Todd M. Siebert: These 9 steps let you avoid scams and really prepare for disaster

If you have had an interest in preparedness and survival for any length of time, you have probably seen several ads online that declare things like, “37 Things to Hoard Before it is Too Late” or “Buy This Before it is Removed From the Internet.”

One of my all-time favorites is “This Book Will Teach You How to Survive Anything!” I suppose that would fit closely with “Hushed-Up Conspiracy May Wipe Out 281 Americans In The Next 6 Months.” Of course, that last one has been out for the past 12 months or more, so I am not really sure about how accurate it is.

I’m surprised that no one has made an ad that makes a claim along the lines of “This Prepping Item is Illegal in All 57 States!” in honor of El Presidente himself.

Obviously, these things are absurd — especially a president who actually thinks that there are 57 states in America. Too bad that actually happened. I am referring, of course, to the fateful stop that the campaigning Barack Obama made in Beaverton, Oregon, in May 2008 where he made the following gaffe:

“[I]t is just wonderful to be back in Oregon, and over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in fifty …. seven states? I think one left to go. One left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not justify it.”

If you don’t remember or just want to see it again, watch it for yourself.

First off, hoarding 37 different things will not get you through anything. Even if the 37 things were directly related to survival, you would end up needing more than that over any significant length of time. However, I am sure you can find that out for yourself. You will probably just need to send $40 to some P.O. Box in an obscure location to do so. It is OK, though, because if you read the fine print, you will probably see something along the lines of the promise of a full money-back guarantee as long as you request it before you receive the product and someone actually answers the disconnected phone number they give you.

How about buying something before it is removed from the Internet? If nothing else has proven it, watch some of those tabloid TV programs and you will learn that nothing ever completely disappears from the Internet. I’m going to go ahead and blow some minds here: There is not any single book, podcast, CD, magazine, DVD, radio program or even website that can teach you how to survive anything and everything.

In full disclosure, I somewhat think that a little bit of crazy is OK; it just depends on what you do with it. If preppers were “normal,” we could just fall in line with the sheeple at the FEMA camps, waiting to get our abundant supplies that the government has certainly set aside with our individual names on them.

There is one thing that is absolute: There is nothing magic that will reveal the specific number of items to hoard for preparedness, certainly not a special book that will disappear from the Internet, definitely no magic book that will tell you everything to do to survive everything and the conspiracy ad is obviously crap.

What these various ads do have in common is that they all use fear mongering as a way to drive hard-working, rightfully concerned people to spend their money on a specific product that ends with the company making a handsome profit on each sale and the buyer not really any better prepared. In most cases, these products are digital in nature and cost the seller almost nothing to sell, which makes them a good chunk of money from each sale.

What makes fear mongering popular and why should you avoid it?

The introduction of the Internet and its growing popularity over the past 20 years have made it even easier for people to be taken advantage of, especially those who feel vulnerable and plan on doing something about it themselves. While the preparedness and survival niche is not the unique demographic that has to deal with this problem exclusively, I know that the concern about life and death and concerns regarding either prosperity or poverty go a long way in making preppers an easy target.

Most of us who are concerned with preparedness fall victim to fear mongering at least once in our lives. Not only has the Internet made it easier for preppers to be targeted, fear mongers have used many events along the way to try to profit. The events that come to mind first include Y2K and the Mayan predictions of the end of the world in 2012.

What can be done to avoid the scams of the fear mongers?

The single greatest thing that anyone can do to avoid falling victim to the snake oil salesman is to look at everything objectively and take the time to really find out what someone is trying to sell you.
Do some research and see what others are saying about the product.
Find out if there are other similar products. Compare the costs and what people are saying about it.
Is there a better option available that you can do yourself or that is better, stronger or faster?
If at this point you determine that there is a product that is a good choice, make your purchase.

And there is more good news! A number of common-sense steps are available to ensure your basic preparedness at a reasonable cost:

Evaluate the threats that you are most likely to face and prioritize them from most likely to least likely.
Identify the most likely threat and take the steps necessary to be prepared to overcome that threat.
Once the most likely threat is prepared for, move to the second most likely threat and prepare for it. Continue this process until you have the knowledge and resources in place to survive most of the likely threats you face.

Many of the resources you procure and the knowledge that you commit to memory for your most likely threat will also be beneficial for subsequent threats.

When securing resources and knowledge for preparedness, ensure that you take a good look at:

Food: Start with canned goods and move on from there.
Water: Ideally, two gallons per person every day for drinking, cooking, sanitation and hygiene. Don’t forget a water filter!
Shelter
Medical: Account for routine illness as well as traumatic injuries. Don’t forget to address dental emergencies as well. It does not hurt to have knowledge about alternative treatments either.
Security: It doesn’t make sense to take the steps toward preparedness without ensuring that you can protect it.
Gardening: Have a way to provide yourself with food. Practice now instead of trying to figure it out after the balloon has already gone up.
Community-building: The lone wolf will not survive for long. Build a community of like-minded people to share skills and work together.
Bugging in or bugging out: That is the question.
Energy: How will you power your life and the necessities you depend on?
Communications
Survival kits: Car, work, bug-out bags, etc.
Travel: How will you get from point A to point B in various scenarios?
Hygiene and sanitation
Faith/spiritual preparedness
Skills: Fire-making, improvised survival techniques, knots, etc.
Tools and hardware
Financial: What will you use for financial transactions in the event of a disaster? Precious metals, cash, barter items, etc.
Homesteading
Bushcraft/urban survival
Fishing and hunting
Threat assessment
Reference materials

I am sure there are plenty of others that I missed, but that was the list I came up with off the top of my head.

The key lesson that you should take away from this article is that there are people out there who really don’t care about whether you are prepared or not; they just want your money. If you take a calculated approach to your preparedness and take action based solely on what you will most likely face, only then will you minimize the amount of time and money you waste while also becoming the most prepared that you can.

–Tom Miller

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