In hopes of reviving my blog, my loving husband is contributing a guest blog post regarding a rather interesting experience he had yesterday.
So I got an email at work today saying that I had not cashed a $500 check, and that if I didn't have it, I should fill out the form and request a new one. Naturally it gave no indication of what the $500 check was supposedly for. Of course the form asked for my address, phone number and last 4 digits of my SSN, and said if I didn't respond by June 22, the State would get the money. So I "knew" that this was a scam.
Just for fun I checked out the organization they were claiming to be; they appeared legit. But then I thought maybe this didn't really come from them, but someone pretending to be them - the email address matched the website, and the mailing address was the same. I checked snopes.com and found nothing. So then I found their main corporate number and called the directory (not the phone number in the email I got) and asked for the individual who sent me the email, knowing they would say "I'm sorry I don't have anyone by that name." Instead I got "I will connect you to her, please hold."
I spoke with this lady, still suspicious that this could be the most elaborate scam ever, but at the same time hopefully that I could be getting $500. I asked "So, why do you owe me $500?"
She replied "I'm not sure, let me check. Normally we don't have much information about these old payments." My heart sank... this is a scam...
She said "All I have is a note saying 'N' 'Y' BAR, does that make sense to you?" My spirits lifted, could this be?
I said "Yes, does your company own BAR/BRI?"
"Yes, we own West, Westlaw and BAR/BRI."
My spirits soaring (checking their website to confirm that they did), I responded, "Oh, this must be my refund check I never got from my BAR/BRI course" (rechecking the date on the invoice "9/11/06" right after I had taken my Bar exam). I said "Oh, wow, I thought this was some sort of scam."
"No, sir, we are just trying to make sure you got your money and keep our books in order. Sometimes you law students turned lawyers are sure tough to find."
I said "Thank you so much for you help, I will fax you the form today."
Lesson: Sometimes an African prince really does want to send you money, just make sure you do as much research finding out who they are, as they did finding out who you are.
