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A Postal-Mail Chain Letter?
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Posted By:
Maegan
in Tampa, FL - USA
Nov 14, 2004
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I received this chain letter in my mailbox:
Dear Friend,
Greetings: I am a retired attorney. A few years ago a man came to me with a letter. He asked me to verify the fact that this was legal to do. I told him I would review it and get back to him. When I first red the letter my client brought me, I thought it was some "off-the-wall" idea to make money. A week and a half later we met in my office to discuss the issue. I told him the letter he originally brought me was not 100% legal. My client then asked me to later it to make it perfectly legal. I asked him to make one small change in the letter.
***
It goes on for another 2 pages about how if you send $1 to the 6 names on the list & you will make $800,000.00 in just 3 months. You pay for a list of names to send letters to. I KNOW this is a scam. I just can't figure out how I got it. It came to me at my married name (junk-mail tends to come to my maiden name), & it came to my actual house address. (My driver's license lists my PO Box & if you look me up at the DMV, the physical address is actually my prior residence...haven't had time to change it yet.) The phone & electric aren't registered in my name, they're registered to my husband. (There's not a water bill, we have a well.)
What I wanna know is: How did this come to me, with my correct name at my current physical address??? The 'person' who sent the letter is: Mr. Louis Jordan/1234 Shakespeare Avenue/Apt # 2E/Bronx, NY 10452
Also, a co-worker recently had someone slip this same letter under his door at his apartment building...Anyone hear anything about this??
Category: Scams; Replies: 1761 |
Comments
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Page 60 of 89 pages ‹ First < 58 59 60 61 62 > Last › |
KarenESP
in the afternoon
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 03:56 PM
Hey Just a mom.. if you get any envelopes with bills in them you dont feel like opening, you can just send them to me...
wink |
Imjustamom
in Utah
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 04:40 PM
Ok, you have to check this out. Someone sent me a chain letter. Not to my mom this time, but to me Actually. So its different then the other one. Interesting as it sounds, I believe it to be illegal as well. So let the hash over begin. I wonder if people will be blah blah blahing about this one for four years.
!!! WARNING !!!
Don |
Imjustamom
in Utah
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 04:43 PM
It would not let me post the whole thing at once, so here is the rest of the letter.
Here is how it works:
1. You send 20 letters. That |
Imjustamom
in Utah
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 04:45 PM
By the way, I did not have to type it out, I found it online already typed up by someone else.
Make 20 or more copies of this letter with you name in the 4th position. The more copies you send, the more money you will receive in approximately 2 weeks. Put this program in a stamped envelope and mail them out to whoever you choose. Mail ASAP! That |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 07:16 PM
Im just a mom said:
"Interesting as it sounds, I believe it to be illegal as well. So let the hash over begin. I wonder if people will be blah blah blahing about this one for four years."
There's no "blah blah blah" about it. It's illegal.
This would be a large part of why:
"** Hugh Profits: You will receive at least $10,000 in 2 weeks
** Easiest: Takes less than 1 hour of your time
** Fastest: Pays you off completely in 2 weeks
** Cheapest: Costs less than $18 - includes every single expense
** Enormous Returns: Consistently 60% - 85% returns"
See that "WILL receive" part? That's a lie. No one can make that promise since a chain letter CANNOT guarantee a profit to all participants. Sorry to burst your little bubble, but money doesn't come from nowhere.
"Designed By: Theodore Williamson, Attorney at Law
& Sheila Chaney, CPA / Stock Broker"
So, some scam artists come up with yet another irrelevant variation on the decades-old chain letter scam and because they give themselves fake names and claim to be an attorney and a CPA, we're supposed to believe what they say?
How many times do you have to be hit in the head with a shovel before you're brain damaged enough to buy that bullshit?
"I have a very successful practice. I don |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 07:30 PM
Funny, this "attorney" "Theodore Williamson" seems to have NO presence on Google except for links to this same rip-off chain letter.
You'd think a "successful attorney" would turn up in some other context, like accounts of all the cases he's won, wouldn't you?
I guess he's SO busy running this amazing chain letter that he doesn't have time to do lawyer stuff anymore. After all:
"I ran the program for 1 year before writing his letter. It has bee[n] improved, and best of all, it really does work every singe time it is used. Because of the low investment cost of only $18.00, the return rate is really high. It ranges anywhere from 60% - 85%."
Wow. Bernie Madoff who is accused of running the all-time largest Ponzi scheme was only returning 1-1.2% per month on HIS scam...and he's probably going to jail! This Williamson is a complete genius, isn't he?
"EVERYONE who participates in this program will definitely profit from it!"
That's amazing! Has there ever been another investment in the history of mankind that could ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE that you'll make a profit? We should start making busts of Williamson right now to put in every museum in the world.
Of course, we could simply Occam's Razor to the situation and realize that the FAR more likely explanation is that this is a total bullshit story. Let's just go with that, shall we? |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 07:34 PM
That last part should read "we could simply apply Occam's Razor..." |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 07:46 PM
While this isn't about chain letters specifically, it gives you a basic explanation of why these types of things don't work:
http://www.slate.com/id/2206859/ |
Shane
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Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 | 09:32 PM
I know I said I was done before but. Cranky you are going to give yourself a Heart Attack. I just cannot argue with or spend any more time explaining this to people. Especially when they think that Pyramid scam do not work because people are diss-honest. That can play a factor, but in all reality it is not. They do not work they will not work, Its not as simple as you put it though. Because People can Profit, but only in rare circumstances, if you get in at the right time, and you use Propaganda that will reel in enough people. Its not a simple equation as you put it simply earlier. You gain equity from fresh circulation if it is executed properly. Then you end up ripping off a lot of people, just like Multie Level Marketing Schemes. Its not 2+2 IMJUST A MOM. The new scheme you put up is just a clone of the previous one, except less likely to work. Alright then Im going to go back to banging my head against a brick wall now. |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 | 03:03 AM
Shane said:
"I know I said I was done before but. Cranky you are going to give yourself a Heart Attack. I just cannot argue with or spend any more time explaining this to people. Especially when they think that Pyramid scam do not work because people are diss-honest. That can play a factor, but in all reality it is not. They do not work they will not work..."
Nah, I'm not even close to having a heart attack...not because of this, anyway.
You and I agree about the impossible math involved in the chain letter scam. And we're right, of course.
Yes, people at the very START of a chain letter can come out ahead. Who do you think is at the START of the chain? The person who began it, that's who. Why do you think they start one? The chumps who come along later are just donating their money to the scam artist at the head of the line.
When you get into a chain, you have no idea where you are in the "pecking order." If it's gone on for any length of time, you're almost certainly far enough back that you'll never see a dime from it, including whatever money you put into it.
A SMART scam artist will be behind all five of those names you are supposed to send your money to in the letter.
"Its not a simple equation as you put it simply earlier."
No, I'm right about that. If you were to get SIX times your money back, let's say, it would have come from FIVE other people, plus your initial "investment." All profit in a chain letter or any other kind of pyramid scheme comes from people who got in after you. There is NO other source of money. |
don't care what you think
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 | 06:35 PM
First and foremost, I know what I said, so you don't have to quote me when its your turn to talk. Moving on.. I've got an idea to run by everyone. Maybe, just maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all. Think about this: Would you not agree that the economy is down right now? Okay, so if I get a letter and decide to send out 200 more letters, I am helping the economy in many ways. First off the postal workers are paid mostly in part by stamp sales, secondly, mail sorters can work a couple extra hours sorting out all that chain letter mail, thirdly, office max will make a sale by selling me ink, paper, and envelopes. Seems to me everyone wins. Fortunately for me I run a business out of my home and have plenty of envelopes and office necessities sitting around. I did this last year just for fun, and I made out. Sorry, I couldn't respond fast enough to all your questions. I hardly have time to respond to useless blogs on the internet. I just wanted to voice my opinion to all the disgruntled right-winged republican hawks out there. As if that has something to do with it... lol. So long friends, and maybe we should all stop being so selfish and help the economy.  |
Shane
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 | 07:16 PM
don't care what you think
The funny thing is you have some valid points. That aside when you get involved in something like this you have to weigh out the Pros and cons. On one side you are indirectly helping the economy, mostly in the public sector. On the other hand you are directly spreading Propaganda, wasting money and resources, willingly participating in an illegal pyramid scheme, filling peoples mailboxes with junk mail(as if people dont get enough as it is). More stuff too, my point is everyone needs to educate themselves before participating in anytype of get rich, or marketing schemes. Weigh out all the possibilities. |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 | 08:42 PM
Don't care what you think said:
"So long friends, and maybe we should all stop being so selfish and help the economy."
Chain letters "help the economy" in the same way as bank robbery does.
They take money from many people and give it to a very few.
They are also illegal.
How is it "selfish" to refuse to get involved in a well-documented scam? |
KarenESP
in the final countdown
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 | 09:07 PM
hmmm... helping the economy, eh?
I dont think so. Lets say you contain a chain letter to the US. You send your six letters and get your 800K, then for it to work for everyone-you would have to keep getting chain letters, oodles of them and keep re-sending the money you recieved to a new group of six people, over and over again...
hmmm.. what would be helped would be the data base people, the envelope co.s and the post office would be hiring every available body walking and breathing.
But other than that, if you were prepared to be fair, you couldnt spend your 800K because theorectically, you would just be sending and receiving the same money over and over again.
Helping the economy? Not sure I see that even if everyone played by the rules. |
The Darn Blister
in everywhere
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 | 09:41 PM
Help the economy? Mr. Don't Think, let me remind you that history shows that such schemes do the exact opposite - they make the economy worse. |
Imjustamom
in Utah
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 | 02:17 AM
In the original letter it talks about sending people money for a service of being added to a mailing list. In the new letter I got it talks about sending people money as a "gift". So what's the difference. Are they just trying to find new ways to make it sound legal? Where does it say that is illegal to give someone a gift?
I already looked it up, and there are no laws prohibiting the mailing of cash through the USPS. So Grandma can send me $5 in a birthday card if she wants to. So why not someone else? |
Imjustamom
in Utah
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 | 02:27 AM
Never mind, I just answered my own question. This Postal Law listed in the letter really proves that the letter is illegal, not the other way around. Its weird that the letter lists its own downfall. Do they just think people will never actually read it.
Title 18, Section 1302 of the U.S. Postal Laws |
KarenESP
in the morning
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 | 07:55 AM
Isn't it bold how they do that, mom in utah? And so many ppl think... oh yea, on Oprah- ok, here's the law! How convenient they came right out with all of it, even the law... then buzz right out to the copy center... wink! |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 | 03:27 PM
Imjustamom said:
"Its weird that the letter lists its own downfall. Do they just think people will never actually read it."
Yup, that's exactly what they think. And they're probably right, too.
"I already looked it up, and there are no laws prohibiting the mailing of cash through the USPS. So Grandma can send me $5 in a birthday card if she wants to. So why not someone else?"
It's all about the INTENT. Grandma isn't sending you the money on the premise that she will get several times her "investment" back. Grandma isn't making any false promises about how "everyone can come out ahead if we're all honest," etc.
In short, Grandma is making a legitimate gift, as opposed to the phonies who run chain letters.
The subject of "intent" and how courts have interpreted it has been covered in this thread before. |
friend of Jerry`s
in here
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 | 06:29 PM
Hi i`m a friend of Jerry`s and i have been doing the letter deal for 4 weeks and received only 136 bucks if i get my money back i`ll be happy if not oh well i tried. |
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