Little known fact about me, I am very suspicious of you and pretty much everyone I meet. I assume you are going to want something from me or try to rip me off. Not a great way to live my life but it’s an instinct that was carved out of years of working in the news business. I’ve written a lot of stories about scam artists and seen first-hand what happens when you don’t do your homework. But none of that compares to how much work and investigation Jeff Rossen has done. Jeff is NBC’s National Investigative Correspondent and has decades of experience covering these types of stories.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Rossen Reports on the Today Show where he covers everything from backpack safety, to home repair scams. Now he’s taken his years of experience and put it in a book called, Rossen to the Rescue. Jeff tells me this book provides the ultimate guide to surviving day-to-day and extreme catastrophes in a fun, practical way. In this episode we talk about how to avoid getting scammed in your household and even when natural disasters strike.

Jeff admits he’s an overly cautious guy as well and sometimes that translates into his parenting life. Carnival games, for instance, are like crack for kids (and some adults!). But as Jeff’s investigations reveal, most of them are a total scam. Knowing that, do you let your kids play?  His answer is priceless and you’ll have to listen to this episode to find out what he says.

And to get all the details to protect yourself as a consumer, you’ll have to pick up Jeff’s book, Rossen to the Rescue, due out on October 10th and available for pre-order now on Amazon.  You can find out more about Jeff’s reports and his new book on his Facebook page. Listen to this episode and share it with friends who also want to protect themselves from scammers. Have you ever been scammed? How did you handle it?