Hard-work at quick greed. Schemes without any authentic reason for existence, other than to apparently put the pinch on unsuspecting people, have been around since times immemorial. We here at Compatible Creatures have always felt the term, “times immemorial,” as kind of boorish, but actually in this sense it works: The phrase comes from old English law concerning time allowed in lawsuits, and in 1600, or thereabouts, its meaning broadened to its current usage invoking a very long time ago.
Of course, the biggest nonsensical scheme (or schemes) with the most repercussions is Decider George’s big-stick, no-brain Iraq policy, or maybe his CEO-infected fiscal policy, or maybe the frustrating, irritating policy of selecting liars and crooks to work for him, or maybe… Well, you get the realistic drift. Due to Decider George’s two terms as president, the US and the world will never be the same again, a large and dangerous negative.
However, just as the world as a whole experiences the horror of those schemes, which way-too-often carry enormous life and death consequences, the lying, hypocritical attempts flourish in our own every-day universe, even here on California’s north coast.
A writer here at Compatible Creatures was stung this week with an Internet hoax which may or may not be illegal. The core of the operation still, however, carries a whiff, or maybe a hint of a chain letter-type device: Send off this post to someone else and make money. Send it off many times and make more money. A circle without meaning other than to make money — no goods or services provided, no real, honest labor with any creative thought and to make the entire machine function, one has to perpetuate the lie.
A lie by any other word (or set of words) is still a lie. The base concept of a lie is hypocrisy, a line of thought altering truth.
This particular writer is of boomer age. Born in the late 1940s as the world, especially the US, was swept toward a cloudy/bright future: Prospect of instant annihilation via a nuclear exchange in the back of brains while enjoying the exhilarating onrush of technical hardware like TVs, outer-space vehicles and all-electric homes. In near-retirement, the writer sought a small-but-enough income to cover expenses while Compatible Creatures and other literary ventures could become fiscally well-grounded. In other words, money to cover the ass while being a creative writer, sadly, his only real, tangible skill (a dexterity which could lead to alcohol abuse or early old-age mental collapse — the former is way behind him, but seemingly the latter could be just ahead).
The writer selected a posted Internet job offer that promoted a “Data Entry” position. Data entry means just what it says: Process of entering data into a computerized database or spreadsheet. The work is a wide-reaching, fairly decent-paying employment field, coming mostly from medical, financial and legal sectors, though, there are many types.
A reply e-mail contained the following: “The data entry processing position that you inquired about requires you have a PC with mail access, an email account, an Internet connection, basic Internet knowledge and minimal typing skills…”
The catch is a training manual. And the only way to get that manual is the payment of $20. After dispatching off the money through an Internet payment site, the training manual arrived in the email inbox. The title of the manual is HOME BASED TYPIST/DATA ENTRY SPECIALIST, which in reality covered only the typist and nothing of the specialist.
Again in reality, the entire manual explained that not only have you been had, but details in five easy steps how you can do onto the others, the same that was done unto you. Even the manual covers the trick:”To be honest with you, I was disappointed when I received the training guide and realized that I will just be placing my own ads like the one I responded to. I almost didn’t do it, but then I thought about it and said to myself ‘Well, I did pay for it, so I should just try!’ I sure am glad I did…”
Yeah right! The job was to place the same ads all over the Internet in hopes of catching someone else and regroup the old $20, and with enough snares, maybe even make a profit — from $200 to $800 a week, depending how hard thou labor. Nothing at all about a position as “Data Entry Specialist.” The manual even lists several sites to place ads from Google and Yahoo to places like CareerSite.com and BigJobs.net.
In order to stem the legal wrath of the snookered, the manual points out the whole “concept is 100% legal,” citing laws, one being the US Postal and Lottery Laws, Title 18, Sections 1302 & 1341. However, Section 1343 should be of even more interest: “Fraud by wire, radio or television. Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
Of course, lawyers will argue, but it would be interesting to see if the scheme is truly legal. One of the first and foremost thoughts by the Compatible Creatures writer after viewing the above-noted training manual was the requirement to continue the lie in order, at the minimum, to regain the $20. Most of the time legal and moral are at opposite ends.
In the broad sweep of things, $20 is pretty much a no-big-deal kind of affair. However, what is really far-more important is the lie and the obligatory need to continue it.
As Decider George continues on with his lies that will eventually circle around to gnarl and maul us badly on the ass, so will those who perpetuate a tiny, nearly-insignificant untruth.
Losing $20 is absolutely nothing compared to the truth.