SCAMS, SHAMS AND FLIM FLAMS

 Haunted houses, lake monsters, flying saucers, deadly death rays and miracle cures have captured the imaginations of people around the world.  We've all heard about the Bermuda Triangle, the Loch Ness Monster and the Amityville Horror, yet most of us have never heard the "real" story.

There's no denying that weird things happen but sometimes it's made to happen.  Cons, humbugs, rip-offs, scams, shams and flim flams, all hoaxes by any other name, have been fooling people since time began. 

This proposed multi-part series will give inquiring minds the answers to just what they want to know.  We'll see how a manipulated photo spread Loch Ness fever; how the Allies managed to fool the Nazis during World War Two with false evidence planted on a corpse; how UFO stories took flight; track down the purported diaries of Columbus, dispel the myth of the Hope Diamond curse and show how one of the most insidious hoaxes -- the so-called Protocols of Zion -- helped to fuel the fires of Hitler's anti-semitism.

Not everyone who claims to be in touch with Venusian tourists or to have bumped into a resurrected Elvis is a hoaxer.  Some are just nuts.  But their assertions have claimed the imaginations of millions and pilfered the purses of unsuspecting believers.

SCAMS, SHAMS and FLIM FLAMS will open up the world of the hoaxer and let the public decide if the Hale Boppers, Roswell freaks, holocaust deniers, astrologers, ESP experts, miracle cure vendors and psychics are pseudo-scientists, crooks, crazy or --- what.