Active Rain members, I was mulling over a great blog written by Barbara Duncan. She was describing a  scam, that is used to take advantage of consumers with poor credit.

She wrote of one person who lost a property as a result of foreclosure. It was interesting information describing how some credit repair companies use legal loopholes -- for a fleeting moment in time -- to make someone's credit look clean, or should we say "incomplete" but not so bad. Then, poof that moment is gone and only ashes are left. I always wondered what those people were selling on the radio and TV ads.

Having had a background as a magician, I find scams interesting. Not necessarily the big ones like the Nigerian letter scam, I like the smaller visual ones -- three shell game, 3 card monte, even pickpockets and their methods. I have given lectures, mainly entertaining, on these methods, even though I have never been involved in bilking folks out of their money.

Street scams can be pretty fun to watch. I did not say to play, I said to watch. You play them you loose, guaranteed. You might even get beat up if you create a fuss. My wife and I spend a fair bit of time in Italy and all those games operate over there on a daily basis in tourist places -- Rome, Venice, Florence.

One of the last times we were there we were in Sicily and they had a great visual scam involving Mickey Mouse. Now when I call it a Mickey Mouse Scam, I really mean what I say. This scam involves Mickey Mouse vs it being a scam devised by my compatriot Charles Buell -- which would also be pretty Mickey Mouse I suspect. So you get the drift, and understand Charlie's thinking, the last time he had a big get rich quick scheme we went into freefall. Get this, he actually came up with the concept that the two of us should become highly influential and affluent home inspectors in Washington State (recent on-the-job photo below)

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Enough about Charlie and me, back to Mickey Mouse. In Italy, street vendors have these cutouts of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Right there, middle of the street, these things dance like crazy, with no visible means of support. I am a magician, and they looked great. I actually wondered how they worked -- knowing they were too good to be true. Tourist after tourist pays $5 Euro per mouse and, when they get home to give them to the grandkids, the mice do nothing, zero, nada, zip. They are just stupid cutouts, you could hang them on the window I suppose, at least until the cheap cardboard faded away.

Here is the scam: Out on the street, a thread goes from a stationary object (usually the boom box that blasts out the music) over to either the vendor selling them, his buddy, or some small mechanism that tweaks the thin thread that makes the mouse dance. It is well done, you cannot see the thread or anyone working it. Some aspring tourist, in some foreign country, risking his or her life, posted a you tube video of the dancing mouse. Check it out--  Mickey mouse dancing video. In the video, the puppet thread would be hooked to the radio and there would be some sort of moving mechanism with an arm that goes around in the black backpack or suitcase, other side.

Bottom line, if you see a dancing mouse, don't get out your wallet. Because some truths in life remain -- Pigs Don't Fly, Mickey Can't Dance and Charlie Don't Surf!

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections