The Check's in the Mail

I don't know if it's a trend, but it's an annoying one.

I'm opening my mail the other day and I get a check.

It's from a company that says if I sign the check, I agree to credit line insurance coverage on my account.

Then another day, yet another check, again un-solicited. This from a lending company that suggests if I just sign on the line I've got an instant home equity line... opened up, right then, right there.

Hold on there. I never asked for either check, but what if I really wasn't reading closely? What if I cashed both checks? Truth be told, isn't that what the guys who write these checks want? Sign them, cash them, live with them.

I asked a marketing friend of mine about this and he explained it all.

"The idea," my pal says, "is to make you go for the impulse, to take the money and run."

What's sad is, oftentimes, it's really not much money at all. In the case of the bank offering the credit line insurance, a measly 15 bucks. I wonder what some poor, unsuspecting, generally good-hearted person would think getting a check like that?

There are many decent, hard-working Americans who would welcome such a check, not knowing that they've been sucked into a scheme for which they'll pay a lot more than whatever's written on the front of that check.

It's called truth in advertising. And a lot of these banks and credit guys wouldn't know it if it hit them with a two-by-four.

Hear me clearly: I don't want your check. I didn't ask for your check. So quit sending checks.

If you want someone to glom onto your latest moneymaking scheme, just say, "I want you to glom onto my latest moneymaking scheme."

All the fancy, schmancy checks in the world can't hide a basic fact: You couldn't sell this turkey on your own, so you suck some turkeys in with a check.

I say, before you cut the check, cut the crap. And, while you're searching for your bottom line, please search for something else it's going to take a long time for you to find... a heart.

Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World with Cavuto.