Jake’s Grill evades hoax
Here’s another variant of the “wire me some money” scam. The target was Jake’s Western Grill in Lynden. But owner Brian Poag didn’t let the chance for a big order make him blind. Information provided by publicist Dave Brumbaugh:
Brian Poag, owner of Jake’s Western Grill at 8114 Guide Meridian, said a person contacted his restaurant about catering an event for 200 people. The person said he was handicapped and needed to communicate through a third party.
The “third party” communicated by e-mail, saying the barbecued pork sandwiches and baked beans should be packed by Jake’s Western Grill in individual containers and would be picked up by a private shipper. But Poag recognized the scam attempt when he was asked to charge an additional $1,500 to the person’s credit card and wire the $1,500 to him, allegedly so other bills could be easily paid.
“The scammers probably thought a large order would entice us to bypass some basic precautions in how we do business, particularly with a new customer,” Poag said. “We immediately ended communication with them and informed the Lynden Police Department.”
Poag said he wants other local businesses to be aware of scams like this. “We need to share information so we don’t become victims, particularly in these economic times,” Poag said. (end of press release)
Maybe most of you have already memorized my easy-to-remember guide for wiring money to strangers: DON’T DO IT.
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Jake’s Western Grill has a publicist?
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
October 24th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
(>.<)
October 25th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Is that a bra two sizes too small?
October 25th, 2009 at 10:02 am
No. But I’ve worn some that were.
Although I can appreciate the similarity, this emoticon is a textual portrayal of a writer being in pain; specifically in this case, my eyeballs.
At the risk of appearing mentally challenged, Camille is evolving into the hi-tech realm of bleat-speak and Eastern ASCII art.
It may be logical to anticipate further confusion and misinterpretation in many of her upcoming comments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons
October 25th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Not that being regarded as mentally challenged for posting bleat-speak is necessarily a baaad thing.
October 25th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Why is my comment “under consideration”?
Consideration for what??
October 25th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
What I’d like to know is whatever happened to my friend, Worst_Ever_43, and his comments?
After receiving 32 recommendations, his comment page has this on it:
“WORST_EVER_43 has not made any contributions yet. Check back for updates or leave WORST_EVER_43 a message.”
None of his comments appear in the story comments, either.
It’s as though he never existed!
Herald Editors,
Please provide an explanation for why WE43 has gone missing!
October 25th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
From a Herald dialogue box when I tried to post my previous comment:
“You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.”
October 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
John,
Any thoughts on this?
October 26th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I guess I didn’t get the memo.
Where is the funeral…?
October 27th, 2009 at 8:07 am
I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. (Mark Twain)
October 27th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Sorry I have not been tending the blog in the last day or two. Camille had asked about a comment that was tagged “under consideration.” This apparently happens every time you include even one link in your comment. I have it set to flag comments with TWO links, not one, but the software ignores this and other settings I have made, such as the one that is supposed to shoot me an email every time someone comments. So if your comment doesn’t appear, or you have sent one you would like me to respond to, shoot me an email please, or even a phone call at john.stark@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2274, respectively. Thanks
October 27th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Whatever you do, don’t keep Camille waiting….(smile) But at least Camille made it seem as though there were some hot topic going on at this lonely desert site….much as Horowitz and AFY (probably the same guy with split weird personalities) does over at that other bereft of interesting banter site–the Politics blog– that I use mostly to put me to sleep.
On another related matter, could the daily paper get any thinner? Is the paper really making so much off internet ads and rules of exclusion that they can afford to just let the fiber version go down in the dismal little flames three pages provide? To cyber or fiber, that is the question. Personally I prefer the fiber, as anorexic as it is, it has long offered one the illusion that there were investigative minions working late into the night to bring us the latest in important researched news to inform, enlighten and entertain placed on familiarly authoritative newsprint. Then along came the internet and many of us, even beyond this sleepy Ham, learned that we had dupishly placed our faith in mediocre, at best, sloths who can barely manage one or the other and sadly are far out shined by a horde of better informed, more interesting and less anally restrictive minions who actually and admirably practice the art of journalism. So which came first, the no longer able to afford to advertise advertiser or the unworthy medium not worth putting an advertiser’s money in? To be fair, we probably should just be amazed that only one person (probably John Stark) is able to pretend to be an entirely (albeit small dwindling and irrelevant) news organization. Furloughs, ha. That’s just an escuse to keep us from recognizing the Batman behind the curtain. (Go away Toto.)
Finally, is Scott Ayers still alive or was he just another figment of our imagination? Or is he a real person who is still hiding away after finally getting fed up with the much deserved abuse he got on his pitiful blog?
October 27th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
“Whatever you do, don’t keep Camille waiting….(smile)” -Neeck
I do tend to become a little impulsive when I’m off my meds.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Reply to Neeck: The size of this or any other paper is directly related to the volume of advertising. In a recession, ads drop, and newspapers shrink. The advertiser subsidizes the cost of the paper to the reader. When ad rev is down, newspapers cut costs by cutting pages. If costs need to be cut even more, newspapers cut personnel.
Exception: We do add pages irrespective of advertising volume when circumstances (planned or unplanned) warrant. But generally, when a newspaper does that, the number of pages gets cut down the road to make up the difference. It’s a business.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Just don’t cut the comics and the puzzles page and you’ll get my $15 every month.
I also tend to read the LTEs on hard copy too so I’m not tied up all day responding on Pluck.
John took in some deserved praise this weekend for his condo piece.
Does his hat still fit?
I think not!
October 29th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Well sure, but most businesses haven’t stopped advertising, they’re just putting their dollars where they do the most good and cutting out the superfluous. It is a business and it’s irrelevance is not on you or the other fine but few writers left, it’s squarely on management for making their publication irrelevant and the advertising exposure superfluous.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
P.S. Blaming it all on the economy is a bit of a herring of the deep rosacea variety.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:06 am
The Weekly seems to be getting more and more packed with ads. Guess Neeck is correct, it isn’t that advertising has stopped, they’ve just stopped giving their dollars away to second rate advertising venues out of a sense of charity or saturation. That the Herald has become a second rate venue can’t be blamed all on the economy.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:11 am
It also can’t be blamed on the few good writers they have, like Kahn and Stark, but I don’t know anyone involved in politics who wants to go to the trouble of trying to explain things to a light weight with pre-conceived notions like Taylor. Actually if the Herald went down it would save a hell of a lot of tax payer money spent by officials answering FOIA requests that 99% of the time amount to nuisance rather than news nuance.