the test booklet were spreading around Facebook like wildfire.  Undoubtedly, a few students had taken the photos with their cell phones.  The same pattern of cheating was discovered in June, 2012 at pretigious Stuyvesant High School in New York City when seventy students were implicated in a scandal that involved using their cell phones to photograph the New York State Regents exams while they were taking them.

High School students were also involved in an SAT cheating scandal on Long Island.  Some students were hiring other students to take the SAT exams for them.  The test takers used fake ID's to sit for the exam, and earned a significant amount of money by taking the exam repeatedly.

How to Prevent School Cheating

Many teachers still use the traditional methods to stop students from cheating.  They spread children apart in the classroom and often use more than one version of the test.  These methods do stop some common ways of cheating, such as looking at someone else's answers on a test. 

However, high school students are becoming more creative, and these methods are not adequate.  Schools need to have students check their cell phones at the classroom door if they really want to prevent cheating.  Any cell phone in a classroom is an opportunity to cheat.

In addition, when students are taking exams that are proctored by people who may not know them, the students need to present photo I.D.'s, and may even need to be fingerprinted in order to take major exams such as the SAT.  This may seem excessive, but it could be the only way to prevent some types of academic dishonesty.

Teachers may also want to put more weight on work that is completed entirely in the classroom.  For example, essays, journals, quizes, papers, lab reports and math calculations performed in front of the teacher may need to carry more weight than assignments and projects that are completed outside the classroom.

Teachers also need to discuss with students exactly what it means to cheat.  Students need to understand that it is cheating if they give answers to another student; it is cheating if they share their homework with others; it is cheating if they photograph a test; it is cheating if they use a website to get an answer during a test or while they are doing homework.

Many educators refer to high school cheating as an epidemic.  Allowing students to cheat without penalty is not fair to those students who work hard and choose not to cheat.  Schools need to take a much more proactive approach to preventing cheaters from succeeding in the classroom.

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Photo of teenager courtesy of www.morguefile.com

Fact Checking Bill Clinton's Convention Speech

Last week we did a fact check on the claims made by Paul Ryan in his Republican National Convention speech and found a few factual distortions, according to YahooNews.  In fairness, this week we need to investigate the claims that were made in Bill Clinton's Convention Speech to see if there are any factual distortions in his speech, as well.  After all, we all know that Bill Clinton has told a few lies in his day.  Therefore, it is especially important that we verify the claims he made during his rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention.

According to CBS News, listed below is their evaluation of his claims.

Clinton:  Democratic administrations create more jobs than Republican administrations. 

Fact check: This statement is true, based on the data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, going back to John. F. Kennedy.  Since the early 1960's, Republican administrations added 23.9 million jobs and Democratic administrations added 42.1 million jobs.

Clinton: President Obama started out with a much weaker economy than President Clinton did.

Fact check:  This is true.  In fact, President Obama began his administration with an economy that was in danger of total collapse.

Clinton:  The Recovery Act saved and created millions of jobs.

Fact check:  According to the Council of Economic Advisers, the Recovery Act created 2.2 to 4.2 million jobs; according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it created between 200,000 and 1.3 million jobs.  Clinton may have exaggerated a bit when he claimed that it created millions of jobs, depending on whose numbers you prefer to use; however, it did create jobs.

Clinton:  The stimulus package cut taxes for 95 percent of American people

Fact check:  According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center the number was closer to 93 percent, so there was also an exaggeration of this number.  However, nearly every worker, as well as retired senior citizens, received a tax rebate or tax cut during the past four years.

Clinton:  The economy has created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 29 months,

Fact check:  According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is true that the economy created 4,517,000 private sector jobs since January, 2010, which was 29 months ago.

Clinton:  Obama's administration could have done more, if the Republicans had not blocked his job plan.

Fact check:  It is true that Republicans have blocked several administration supported stimulus plans.  However, Congress was able to reach bi-partisan support this past April on a jobs program.  Therefore, Bill Clinton was not telling the whole truth on this, since he failed to mention the recent bi-partisan support of one jobs bill.  On the other hand, he is correct in saying that more could have been done if other stimulus packages had not been blocked.

Clinton:  Under President Obama, 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created.

Fact check:  It is true that 500,000 manufacturing jobs were created since 2010.  However, manufacturing jobs dropped significantly during the first two years of his administration before they began to increase again during the past two years.  Manufacturing jobs have been steadily increasing, but have not reached the pre-recession levels.  Bill Clinton did not paint a complete picture of the current situation with manufacturing jobs.

Clinton: The auto bailout saved over a million jobs.

Fact check:   This is absolutely true.  In fact, a November 2010 study shows that 1.14 million jobs were actually saved as a direct result of the auto bailout.

Bottom line on Bill Clinton's numbers:  Overall, according to government statistics, it appears that Bill Clinton's speech was generally truthful, although there were some exaggerations as well as some information that was omitted to make his statements appear even more impressive.  However, in general the speech writers did an excellent job of fact checking, since reporters picked the speech apart and could not find any gross exaggerations.  This was a pretty truthful speech compared to some that Bill Clinton told when he was president!  However, if you are able to find statistics that support a different point of view on Clinton's speech, feel free to leave your information in the comments section.

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Photo of Bill Clinton courtesy of www.en.wikipedia.com/commons 

Post-Disaster Contractor Fraud

One of the most devastating things that can happen to a family is to be the victim of a disaster.  Whether your home has been damaged by a major hurricane, a tornado, a fire or a flood, your immediate reaction is to try to get things back to normal as quickly as possible.  Because of this impulse, many people fall victim to contractor fraud after every major disaster. Unscrupulous criminals, often called storm-chasers, turn up after natural disasters, collect upfront deposits and disappear.  After everything else that has happened to the homeowner, this final insult can be devasting.

How to Avoid Being a Victim of Construction Fraud

If you are a victim of a natural disaster, you do not have to fall victim a second time to a dishonest contractor.  Here are a few steps that insurance companies suggest you take in order to protect yourself:

Have your insurance company assess the damage.
Ask your insurance company for a list of approved contractors.
Get a list of licensed contractors from your state licensing agency at NASCLA.org.
Check out the company with the Better Business Bureau at bbb.org.
Ask to see the contractor's license, workers comp insurance policy, driver's license and, perhaps, a performance bond.
Get the estimate, completion date, and list of materials and prices in writing on the company letterhead.
Check back with your insurance company if a contractor says you have damage that the insurance adjuster did not notice.  They could be trying to exaggerate the work you need.  Even if they are not, you want to make sure the insurance company will cover the repairs.
Do not pay a deposit larger than 25 percent of the estimate, and don't pay that until the contractor has the materials and is ready to start work.
TAKE YOUR TIME before choosing a contractor.  Make sure you have taken all the steps listed above. Be suspicious if a contractor shows up at your door or if they do not have a business card, a physical address or anything else that causes you to question whether or not they have a legitimate business.  You should also be suspicious if one estimate is substantially less than the other estimates.  They may not be using quality materials.

There are many people who suffered financial and emotional damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina fraud.  Although there are many honest, helpful contractors, everyone should be aware that contractor scams still occur.  Disaster fraud is devasting, but you do not have to let it happen to you.

You may also be interested in reading:

How to Tell When Someone is Lying
The Government Will Not Pay Your Utility Bills
The Scam the Promises to Fix Your Credit

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