Yes, yes… the title gives away the author.
Scam Me if You Can was written by Frank Abagnale, the same guy that the movie Catch Me if You Can details.
Everyone feels differently about the real-life person that is Leonardo DiCaprio, but I think we can all admit that he’s an incredible actor.
The story of Frank Abagnale, even if it was embellished by like, I don’t know, 100%, is still a WILD story and I would never have the guts to come anywhere near the kinds of shenanigans he pulled off.
And then he switches sides and starts helping law enforcement!
One of my top 3 favorite TV shows of all time is called White Collar, and this show was developed with Frank Abagnale in mind – I think he was a consultant on it originally? Maybe I’m making that up. Hold on. I’ll Google it.
Okay, so he didn’t consult on it. Apparently the series was inspired by him and he was supposed to make a cameo in the final episode, but had a scheduling conflict. They say (not sure who “they” are) that he was a fan of the show.
Anyway, I love Neil Caffrey, the main character in this show, and that character was modeled after Frank.
It feels like this month’s book recommendation is turning into more of a TV and movie recommendation…
NO. I need to stay strong.
We don’t need to watch more TV people.
That whole “turned-my-life-around-to-help-people” is what this month’s book recommendation is about.
Frank (for some reason I feel like he and I are on a first name basis already) wrote this book to help you and I avoid common scams.
It was written in 2019, which is pre-covid, making it seem like forever ago, but it really isn’t THAT long ago. Since 2019, some other scams have popped up, but I think Frank’s advice is still sound today.
My real job is in the Medicare space, so of course I recommended this book to my Medicare friends because he spends a good amount of time describing Medicare scams and ways thieves target the Medicare population.
So, learn about how to prevent that, as well as other common scams happening every single day.
And if you’re thinking, “Oh, I’m too smart to get scammed…”
I don’t want to burst your bubble, but Frank says THAT is the ideal target. So, in a way… ONLY smart people will read this book… how’s that for persuasion? Check it out 😊
Words of Wisdom – The Autronic Eye
I posted this on Facebook, so if we are connected there, I’m sorry you have to read this twice.
In 1952, GM introduced the Autronic Eye.
It was a sensor that would detect lights from oncoming traffic and automatically dim your car’s high beams, aka, brights.
Since then, and for decades now, cars have had some form of automatic headlights. All you need to do is set your little dial to AUTO, and then your headlights will turn on if it’s dark outside your car, and turn off if it’s light.
It’s a subtle thing that (almost) all of us appreciate without thinking about.
I say ALMOST all of us, because there is one person in my life who has the AUTO feature in her car and chooses… yes, consciously chooses, not to use it.
Instead, this person wants to manually turn lights on and off, leaving the risk of forgetting to either turn them on at night, or forgetting to turn them off and killing the battery.
I don’t want to name names, but this person:
1. Is not me.
2. Lives in the same house as me.
3. Is 1 of 2 people in our house legally allowed to operate a car.
So, every time I get to drive said person’s luxury minivan (learn more about that awesome experience in this post), and heaven forbid it is dark, I get flashed – AND NOT THE GOOD KIND OF FLASHED – to remind me to turn on the headlights that I THOUGHT were already on because every car I’ve had since high school just does it automatically.
So, being the loving co-pilot I am, I switch that little knob over to AUTO when I drive.
You know, to make the person-I-love-more-than-anyone-else-in-this-world’s life easier.
I’m trying to remove one more potential stressor in her already chaos-filled life as she lives with me and 3 perfect (crazy) kids.
Am I expecting:
“Hey Erik, thank you for pointing out this super cool, futuristic feature that comes standard with my van. I really appreciate you looking out for me.”
Or maybe:
“Hey, Erik, you do such a good job of making sure I’m safe while at the same time making life worth living. And by the way, you sure look good doing it 😉.”
Yeah. I am. Is that too much to ask?
But no.
IMMEDIATELY after I’m done driving, that knob gets moved back to Off for some reason.
When I ask, “Yo, WTF?!”
The response:
“What if I don’t want to drive around with the lights on when it’s dark.”
Now, my dear readers, the series of questions that I HAVE to assume immediately came to your mind after reading her reasoning must be the exact same questions I posed to her after hearing this answer.
Because that specific answer can ONLY come from one type of person:
A Criminal.
“Are you a criminal?”
“Am I married to a murderer?”
“Why would someone want to drive around IN THE DARK with their lights off?”
“Are you trying to skirt the police?”
“Am I harboring a fugitive?”
“Should I be worried?”
So yeah, I’m putting this out there to all of you, just in case I disappear someday.
People can say, “Yeah, you know… the signs were there all along. Did you know she drove around at night with her lights off?! Clear murderer tendencies.”
I was SUPER subtle in my clues, so it may prove impossible to guess who this mystery person is, but hopefully someone is smart enough to deduce.
Yes, she has read this and gave me permission to share it.
And if you’ve made it this far, the other question you probably have right now is, “Erik, how in the world would THIS rambling you’ve just put us through possibly be considered Words of Wisdom?”
I thought you’d never ask.
After posting this story on Facebook, as you can imagine with my massive following of about a dozen people, the comments started rolling in…
DEFENDING HER!
Granted, most of the comments were from her siblings, her mother, MY mother, and others saying they do the SAME THING!
Now, I don’t know that I can write a scientific paper detailing the results of these comments, nor do I want to jump to improper conclusions… but here we go.
100% of the comments from people saying they also ignore the cool AUTO feature were women.
100% of the comments supporting my side of the story were men, saying their spouse does THE SAME THING!
So, the wisdom here is that there are certain behaviors that I will never understand, nor claim to understand. But just because I don’t understand them, doesn’t mean the people making those decisions don’t have reasons for making those decisions.
I’m not saying they have good reasons.
I’m just saying they have reasons.
And these kinds of things keep us on our toes. And they teach me how to worry less about the small crazies that the people I love carry with them, because we all know that I carry a plethora of small and not-so-small crazies myself.
Alright, I’ll stop there.
I feel like everyone reading is lost and confused, and frankly, so am I.
I hope you have a wonderful August.
Thank you for being a part of my life, our life, and the community of planet earth.
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Erik Soderborg 