In Cincinnati, and elsewhere, another identity-theft scam is making the works. Only this time the bogus offer is not to help a Nigerian diplomat, it’s to get money from a phony program supposedly put in place by President Obama.
The emails offer people the opportunity to participate in a program where the federal government will supposedly pay your summer electric bills. All you need to do is provide your Social Security number and bank routing number, and your bill supposedly will be paid. Of course, there is no such federal program, and once you provide your Social Security number and bank account information the scammers will empty your account and take you for all you’re worth.
What’s sad about this isn’t that crooks are preying on innocent saps — that’s been happening since the dawn of mankind — but that people are being duped by the ploy because it has the air of plausibility. With all of the stimulus programs and bailouts over the last four years, wide swathes of people evidently find it entirely believable that the federal government will pay your utility bills, just like it bailed out banks and GM and made stupid loans to companies like Solyndra.
Don’t you find it troubling that rational people could believe that such a program might actually exist? We’re rapidly becoming a nation of greedy suckers.
For me, at least, so it is with 
