Watch out for Frauds

So what's new? Well, I didn't get much work done yesterday and today- my cold got worse over the weekend and yesterday I felt rather miserable. I slept a lot today and I'm feeling better. I did try to work this afternoon, but it just wasn't happening. I ended up sitting in front of the computer, staring into oblivion- not exactly productive. I did get some good news today- we have our first official gift bag donor on board. A woman that I worked with last year has switched to a new company and she emailed today to let me know that she will be having her new company donate product for the gift bags. It's always good to know that I have at least one item to put in those bags! I want to order a new color bag- maybe blue or purple. I love the green bags, but I think it would be good to do a new color. I'd like red, but I'm wasn't too keen on the shade of red that they had last year.

Anyways, so here is something unexpected that happened. For those in the Boston area, you've probably already heard about the fake bridal show that was scheduled for this weekend called the Boston 411 Spring Home and Bridal Show. Thousands of people bought tickets and hundreds of vendors spent a lot of money to participate in the show and it turns out the event was a total fraud. A few months ago, I was friended on Facebook by a woman who claimed she was organizing the bridal show and had started a new company, Boston 411. I accepted her friend request and we even chatted over FB chat. She seemed very nice and legitimate- she talked about the bridal show and her company and wanted Project Smile to get involved with her company. I never followed up with her after our chat- mostly because I was busy with other things. I kept seeing her postings over my FB feed for the bridal show. Yesterday, I was browsing on FB and was shocked to see a news posting that the event was a total fraud. I was so thankful that I never pursued anything with that woman. I was reading about how so many vendors were ripped off- it is such a horrible thing to do. The owner of a local limousine company who has always donated a gift certificate for our silent auction lost the $1,000 that he had paid to participate. I was so sad to hear that- I sent him an email today just to say that I was sorry he had been ripped off and that I appreciated how generous he was- it is awful to hear about good people being taken advantage of.

It is a warning to be really careful about who you associate with and to check things out as much as possible- and be careful about who you accept FB friend requests from. That woman was so convincing, she seemed so friendly and her website seemed really legitimate. It was really shocking to find out she was a scam artist. I'm glad that Project Smile didn't lose anything. I hope she gets caught, it is so nasty to rip off people like that.

Well friends, that's it for tonight. I'm getting really tired again. My grapefruit is sitting right next to me, so I'm going to eat that and write my list for tomorrow- I need to be super productive to make up for these two days of nothingness. Until tomorrow...