Note: do not warn me not to give anyone money. I’m not going to and I’m not stupid. I’m looking for thoughts beyond “Don’t give them money!”
This is the weirdest thing ever. I got email claiming to be from the CDO of the Smithsonian, expressing interest in my (utterly pathetic) blog. I assumed it was weird spam and showed it to my husband, but it was in decent English and all the email addresses etc. checked out as real. Completely confused, I responded with a short query for further information and got back a (supposed) offer to feature my blog on the Smithsonian’s blog roll–currently hypothetically in progress. The correspondence is below. It’s so strange–it doesn’t FEEL real, IYKWIM. blogs.smithsonian.com does not exist, but everything else does. I think I’m going to call the real place tomorrow and ask them if they have any idea of what it is. Here’s the correspondence so far, then my thoughts below:
My reply:
Hello,
I’m not sure I understand. Could you explain further please?
OK, so I don’t believe for a minute that anyone would pay me for my blog (don’t bother to warn me not to give out my bank acct #, I know that). Also, I have two blogs–one is just book reviews, and one is actually about American history, but I’m not actually very good at updating it. I cannot see any earthly reason why such an offer could possibly be real, though presumably if it was it would have been sent to about 10,000 people and I just got caught up in the fishing net. But the guy really exists, all the email addresses check out as real, it’s just completely and utterly bizarre.
The “Talking Points” was a docx file attachment, and had no other header or footer.
It’s gotta be a scam, but it’s the oddest one ever. A scam to bilk bookish bloggers out of…what? What the heck?
I guess if the guy really exists call his office and ask to speak to him personally. What the hell. Excuse me, I need to go start a blog about, I don’t know. Gemstones or something. I’ll have to work fast.
The addresses are real, and Bill Allman is the new Chief Digital Officer at the Smithsonian Institution. His tweets bring up the subject of interesting blogs, too.
It does sound kind of scammy, but on the other hand, I think it would be a bit unusual for a scammer to want to have an actual conversation with you.
As far as how it might work as a scam goes, he said they would pay you, so one possibility is that they send you an “advance” in the form of a fake check, realize that - oops! - they sent you too much, and ask you to send back the difference.
Have you checked the “properties” of the word file to see if there is anything interesting there?
I would recommend getting in contact with the Smithsonian through another means, and attempt to navigate to the department responsible for this through that route.
I found
which has several ways to contact the Smithsonian. You could also consult a phone book for DC if you can find it.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a scam (although I’ve been wrong before).
What I think it is, is a way to create an apparent wealth of rich content on their domain, that they can then monetize by laying it alongside ads, etc.
Then they pay you a slice of the income from that. This may or may not exceed what you could earn on your own (because the aggregation of all this stuff may drive more traffic to it).
ETA: So…
Check it out by contacting them directly
if it’s genuine, find out what rights they want you to surrender (i.e. can you publish the same content on another completely separate blog?)
The URL smithsonian.com re-directs to Smithsonian Magazine, not to the institution itself. I don’t know if that means anything, but I just thought I’d throw that out there.
I’ve spent a little time on the phone now, but it’s quite frustrating dealing with a place that big, of course. Three people didn’t know what to do with me and once I wound up at their internal tech support. Anyway, somebody transferred me to Bill Allman’s desk, and of course he didn’t actually answer, but the voicemail message gave the same email address I’ve been getting mail from. Unless he’s been hacked, I’m really getting email from the guy. O_o
It’s sounding like this might be real, though I still am not sure.
A few things to consider trying:
How close are you to DC? Can you ask for an appointment to stop by and visit Bill Allman @ his office?
Ask for the first few payments to be by check, and DON’T spend the money for months. Take the check and contact the Smithsonian directly and ask for accounting and ask to verify the check against the ledger.
Don’t take a check that looks like it comes from a third party (“Oh, the check is from IBM because we have a grant from them to research social media opportunities… yeah.”), postal money orders, or other similarly suspicious financial instruments.
Don’t give them your banking details (Say “NO” to Direct Deposit, or ONLY give your direct deposit information directly to the Smithsonian accounting department that you contacted independently, not to “BillAllmanSI@hotmail.com”, or even an si.edu address in case it’s been hacked)
If he overpays you, don’t wire back the funds by Western Union! Contact your bank to get the original transaction reversed or contact an attorney or the police.
“I’m sorry, it seems that your first payment of $1045.43 was accidentally processed for $2045.43. It is important that this be rectified immediately or I will be in trouble with my supervisor. Could you please wire back the extra thousand dollars to be by Western Union? You can keep $50 out of that as an inconvenience fee and to cover Western Union’s fees, I will cover that out of my pocket as payment for my ineptness. Thanks.”
Got a reply from him. I’m starting to think it’s actually legit. :eek: He wants to talk early next week, which will help–I now know the real voice from the voicemail message from when I called the Smithsonian myself, so I’ll be able to recognize it. Or I can ask to call him, and if he gives me a different number than the one I’ve already got, I’ll know something’s up.
I’m sure any money involved would be in the pennies and be revenue from ads, as Mangetout thinks. Obviously I wouldn’t cash any cashier’s checks or do anything dumb!
robert_columbia, I live in California, so there’s no chance of dropping in on him.
If this is real, it would be an interesting thing to do. No one reads my blog now–I certainly don’t make any money from it!–and so I’m not very motivated to post on it. It’s a project where I read primary sources from American history, and I’ve said right out that American history is my worst subject, so maybe that’s supposed to have appeal. If it works out, my friend who designed my background and has a little business in it will die. As will my mother, because I’ll be able to promote her favorite unsung California pioneer, John Bidwell. (You’ve never heard of him because he didn’t name anything after himself, unlike most of 'em. He was an amazing guy though and played a big part in CA history.)
This is one of the most random things that has ever happened to me.
Here’s an idea that might help reassure you. Bear in mind that I don’t know much about scammers except I had two try to rip me off recently (didn’t work, I’m not stupid). Have Bill Allman give you the name of a person who works at the Smithsonian for you to check up with. Then you can search out this person’s phone number or email online instead of him giving it to you. That way it’s been verified by a third party. If he is legit I can’t see him being upset with you wanting to be cautious. Just be polite about it: “I’ve heard so many stories about scammers online and I just want to feel confident before I move forward with this.” If he backs away from this then you’ll know to continue to be cautious.
Take it from a random netizen who happens to work two offices down from Bill: It’s legit. Smithsonian magazine is ramping up its interesting blog content, which led Bill to a search for interesting bloggers and ultimately to you.
Perhaps the best way to put your mind at ease would be to call the Institution’s public inquiry phone number and ask for Bill. I hesitate to provide the link for this lest you suspect that I’m feeding you a bogus URL. The number can be found on the Institution’s website, however.
The Smithsonian’s actual website is at www.si.edu. Smithsonian Magazine (as has been mentioned, www.smithsonianmag.com) and the Smithsonian’s other commercial ventures are separate enterprises.
Thanks, RavingMad. I did call in that way this morning, and now I have an appointment for him to call me on Monday. Since the only way for him to have my phone number is from the voicemail I left, I’m now pretty sure the whole thing is legit. (So I hope he won’t mind that I posted all this; I was just so sure it was a scam…who gets email like this?)
OK, so legit, but completely unbelievable. I own what must be the most obscure blog on the Internet. The prospect of being catapulted to very minor fame through the Smithsonian is utterly gobsmacking. Such are the strange ways of the Internet, I suppose.
