I am ashamed to say I fell for flattery. I received a letter in the mail saying I had been nominated for Who's Who Stanford, a prodigious award, and would I fill out a form to see if I qualified. I was a little unsure at this time but filled it out and sent it back. A week later I received a phone call interview. A charming young lady called Jessica Byon interviewed me about my businesss and my life. She did an extensive interview asking me all my achievements and awards and all about my life. I was very flattered, and she was warm and full of compliments about how much I had achieved and how talented I was, and I fell for it totally. After this long interview she said "congratulations you have been accepted to be in the book of Who's Who Stanford. She explained that this would be a great networking tool for my business . She would be sending me the book and masses of other freebees. she outlined them one by one . Then she said did I want to join at the Gold or the Platinum level. The Gold was for 5 years and cost $600.00 and the Platimum was for life and included two free tickets to anywhere in the world, and lots of other goodies and was $900.00. I had a tiny slump in feeling when I heard the money come up, as until then I had totally believed this was an award I was being given. But I thought , airline tickets are worth a lot and I didn't want to hurt her feelings as she was so nice ,and she wanted my visa, so I didn't have to come up with the money right then, so impulsively gave her all the numbers on my visa. I hung up the phone took a breath ,and ran into my mother and said. "I think I was just scammed." I went right back and immediately phoned up Jessica Byan and said. "I have changed my mind." She said "Oh it has already gone through, and some one else will call you to change things. I cannot do it." I said . "It can't have gone through I only hung up five minutes ago." " I will tell them to call you back right away". she said. I waited, and after an hour I called her back. "I do not want to be in the book or have any of your gifts" I said. "I want my money back." "Oh haven't they called you?" she said. "I will run over and tell them to call right away." No One called, and I had to leave by noon, and when I returned there was a message from a Blake Davis leaving his number.
I could not get hold of him, as it was too late that day, and I went on line and typed in Who's Who Stanford. Up came many stories about people who had fallen for the same scam I had. The next morning I phoned early and I finally got hold of Blake Davis. He told me that there was no way I could back out. The money had gone through and the books had been sent. I said he couldn't have sent the books, he didn't have time to write my bio into it yet. I would mail back all of his gifts. All he would give me, was a deal where I only had to pay $600. He said this was compromising with me. I told him I did not want to pay him $1.00. I did not want to be in his book or receive any of his gifts. I wanted out. I had called to cancel within ten minutes of signing up and there was a cooling-down law that said I had 3 days to change my mind about any amount over $25.00 He said I had had lots of chances in the last five minutes of my talk with Jessica to change my mind, and he read my back my recorded conversation with Jessica again. I said I had been flattered and manipulated and it was impulsive and I had not been given a chance to think it through. I did not have the money and wanted to cancel. He was very angry and told me the sale was final and I had no recourse. Several times during the conversation he was angry because he said I was not letting him talk, and if I interupted him he would hang up the phone. and so I was quiet and he told me again blow by blow what I had said in the last few minutes of my conversation with Jessica. I said it did not matter what I had said. I had been manipulated with flattery and had changed my mind. I asked to talk to his supervisor and he told me he was the supervisor. He told me the conversation was over and hung up the phone.
I called the visa company. They said the $900 had been put in the day before right while I was talking to Jessica, but it had not been posted. I immediately canceled my credit card, and he said he would try and stop it from being posted but it might not be possible , as it might follow my new card.
That is where I am now. I have to wait until my next billing to see if it is posted.
I believe these two have a scam going, where they get names from Linked in and face book and send them letters .She flatters and he gets angry when people try to cancel. I believe there is a book full of the suckers they have caught in their web, but there is very little value in this book other than a get rich scheme for Jessica and Blake. Cordially Susan
|
