Cheating checks, the rampaging rails and sweets abound The EPA just declared my desk a Superfund site, so it's time to clean house. Scam alert: Big praise for Jack Eastman, of Marriott-Slaterville, who wisely managed to avoid getting ripped off in a check-solicitation scam. Jack is not the sort of guy to fall for a sucker deal, but this one looked so good that he wondered. Fortunately, he wondered long enough to see through it. He got a letter saying he'd won a contest because he uses a Visa credit card. That's not unreasonable. Credit card companies do promotions that you "automatically" enter if you use your card. However, with the letter was a check for $3,715. Eastman thought that odd, because he'd "won" $125,000. The letter said the check was to cover administrative costs and taxes on his winnings. He was to deposit the check and then wire most of it back to pay those costs. Charles Trentelman Wasatch Rambler "It says you have a deadline to respond back," he said. "They wanted a wire transfer." That's the key, of course. A check is just an order to pay and takes days to clear. A wire transfer is real money now, and they wanted his now. He took the check, which was drawn on a real Canadian bank, to his bank. Officials told him it looked good and he deposited it. But then he stopped. "I started thinking, why not send me the whole thing?" meaning, all his winnings, not just a check to cover fees. Indeed, why not? Because he hadn't won anything. The check was a scam. A lot of people don't realize that when you cash a check, you personally promise your bank that the check is good. The bank may hand you money now, but if the check bounces a week later, you have to pay the bank back. You can try to recover the money from whoever issued the check, but that's not the bank's problem, it's yours, and this check came from Canada. If Eastman had done what the scammers asked and wired the money, he'd have been out more than $3,000. "I didn't call them back, so they never asked for the money," he said. And that check? "It bounced." UTA should hire these guys: John Ott, at the Golden Spike National Historic Site, saw my column about FrontRunner taking two years to get to Ogden. He's wondering the same thing. I told UTA that in 1869 the Central Pacific Railroad laid 10 miles of rail near Promontory in one day. Ott said many people don't know that all that rail, every inch, was laid by eight men: Michael Shay, Michael Kennedy, Michael Sullivan, Patrick Joyce, Thomas Daily, George Wyatt, Edward Kieleen and Fred McNamara. In one day they lifted, carried and placed two million pounds of steel rail, or a quarter million pounds each. "I also don't see anyone other than an athlete willing to work that hard these days," Ott noted. Sweet stuff: Several people have asked how the French creams I wrote about taste. They are a Christmas candy that disappeared from commercial stores decades ago, but I found a woman in Oklahoma who makes them. I, and several others who ordered some, are happy to report that they are simply amazing. Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can reach him at 625-4232, or e-mail at ctrentelman@standard.net.