redwaters's posterous

Aggravating Berkeley Parking Department (Rant)

Berkeley has got to be the worse place to get a ticket in. I mean in Alameda, Oakland, and SF, when you get a ticket, it’s on your car and they send a back up to remind you that you got one. Not Berkeley!!! If they can help it, they won’t leave you a ticket. So you don’t know if you got one. You just sit around thinking I’m fine, and then they send you one. But do they send you one on time? No! They wait until you are past due on the ticket, so you have to pay them more, and then they send you a ticket.

Case in point, this last year. I got two tickets for past registration, both within a month of each other. When I got the second ticket, I told them I didn’t have the money for registration yet and will pay when I do. They basically told me that every time they would see my car in Berkeley, they were going to ticket me until the registration was paid. On top of that, they threat to have my car towed for not having it paid within the first five months, when I was only past due for two months. They made it sound as if they were going to target my car. I felt like I couldn’t park in Berkeley until I got my registration paid or risk getting towed.

On the same day I was getting the ticket, Josiah’s brother’s car was found missing. Turns out, they towed it for the same violation and claiming it had been 5 months. And all this was on a Sunday too. So that meant his brother had to pay for the towing and having to get his car out on a closed day or pay for two days holding fee on the tow company.

Months later, I’m visiting Josiah at his new place of residents and I accidently park in someone’s driveway. I didn’t know, it looked like I was fine. But I guess I wasn’t and I got my car towed. Guess when I got it towed, 50 minutes after I parked it. That means the person who called me in saw me get out of my car and still called the cops. No stopping me and point out my error, just let me walk away. And I didn’t a call or anything, nobody tried to find the owner of the car, they just towed it…quietly. They had to, because I wasn’t more than a house away from where I parked. Being it was a Saturday, I had to pay a ton of money to get it back.

Not a week later, I get a ticket reminder. Was it for my car being towed? No, it was for not paying the first ticket on late registration fee. Keep in mind, I didn’t receive one for either of those tickets back when I was supposed to and so I forgot about them. So I owed $110 on both tickets. Funny how I didn’t get a call about my car being towed and where I could pick it up. It was like they going to wait as long as they can, before I would know, so they could get more money (of course). And yet, I was able to get those tickets right away.

So I paid those tickets off and figured I was in the free and clear with Berkeley. Apparently not. This Saturday I received a reminder ticket for when my car got towed and they want another $110 out of me, because I was late paying off the violation. Ok, wait a minute. I didn’t get any ticket for that violation. Nothing was sent to me. Where was the warning that I still owed money? I’m not saying that I shouldn’t pay for the ticket, but I shouldn’t be charged a late for doing so, because they didn’t send me a ticket to let me know where and how much to pay.

And some would argue that I should have seen this coming. I could have, but here’s the thing. The time I got into a street parking violation with Berkeley for parking on street sweeping day, I didn’t realized I had one when I drove away and it flew off my car. So I called Berkeley and told them that I lost the ticket, could they send me another one. They said it hadn’t been registered, call back in a week. I called the next week, still hasn’t be registered, call in another week. I did so and finally I got them to tell they’d send it. But if I hadn’t been on them or if I didn’t realized that I had got a ticket, I know I would have gotten that ticket with a late fee attached to it.

I realized that cities are in desperate need of money, but this isn’t the way to go. Gouging people out of money isn’t the way to do it. It’s just going to piss them off and hit the system even more. And people of Berkeley know the parking violation is gunning for them. Students who are parking are watched by the police. If they park even a little bit wrong, they will pounce on them, once the person leaves their car and is out of sight. And I know I’ve talked about what happen to my parents during game day in Berkeley (if you don’t know, read next paragraph).

My parents had to be in Berkeley and saw that there was all this open parking, which was weird for a game day. So they parked in a spot and walked away. They come back to find that their car had been towed to around the corner to a little tented area where they had to pay $220 to get their car back. Turns out, Berkeley decided they weren’t going to put up saw horse to show where there was to be no parking. They were letting people park there, wait until they walked away, and then towed their car to this tented area. Sure there was a sign saying what days you couldn’t park there, but you need binoculars to see them.

I can’t say I’m mad at the police in Berkeley, I’m sure their great and all. But I just can’t stand the way they hand parking and ticketing. It’s just wrong.

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That's Nothing New

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(If you don't want to hear why I joined a gym, just skip down to the paragraph starting with 'While I was at the gym...')

Well I've decided to join a gym.

Why?

Because of Alice's Now and Zen concert.

What? How did a concert bring about having to go to a gym.

It wasn't exactly the concert that made me have to go, it was getting to that did it. On Sunday I went to the Now and Zen with Josiah. Rather than drive to San Francisco and try to find parking wherever they were having people park, Josiah and I decided to take Bart and bike to Gold Gate Park.

Here's where the fun began.

First of all I ride a mountain bike, not the lightest bike to have when you’re biking the streets really. Josiah was smart; he had a racing bike (nice and light weight). Sadly, though, when he took my bike to carry up the stairs from the Bart platform at 16th St Bart and I took his, I couldn't manage very well. Even more fun, there were no elevators from the Bart station to street level. You basically had to walk your bike up this ramp next to the stairs.

But here's the thing, the ramp is about at a 60 to 70 degree angel and (again) mountain bike. By the time I got the bike and me up those stairs, I was ready to pass out. Made me feel pathetic, really, as I'm leaning over my bike with an aching side and trying to my breath.

And the fun didn't stop there. Now it was time to ride to Golden Gate Park, up steep hills. If I wasn't already dying at the Bart station, I was on that ride. Twice I had to stop and kneel while I felt like I was going to puke all over the streets. And it didn't help that Josiah had to wait while I try to collect myself. Mind you, he didn't say a word about me and he was very supportive. He made sure to ride behind me so that he could watch to see if I was having any trouble. But honestly, I had to feel for him. Riding behind me is like a horse walking next to a human, very tiring.

Eventually we make it to the Now and Zen concert, a hour behind schedule.

But the whole ordeal made me realize that I've been really slacking off since I've been out of school and had no job. I mean, I use to ride my bike from Alameda to Emeryville or Berkeley and back with no real trouble. But with the depression of having no job, I wasn't trying to stay in any real shape. I stop walking, I stop biking (in fact the bike is at Josiah's house). So what muscle I use to have tone turned in to flab.

And then I get a long term temp job...which means I now have money. This means I have access to food nearly anytime I want and not really the healthy kind one should be eating. It also means that I'm tired as soon as I get home and want to go to sleep. So with being able to eat junk anytime, plus no exercise, equals to being out of shape. Sure I do a lot of movement at work, but that's just walking around carrying files...files that are not all that heavy. And most of the time I don't even have to carry any files. I'm usually sitting on my butt in front of a computer entering files or sorting them to be put away.

Of course, now that I have money, I can start going to a gym to tone up and fly right...or at least try to anyway.

My goal is to hit the gym after work (when I'm not hanging out with people) and when I'm bored on the weekends with nothing to do (and again, with no one to hang out with). This means I would at least be going 5 times a week...I hope. BUT knowing that I've made similar pledges in the past and have yet to keep one all year (like biking to all my destinations) I went out and found a gym that won't make me sign on for a year. I went with 24 hour Fitness. This is because I can go to any one of their gyms (the one in Alameda or Bay Fair) and I can go any time I want. It was a good time to join too, because they have no initiation fee and it's only $35 a month. Guess that means I'll have to go back to treating my own nails again rather than getting a medi/pedi...maybe.

Now I know what you’re thinking, what does my explaining why I joined a gym have anything to do with the blog title 'That's Nothing New', other than I've made pledges like this before. I.e. I'll eat right with a salad a day...or I might show up at your house on my bike, etc. But I thought it would better than starting my blog with 'While I was at the gym' leaving the opening to ask, why do you have to go to a gym? But anyway...

While I was at the gym, I was watching one of the t.v.s during excising. It was one of those daytime talk shows where some guy was giving health advice. This particular guy was talking about the 'Japanese Diet'. In watching this I thought to myself, 'You have got to be kidding me. They're calling that a diet?'

Here are the three things that make up the 'Japanese Diet'.

1. Drink broth with every meal. It's nutritious, hydrating, and makes you feel fuller so you’ll want to eat less. (If I was to do this, I'd go with the instant Miso soup.)

2. Learn to eat with chopsticks. You can't eat as fast or heap as much onto them. Thus, you take smaller bite sizes and eat slower. Plus it helps with hand eye coordination (heh). But if you can't, put down your fork between each bite and pick it up when you’re done chewing.

3. Try to eat rice with every meal as well. It too will make you fuller. They suggest brown rice. (Whatever)

How can you call that a diet? I mean a weight losing diet? What's so special that it has to have a special name?

I can tell you this right now, every Asian person who was watching that was probably thinking to themselves. That's nothing new; we've being eating like that for years. And seriously, you know that's how they stay so thin. I mean, how many obesit Asians have you seen? Sure they have the worse acne problem in the world from eating all that greasy stuff, but they know how to eat.

Personally I say that the only way to lose weight is to either, be poor or move to a country that eats less than you do.

P.S. After spending two hours working out, I know I'm going to be sore in the morning...and boy am I looking forward to that. (Groan)

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Grr....Customer Service (Rant)

First off, let me say I get it. You don't pay, you get collection calls. Great, got it. What gets me though, is that the customer serivce people calling you. Sure, sometimes you get really great people (or even good people) who will help you out. These are the are the people are polite, suggestive, open to doing something that will get the payment they require.

What I can't stand are the Customer Serivce people who talk to you like you're some dirt-bag who won't pay. They tune out the words 'can't pay' and replace it with 'won't'. These are the people who you hope are the ones recorded for 'quality puproses' and training.

I've come across three scenerioes (so far) that a person does not want to hear or should not hear when dealing with this kind of situations.

Scenerio One:

Customer Service (tired and annoyed): (Sigh) Hello, this is .... what can I do to help you.

Me: I was to ask if I can defer my loan a little longer, because I'm unable to pay at the moment.

Customer Service: You can't. It's private and cannot be defered.

Me: Ok...is there any other option? Anything you can suggest that might help me?

Customer Service (snapping): No!

Me: Thanks for nothing (click)

(I called back and got someone good on the phone to help me. He even apologized for the reception I got.)

Scenerio Two:

Customer Service: Hello, this is.... We're calling about your loan.

Me: Yes, I know. I can't pay right now.

Customer Service: May we ask why not?

Me: I'm currently unemployed.

Customer Service: That's too bad. If you were employed, we could have given you option that could help you.

(Aren't you suppose to giving me option on how to help me, because I don't have a job? That's about as annoying as telling me to call so we can discuss option to help relieve my debt and then telling me you can't.)

Scenerio Three:

Customer Service: This is.... We're calling about your loan.

Me: Yeah, I know. I can't pay right now. I'm unemployed.

Customer Service: You live in Califorina, don't you. Boy you guys got screwed out there. Guess you're going to have to relocate to get a job, huh?

Me: Uh...yeah...I guess you're right. (thinking) With what money. If I can't pay you the monthly fee, how in the world am I going to afford to move?! In fact, how did your statement help in anyway?

The last scenerio made me think of a movie I saw called 'Up in the Air' (a movie that should be shown when teaching people how to be good customer service reps). Anyway, there is a part in the movie where this upstart wants her turn to fire someone and put her training to use, so show that she can be just as good as the person training her. After she goes through the whole speech, person looks the trainee in the eye and says this: "Do you know what I'm going to do when I get home? There's a bridge over looking a river, right by where I live. I'm going to go to it, climb up, and jump." (this may not be the right wording, but I think you get the idea.)

Let's just say, had I seen that movie before secenerio three happened, I would have come back with this: "You know, your right. How about I relocate to the bottome of a ravine, would that be helpful?"

Just recently I just got a call from the same place asking me if I want to do a forbearance with them. Which basically means they want to put whatever I owe to the end of my pay period, jack up my interest on the loan, and then start the whole stupid cycle again next month. How that's a solution, I will never know, but I digress. So I'm talking with the chick, telling her I can' pay and I'm unemployed. I also told her that I knew my cosigner made plans to do the forbearance, but I wasn't sure when that was happening. She press me to know when I will talk to him, when will the payment come, what am I going to do. I told her I'd get back to her.

"Well we need to know now." She tells me.

I was fed up talking to her. "I have to go now." I tell her.

"What's more important than giving us what you owe."

"Trying not to be a bitch like you?" <----Thinking, that's what I was thinking.

Honestly, knowing that I'm trying for Customer Service jobs, I hope I take away from this experince the knowledge on how not to be a bad one.

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Many to Congratulate!

There were quite a number of people who did things that require some congratulations. First off there were three cousins that graduated this year. Two of them were Knight's kids, Scott (from Irvine) and Jaclyn (from Chinese Christian Bible School). She'll be attend a local JC for a few years before going down to L.A. I think that's a good plan, because it prepares you for what college is like.

Some times I wish it was a requirement to attend JC for a least a year or have like a Grade 13 (like Canadian schools did), because there are just some people who still don't have a clue on how they are to behave. Many of these examples I experinced when attending Ex'pression. Gaggles of girls who don't know how to carry a mature converstation (ie using a lot of swear words and talking valley girl) or guys that will argue with the teach (didn't spend all that money to have you wasting our time with something petty people). But I digress...a lot.

Anyway, from what I hear, Jaclyn will be studing animals, though I don't know what part of Animal Husbandry she will partake in. I inquired as to why she didn't want to go to Davis, being that they had a good aniaml program, but it seems she's insistant that she wants to go to L.A. I'm guessing it's because her two older siblings have/were attending college down that way and she want to experince it too.

The last cousin to graduate is Jimmy's youngest, he graduated from kindergarden.

Another congratulation that went out this day was that one of my cousins is getting married. Henry's oldest, Christopher, is marrying his girlfriend (who's name escapes me at this moment in time...shut up). Most of the family got to hear it first hand. It was during dinner, while people were getting their foold or have already got it. I was one of the ones who was already sitting down and eating when I heard my uncle Jimmy shout for them to hold the news while he call Matilda in. Three things came to mind before I got the real news. Someone's getting married, somone's pregant, someone graduated from something. Being that there was no I could think of who could graduate from any school at this time and nobody could be pregant (Christopher and Karen were the only ones with significant others and don't believe in pre-marridal sex...I think), it had to be someone was getting married...I just wasn't sure who. Eventually my aunt Debbie came out and told us the news.

With so much congratulations being tossed about, it was starting to get confusing on who was suppose to get it. In saying good bye at the party thrown for Jaclyn and Scott, while everyone was congratulating those who deserved, Karen's boyfriend accidently got one. He wasn't sure for what till we meanted he won a game of Majhong (that we taught him and her to play), we decided that's what it was for.

Tomorrow I get to congratulate my friend Jennie on having her first baby. Well...congratulate her again anyway. I can't for the baby shower and seeing all the stuff she'll be getting from people. It's so exciting when you have a friend expecting.

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Great Men I would have Loved to have Met

Through collecting all the Disney Annversary collections that have been coming out in the past couple of years, I've been watching all the be behind scenes of what they'vve done for each movie. And while I watch these documentaries I've discovered there are two men I would have love to have met, had I been born during their life time. One is Walt Disney and the other is Jim Henson.

Where did I get Jim Henson from when watching Disney stuff? By looking back at my childhood and remembering all of his moives and shows I use to watch then.

Why would I want to meet these men? There are a number of reasons as to why. It could be their creativity, or they invent new ways to impress people, or the energy they give when it comes to creating and producing movies that will stand the test of time.

Walt Disney had an eye for seeing a person’s talent, which he would hire for whatever projects he was working. Take Mary Poppins for instances, as he was hiring Julia Andrew for the part of Mary Poppins, he also hired Tony Walton (her husband at the time). Somehow, just by meeting Tony, Walt saw something in this person and Tony to come to him with his portfolio. After looking things over, Walt proceed to hire Tony to work on costume designs and a visual consult for Mary Poppins. He not only known for surprising the world with his ability to successfully produce full length animations, but he was able to astound people with visuals and audio. Visually he would amaze people with the ability to put live people into animation. Through audio, he would invent sounds that would bring something 2-D to life. Together he would shock people with the ability to make robots move, using just sound to plot their movement. But the most important part about Walt Disney is that he had an energy around him that would endear people to him. With patients and hands on work, he could create an atmosphere that could get anyone to go above and beyond their own expectations. People couldn’t help but love him.

Jim Henson brought puppets to life so well, that even adults couldn’t help talking to the puppet and not the puppeteer (or should we say muppeteer). He invented how a muppeteer should walk, in order to make the muppet walk. He too would amaze people with his creative ways of storytelling. Creating puppets to visually show a beautiful fantasy world. He always knew what he wanted and he knew how to encourage people to get it out of them. Jim also had the energy that would attract people to him. His amazing quality about him, was his want to explore outside the box. He didn’t want to be known as just a childe entertainer, but also to bring in the adult audience as well.

Side note: Henson had sold the rights to the Muppets to the Walt Disney Company. I say company, because it would be impossible to have sold it the man himself. This felt like a bad idea to me, because the sale was during the Eisner era of Disney History. I could only imagine that if these two men both lived within the same time of each other, what a team they could make. Perhaps in the following years/eras to come, this union will prove to be truthful to their creators.

It’s saddening that two great men died in the prime of their careers, to not see what they have left for us to enjoy. But rather mourn the loss, I rather celebrate that they lived and gave us something to pass down to generations to come.

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Scammer Take More than Physical Means

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Let me start with asking this rhetorical question, how can scammers sleep at night knowing that they are cheating people out of moneyor putting them further into debt? I mean, sure one could argue about how someone had it coming by trying to make a quick buck without really trying. Someone who falls for the Nigerian Prince wanting you to cash checks for him and make a profit in doing so. Or the ones who think it’s a legit job to cash checks in their bank accounts, take out a fee, and then send the rest to someone else. But what about the ones who are looking for a legit job, in need of a legit job? It's sick to make them believe they have a good job, with a decent amount of pay to get them out of debt. Worse, these people are acatually given work so that the scammer could keep up the ruse long enough to get what they want. I say it's not fair for those people to finally feel relief that everything is alright, only to have the rug yanked out from under them and a pile of rocks dumped on top of them. That's as bad as trick the elderly that they won the lottery and all they have to is pay a small fee to redeem the ticket (most likely their life savings).

Ok, so what do I mean by all this? Well you’re looking at one of those who fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I’m not proud of admitting this, because you'd think I would be smart enough to avoid something like this, but this was pretty well planned. There was enough green flags verses red flags that could kept me on the fence for a week, only to become an emotion wreak when it came to the realization that I’ve been played.

I guess I should lay this all out for you and maybe you can you tell me that I have been to naïve to see it coming.

It all started Tuesday, March 23. I received a reply to one of the many emails, looking for a job. One of the emails told me to get onto yahoo for an interview. This seemed normal, my thought process was that I could be interviewed in this way and then receive a phone call later as the second part of the interviewing process. In the interview he asked me a bunch of questions that I perceived was to see if I was fit for the job. After answering those questions he told me to report back to him the next morning for the second half the interviewing process. I did so and the guy told me that I was to be informed that I was hired. Admittedly, I was ecstatic and that was what probably turned me blind to fact that I might be played. He followed informing me of being hired, that I would be working at home as one of the companies Data Entry/Customer Service Associate. My job function was to take calls from customers, enter their data into a system, and talk about the company to new customers. Then he told me that I was going to be paid $22/hr, per week, for working from 8am-6pm. People pointed out to me that this should have been my first clue, that and that they didn't ask to run a background check on me before considering me for the job. After all, why should they pay me $22/hr for doing something, when I could be paid $12/hr. However, in my own defense, I didn’t truly know how much an at-home person could make and I figured that they were paying me more to incorporate the overtime I would be doing for them.

The name of the company he gave me was called Terranova Styles and he gave me a website to look at, www.terranovastyle.com. At first I didn’t know that this was a retail store based in another country, without an outlet here in the US or without an online cart system. The company itself was legit, it had a Facebook page and reviews in another language (second clue?). I wonder if they know that someone is tainting their good name for a scam?

To tell truth, what I considered my real first clue was the fact that he wanted to send me money to build my ‘home office’. He wanted me to buy a new laptop, fax/scanner/printer, and another phone/fax line. He told me that the reason I was being financed for this was because it was their responsibility to do so. This made me wonder how he wanted to get the money to me. Did he want my bank account so he could deposit the funds to me? I was given a choice to have a direct deposit from into my BoA account or get a money order. Well, being that I didn’t have a BoA account I opted for the money order (even if I did have an account with them, I still would have opted for the money order). I naively didn't see the harm in receiving a money order, because it was like having cash (or so everyone is to believe).

By now, I’m sure I’m getting a few of you people out there shaking your heads, but I didn’t know. In truth I should have asked him to wire me the money, being told that is the most safest way to get money. What didn't make the alarm bells go off in my head was that he didn’t ask for anything in return after I would cash the money order. The usual scams I came across was someone wanting to have you cash a check and then send them the money. But this guy didn’t ask for me to send any money, he was just asking me to build my ‘home office’ with the money he sent and at the store he would send me to. I wouldn’t discover the angle until much later.

Now this is where the scam keeps you guessing. He had me sign a Code of Conduct clause and right away started me doing work for him. My first assignment was to put up ads on Craig’s List, starting with placing an ad for an Administrative job out in NJ/NYC area. When it came to making a payment, he had me on hold as he was talking to ‘Accounting’ (as he put it). However ‘Accounting’ had him on hold for so long that he wrote the day off and told me to report into him the next day. He also told me that he had given my information (nothing more personal than where I live) to ‘Accounting’. Meanwhile, I told my folk that I have a job. I told them that I was to be expecting a check to pay for my ‘home office’ so that I can earn us money to pay off the bills that started to accumulate. Dad said not to get too excited until we got the money order in hand and cashed it. Other than that, everyone was happy to possibly have an income. We believed it to be well timed, because Dad’s temp job ended two weeks early and Mom’s job hours were being cut. At the same time all our bills decided that they wanted to hit at once. If you can excuse the blasphemy, having this good paying job was a god-send.

The next day I check into 'work'. He didn’t have much for me to do until I got my ‘home office’ up, so he gave me ‘busy work’ assignments. It was weird though, because he wanted me to write a essay that was more than 500 words with the topic ‘What is the impact Non-Governmental Organizations have on the Grow and Development of the Economy’. I asked why he wanted me to write an essay and he told me it was suppose to go towards training my organizational skills. He should have thrown in research skills to make it more convincing. In a passed job, I was given nonsense busy work, while waiting for the equipment I need to really work. So I figure that this was no different and I did what I was asked, making sure I was writing my best. To say the least, he was impressed with it the next day and gave me another essay topic to write ‘Corporate Governance as a Panacea to Organizational Development’ (what a joke topic that was). While I was supposed to do this assignment, he finally had me finish putting in the Craig’s List ad from before and gave me a credit card to use. I was to put up another one not long after, sent through via of email, but the email the account had a hold put on it after the credit card was enterented.

It wouldn’t be until that evening that someone stuck the proverbial pin into my bubble about this being a scam. Actually it was for another scam that I was supposedly starting to be a part of, which was the Mystery Shopper. Being naïve as I was, I didn’t think it was a scam due to the fact that I’ve heard of the secret shopper program and didn’t know how they worked. If it wasn’t for that someone alerting me, I think I would have been in deep trouble (thanks guys). They directed me to a page that told me what to look out for. Realizing that Mystery Shopper was going to be a scam, I started to think that maybe this ‘job’ was going to be one too. But I had yet to know what the hook was. Why would they send me money to buy equipment? Sure they could have me buy it all and then send the laptop to them for ‘special software upgrading’, but what about the fax/printer/scanner and phone line? Or they could have me go to a recommended store to spend the money at, and they get a cut somehow, but I’d still be walking away with stuff (granted that I had to pay for back with interest) that would put someone else out as well.

Still, once the seed of doubt was planted, it started to grow and a part of me couldn’t help thinking how much of a fraud this was starting look like. So when I got online with the guy Saturday, when I was suppose to receive the money order, and told him that my bank might not be able to let me cash it right way. I told him that I’ve been with them so long, that they make sure to look out for me. Especially after someone pulled money out of account using a third party account through Wachovia. Replied that if my bank couldn’t do it or if I didn't have a friend who could do it for me, that they had no respect for me and they were obligated to make the funds open to me. So I told him I was worried about fraud. That put him on the defensive there. He said he couldn’t believe that I would accuse his company of fraud. That they would disrespect the company's name and employees in that matter. I admit I backed pedaled a bit, on the off chance that this could really be a job, and told him that there could be a possibility that something might happen to the money order during transit. This was to save face for myself, as well as buy time for my bank to test out the money order. Well I got the money order that day and placed in the bank. I also warned my bank that I believed the money order to be fraudulent, so to keep an eye on it. Again I was on the fence about this, being that what person would go to the trouble of doing a one delivery on a Saturday through Fedex with Priority Mail. However I let doubt set in too well and ended up in tears near the mid-day, when I realized that my family was deeply debt with no job as I had once hoped. It was prompted by fact that the guy text me not too long after I deposited the money to find out if I did the task he sent on and when was I going to be back online so he could tell me where to go to spend the money. While I was replying to him, he texted me again to tell me I had to answer him right way. I lied and told him that the funds won’t be available until Tuesday and that I had call MoneyGram. They told me that the as far as they know, the money order was invalid. I figure if this was legit he would do something about it.

It wasn’t until Monday that it would become apparent on how this scam was supposed to work. I got online to ‘chat’. He forgot that I had already told him when the funds would become available. So I told him again and that I had to call MoneyGram about the money order. He asked me why I would do so. My reply was that I still wanted to authenticate the money order itself, still making it like I wasn’t pointing the finger at him. I had incident where that happened, where someone got my money order and cashed it, then sent off another copy of it in its place. For awhile I hadn’t heard from him, even when I poked him I didn’t get much out of him. When he did talk to me again, it was to ask when the funds were going to be available. I remind him and told him that I was going to call the bank that day, as well as MoneyGram. This didn’t seem to shake him up this time. In the mean time, I asked him what the story was that I was suppose to shop at, so I could go get some pricing.

This is where I found the hook and how he was going get his money out of me. He told me that when the funds became available, he would tell me how I was going to send of payment to a supplier. Once the payment was done, I was to tell him and give him some sort of receipt. Realizing that this was definitely a scam, I collected all the evidence I had about this. I had started saving IMs with him when I started to think fraud, had a copy of the money order, and the envelope the money order came in. I was most glad I saved the credit card information he had given me earlier that week. It was here that I realized that I could get into trouble for put up a Craig’s List ad with this and my contact information should they have any questions. I informed the bank that I was a victim of scam, but they couldn’t do anything about it since it was deposited and the money order on route to their main office. It wouldn't be until they tried to confirm the money order and find it fake, that I can close the account. They told me to keep an eye on the account and wait for it to bounce. They put a note down saying that I was scammed, so they won't make any marks against me and refund money for the bounce money order. Then I went to the police with everything I had. The most interesting piece to them was the credit card information. We also realized that the credit card information was different from the address on the Fedex envelope and that both were different from the person that was my ‘employer’. The police called the card company, which had a hold put on the card for a questionable transaction put upon it. Apparently the card had not been cancel, leading them to believe that the person didn’t know that their card information was stolen. They told the company to be careful as to how they would inform the customer, as that the guy hasn’t caught on that I filed a fraud complaint on him and that there is chance to get more information out of him. Like whom or what this ‘supplier’ was that I was suppose to send the money to. Being that I wasn’t losing any money, it wasn’t considered criminal.

So it comes to today. The first thing the guy asked me when I got on, was when I was going to check to see when the funds would be free to me. I told him my bank wouldn't be open till 10 and I would check when it was. For the next two hours he hounded me about when I was I going to check, what was the time in my area (he was in Maryland). Finally it gets close to 10 and I tell him I will go to the bank to get the funds. Truthfully, I just turned off yahoo messanger for awhile and waited. When I got back on, I told him that I had all the money. He asked if I took out my share. I told him I did and the share needed for the phone line, we agreed that the price I would be sending was 680 to the 'supplier'. Then he told me to go to Western Union, to make out a money order, and gave me the address I was to send it. Then he wanted me to come back to him with the reciept number. To stall, I told him that I wouldn't be able to get back to him until tomorrow. He wasn't happy about that, but what could he do. He went on to tell me that he would text me later on in the day and/or call me. After I got off with him, I called the police to tell them the address. Because the address was out of state, there was nothing more they could do. Their best advice was to keep waiting to see if the money order bounce or not. If somehow it didn't, I could send it back to whomever was on the address. If it did, I could tell him to shove off. Not long after, he sent me texts to know what the status was. I told him I didn't trust this, so I took the money back to the back to wait for the money order to either bounce or not. If it did not bounce, I would send him the money back. He texted again after that, that I needed to reply to text, but I ignored it. This prompted him to call me and I just repeated my text to him. He wasn't too please and told me to be sure I send the money back to the company (wherever that is).

All in all I'm not mad that I got played, because I didn't lose anything except sleep. But the emotional rollercoster I was put on was not needed. I can only imagine someone else, who would be in the same excate spot that I'm in, actually cashing that money order and sending money off to who knows where he'll have them send it next. Then they are sitting by the door, waiting for all the equipment to come...only to receive nothing but a supoena from the bank to replace the funds they pulled out with a fraud money order. If they weren't buried before, they would be now. And if they were buried before, they wouldn't see the day of light for a long time.

So I ask again, how can these people be pleased with themselves when they are out put people futher into debt and playing a cruel joke on those who are jobless in an economy that is unforgiving.

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