Strange Approach
So today at work I received sort of a cryptic letter.
The envelope was stamped (not metered), and my address appears to have been printed on a high-end dot-matrix printer (as distinguished from the old-school 9 pin blocky text ones).
Inside was a two page advertisement (front and back) ripped from a magazine called Executive Focus, which sings the praises of a monthly newsletter entitled The Organized Executive.
Attached to the magazine page was a sticky note with the following handwritten text:
Admittedly, I spent a couple of hours (between all the real work I actually get paid to do) trying to figure out which old director or VP had sent me this article.
. . . That is, until I decided to search for Executive Focus magazine, to determine the source. I quickly determined that there is no such magazine, and, as a nagging voice in the back of my head had been suggesting, this was a very elaborate mail scam.
I have to say, 1. I was fooled, and 2. I'm almost impressed. Like I said, real stamp, "real" fake magazine page (complete with issue date, page numbers, and torn edge), and real sticky note complete with personalized handwritten message.
Sure it's deceptive, misleading, and downright sneaky, but first of all the company paid the price of a stamp — one thing that will forever elevate junk postal mail above spam email by at least perhaps one measly little level of hell, in my opinion — if you buy the paper and the stamp, you can do whatever with it you want, to some degree. And secondly, a lot of people went to a lot of trouble to design, write, print, address, and hand-sticky-note these things (also leaps and bounds above the typically poorly laid out an non-spell-checked spam I'm so plagued by).
And then there's that aspect where just for a second, at least, I thought someone was thinking about me, and even when finding out that the letter was a fraud, that feeling wasn't entirely extinguished. Embarrassing, but true. Take the love where you can get it, I say. . . .
* * *
Proof that the web is a very very messed up place — found during a Google search for mustard seed today:
Not sure what that's all about.
The envelope was stamped (not metered), and my address appears to have been printed on a high-end dot-matrix printer (as distinguished from the old-school 9 pin blocky text ones).
Inside was a two page advertisement (front and back) ripped from a magazine called Executive Focus, which sings the praises of a monthly newsletter entitled The Organized Executive.
Attached to the magazine page was a sticky note with the following handwritten text:
Matt,
Try this.
It's really good!
— A.
Admittedly, I spent a couple of hours (between all the real work I actually get paid to do) trying to figure out which old director or VP had sent me this article.
. . . That is, until I decided to search for Executive Focus magazine, to determine the source. I quickly determined that there is no such magazine, and, as a nagging voice in the back of my head had been suggesting, this was a very elaborate mail scam.
I have to say, 1. I was fooled, and 2. I'm almost impressed. Like I said, real stamp, "real" fake magazine page (complete with issue date, page numbers, and torn edge), and real sticky note complete with personalized handwritten message.
Sure it's deceptive, misleading, and downright sneaky, but first of all the company paid the price of a stamp — one thing that will forever elevate junk postal mail above spam email by at least perhaps one measly little level of hell, in my opinion — if you buy the paper and the stamp, you can do whatever with it you want, to some degree. And secondly, a lot of people went to a lot of trouble to design, write, print, address, and hand-sticky-note these things (also leaps and bounds above the typically poorly laid out an non-spell-checked spam I'm so plagued by).
And then there's that aspect where just for a second, at least, I thought someone was thinking about me, and even when finding out that the letter was a fraud, that feeling wasn't entirely extinguished. Embarrassing, but true. Take the love where you can get it, I say. . . .
* * *
Proof that the web is a very very messed up place — found during a Google search for mustard seed today:
mustard seed picture
... No fuseaction was declared. "How shall we picture the kingdom of God?It is like
a mustard seed"MARK 4: 30-32. Copyright © 2002 Mustard Seed Foundation. ...
www.canadianhealthnetwork.org/ free-child-incest-pic.htm – Similar pages
Not sure what that's all about.