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Recessionary Marketing: Automation Makes It Click
In a recession, B2B marketers have to do more with less, keeping customers and prospects engaged and sales happy. Silverpop Engage B2B (formerly Vtrenz®) new white paper shows you how to do it all. Download your copy from Silverpop today!

Author, direct marketing guru, and always entertaining Denny Hatch focuses on a major story in the news and shows how businesses can take advantage of–or avoid the pitfalls from–the lessons to be learned in terms of marketing, sales, PR and communications.

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Aug 26, 2008 : Vol. 4, Issue No. 48

The Scams, Scandals, Hoaxes, Frauds and Pranks of August

All a bemused observer can say is, 'Whew!'

IN THE NEWS

Sour Grapes
The news that Wine Spectator magazine was scammed into giving an Award of Excellence to a non-existent restaurant has been greeted with guffaws by schadenfreude fans and with fury by the magazine's editor.
--Nick Fox, Diner's Journal, The New York Times, August 21, 2008

--NBC10.com, Philadelphia

--24 Aug. 2008
Ready-Made Rockefeller
In the understated town of Cornish, N.H., where it is considered bad form to exhibit your wealth, the man calling himself Clark Rockefeller was driven around in an armored black Cadillac with bulletproof windows. He affected silk ascots and bragged that when it came to acquiring property, he could outbid anyone. He said that Helmut Kohl and Britney Spears were coming to dinner ... But Mr. Rockefeller was not only not one of the Rockefellers. He was not any sort of Rockefeller at all. That became joltingly clear three weeks ago when, the authorities say, he kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter on a Boston street and fled with her to Baltimore. The subsequent swirl of attention began the unmasking of Clark Rockefeller, exposing a long-running charade. He is now wanted for questioning in the 23-year-old disappearance and presumed death of a couple in California.
--Pam Belluck and Sara Rimer, The New York Times

--26 Aug. 2008
Data Breaches Have Surpassed Level for All of '07, Report Finds
More data breaches have been reported so far this year than in all of 2007, according to a report released yesterday by a nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud. Identity Theft Resource Center of San Diego found that 449 U.S. businesses, government agencies and universities have reported a loss or theft of consumer data this year. Last year, the center tallied 446 breaches involving 127 million consumer records. About 90 million of those records were attributed to a single retail chain, TJX, which operates T.J. Maxx stores.
--Brian Krebs, The Washington Post

55-Word Book Review
Note: In the May 8, 2007, edition of this e-zine, "The Book Business: An Industry of Whiners," I proposed an online (for profit) book service, QuickieBookReviews.com, that features short reviews (55 words) and one to four stars--just like movie reviews. Not a lot of blather from reviewers who want to show off how much smarter they are than the author, but a quick guide for readers on what books they might like to buy.

You are invited to submit 55-word reviews of any really good book that readers would enjoy.

****"The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century." by Edward Dolnick. A page-turner centered on greed, revenge and intrigue, plus a brief history of art and a fascinating course in Forgery 101. The dumbest amateur art enthusiast could see at a glance that Van Meegeren's forgeries could not possibly be authentic Vermeers. Yet the experts and leading museums in Holland were conned. Brilliantly written and illustrated. HarperCollins 2008, 349pp., ISBN-13: 978-0060825416, $26.95, hardcover.

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