The Ballad of Bernie Madoff

March 1, 2009

I love that this Ballad of Bernie Madoff video uses as its template one of the TV commercials about checking your credit reports.


Speaking of credit reports, it's a great idea to check your information each year. Even if you don't fall for a scam or a Ponzi scheme like Madoff perpetrated, someone still might get their unscrupulous hands on your personal data. It happened to me and trust me, identity theft is not fun to straighten out.

However, instead of the site mentioned in the TV commercial used as the basis for the Madoff tune, I recommend you use AnnualCreditReport.com. It's the only online site authorized by the Federal Trade Commission.

As Sally Borie of Austin’s Consumer Credit Counseling Service told me in Getting All the Credit You Deserve, “Other companies advertise similar services, but they will ask for your credit card numbers and will try to sell you a credit monitoring service, which you don't really need and which is difficult to cancel."

Related posts:

Share:

The More Tax Posts tab at the top of this page will take you to, well, more tax posts. You also can search below for a tax topic. 

Latest Posts
IRS expands TAC weekday hours through April 30, and on select Saturdays through June 27

March 8, 2026

IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) don’t help with filing, but offer guidance on other federal…

Read More
Hello Tax Season 2026

Happy New Tax Year! Are you ready to file your 2025 tax return? I know, too early to ask. But Tax Day 2026 will be here before we realize it. The Internal Revenue Service deadline to file and pay any tax we owe is the regular April 15 date this year. It’s also Tax Day for most of the states that collect income taxes from their residents, which is most of the states! If that seems too far away right now, don’t worry. As is the case every tax season, the ol’ blog’s tips and other tax reminders should help all of us meet our state and federal responsibilities. Procrastinators also will want to keep an eye on the countdown clock just below. It tracks how much time we have until April’s Tax Day, just in case we put off our annual tax task until the absolutely final hours and decide we need to instead get an extension request into the IRS by that date. (Note: I’m in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.)

Comments
Leave the first comment