Well, actually, I'm not out of the country, I have not been robbed and I am still in possession of my passport. No hotel manager is breathing down my neck to pay my bill or else.

Most readers smiled when they read this because they have received bogus emails supposedly from their friends outlining the "robbed, stranded, broke, plane about to leave, please wire money" scenerio and they recognize the story as bogus. But people still fall for this scam, often relatives or friends who are not sophisticated Internet users. Many Oklahoma lawyers have received these type of emails recently and it seems like a good time to mention this scam. I received one today that was pretty good. It was from a law firm email address where the spouses were lawyer partners and it had both of their names in the subject line. The email address is their real email address, a now-hacked AOL address. I'm certain most lawyers would not fall for this. But I talked to the lawyer and some of their former clients have contacted them with concern already. So, if you are looking for content for a client newsletter or for your website, this warning might be good to share with your clients.

Two final points: 1) if I am ever stranded out fo the country and need help, I promise to voice call you the old fashioned way and 2) if you do want to send me money, feel free. I promise to put it to a better use than the scammers would have, in my opinion anwyay.