FREE0612@uiucvmd (David Lemson) (09/29/90)
In a message of Wed, 26 Sep 90, Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@brl.mil> writes: >Does anyone know where 904-492 is? (Yes, I know it's somewhere in >northern Florida.) I just got, on my office phone, a so-called award >notification call, was given (in a RECORDED message) a two-character >"claim number", and was told to call 904-492-0001 during the next 24 >hours. Supposedly, "they" were trying to reach me and were having >problems. How would "they" get my office number? That's on 301-278 >and I do not think 301-278 has any residences on it. Here's my story about these schemes. I almost got into one a while back. About three years ago while living in Sacramento, CA, I read an ad in the local newspaper (the Bee, I believe) for "Make money with your computer" with an 800 number. I called, and waded through an auto-attendant to learn that as their employee, I would earn $400 per week for only "1-2 hours of system maintenance per day." I gave my name and address, and received an application in a few days. I also gave the number to a good friend of mine who also had a PC. The application asked for information about my PC, including hard disk size and if I had a modem. One notable place on the application indicated that if I was selected to be an employee, I would receive equipment and software valued at $1500. "Would I be averse to sending them a fully refundable $600 deposit?" I answered absolutely YES. My friend that "maybe" he would send the deposit if asked. Well, you guessed it, I was denied and he was approved. The scheme on this one was that they sent him a Watson Voicemail board (from Natural Microsystems) and several megabytes of recorded information. He had to type in phone numbers from the phone book each night. During the day, the computer would dial each number, wait until it heard a voice, and deliver the message. It was a quiz about entertainment trivia that anyone over the age of 10 could get all correct. Once a person called by the Watson answered about 3 questions right, the machine would give you a "special code number" that was only good for 30 minutes. You had to call a number somewhere on the east coast, give them the special code number, and you would be given another quiz. This was supposedly much harder, and if you got all of those right, you would win $50. Of course, before you got to hear those questions, you had to listen to a spiel about whatever it was that they were selling. BTW, the code number was always the same, of course. (Another aside: I don't know why they said the equipment was worth $1500..a Watson board costs $200 and the software from them might add up to $500...) They told my friend to try not to dial businesses, and definitely especially to avoid programming government and LAWYER's offices! Hmm, wonder why. Well, my friend worked for him for a few weeks, and got his security deposit back. (I forgot to mention, as you all guessed, they did make him send it in after he got the Watson board) However, he received no more pay checks after the initial refund of the deposit. He was in touch with the company and they kept saying that they were having "financial troubles" and the employees would definitely receive the back pay. The employees stopped working when they received letters from the US Postmaster General. The mastermind of this scheme was being indicted in hundreds of counts of interstate mail and wire fraud. It seems the guy had started several of these types of schemes before. The outcome? Another company came by about a year later and offered to employ all of the employees in a new, supposedly legitimate plan to do the same thing. The employees never were asked to return the Watson boards or the VMS software (a piece of software for Watson valued at a few hundred dollars). So, my friend has a Watson to show for 2 months of fairly boring work. Just a bit of an insight as to how these companies that call you get their slaves ...er ... employees.