It seems endless and it is, the ongoing attempts by unscrupulous fraud artists to enrich themselves at the expense of bilking others of their disposable cash. Offers that should appear as suspect target those incapable of fully thinking things through. In direct confrontations like a telephone call or someone knocking at your door to envelop you in a spiel you may feel seems legitimate most people respond with trust.

Whatever the individual at your door, at the other end of a telephone conversation states must be true, because most of us instinctively and prefer to trust others. At the very least not to risk giving offence by evincing distrust and listening courteously, becoming entrapped.

Because we are not ourselves involved in get-rich, illicit schemes that depend on gulling other people and depriving them of whatever can be squeezed out of them, it simply doesn't occur to us that there are malevolent sociopaths that have no regard for the well-being of others. The misfortune they bring upon others impacting positively on themselves seems to dull whatever human compassion they may be endowed with.

But for the relative few that do long-lasting harm to others to benefit themselves there are hordes of others who believe the manner in which they pursue their living, albeit on the shady side, hurts no one. While in fact, it does in most instances; either persuading people to sign onto utilities service and delivery contracts that are of no benefit to them and in fact decrease benefits while increasing payments, or persuading people to give generously to charities whose major beneficiaries may turn out to be the very people who have made a personal enterprise of charity.

Almost on a daily basis we are contacted by people geographically close who set out to represent themselves as responsible to reliable, official enterprises which provincial laws permit to operate under certain guidelines but which are committed to bilking people, or by telephone to foreign-sourced agents purporting to represent an internationally-recognized corporation like Microsoft, offering to "fix" problems traced to your personal computer - for a substantial sum. By giving permission to invade one's computer they retrieve all manner of private, personal data, including banking and finance.

And then there are those enterprises who set up shop as franchised store-front retail operations, perfectly legal, selling second-hand goods as virtuous second-time-around acquisitions. They advertise their support of medical charities like the Canadian Diabetes Association, a small portion of their proceeds handed over to the CDA, while they retain the lion's share of profit gained from goods they have paid nothing for. People are manipulated to feel they have 'given' to charity, whereas if they had such an intention, giving their unwanted belongings directly to the Salvation Army Thrift Shops, helping that enterprise fund its social-charity agenda is a more direct and honourable way to do so.

Other ploys are telephone calls from those purporting to represent, for example, the Cystic Fibrosis group, or any others, asking whether the homeowner wishes to donate unwanted goods for pick-up at a certain date; again, benefiting the sellers of freely obtained items, who as a business ploy and an irresistible come-on to the gullible, hand over a small amount of their profit to the charity in question.

Official-appearing letters received in the mail, or falling into one's email account from sources in Nigeria, as another example, personalized with the receiver's own name, clarify that a death of a distant relative has left them with a substantial inheritance, but swift action must be undertaken to legally claim what is rightfully theirs, and sending cash to those willing to represent them in court will result in receipt of that substantial inheritance.

In swift succession sometimes telephone calls come in with what appears to the experienced to represent trite messages meant to disarm the inexperienced, with generous offers of assistance you never asked for. Those irritating dinner-time calls from India, compete for nuisance factor generation with the incessant knocks at one's door from those selling garden-maintenance contracts to collections for suspect charitable enterprises.

Never, ever a dull moment.