[INSERT SCAM HERE]

I listen to sports talk radio during my daily commute. I'm constantly amazed by the number of advertisements I hear for things that sound like scams. Their promises range from making you rich, eliminating your debt, or giving you "spine-tingling, toe-curling euphoria".

I know a ton of people fell for the Airborne scam a while back. Fortunately, there's a great invention that allows you to quickly determine if a particular company/service/etc. is on the up and up.

The Internet.

I could go on and on about how it's a good idea to seek other opinions via the web. It's essentially free, and you can take advantage of an incredible number of people's experiences. Let their bad decisions be your guide. Even if you get conflicting opinions, the more information you have, the better your decisions should be. You'll often see patterns develop, very quickly. If 99% of people love the product, it's probably good. But if you keep hearing numerous complaints about laptop screens flickering out, you'll know something could be afoot.

Here's a quick trick: You can quickly get an idea if a product is legitimate by a quick search. See what happens when you type "Airborne scam" into Google. What about Video Professor? See? If you type the product/company's name followed by the word "scam", and you get...oh, say...1.68 MILLION results (like you do for "extended warranty scam") you'll know to be on your guard.

The [PRODUCT] + "scam" Google search is one of my favorite research tools. If everyone did this, I'd have much better commercials to listen to in my car.