Hooray! A New Market For Phishermen - Employment Lawyer

Starts out innocent:
Dear Attorney,

This is my second enquiring, Please respond
I am seeking legal representation from your law firm regarding a
breach of Settlement agreement with my former employer due to the
injury I sustained while working for them. I need Proper legal advice
and assistance to know the best way to handle this issue. If this is
your area of practice, please contact me to provide you with further
Information.
Regards,
Lian Chen

My response:
Lian,
I have absolutely no experience in this practice area. It would be a stone's throw away from malpractice for me to take on a case of this complexity. I wish you the best of luck.

- My Name

Seems like that response would put someone off, right?



Dear Sucker

Thanks for your prompt response. First I must thank you for picking up the consideration to represent me; My name is Mr. Lian Chen I am a Chinese American l lived in USA for 26 years, I’m contacting you regarding my injury compensation with the company I was working for in WA USA (GLOBAL EQUIPMENTS LTD.). I worked with this company for Nine years as an equipment operator. On 13th February 2010, l had an accident in the company yard when l was operating the crane equipment that finally leads to my disability as present. I then decided to relocate to my country for proper bone treatment July 7, 2010.

We had an out of insurance settlement that he will pay me the sum of $298,750.00 for my disability by the end of the year (December, 2010) but till this minute I am writing this mail to you, I have not received any money for my compensation as agreed. it is my belief that a Law firm like yours is needed to help me make collection or litigate the matter if he fails to pay as agreed. Attached herewith is the agreement that was duly signed by both of during inception of our transaction and copy of my passport as a proof of identification.

I do understand that a proper Attorney client agreement must be entered into by both parties which will demand a retainer fees, but l will prefer you to work on contigency bases on funds collected from my former company due to my present situation. I expect you to draw up an agreement to this effect if it is acceptable with you.
Your consideration of my request is highly anticipated, and I look forward to your prompt response.



I get emails asking me how I am so sure that these are email scams. It is not that hard when you have seen enough of them. You start to catch the spots where they have cut-and-paste. For example, in the email above, take the following sentence and paste it into google:

"it is my belief that a Law firm like yours is needed to help me make collection or litigate the matter if he fails to pay as agreed."

See? Not that hard. What phisherman lack is even a remote sense of imagination. They have been working this hustle for four years now with only slight variations.

Movie Review: Insidious

I love horror movies.  I love b-grade horror movies and classics and everything in between.  On most occasions,  I realize the horror movie I love doesn't meet any standard criteria of quality.  It can't be measured along good films like Black Swan.  It enters its own category of magic and wonder that can only be appreciated by fans of the genre.  A few horror movies like The Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs are good enough to be measured amongst other good movies.   Insidious is one of those films.  It is a very good film that hearkens back to the old classic haunting movies to use subtly and foreshadowing to create so much tension the teenage girls behind me squealed with terror.

The plot of Insidious is a simple one.  A family moves into a new home.  The children are afraid of their rooms and things move about on their own.  The family assumes it is one of the many children making mischief.  Almost immediately, the middle son falls into an inexplicable coma that he stays in for months.  The longer the boy is in a coma, the worse the paranormal activity around the house becomes.  Terrifying ghosts are everywhere and the wife is alone in her belief in this activity.  Finally the family moves, but the ghosts follow and after a psychic enters the picture, the family realizes there are worse things than the legion of ghosts following the little boy.

Insidious was also interesting in the unique perspective it presented on hauntings.  I don't want to ruin anything for those that haven't seen the film, but it presents a description of ghosts and demons and the way they relate to the world of the living that I haven't heard before.  It integrates notions of astral projection and psychic projection with a unique view on the ether that philosophically left me with much to think about.  It also presented to of the most comical and interesting ghost hunting characters I've seen in movies since The Ghost Busters.  It was also very scary.  As  a mother, watching a little boy tormented by ghosts and demons was horrible and probably my worst nightmare.  This is the best and scariest horror movie I've seen in years.

The Athens/Limestone County Courthouse

The Drive to Athens, Alabama was petulant today.  Tornadoes are expected and a vicious storm is heading our way.   It is preceded by shadow and wind so strong I had to cling to the steering wheel to keep the car on the road.   It was worth the drive.   Athens, Alabama is that kind of quiet, small, Southern town that belongs in old movies and books.   The old courthouse sits surrounded by a square of historic buildings and old churches.  Even in the shadow, it is alive and is the hub of life in Athens, Alabama.

I couldn't find much on the history of the old courthouse.   Athens was one of the first counties in Alabama to get a courthouse and claims to be the oldest county in Alabama.  The land for Limestone county was ceded from the Cherokee Nation in 1806 and from the Chickasaw in 1816.  For obvious reasons, for many years settlers had to fight off the Natives of the area.   Athens was made county seat in 1818 and during the civil war it was the first county in Alabama to be occupied by union forces.   Athens and the courthouse were sacked and burned.   The Col. responsible for the sacking was court marshaled the behavior in Athens was so terrible.

According to courthouse staff, there used to be a prison on the third floor of the Athens/ Limestone County courthouse.  This is where all the haunting activity is usually said to take place.   Locals say that one of the prisoners hung himself in his jail cell many years ago.  They don't know if he was sorry for what he did or just sorry to be paying the price for it, but he couldn't see the point in living any longer.  He hung himself on the third floor of the county courthouse and his ghost has never left.   Employees didn't have any specific stories for me.  They just knew the story and knew the third floor was haunted.

Back and Forth

Dear Your Law Firm Name Here

Thank you for your swift response. I tried calling a couple of times and with the time difference it is a little bit difficult to get to you. My ex husband Simeon Nagasaki lives in your jurisdiction while I am presently living in South Korea. We agreed under this Settlement Agreement attached to this mail for a one time cash settlement of $950,500.00 usd to his credit, he has paid me$251,500.00 usd but still owing $699,000.00 usd. He is aware of my intention to seek legal actions. I will be pleased to provide further information on this matter on request.

I have already advised him I am planning on retaining your firm. Send me a copy of your retainer agreement so I can go through the terms and conditions of your firm, Also let me know how much it will cost me for your services and the mode of remittance. Thank you and awaits your soonest response.

Regards,

Lauren Nagasaki

Address: Sangsu-dong 394-10 Hoseong
Building 3G9 Mapo-Gu, Seoul South Korea
0082-31-656 7883

L'Ankou: The Cemetery Gaurdians

A. Lee. Martinez is my favorite author.  I have read his books backwards.  I read his last book first and crept my way back to Gil's All Fright Diner, which was his first novel.  This was an incredible read.  I finished it in a day.  It is interesting in the rules it creates and its descriptions of all things otherworldly.  Two of the heroes in the book are a ghostly rat terrier and a guardian ghost named Cathy.  Cathy is the last ghost to be buried in the cemetery and is thus cursed to watch over the cemetery until the next person is buried.  So the guardian ghost of any cemetery is always the last person to be buried there.

Whether he knew it or not, Martinez actually inverted a piece of old French folklore to create his guardian ghost.  In Breton, the Celtic Western tip of France, there is a old legend of L'Ankou.  L'Ankou was the oldest person buried in the cemetery.  He is the first ghost to rise up from the cemetery, and according to French Folklore, is thus condemned to guard over the cemetery and make sure all following souls are carried to the afterlife.   He is described as a skeletal figure in black robes with a wide rimmed Breton hat who uses a cart pulled by ghostly goats to carry the dead to the next world.   He is so prevalent in folklore that his depiction can be seen in many French Cemeteries carved into stone.  He is seen in the side of archways and in fountains.  Although, there are many of L'Ankou, they always look the same, skeletal and terrifying. My husband is French and he told me this story which was told to him by his family when he as a boy.

Wikipedia's take on L'Ankou varies a little from my husband's childhood memories of L'Ankou.  According to Wikipedia, L'Ankou becomes death's henchmen when he is the first buried in a cemetery.  In some tales, he is the first ghost to ever walk the earth and is the first child of Adam and Eve.  Accordng to French Wikipedia, he a derivation of the god Dagda.  Those who hear his cart will die shortly and those that see him will die within the year.  There is a legend that on Christmas Eve L'Ankou touches those who will die that year with his cape at Christmas Eve Mass.  Every depiction of L'Ankou I found shows him leading a cart drawn by horses rather than goats, but I suppose goats just aren't as scary as spectral horses. I prefer my husband's depiction of the goat cart.  It just rings a little more true to folklore and  is less dramatic to me.    L'Ankou is also known in Norman and Cornish Folklore as Anghau and Akow. 

Death's Dream Kingdom Cover Art!

I have been slowed down this week as I have recovered from surgery.  I have been low on ghost stories and high on announcements.  That is because, despite my slow recovery,  I've gotten lots of good news on other fronts this week.   This will be my last announcement before I return to ghost stories and hopefully before I'm back up on my feet.

I got my cover art for Death's Dream Kingdom, my first novel, this week!  I think it turned out really well.  The book will be released in ebook form in May and in print in November and I'm planning on having a giveaway to celebrate!  I'm posting a synopsis of the book below.  I'm really very excited and can't wait to see the book released.  

Death's Dream Kingdom is the story of a woman who is ordinary in every way. She's an average mother and wife and is happy living every day mired in the ins and outs of the mundane, until she is murdered. After her death, Cera finds herself lost in a nether land somewhere between life and death where demons, ghosts, and old gods  roam the streets preying on the living. In this strange world, Cera is told that she is everything but ordinary. In death, she alone can help heal the rift between worlds and help bridge the gap between life and death. Caught somewhere between her desire to live again and the desire to find heaven, Cera fights those that would pull her into the politics of the netherworld. But the will of the Fates is stronger than Cera's will and Cera quickly finds herself pulled into a quest that will drag her to hell and back and into the arms of an ancient demon lover. She will find that she is a child a Fate and that she alone can challenge Death himself for dominion over his kingdom.

My Great Aunt's Ghost Caught in Amazing Picture!

Happy April Fools!