I am currently selling my piano. It is beautiful and I love it very much. Attempting to sell it has become a real eye opener.
A “buyer” contacted me via text from a 917 number. (I googled that number, it said it’s N.Y.C.) Eventually, they ask me to set up a PayPal account so they can “transfer” me the money and send someone to pick it up and ship it. I know many people who do use PayPal regularly and don’t seem to have issues with it, it takes minutes to set up, so I figured why not. Here’s a rundown of my experience:
This person texted me a few times in the beginning, starting at 9pm, and even at 3 a.m.. I chalked it up to they were in New York City, and I hear those people never sleep. So, I responded at 6 am, and after much communication, by 9 am I had a real PayPal account.
At this point we were communicating by email, and I was asked to let “her” know when I had the PayPal account set up. So, I did as was asked, still thinking that this was a normal transaction. (I kind of assumed she was a collector, my piano was made by a now defunct New York company, and the piano is near 80 yrs old.)
Anyway, I get an email, almost immediately, with a PayPal address and header and such. It said I had $1750.00 “pending”. (I am asking 900$ for the piano, btw)
It says I am to go to Western Union and send 700$ to a “shipper”, a name and address in London, U.K., with a “50$ agent fee”. Oh yes, we cannot forget about the “agent” fee. And when I have done that, the $1750.00 will be “released” into my PayPal account.
So, I had their email open and I had my PayPal account still open on different windows. I went to my PayPal window, refreshed it, and it said NOTHING about any money “pending” or any awaiting transactions. So, I clicked on the contact us button on the real PayPal page and it gave me a telephone # and a number to enter when they answer so the attendant can quickly access my file.
I tell the woman who answers my dilemma and she offers to see if there are indeed any “pending” transactions. She returns, telling me there isn’t, and I tell her about this email and about how real it looks, and that it came from an address that said paypal in it.(!!!)
She told me there are many people faking emails to lure people out of their money, or in my case, my credit. She gave me an address to forward the fraudulant emails to: spoof@paypal.com.
As soon as I realized what was going on, I ignored them. At 2 pm that same day, I get an email threatening me from the fake “PayPal” and the “F.B.I.” saying that I will be arrested for fraud and my bank accounts and credit cards attached to my PayPal account will be frozen because the money was “already sent to me and cannot be refunded”. The email had photos of people being arrested by the F.B.I. and bold writing in red!!! Such bullies! And in the email it said, in very bad English, that if I don’t Western Union the money, I am frauding “Rose Jones” as if she is a real person.
I am amazed at what people will do to swindle others out of their hard earned money or credit.
I eventually took my ad down, reposted it, and the SAME email(!!!) and phone number is asking me if the item is for sale. It is truly insulting, especially when I think of how many others they must be attempting to do this to and wonder how many times these villains succeed in stealing hard earned money that they do not deserve. I feel like there must be more than one person in this particular scheme because how could they not recognize my email or phone number! (about 50 emails between us over the course of that morning and a bunch of texts)
It seems these people prey on kijiji ads with expensive stuff for sale, send the seller a text from a foreign number and ask if the item is still for sale, and if it is to email them a at a crazy email address. (this is what I got: rosejones3089()ymail.com) (EXACTLY that email, I figured the semicolons meant the at sign, and bingo, I got a response.)
Things aren’t always what they seem.
Last night I had the pleasure of going to and watching the Cornwall City Council meeting (A class assignment to cover the meeting). I was apprehensive to say the least, just as I was when I went to the local all candidates debate that was held at the Cornwall Civic Complex around voting time. Interestingly enough, I thoroughly enjoyed both. (Not exactly sure what this means…)
It was great to see how Cornwall spends its taxpayers money and to see what is considered important to the local councillors. I got the sense that they were working for all the people of this city. In fact, this coming weekend they are holding a free winterfest for the families and youth of the city at the Cornwall Civic Complex. Last year 15,000 people attended, this year they are hoping to get over 20,000 people out. Considering that Cornwall has a very low family income, probably the lowest urban income per capita in the province, it really makes something like this so positive and special for the families and youth of this city.
A weekend of winter festivities, four bands to see for free Saturday night and even free fireworks on Sunday and Monday evening.. I like the sounds of this. Cornwall has so much potential to be a world class city.
One of the better moments was when a councillor spoke to me and said that their whole ambition when they were elected was to make a new Cornwall. As in, in five years they wanted to make so much progress that we will not recognize the old un-progressive Cornwall. This was also the same councillor who approached my classmate and I and told us about the weekend winterfest.
I left with a more positive feeling about this city, looking forward to getting to another meeting and familiarizing myself more with Cornwall’s political scene.
For the past few days I have stewed over what my first “blog” would be about. I even wrote myself a little note as to what my overall theme should be, what my “point” is. And it came down to this, I want to dedicate my writing to open people’s minds to things that better ourselves and our lives. I wish everyone to get the most out of every moment and appreciate the beautiful world that we have been so blessed with. I wish to simply positively engage people. After spending some time reading other’s articles I finally realized what I should start with.
On December 28th I posted a link on my facebook page. It was a video of a woman who previously worked in sales for a drug company. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re12KzdZ4Wk) Her name is Gwen Olsen (gwenolsen.com), and she went on to say that drug companies are not in the business of curing people, because if they were, they would essentially be in the business of putting themselves out of business. It isn’t really shocking once you think about it, but it was surprising to me. I had never thought of drug companies as a greedy entity before and am now thankful that my eyes are more open to the reality of this. That link on my page garnered some interesting responses~(and two likes)
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Hence why I don’t do medication. Even tylenol.28 December 2011 at 14:07
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Me neither.28 December 2011 at 14:38 ·
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They’ve never wanted to cure anyone. And that is why there is no cure for cancer, ms, and all t he rest of the deadly diseases.28 December 2011 at 14:53 ·
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there is a cure for cancer.. they’ve had it for a long time but won’t do anything to cure people. It’s population control.. otherwise the world would be over populated if they cure everyone for every disease out there..28 December 2011 at 21:34 ·
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Also.. its not just the medication.. it’s in our food. It’s better to grow your own stuff and raise your own meats..28 December 2011 at 21:35 ·Now, reading the last two posts (which by the way are by the same author), I was shocked, literally shocked that someone could/would believe such crap, and not only believe, but preach such crap. The very last response is not as far out there, but really??? They have had a cure for cancer for a long time but it is about population control!!!??? Wow, this still really angers me in a way that rarely happens. And this leads me to ask~ are there others out there who also believe that?I mean, statistically speaking, if one person has a specific belief it is highly logical that there are others who also share in this belief, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I found out that the author of those responses have close friends who also share the same view. I tend to believe that ignorance, just like misery, loves company. The sheer ignorance of this post dumbfounds me and makes me angry beyond anything that I have come across in the past while. And to top it off, it is very ironic that the author of those last two posts (all responses to the link are posted, I removed the names and photos for this purpose), goes for dialysis and is awaiting an organ transplant.I would think that someone who is as close to the health system and its practitioners as she would be would not be so ignorant of the state of the medical arts today. And the idea that this ignorance DOES exist scares me more than I can even describe.The main thought that pops into my mind when thinking back on that post is that the author of those posts must also believe then that Jack Layton and too many countless others have died due to population control. I am still shaking my head.
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