Scams and Beads....

Wow, another busy week! Do they ever slow down, do we ever want them to slow down, is it my fault for over scheduling our lives??? I ask these questions and rarely ever get an answer. If we had nothing to do, then we would be BORED, if we have too much to do, we are TIRED and STRESSED, is there a happy medium anywhere in the mix?? Anyhow, on to the week!

On Tuesday, I went and got the mail opened it all up like normal and got the below letter and check for $2950, with a promise that there is $50,000 coming as soon as we take care of a few things. The letter and check are sooo real, it is hard not to believe, but then in this day and time hard to believe. So, I called my best friend in Bham and we both got busy on the internet trying to find anything out about it to see if it was a scam.

In the back of my mind, I am human, I was praying this was real! Do you know what $50,000 could do for us and the help it could provide for our church?? I do! Then I feel so guilty having these thoughts. But, I do believe in miracles! Anyhow, after much investigating on our own (my friend and myself), we find that it has to be a scam. Why would people take the time to do such horrible acts on innocent people? Because it is Satan!

All I can think of is all the elderly people who have gotten this scam and cash the check and follow their instructions losing $1,000's of dollars. I believe there is a special place in hell for these people and God will see to that justice, so why worry?

So, if you are ever unsure of something you get, check out the below websites and do your research:

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/governments.php

http://www.ripoffreport.com/

Bottom line: I called the Federal Trade Commission and reported it and to double check that it was fraud. They took all the information and was very nice and helpful. Then instructed me to take it to my local Post Office so they can perform an investigation.

I was minding my own business, opening my mail (or my husband's) and ended up wasting an hour of my time and my friend's time and some gas to go to the post office to turn it in. What a waste, but you hate to sit on it and let it keep happening!

One thing that was weird was the letter was on Atlanta, GA letterhead, the phone number listed for your claims agent was to a cell phone in Canada (check out numbers on WhitePages.com and do reverse lookup), the check was on a Texas Roadhouse in Texas, the bank (which is a legitimate bank) from Pennsylvania and no return address on the envelope. The stamp is a Canadian stamp. They listed Readers Digest and Publishers Clearing House as a few of the sponsors listed.

Now, right after I get off the phone with the Federal Trade Commission and back on the phone with my friend, I hear Logan downstairs screaming. Run down there and he is saying "It hurts, it hurts", "what hurts honey?", then he points to his nose. OK, immediately I think the worst, he has something stuck in his nose. Take a look and sure enough, he has a bead in his nose pretty high up there! I go get the tweezers and try putting them in there with him screaming. I'm ready to take him to the doctor and decided to try one more time. I knew what bead it was as he was just playing with it on Brooke's dresser. I was finally able to get the tweezers on the top part and got it to turn so I could put them through the hole and pull out! Success, bead is out, no doctor bill, a little boy saying "I'm sorry MomMom"! It was funny though, I was telling him to blow out his nose and every time he would suck in! I forget they don't know this at that age! Just a little more excitement for the week! Here is that little bead that cause such pain to my baby!By the way, the consignment sale is going great for me. I have already sold $230 worth just last night during the preview sale. I sold both the stroller and pack-n-play, so that was a huge relief! They haven't logged this mornings sales yet, so could be even more by now.

On Tuesday night while volunteering to help set up for the sale, they drew raffle tickets and I won the first one. It was a $10 gift certificate to the sale. Well, I spotted an almost brand new looking bike for Logan and the price, $10!! Awesome, I only paid $0.70 for a bike (for taxes).