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Well, after a couple of weeks, an impressive-looking big brown
envelope came. I was so excited to open it up. Inside, I found
one gray folder with 35 sheets of almost blank pages. The
contents were printed only on one side of the paper, and triple
spaced (not double spaced, but triple!). A motivational line
saying “Years of Success and Profits for Joshua Moses” was
printed on the cover as well as in the footer of every page.
Flattering and motivating, isn’t it? It sounded sincere, too.
The whole “booklet” was a listing of companies, with addresses
and telephone numbers, operating in the whole state (triple
spaced between company names to increase the number of pages).
Thirty-five sheets of photocopied addresses and phone numbers,
which I can easily find in the phone book and yellow page
directories. If the lay-out was more compressed, the whole
booklet would be no more than 10 pages.
The introduction page described the hard work done by their
research staff compiling the list; but quick to say that the
research company is not in any way connected or related to the
companies listed on the supposed ‘hot list.’ Another page showed
a copyright protection and an ISDN number for “The Broughton
Hall 1998”. It sounded like the job was done by encyclopedia
research students.
There were some instructions on how to use the list -- basically
you have to contact each company and directly offer your typing
services. This is so different from my initial expectations
about the work opportunity offered by the advertisement. I
thought that the company will give me typing jobs directly, and
that I will get paid after job completion. But instead, I would
have to solicit for the typing jobs myself! There are no
guarantees that the contacted company would in fact need typing
services from an outside contractor like you. If you interpret
it deeper, it sounds like, “we got your money, s….r, now, you’re
on your own. Good luck -- you really need it!”
There was a note of thanks from the publisher, but we cannot
find the name. No name, no address, no phone, nothing. But why
bother to put the company name, after all -- why should they
invite more attention or give you the benefit of reverting to
them to complain about your dissatisfaction and ask for
reimbursement.
Meanwhile, still curious, we tried contacting some companies on
the list on the remote possibility that they might indeed be
looking for a extra typing hand. True to our expectations, not
one of these companies know the existence of this list; and they
are not hiring and do not need additional typists. Instead of
spending your hard-earned money on scams like these, just go get
the yellow pages.
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