On the Lookout

There are always people working out new scams, new ways to make a living. When invitations come by email they are easy to delete so I pay little attention to them. But snail mail is a different ball of wax. I open each piece of mail carefully to prevent damaging the stamp. I save them all: non-profit and bulk mail which are so varied they take pages of definition and explanation in the stamp catalogs. Only a rare few use first class postage and and businesses use a postage meter, which from a sender’s point of view beats the dickens out of hand pasting a stamp to each letter. Even now with self adhesive the task becomes manual labor, and probably female not “man”uel at all. I get a lot of mail, at least two or three letters every day, and each requires some form of postage hence my stamp collecting.
A warning came in my mail today. My website domain name was about to expire. Send money quickly to prevent the lapse which would let the name be up for grabs that some enterprising soul could hold the name hostage and charge a high fee. Act now and to be on the really safe side by sending money to this address immediately and we will take over and never again will you need to worry about losing your domain name. (You will still have to pay, although a reduced rate if you pay for more than one year at a time.) I didn’t fall for this because I pay my webmaster and he does the negotiating although I haven’t paid him lately either. But my first instinct was to put a check in the return envelope and play it safe.
The upshot of all this is that any person can come up with an idea to make money by helping people. Help being the operative word here. You know how a shark searches deep water for a quick bite. I think it is quite creative. Like selling insurance to pet owners promising to take care of their pet left behind when they are taken up in the Rapture. I will do what I must but through regular channels. I do admire entrepreneurs but I will pass on this one, thank you very much.
Naomi Sherer