When does Woo-Hoo turn to Boo-Hoo?...

...When you win, then lose half a million dollars in less than 24 hours. Well, $495,000.00 to be exact. Yep, we were the target of a VERY elaborate scam. Nope, we didn't fall for long and they didn't get our money or personal information. And, yes, the FBI probably found that they had vacated the premises shortly after I got off the phone with the scammers, but it was worth a try anyway.

Here's how the story goes:

We received a phone call on Thursday. Someone claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House. They were looking for Christiaan. Apparently, we hadn't responded to the letters they sent. He said that Christiaan had won the second prize for their September sweepstakes. When I told him that Christiaan wouldn't be available until after 6pm. He said that he might still be in the office then and would try to call back. I offered to take his phone number and have Christiaan call him. About 3 hours later, Christiaan called me back. The conversation went something like this...

"Well, it seems to be legitimate." (Christiaan)
"Well, that's good." (Me)
"Don't you want to know how much?"
"Well, I know that they personally deliver anything over $10,000, so it has to be less than that."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Well, that was one of the options, but I wasn't sure that you were interested in that so I chose to remain anonymous. They are going to deliver the check by certified courier tomorrow."
"Really? OK, how much."
"$495,000.00."
(Silence, unless you could hear my eyes go "blink, blink, blink".)
"Are you OK?"

This was followed by expressions of shock, tears and awe. I spent a couple of hours that afternoon figuring out what our tax liability would be and discovered that the IRS would take right about 50%. So, after taxes and tithing, we would have just enough to buy a house (to replace the one we won't have soon) and a van a few years newer than the one that has been quickly falling apart on us. Yep, it was good.

Then Friday came. The day the courier was to deliver the check. I received another phone call. This time from another guy claiming to be from border patrol. He asked if I was expecting a package. Then he went over what was in the package. Yep, that was what we were expecting. (Why would border patrol have it?) Then he started going over the reasons that it was suspect. It was coming out of Costa Rica, the declarations just indicated that it was an undisclosed amount over $10,000, there were 5 similar packages with it, etc. Then he went on to tell me that they had to open the package and since it looked like it was part of a scam, they had to verify the legitimacy. He said they ran the check and found that it was legitimate, he called the attorney listed and they confirmed that it was on the level, he called PCH and verified with them and it appeared that everything was fine, they even did a full background search on us to make sure we were not suspected of money laundering or gambling or such. (Boy, glad to hear we were not wanted by the FBI, CIA or NBC.) There was just the matter of clearing customs since it was coming from out of the country. He would just transfer me to the customs officer in charge. Another guy got on the phone and starts quoting US customs laws and how this is this and that is that... Then we get down to the part where we have to pay the customs tax to have it released. I can do that in person in Miami FL, or from the comfort of staying local. All I needed to do was wire them $4950.00, but I had to do it quickly, because the information was only good for 2 hours ("You know how quickly things change."). Oh, and by the way, we just need to verify your information for the IRS...

Yea, as soon as I told him that I wasn't going to give that information over the phone (didn't they just do a full background check on us?) he got mad, told me I could call him when I changed my mind and hung up on me.

And that is the story of how we were almost half a millionaires.

The Adventures of Conversion Man...

Here we are in a new semester, with a new class project for Jacob. This time he had to write and perform a play. The guidelines were that it was about a family of fractions who wanted to change to decimals so that their children would fit in better. I love that Jacob asked Caleb to be in his play. Caleb has discovered a new talent (and love) in acting and has become quite the ham when it comes to being in the spotlight. (I think that we will try to teach him subtlety for his next performance.) We were scrambling to get this in on time (he had 1 week and there was a holiday, ever try to coordinate 3 families over a holiday?) so this was with no rehearsals, Mom and Dad characters only had the script for one day, and 12 year olds, they don't really listen. I have to admit, though, this take was only the second time through, pretty good.