A friend of mine works in human resources at a large insurance company. One of their employees presented his supervisor with official-looking orders that would activate his Army Reserve unit. The orders called for him to be gone for three weeks. Of course, this insurance company pays the wages of any employee on leave for short-term military service. Something didn’t seem right and it nagged at the supervior’s mind, so she called up the local reserve unit and inquired about this employee. You guessed it! The orders were fake. After the employee was gone for 4 days, they managed to track him down and get him into the office where he was promptly fired.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there are people in the world this vile.
The best course of action, IMO, would be to enlist him in the In-FUN-try, tell his Drill Instructors the stunt he tried to pull and let Nature take its course…
Nice guy.
Wonder if he knows the guy here in Baltimore who dummied up a Red Cross ID card and went door-to-door soliciting donations. He managed to get about $9 before being arrested.
I work in the fraud unit of a credit card company and thought I’d heard everything…
Until Now…
There is a company out there calling people and asking for donations to the Red Cross. Small problem…
The Red Cross DOESN’T make outgoing calls. Some bastards who commit telemarketing fraud have started to use the WTC tragedy.
Being forced to have unlubed phones crammed up their ass while they listen to karaoke versions of Macarena sang by the offense line of the Chicago Bears, while having their genitals gnawed by crackaddled badgers…well that would be a good starting point.
Yep, heard that one too. For the love of god, people, THINK before you hand over an account number or a social security number. Know who you are giving out that information too. Question them if you have any doubts
I get a similar feeling from a few radio commercials I’ve heard in the last week, though to a lesser degree.
These commercials generally run something like this:
[quiet, somber background music. Usually piano soloist.]
“The owners and employees of (insert company here) would like to take this time to express our condolences to the family and friends of those killed in the recent tragedies. Our hearts and our prayers are with you…” etc. etc. ad nausaeum. (no pun intended.)
One such commercial even went so far as to point out that they weren’t pimping their product.
What they WANT me to think: “Wow, these guys spent x number of advertising dollars to express their condolences! They really CARE!”
What I end up thinking: “Wow, these guys spent x number of advertising dollars to express their condolences! They really want me to THINK they care, so I’ll buy stuff from them!”
I understand that feeling apotheosis, and I think that it’s not entirely unwarranted. I’m in a similar situation (on a much smaller scale) with the company that I direct advertising for. In one situation, we have a space paid for that normally runs an ad, in a loop. It seemed inappropriate to run that ad or any ad for a while given recent events. We replaced it with a simple message stating our thoughts were with rescue workers and the victims and their families, and a the web address for the red cross.
Now, I know that everyone knows the red cross website by now, and that this could be interpreted as a cynical attempt to curry favor with an audience, but in at least this case, know that there was much soul-searching and we decided to communicate a message of grief rather than run nothing at all. There have been many people (employees, business associates, random strangers we don’t know) even calling to say thanks, that it somehow brightened their day or made them feel good about their city and country. I am glad of this, because it was entirely a personal statement- we just happened to be using business resources to say it.
Similarly, a lot of these companies have paid for this space many moons ago, and are trying to use it in as discreet and helpful a manner as is possible. I think it makes the employees of the company feel better, and I think it is a responsible use of funds. If people choose to be cynical it is their right, of course, and I am not so naive as to think that PR and such never enters into the equation, but I am willing to give most people the benefit of the doubt. Marketing people are trying to deal with this just like everyone else.
I understand. And I don’t intend to make a blanket accusation against the entire industry…heck, I work in marketing, albeit as a web designer. (Of course, I’ve convinced my mother that I clean the viewing booths in the local porn shop; the truth would only break her heart. )
I just feel that a heartfelt, emotional and/or charitable sentiment would gain legitimacy by downplaying the role of the company involved. Example: Paul Newman donates a healthy portion of the proceeds from the sales of his salad dressings & such to a charity…but the only indication of this is a small-print mention on the back of the containers.
As I said, I’m a cynic. I’m also a capitalist pig, so I fully appreciate the importance of spending a dollar wisely; in this case it just seems rather…ghoulish, IYKWIM.
I’m getting huge amounts of spam from an outfit called “optinrealbig.com” that claims to be soliciting for the Red Cross. I have to send them the money, or give them my credit card numbers, and they’ll send the money to the Red Cross. Yeah right. Do they seriously expect me to believe them?
Get the ip address that connected to your mailserver. (Should all be in the mail headers after ‘received from’)
Get the owners of that ip block using a whois program. It will usually be an ISP hosting that block that resells it.
Contact their abuse department. I’m sure they won’t be in the mood to be nice.
Unless you get lucky and the ip block is owned by a company in singapore.
Last night, I began receiving pornographic spam on my Hotmail account with various subject lines such as, “THE TRAGEDY.”
When our civil liberties are masticated into a goopy spitball, and they will be, these sorts of fuckers are going to be the first against the wall. Just ahead of me.
)