Regional scam artists have put a new twist on the old Nigerian check deposit swindle. At least one county in Wisconsin has come up against a check deposit fraud which is aimed at unsuspecting resort owners there. A blurb from WJFW television in Northern Wisconsin indicates that the Sheriff of Oneida Country is telling resort owners there to be wary about taking reservation payments made by check.

The scam begins when an apparent customer reserves several rooms at a regional resort. The scam artist then pays for those reservations with a bogus check. Next, after allowing enough time for the resort owner to deposit the fake check, but not enough time for the bank to clear it, the scammer then calls to cancel the reservations and requests a refund.

The story doesn't indicate if anyone has actually suffered a monetary loss due to this scam. However, let us use this incident to remind us of a couple basic financial lessons: First, we should never take a check from anyone without current and complete identification. Second, we should never forward funds based on a check which has been deposited but which has not yet been fully cleared by the bank.

Up to a quarter million dollars per appearance might be sunk into luxury travel, limos, professional hair and makeup, elaborate clothes, and an entourage whose purpose was to, say, pick all the blue M&Ms out of the bowls in said star's dressing room. The value of an on-camera performance, the labels reasoned, was still cheaper than taking out an ad.

A check for $250,000 feeds a lot of hangers-on and hairstylists, but the music companies are following the general American corporate flow and slashing expenses. Entertainment Weekly reports that Universal, which backs acts like Bon Jovi, Ne-Yo, and The Pussycat Dolls, has capped the bill for each appearance at $50,000. For just fifty grand, artists now have to figure out how to look like a million bucks. That's not much when you're Lil Wayne and your big single is called "Got Money."

MSNBC decided over the weekend to pull Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from live coverage of political events. For months NBC has been fretting over whether the two liberal-leaning anchors have broken the old TV news formula and rules. Yes, of course, they've broken the rules and that's why people like them.

Olbermann and his brash style of news analysis is why MSNBC is the top cable news network among 18-34-year olds. Matthews and his unrelenting questioning of Democrats and Republicans alike is why MSNBC drew 37,000 more young viewers than it did last year, while flavorless NBC News only grew that part of the audience by 2,000. Olbermann and Matthews are the reason why MSNBC is always on at the gym or anyplace else younger viewers pick the news channel.

The standard TV rules seem to require news readers to present issues in a flaccid, straight faced he-said, she-said style. The old standard is to defer to elected officials and whatever they say. If facts are challenged, it's from someone who's put up by the other side to argue or in a segregated "fact-check" segment. The emotional range of a TV news anchor is supposed to go from earnestness to consternation and, on rare occasions, to earnest consternation. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report would not have an audience if network news didn't provide such a mockable target.

Traditional TV news is cowed by authority figures. Network news dutifully reports anything a celebrity, politician or corporation says if they say it with authority. TV network news has no way to respond to the Orwellian naming conventions of the Bush Administration ("Healthy Forest Initiative", "Clear Skies Act," etc.) Network TV news is flummoxed when politicians just repeat political talking points. They interview elected officials and let them get away with dodging questions by repeating slogans. Look at this clip of Chris Matthews nailing an Obama supporter for not knowing his legislative accomplishments. This is how every journalist should do the job.

One of my favorite real estate shows from a few years back was Bravo's Million Dollar Listing, which followed around top producing high end real estate agents in Malibu and Hollywood.

This season, the balance of newbies and seasoned veterans has been replaced with a cast of under-30 hotshots driving sports cars and selling homes to celebrities. The idea is probably to bring the show to a hipper audience, and, from the preview shown below, it seems to work. Madison Hildebrand is back from season 1 -- and this time he's openly "polyamorous", dating men and women. He's joined by Josh Flagg, who's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and the first person to import polyester to the United States. Josh is a 25 and never went to college but has become one of the top agents in the area.

Then there's Chad Rogers -- I've spent the past hour trying to think of how to describe him, but I can't think of any words that are appropriate for a family site like WalletPop. So you'll have to watch the half-hour preview episode below and decide for yourself.

TV Squad reports that Million Dollar Listing will premiere on Tuesday August 5th at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo, immediately following the season finale of Flipping Out. The series will then move to its regular time, Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Okay, let's start with the fact that Hulu is the devil's playground...

A few months before our daughter was born, my wife and I turned off our cable. We like to talk and do fun activities together, so we weren't happy about the fact that so much of our time was spent staring blankly at a television screen. It was hard to say goodbye to the mindless entertainment of the tube, but I had a friend who regularly recorded episodes of My Name Is Earl, The Office, and Gilmore Girls, which meant that we wouldn't have to go completely cold-turkey. Over a couple of months, between my VCR-wielding buddy and my Netflix account, my wife and I slowly rid ourselves of the TV monkey on our backs. It was like a methadone clinic for sitcom addicts.

A couple of years later, we found ourselves talking more, vegging less, and generally pretty happy with our lives. We used Netflix to keep abreast of the coolest shows, watched movies one or two nights a week, and generally reveled in our freedom from the tube. Then Hulu came along.

First a quick confession: I'm a big fan of home shows on TLC and HGTV, and even Barvo and A&E. I like the decorating shows too (especially Color Splash!) but my favorites are the shows that have a real estate market angles: House Hunters, Designed to Sell, Property Virgins, Flip This House, My House is Worth What? etc.

So I was interested to see this article in the USA Today showing that, deflating housing bubble be darned, it's still a bull market for real estate television.

What's behind the trend? I think that the housing market's troubles have made these shows more compelling. A couple years ago, speculators were making money flipping a house just by holding it for a few months in an up-market. Now that things aren't so rosy, perfection is more important. A tougher market makes for more compelling entertainment.

I was also excited to learn that Million Dollar Listing will be coming back to Bravo this summer. If you missed the first season, it might be worth downloading it on Amazon Unbox.

One of the many enemies compulsive shoppers looking to cut back on their spending have to deal with is home shopping television. Networks like QVC and HSN make unnecessary gadgets and overpriced costume jewelry available 24/7 -- with convincing sales pitches.

But with 24/7 live-television shopping, sometimes things can go a little off-kilter. Here, courtesy of YouTube, are some of my favorite home shopping television bloopers:

Picture of a horse? Ummm ... Sir, that's a butterfly. No wait, it's a moth!

I swear, this ladder is really sturdy!

More ladder difficulties...

These knives never break! Owwww!

This guy's proud of what he uses his Dell for, and he ain't ashamed to call in and tell America.

Let me know if I missed any good ones.

I'm in big trouble.

One of my closest friends from college emailed me a link to Hulu.com, and now I'm considering breaking off our 20-year friendship. After all, he knows that I'm a recovering TV-holic. What is he trying to do to me? Wreck my career? After all, like many people, most of my work is done at my computer, and Hulu is an online web site that provides TV shows and movies for free -- good TV shows and movies. This is bad.

I mean, it's good, but that's why it's bad.

There are limited commercials, and I can't tell you what that means because had I watched an entire episode of Fantasy Island, the first show I clicked on, or an entire movie of Ice Age, I would not be writing this right now. In any case, the TV shows and movies that Hulu has to offer is impressive. They have something for everyone (I swear, Hulu is not paying me to write this... I'll bet they paid my friend to send me their link, though, knowing I'd be weak and gush about the web site).

Important issues might be in shambles, but it's good to see that our public servants in Washington are focusing on what's important: the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that the buttocks are indeed a sexual organ.

The FCC has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC network television stations related to the exposing of a woman's buttocks on a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue.

The Associated Press reports that "The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted "multiple, close-up views" of the woman's "nude buttocks" according to an agency order issued late Friday."

The FCC's definition of indecent content allows for fines related to shows that "depict or describe sexual or excretory activities" in a "patently offensive way".

The Commission rejected ABC's argument that "the buttocks are not a sexual organ" -- I'm not even going to touch that one on WalletPop, which strives to be a family friendly website.

No word yet on whether the FCC will also seek to levy fines on NBC for Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice; I would argue that the entire show qualifies as an excretory activity.

I hate television commercials. I suspect I'm not alone. I hate the cute little tag lines, the theme songs, and the skits that are supposed to be clever and memorable. Let's be honest... you hear a song on the radio, you know it's been part of a commercial... but can you remember what the product was? Do these cute slogans and tag lines really make an impact on you? I'll just say that with the exception of some very unusual products or certain household brands, I almost never remember anything about commercials.

So the creative folks spend all sorts of times coming up with these "clever" commercials, and who really remembers them or is influenced by them? Other than introducing me to a product I didn't know about, commercials almost never influence my buying decisions. So what's the point of spending all that money?

I hate to pick on the advertisers. I know that they foot the bill for the television shows that I love so much. But I just find that I don't think many of the commercials are clever, memorable or effective. Am I alone on this one?

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Oprah Winfrey, easily the most successful self-made business woman in the United States, has added one more piece to her empire with "OWN," the Oprah Winfrey Network. She's doing the cable network with Discovery Communications, and it's expected to launch in the second half of 2009. Discovery Health Channel will be converted into this new channel.

They say Oprah will be the part of the creative process for the channel, helping to develop topics and shows that are popular with the viewers of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." She's already got her talk show, "O" the Oprah magazine, and "Oprah and Friends," a station on XM Satellite Radio.

This cable television station will compete with Oxygen, a cable network that currently focuses on programming for women. Oprah was an early investor in that channel, but eventually reduced her involvement when she said that the channel didn't reflect her voice. The other major competitor in the arena of women's stations is Lifetime Television.

Oprah emphasized that OWN will not be just for women, but will try to reach a broader audience that includes entire families. I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out and how much this channel reflects what Oxygen used to be. There are a zillion channels available to viewers these days, so it's difficult to launch and sustain a new channel. Discovery says they're looking to bring stronger brand recognition to some of their channels, and certainly, aligning with Oprah is probably an excellent way to do that for at least one of their channels.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

We lost a few notable television programs over the last year and I know that means we lost some good entertainment. The ending of HBO's The Sopranos came as a great disappointment to a large fan base which probably approached cult status. HBO gave fair warning of the show ending, making the fact known some twelve episodes before the final conclusion. That didn't soothe the blow however. Dedicated fans still hang on to the belief that Tony Soprano shall someday return. From what I've been told, the series sounded robust, interesting and colorful although I never actually saw one episode myself. That probably means I'll own the complete series on DVD some day.

7th Heaven went to the scrap heap this year after a good solid 10- or 11-year life cycle. There was hope that the show might garner an eleventh good season, but I think everyone knew that race had been run. I seriously enjoyed 7th Heaven, having watched a fair cross-section of complete episodes over the entire run of the show. Recently it's been reported that 7th Heaven was one of a group of programs that Hallmark has purchased the rights to. I'm sure that as a perennial favorite, 7th Heaven shall perform well in reruns as long as we need to get our fix of Lucy Camden.

In May of this year, King of Queens gracefully bit the dust. It's about time if you ask me. Good acting floated the show, which was otherwise mediocre. I thought that the players could have made better use of their time. Even good fans of the show realized that after the first 100 episodes they had all become the same. The show had a good run and exited in a timely manner, as should be the case with all those shows themed, "loser dude gets the chick."

One of the unexpected cancellations of the year was The OC. It's another program I didn't watch myself but I know it was a well-liked and well-produced program. Jonathan Toomey at TV Squad called the show "well-crafted and culturally meaningful." Fans across the internet have praised the show for being engaging and well-rounded.

It would seem that at least one of the stars of The OC has strong aspirations for career advancement, as evidenced by the appearance of The OC's Mischa Barton on the cover of the January '08 issue of Maxim. This is just one more example of the truth about there being life after television. It is rumored that The OC's sexiest star is aiming for the big screen.

For more information about television program cancellations, be sure to see our friends at TV Squad.

This post was written as part of a series on on 2007 departures. Read about more products, companies and people you won't see in 2008.