You have heard it said, I reckon, that you shouldn’t trust an offer that is “too good to be true.”

I’ve been getting many of them lately in North Texas. Here’s how they go:

My phone rings with the message that says “Spam Risk.” OK, it’s a risk of a spam call, not necessarily a guarantee that it is some sort of come-on. I answer and the voice on the other end offers to sell me a home security system for my house “with no installation charge or set-up fee.”

Sigh …

I hang up. You see, I treat calls like that the way I treat motel marquee signs that tell you that the Flea Bag Motel has “free HBO.” No. It doesn’t have a freebie.

Nor do these home security pitches. You see, no one goes into business thinking of ways to throw money away. Which tells me in clear and direct language that anyone who says they’ll install a home-security system with no installation fee is going to make up the price elsewhere in the transaction. In the monthly fee, yes? Or perhaps in some sort of surcharge.

So, there will be no installation charge. Right. It’ll come to you in a different form, which gives the solicitor a justification for spinning a tale that borders on a falsehood.

Now that I have posted this item on High Plains Blogger, I am going to stop answering all calls that warn me of a “Spam risk.”