Dec

11

A most demoralizing fraud

December 11, 2022 |

the most demoralizing recent fraud I was victimized by was particularly disturbing as it involved my books which is a tribute to my parents who had a library of books even bigger than mine since my father was paid by all the publishers to thro books in the river but he saved them.

the fraud inflicted on me was a big con. (1) i received a call out of the blue: a book seller told me that I was buying lots of his books so would i mind if he came over to look at my collection. (2) he recommended that I sell my books at a well known dealer out of state.

(3) the book seller i had done business with but she was in mourning — a friend was very sick. she sent me one of her most trusted lieutenants to go thru my collection. (4) the lieutenant told me my books had mold and that i should send them to her principal so that they could be restored and evaluated.

(5) the new book seller in a nice touch told me not to worry too much about it as the mold was not particularly damaging. he also sent me a video of his father who was a very venerable professor like my father. i took aubrey to visit the old book seller.

(6) i received an offer for my books for about 1/5 of what I paid for them (i had held them for an average of 20 years). seeing all my books presumably with mold and taking account of the tragic situation of my book seller i accepted the offer in haste.

(7) on the train home i began to rethink the situation. (8) i met the new bookseller on the train and asked him why he was at the meeting. he said how was he going to get paid if he wasn't involved?

(9)the next day i called and offered 25% more than the accepted price to cancel. the old book seller (he or she) said that they couldn't accept my cancel and offer since the books were already in play. (10) there were some other turns in the big con. they offered to send me half the books back for a price. so I would be assuaged. but they were the remnant.

i cried about my idiocy for several weeks and haven't gone back to my library in 2 years as it's too painful.

one lesson for the current excitement about crypto is never to let your goods out of your possession. also never accept a recommendation from a celebrity or friend without asking what their piece of the deal was.

Vic's twitter feed


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Archives

Resources & Links

Search