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Wizard, the best person to ask is Papa Moose, but I believe from correspondence years ago, Kathleen Bellamy is 4 real Posts: 2425 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I've whistled your post, Steve (to bring it to Pop's attention, not because I thought there was something objectionable about your post).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Kathleen Bellamy is OSC's personal assistant, and she does have an aol e-mail address. If you want to ask me via e-mail, I can verify whether or not the e-mail is actually hers, but I have difficulty imagining someone would impersonate her.
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I got a message like that too. My mail service says it's junk, but that's because I told it to say that for any unknown messenger. Is it junk for real?
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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Unless you're in the witness protection program, I think it's to your benefit to treat it as real.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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BlueWizard just wanted to show off that he got an email about OSC. Wanted to see if anybody else got one.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I'm VERY paranoid about the internet. And email. The great thing about the web is that anyone can read what you write, but the scary thing is that ANYONE can read what you write. And the other scary thing is that ANYONE can make himself look like ANYONE. So yes, along with my adoration for the information superhighway and all that it has accomplished, I find myself very apprehensive about using it for anything personal. I was even conflicted about posting my Brawl friend code on the Wii Gaming thread! Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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I know that con artists can be pretty cunning, but I've never heard of a, "hack into a famous author's site to access the email addresses of several posters, wait until they offer input for his next novel, then pose as his assistant to trick then into giving their home addresses, by pretending to offer them a free book for their help" scam.
If anyone's going to go to that much trouble, the least they could do is ask for a credit card number as well!
But seriously, yeah, those who have been sent books in the past for helping have gotten similar emails before. It's legit.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Yeah, I got that Email. As soon as I got it, I emailed Mrs. Card through her contact email listed on this site to verify and got a reply in a matter of minutes... The punctuality of our friendly Hatrack staff never ceases to amaze me!
Posts: 636 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Got one too. Wow OSC is giving out alot of free copies. That can't be too good for business.
BTW, what scam can be done with a name and address? It's not like it's something that can't be found in a phone book or a simple search.
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I've emailed back and forth with Kathleen Bellamy a few times. She is who she says she is, and is super-nice and helpful!
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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But even if I found that information, what scam can I pull off with that? And I didn't mean I can find a specific person's information, but if you can scam someone with their number, address, and name then you can scam anyone in the yellow pages, and since all Kathleen Bellamy was asking for was name and address, what scam could she possibly be trying?
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I could scam all hatrackers adresses, then steal all thier mail, then use there bank accounts to make a large money fueled takeover of Canada.... and once i work out the kinks it's gunna happen!
And that is why you don't give out you adress!
Posts: 549 | Registered: Feb 2008
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I can't imagine taking over Canada would take a massive effort. Six armed guys in the back of a pickup should do the trick. Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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GaalDornick said: "...and since all Kathleen Bellamy was asking for was name and address, what scam could she possibly be trying?"
And is that the same message you give your kids????
Don't worry, just give out your name, address, and possibly telephone number because, after all, the bad guys can get that information from the phone book.
The potential scam could be anything -- revenge for some perceive offensive statement on-line, identity theft, psycho-axe-murder plot, SPAM, unrequited love, or any number of things.
Regardless of whether a scam can or can't be perpetrated on the Internet, the rule is NEVER give out personal information unless you know with absolute certainty who are are giving it to and what their motive is.
quote:Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer:
quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: Got one too. Wow OSC is giving out alot of free copies. That can't be too good for business.
BTW, what scam can be done with a name and address? It's not like it's something that can't be found in a phone book or a simple search.
I challenge you to find the phone number for C3PO the Dragon Slayer in your Yellow Pages.
Though in his column writing OSC may appear, well, curmudgeony, in real life OSC is a very decent man who truly cares about his fans. He is probably the most generous person I've met, and in his own church community (through which I met him in the first place) tries his best to be "regular in decent in all his ways" (to quote Huck Finn.)
quote: I wonder if there's any relation between her and Chris Bellamy, the film reviewer on IGMS.
IIRC, Chris is Kathleen's son.
Posts: 786 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer:
quote:Originally posted by GaalDornick: Got one too. Wow OSC is giving out alot of free copies. That can't be too good for business.
BTW, what scam can be done with a name and address? It's not like it's something that can't be found in a phone book or a simple search.
I challenge you to find the phone number for C3PO the Dragon Slayer in your Yellow Pages.
Though in his column writing OSC may appear, well, curmudgeony, in real life OSC is a very decent man who truly cares about his fans. He is probably the most generous person I've met, and in his own church community (through which I met him in the first place) tries his best to be "regular in decent in all his ways" (to quote Huck Finn.)
I don't really understand what your post has to do with what you quoted. Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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The way I understood it was that you were saying that he's not being "careful" by withhold his name and address. Maybe something more like overly-cautious (that's just my opinion, not what you said).
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I don't often agree with BlueWizard, but I do on this. Verifying that the person who is asking for your address and full name is legit seems like perfectly reasonable caution to me.
Then again, I'm the person who verified that Ralphie was legit, so what do I know. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Not for any useful definition of the word 'careful', but it's certainly your right to do so.
Yeah, sorry JT, don't have a clue what you are referring to.
Though, I speculate...
It seems to be a very useful definition of 'careful'. Once again, I ask, is this what you tell your kids, 'just go ahead and give out your personal information, after all, they can just look in the phone book'?
I mean, it could have been someone selling time-shares who would have eventually gotten my phone number and inundated me with calls to come to a free lecture and receive a free toaster just for listening to a the presentation.
Now that wouldn't have been terrible if they were willing to take NO for an answer, but the keep calling and calling and calling, then when they are done with my number, they sell it to someone else and they keep calling and calling and calling.
Or, like I said, it could have been some obsessed stalker who fell in love with my witty posts, and decided I was the one for them.
Or it could have been an axe murderer who only kills people who have the word 'blue' in their screen name.
The thing is, it is legitimately cautions and reasonable to NOT give out personal information to anyone you meet on-line unless you are confident of who they are and what they want.
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Before I continue, let me just tell you that I'm just having fun here playing Devil's Advocate, I'm not actually trying to criticize you for this. That said:
quote: I mean, it could have been someone selling time-shares who would have eventually gotten my phone number and inundated me with calls to come to a free lecture and receive a free toaster just for listening to a the presentation.
Now that wouldn't have been terrible if they were willing to take NO for an answer, but the keep calling and calling and calling, then when they are done with my number, they sell it to someone else and they keep calling and calling and calling."
Again, if someone wants a name, number, and address they can just pull it out of the phone books. Who would buy that info or try to pull off such a scam just to get information that you can get for free so easily? Not that to find your name and address would be easy, but to find a random person who you want to call a million times to try to sell something to is easy. And why would someone think that you would be more likely to buy whatever it is they're trying to sell?
quote: Or, like I said, it could have been some obsessed stalker who fell in love with my witty posts, and decided I was the one for them.
Or it could have been an axe murderer who only kills people who have the word 'blue' in their screen name.
This is what I was referring to when I said that's being overly-cautious as opposed to careful. There could also be an axe murderer in your neighborhood who decides everyone in the phone book named Steve should die a slow and painful death, so perhaps you should change your name too. It's just being careful.
quote: The thing is, it is legitimately cautions and reasonable to NOT give out personal information to anyone you meet on-line unless you are confident of who they are and what they want.
If by personal information you mean bank account number, credit card number, social security number, etc., then yes it is legitimately reasonable. But name and address? It's not something I would expect someone to come up with such an elaborate scam to get like the one Kathleen would've had to come up with.
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Wow, it just takes 48 posts in a useless topic about getting a free gift to help prove how childish we all are. Every time I see this topic I am annoyed at the insistence on clutching at the tiny amount of validation getting an email from someone's assistant has afforded everyone. Please stop. For me.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Wow, it just takes 48 posts in a useless topic about getting a free gift to help prove how childish we all are. Every time I see this topic I am annoyed at the insistence on clutching at the tiny amount of validation getting an email from someone's assistant has afforded everyone. Please stop. For me.
Relax man. Like I said, just having fun playing devil's advocate, it's not really a serious argument.
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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