Pretty slow in here for a Friday morning. I'm sure it's the rain. This is definitely one of those mornings when I'd much rather be in bed.

I had a strange interaction with a customer: I got an email yesterday that had been sent to our general "contact us" address from the website, from someone wanting to place a help wanted ad. It was one of those "work from home" type deals, which I loathe because I'm certain that more often than not, they're a scam. I emailed back the details and asked for their info and payment. I got an email back with a Ware, MA address, and a credit card number, but no phone. I emailed back asking for a phone number, and this morning I got a call from one of those relay services usually used by the hearing-impaired. The relay person was kind of snippy and condescending to me, which didn't help, but the customer gave me a phone number that wasn't valid (too many digits) so I asked for a MA number, since the address they gave me was in MA. They then gave me a MA number, but a new address. Ding ding ding! That's a classic sign of fraud. I said that I'm sorry, but I cannot accept this ad because it has too many signs of fraud, and the relay person tells me that they had disconnected. I said that confirms my suspicion, thank you very much! Sheesh. I'll bet it was a stolen credit card; that's usually the case in things like this.

I find it interesting, to go off on a tangent here, that a few of the network ads we get say to not run certain ads in certain states ("do not run in MD, SD," etc.), and I wonder of those states have more aware Attorneys General or something. They certainly make me suspicious. We get mostly the same ads every week, though, so there must be an awful lot of suckers out there. I just want to say that I highly doubt you can make $5K a week stuffing envelopes/ making angel pins/ CD cases/ etc...

I get some strange ads sometimes. Once, someone was looking for psychics and ghost hunters, presumably for a documentary. Late Friday afternoon, I got one from a dude in Savannah Georgia, looking for short stories for his website. Being a short story writer myself, I was curious. His website is here; I was a little taken aback by his emphasis on posting photos of the authors. Of course, there's no payment involved. Sounds a wee bit fishy to me, but whatever. He might just be what he says he is: someone who enjoys short fiction, and wants to share other authors' work online.

If you're wondering why a dude in GA would place an ad in a fairly obscure, western MA paper, he said he was originally from this area. He certainly has the accent.

***

I got an email from my sister this morning, saying that her divorce was yesterday. Poor kid: she's feeling a bit blue and battered about it. I wish I could give her a hug. I'm glad she's got Willow there and Mom nearby.

She told me last weekend that her ex is buying a house with the chick who lives in the other apartment in the two-family he's been living in. She said she wasn't bothered by it, but I think that was a bluff.

It's too bad that he turned out to be such a jerk; I really like his family. Fortunately, they've been great to Kathy, even taking her out to dinner for her birthday (which she shares with his dad). They always included me in family stuff when I first moved to Boston, and my parents were still in NY. I still get xmas cards from them. I miss seeing them at xmas & Easter. I miss seeing the kids, too. I'm glad Willow is close with her cousins.

Sigh...