The Great Pretenders

The Infinite Echo
B. Thomas Cooper
Editor

The Great Pretenders

Some people never learn. Some never even try.
There’s always someone who can’t resist temptation. You know the guy. He’s the one who hangs around backstage, acting like a big shot, when in fact, he doesn’t know jack shit. In the music biz, these guys are a dime a dozen. Just another pretender, looking to steal his share of the pie.

The internet has opened the door for a whole new breed of scam artists, determined to make a quick buck off some poor sucker. Back in the day, they hawked their wares, knock-off watches and bootleg Lp’s from the trunk of their car, in some dimly lit jack alley somewhere. Perhaps they scalped concert tickets, or God only knows. Well, times they are a changing’ and a good con artist goes where the money is. For a short while, it seemed the quick cash was in internet domain squatting (read story here). These days the trend seems to be returning to that old standby… piracy.

It can be enough to drive an honest man right off the track. Who really wants to go round and round with these guys anyway? I suppose it goes with the territory. Still, these guys aren't that hard to spot. The stench can usually be traced back to the source.

Con artists are certainly nothing new. Remember that story about the boy who traded a cow for magic beans? Jack and the Bean-stock, I believe it was called. Of course, the boy in the story wasn’t exactly conned, so to speak. He got what he bargained for, a hand full of beans. I suppose little Jack could have cut his losses and asked for his cow back, but then, it just wouldn’t be an interesting story, would it.

Brad

The Infinite Echo
http://theinfiniteecho.blogspot.com/