So, I moved to Orlando in May, so it’s been a few months but I rarely get mail down here. I get my bank statement, my credit card bill, and that’s about it.
Today I check the mail and discover an innocuous envelope to me, I was suspicious since it read “Patrick Jarrett or Current Resident” as I opened it the headline set off alarms but curiosity forced me to continue. The page wasn’t professionally printed, it was quite obviously off of a copier.
Here is the letter:
That’s how it begins. It goes on to explain that this guy ended up making $2 million off of this little trick. So how does it work?
At the end of the letter are six people’s names and addresses. You send them $1 and ask to be added to their mailing list (I’ll explain the purpose of that in a moment.) Then you order a mailing list from this company “Quality Services” in Phoenix AZ and shift the addresses at the end, removing the first of the six names and adding yours to the end of the six.
So they say in the letter that of the 200 you send, fifteen will respond. So with your name in the 6 spot, you get $15. Then they shift the names and send their 200 letters. So with your name in the 5 spot, and with each of those 200 having 15 responding, you’re getting $225 (15^2). This continues on until you’re receiving in excess of $750,000 before your name shifts off the list.
So the rub is that your 200 names come from a company in AZ and the list of 200 costs you $45. So you are investing $45 for the list, $78 for stamps, then you need to make copies and get envelopes, in the end you’re investing ~$175 for it.
It’s a pyramid scheme and somehow this company got my name.
So like any good web geek I hit up the Phoenix AZ BBB and here is their page: QUALITY ENTREPRENEURIAL SERVICES, INC. – it isn’t pretty.
A key point is the following:
Here is their business webpage. – I’m emailing them asking them to remove me from this mailing list, we’ll see how it goes.
On their site I got their email address and sent them an email requesting to be removed from their mailing lists, and as per the BBB web page I am going to be putting the letter back in its pretty envelope and taking it down to the post office to report it.
The email I sent them is as follows:
I had to pull the email up to copy and paste it here, and when I did I got a notice from the mail server that my email couldn’t be delivered because their mailbox was full.
The BBB has a phone number for me to try, I’ll see if that will work. This could be fun! I’ll keep you posted as I, a lone gunman in a rotten world, take on the evil business seeking to steal money from the clueless and desperate.
– IG
