Chain Letter and a Pyramid Scam

The other day I got a rather stuffed letter in the mail. It was from someone in Tennessee that I have never heard of. I do have relatives there and thought they might be sending me something. Much to my shock it was not from a relative, but a total stranger, he sent me a chain letter.

Not just any chain letter, this was also a pyramid scam. Yet they tried to tell me it was not a scam. I mean the top of the letter clearly states "AS SEEN ON OPRAH & 20/20." Well I guess I'm wrong this can't be a bad thing, yet I still think this is a scam. Then I read on "THIS IS NOT A PYRAMID SCAM." Well if the letter says so then it must be legit.

The whole basis of this scam is you send six dollars (one dollar each) to six people. Then you mail out this letter to six people, put your name in the 6th spot and bam! You're making money. Yet there is another rub in this ruse to make even more money you send away for a set of labels so you don't have to bother your friends. It only cost forty-five dollars. Hey, they have a story in here about how some fifteen year old made a quarter of a million I mean I must be able to.

This letter is full of testimonial with names, but not one name from the person who created it. That should have been this guys first clue that this was a scam. If someone won't give you their name, then it's not legit.

The most interesting part of this letters is a diagram in the letter. With the 200 names you will make fifteen dollars then in turn those 15 send out more letters and from the new people you will get $225 and so forth and so forth. Here is the money breakdown in the letter:

$15.00

$225.00

$3,375.00

$50,625.00

$759,375.00

$813,615.00

In no way at all that could be a pyramid. I mean the top is flat so it's more like a rumbas and those aren't illegal. How has this not been stopped yet? Then on top of it who is falling for this scam? With the Internet all you have to do is type in datalineone into Google and the second and third listing are about how this is a scam.

I know times are tough, cheap get money quick schemes are not the answer. You just have to be smart about money. Then a few friends and I were discussing pyramid scams. The best place to be in one of this is right below the guy who started it. You are not fully at fault and he gets all the blame. Of course non of us wanted to be that guy so I guess our get rich quick plan won't work. I guess it's back to trying to make a living.

Craigslist

Since my demise from news I have used craigslist the most to find jobs. Monster and Careerbuilder do not really have any TV jobs and TVjobs.com usually doesn't have too many decent market listings for photojournalists and I don't feel like paying for it. Most of the listings are not the best work in the world, but sometimes you find one that is not that bad, like this one;

Seeking reliable, enthusiastic, motivated, people wanting to work as sports
videographer for The ReelAthletes.com.

The ReelAthletes.com is a full service media production company that
provides professional video taping services for all sports.

Videographer needed must have 3ccd camera mini dv format and tripods please
detail your experience and equipment. Hourly earnings $15-$25 per hour Please
send contact information to set up interviews in Raleigh NC if interested.

Not a lot of money, but after looking at the website I could do this. I may only make $50 a gig, but it appears to be easy work. I apply and as usual I have not heard anything back.

That's not the main reason I'm posting. It's more of the idiots that post something insulting to the original poster:

Are you serious? You expect someone to provide their own equipment for $25
per hour, with no minimum guarantee? So a person is supposed to tie up their
entire day even if the event is two hours - meaning you will only make maximum
$50?????? You are NUTS!!!!!! Nothing professional about your organization
as anyone in the business knows a good videographer with equipment costs minimum
$300 per day. GET A LIFE and quit looking for slave labor!!!!!!! Craigslist is
becoming nothing more then bottom feeders using the high unemployment for their
gain!!!!!!

I did not change a thing from either post, the response guy needs to shut up in my opinion. While working in news I did not make $25 an hour. If he would have actually gone to the website he would have seen they are not looking for high end. I'm getting tired of the two extremes of craigslist; the guys who want you to work for nothing and the self righteous jerks that think every job should cost a minimum of $300 an hour/day/minute. I would love to make $50 for two hours of work that I can do in my sleep. I get three of those a week that's an electric bill. If one school has a couple of kids, and bang them out all at once then you have a car payment for The Wife.

I love the fact that $15 an hour is slave labor, last time I checked that's about 2.5 times minimum wage. I can't make that working at Kohl's... trust me I tried. I love how people throw that phrase around in situations like this. Would I like to make $300 a day... YEAH, but I'm going to take whatever I can that will not cost us more in the long run. Response guy needs to find out how good a $300 dollar a day job is and leave the one who are struggling to decide whether or not 15-25 and hour is good enough.

Rick Rolled?

I was visiting one of my favorite photographer message board and someone had a Youtube link to story he had shot. He loved it and wanted to know what we thought. The link led to the above video, supposedly we got "Rick Rolled." I guess it's the new fun web prank, you tell someone about something cool on Youtube and when you get there, you get Rick Astley. I can't figure out why this is funny. The video on Youtube has over 7 million hits, so there has to be a lot of people doing this. Maybe I'm out of touch, maybe it's actually because I remember when the song was a hit. To me this is on the level of chain letters, bad photoshoped pictures and guys saying "pull my finger." Please explain to me why this is funny? It's a fair song with a crappy 80s video. Wouldn't Flock of Seagulls I Ran be better how about Men Without Hats Safety Dance and my personal choice Snap! I Got The Power. You can be Snapped or Got Powered. This is getting kind of hectic and if I get Rick Rolled again or I will attack you don't want that.

Update; the above video is not working, I guess the Rick Roll people want you to ask for permission to embed the video. How about no, if you want go watch it, I just don't want to encourage them any more than I have to.

Black Friday

Since I worked night side on Thanksgiving I had to do the obligatory "the next day is black Fiday" story. Yet, there was twist to how Raleigh does this evilest of days. There's an outlet mall in Smithfield that opens it's doors at midnight.

As a lot of you know I hate people, I know it sounds odd to have a news person hate people, but when you get a large group together generally everyone act like idiots when there is a camera nearby. This makes my job a little harder... "put me on TV man, I want to give a shout out." I heard that 10 times last night.

I've been to these kinds of openings at Targets and Wal-Marts in the past, but the amount of people was ridiculous. Yankee Candle opened at 9:30 and there was a line 300 people deep, for a store that can only take 30 people in at a time. The Nike Store was double that, if not more. I don't understand why you want to leave your family in the middle of the day and go and wait outside a store for it to open just to get a decent deal. I don't like large crowds, I get a little claustrophobic and I get uncomfortable. To me I'd rather pay a little more and not deal with the crowd.