I'm sure that some of you are getting tired of hearing about the Secret Santa, if so, you'll be happy to know that this will be the last update until I do the wrap-up post (it'll be done the exact same way that Matt always did them). Okay, so I got the last of the emails sent out yesterday afternoon, I made my list and checked it twice, but if you're a participant, and somehow you didn't receive an email from me with the name of the person that you'll be shopping for -- please be sure to contact me sooner than later so I can resend all of the information that you'll need about the person you drew.
Since I haven't been showing a lot of cards lately, I thought I'd shoehorn my most recently purchased Golden Age autograph into this post:
My email account through Gmail is usually pretty good about keeping spam/junk mail from reaching my inbox, but yesterday I received mildly interesting piece of mail that got through, one that I think might be of some interest to my fellow bloggers:
Cooperation with www.pennysleevethoughts.blogspot.com
|
Tue, Nov 13, 4:58 PM (14 hours ago)
 | | ||
| ||||
Hello,
My name is Harvey. I'm a freelancer who works for Media-Top, an online media agency.
Would you be interested in writing and posting an article for a fixed fee?
The article should be relevant to the category and to the readers of your site.
If you are interested, please let me know and I'll provide you with more details.
Also, if you own other sites please send me their URLs, so I can review them.
Depending on your local law, you may need to make it clear that the links you use are in
fact adverts.
--
Initially I just thought that this was going to be a blog comment from a name that I didn't recognize, but after clicking on it, I obviously realized right away that that's not what it was. After reaching the third line, it was clear that this was not on the up and up, because nobody in their right mind is going to be offering to pay me to write anything... ever!
This person clearly went through the blog to get to me (sneaky move btw), which is probably why Gmail didn't block it. After about 3 1/2 minutes of reading up on this Harvey Kayne (he is a real person) on Google, I came to the conclusion that while it's not quite as scammy as usual, it's still scam. Basically it sounds like they agree to pay you to write something for him/them, you then write an article and give it to them, and they reward you by coming up with a bunch of excuses as to why they don't have to pay you... and apparently people have fallen for it!
Since I have to assume that I'm not the only blogger to have received such an email, and even though I would hope nobody would be buying into this spiel, I still thought it was worth mentioning just in case.
And finally, Peter over at Baseball Every Night, has just started an Ugly Sweater contest. Nothing is being gained by me for promoting it, I just thought it looked like something that a lot of you might want to try and get in on, not only for the fun factor, but there's also a pretty solid prize being offered to the eventual winner -- so if you like fun, and you like the idea of choosing your own prize, just click on that link to get all of the details.
Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.
Nice Penny auto!
ReplyDeleteI got that same "cooperation" email and deleted it pretty swiftly. Thanks for taking the time to look into it and share your findings.
Thanks! Deleting without opening it is obviously the smarter way to go, but no one's ever gonna accuse me of possessing a great intellect, so...
DeleteThanks for the heads up on that scam. I received the email and replied asking for more info. I got a reply and they mention their site, or rather their client's site is related to online gaming. That my "article" should be about 350 words conform to the writing style of the posts on my site. Then they ask me to give them a price. Wha?
ReplyDeleteA shame it is a scam, because I would love to get paid for some of my writing. Even though few people ever see it to read.
Kirk, I'm sure there's some company or website out there who would be willing to pay you for your writing, it's just not going to be this one.
DeleteI'm surprised they don't pretend they're about to pay and then ask for your bank account information.
ReplyDeleteOnce you involve a bank it becomes a federal crime, these people might not be willing to take it to that level... at least not yet.
DeleteThanks for the scam warning. I deleted without even opening it. I don't blog so how did they get a hold of me? As a youth I enjoyed Laverne and Shirley so that's a nifty Golden Age autograph you snagged. Glad to see you didn't change your blog name to A Penny Marshall for your Thoughts.
ReplyDeleteNo, you're not a blogger, but once again you've just shown why you should be :)
DeleteI get these sorts of emails a lot. Sometimes they bother to go through and link a particular post of mine, but it's usually a super random post from the first year of my blog. So weird. I've never followed up on anything like that before.
ReplyDeleteI would think that as long as you've been around, you would be rather popular with these sorts of people... not the best crowd to be popular with though!
DeleteI, too, received this scammy e-mail.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to start reading all the Secret Santa posts!
I am looking forward to seeing everyone's posts as well :)
DeleteI also rec'd said scammy email and looked ole Harvey up. Seems he makes his living spamming and scamming. I would only be paid NOT to write. Why aren't those dollars rolling in??? Yep, I need this card. Golden Age was a great product with autos attractively designed. Super set to assemble!
ReplyDeleteIf someone was legitimately seeking out bloggers to pay them for their writing, it would make much more sense for them to be propositioning someone like you. Me? not so much!
DeleteI got the same scam email. I deleted it, as I do most of those types of emails.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a few of you get these a lot more than I do... I'm wondering if I should be insulted?
DeleteI got that email too! Thank you for promoting my contest. And for running the Secret Santa.
ReplyDeleteAs I suspected, they're clearly trolling all of the card bloggers. Thankfully it sounds like they are not having any luck.
DeleteDude. That Penny Marshall autograph is awesome! They seem pretty affordable on eBay too. Might need to add one to the collection.
ReplyDeleteI think our definitions of "affordable" might be a little different, as to me this card seemed like it was a bit on the expensive side... but still worth it though!
DeleteGreat pickup on that Penny Marshall. Another one I gotta add to my list of needs now. I got that same email and was scratching my head the other day. Glad to hear all of you did and none of us responded.
ReplyDeleteI think you could probably just add all of the non-sport Golden Age autos to your want list and call it good :)
DeleteThat Penny Marshall auto is fantastic! My mom and I were big fans of A League of Their Own. The scam is a real bummer though.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that I'm going to end up on someone's sh**list for saying this, but I am not a fan of that movie. I've tried to watch it multiple times over the years, and I still can't get past like the first twenty minutes. Now granted, I'm not usually a fan of sports movies, but I think in this instance it's the cast that's preventing me from watching it all the way through -- I mean other than Lori Petty, I pretty much dislike every actor/actress in this movie (Tom Hanks was good in The Money Pit though).
DeleteYou don't like Tom Hanks?!? That's ten times worse than not liking the movie, lol. I can't sit through the whole thing anymore, either, but for me it's more about having outgrown it than anything else.
DeleteI saw The Money Pit when I was like 6 or 7, my next Tom Hanks experience came in the form of Mazes & Monsters -- like most kids I had no concept of what a bad film was, but even then I realized how terrible M & M was, and how bad Mr. Hanks was in that movie -- and ever since then, when I think of him, I think of that movie, and for better or worse, I've just never been able to get behind anything that he's done since.
DeleteGood thing you caught the scam before you were in too deep!
ReplyDeleteWell, as I said, I don't believe that anybody would ever offer to pay me to write anything -- I just wanted to get it out there, just in case!
ReplyDeleteI got one of those too. At least we have a worthwhile community if someone thinks it's worth the trouble to try scamming us all one by one.
ReplyDeleteI can understand them sending one of these emails to you, what with your tremendous writing ability and all, but me...
ReplyDelete