Secrets of a Stress Free Retirement
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:17 am
Yesterday's mail had a new iteration of an old scam. It came in a plain white #10 envelope with my name and address printed by a laser printer, no return address and a Forever Stamp that did not have a postmark stamped on it (happens sometimes with presorted mail) so I don't know where it was mailed from or when. I was bored. I opened it instead of chucking it in the recycle bin.
Inside was what appears to be a page torn from a newspaper called Financial News dated a week ago Sunday. The headline article is an advertisement for a book entitled "Secrets of a Stress Free Retirement" by Benjamin Greenhill. To claim your free copy "just call this automated, toll free hotline now at 800-xxx-xxxx." Someone on Amazon is selling the same book: http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Stress-Fr ... 0983082065, but folks will sell everything there. I did notice that, unlike every other newspaper ad I've ever seen in real papers, this "article" was NOT flagged as an ad.
A yellow post-it was attached with a handwritten note. The handwriting screamed "young female":
<my first name>,
Thought you'd be interested!
-- J
The back side of the newspaper appears to be a list of current Mutual Fund prices with "closing prices for yesterday's trading", but the print is pretty low-resolution. For shits and grins I looked up a few of the fund families listed and discovered that, (1) many of the fund families no longer exist under those names, and (2) most of the funds listed no longer exist under those names either. Surprise, surprise.
I typed the book title and author's name into a Google search. Nothing much came up, but I did find several other websites selling used copies of the book, a listing at 800notes.com with people flagging the offer as a scam (everyone gets the same post-it note from the female named "J"), and one legitimate-appearing financial planner's website quoting from the book.
So.... mystery envelope with anonymous personalized message, fake newspaper clipping, anonymous phone line... I'm guessing they're trolling for SUCKER information. Yeppur, just call the number, record your personal information, and sign yourself right up!
No, I didn't call the number. But I may squirt the stamp with lighter fluid to float it off the envelope so I can re-use it. No cancellation mark means it's still OK, right?
Inside was what appears to be a page torn from a newspaper called Financial News dated a week ago Sunday. The headline article is an advertisement for a book entitled "Secrets of a Stress Free Retirement" by Benjamin Greenhill. To claim your free copy "just call this automated, toll free hotline now at 800-xxx-xxxx." Someone on Amazon is selling the same book: http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Stress-Fr ... 0983082065, but folks will sell everything there. I did notice that, unlike every other newspaper ad I've ever seen in real papers, this "article" was NOT flagged as an ad.
A yellow post-it was attached with a handwritten note. The handwriting screamed "young female":
<my first name>,
Thought you'd be interested!
-- J
The back side of the newspaper appears to be a list of current Mutual Fund prices with "closing prices for yesterday's trading", but the print is pretty low-resolution. For shits and grins I looked up a few of the fund families listed and discovered that, (1) many of the fund families no longer exist under those names, and (2) most of the funds listed no longer exist under those names either. Surprise, surprise.
I typed the book title and author's name into a Google search. Nothing much came up, but I did find several other websites selling used copies of the book, a listing at 800notes.com with people flagging the offer as a scam (everyone gets the same post-it note from the female named "J"), and one legitimate-appearing financial planner's website quoting from the book.
So.... mystery envelope with anonymous personalized message, fake newspaper clipping, anonymous phone line... I'm guessing they're trolling for SUCKER information. Yeppur, just call the number, record your personal information, and sign yourself right up!
No, I didn't call the number. But I may squirt the stamp with lighter fluid to float it off the envelope so I can re-use it. No cancellation mark means it's still OK, right?