Conned at Christmas - a True Story

The end of November 2008, I was invited to participate in an event called "Cookies for Kids" to raise funds for a charity called Special Spaces which helps terminally ill children. In hindsight, I believe that event was probably a scam perpetrated by a con man.

Originally the the "Cookies for Kids" organizer, Rick Frogge of Nashville, TN, asked me to drop off some copies of my book The Mayberry Poem - a Tribute to Mayberry, so he and his volunteers could sell them, keeping a percentage of the proceeds for the charity, Special Spaces. I suggested that instead of simply dropping off a box of books, which cost me a couple of hundred dollars to publish per run of 20, I should remain at the event for an hour to autograph the books and see how they sold. Then I could decide how many to leave.

The event organizer was an individual whom I had met in person only once before. However, we are in the same Mayberry Yahoo Group where he had mentioned working for Special Spaces before and always used the charity in his email signature. Plus, there was a lot of "razzle-dazzle" hype about "Cookies for Kids." The organizer said he was getting a storefront at Hickory Hollow Mall and at Rivergate mall. He stated that he could get Fox, Channel 5 and Wolf Radio to help promote the event, and that Books-A-Million was participating. He asked me to also promote the event to all my lists. Volunteers would be on hand to hand out bags of gourmet cookies to people who gave donations as well as wrap gifts and sell other gifts, with all proceeds going to Special Spaces, or so he said.

I had to order and pay for 20 Mayberry poetry books right away to arrive in time for the event. After ordering the books, I emailed several times requesting the organizer set a date for the event. However, between November 28 and December 15, I only received two vague emails, one saying he was "SUPPOSED to be able to have us set up next weekend and thru christmas" and the other saying only that he had changed email accounts. Finally he got in touch with me on December 15, and with extremely short notice, we set up 2 one-hour signings, one on December 17th at 5 PM, and one at 2 PM on December 22nd.

The Cookie Starts to Crumble

Even with such short notice, I sent a press release to all my lists over the next 2 days. I was assured he would be promoting the event to his media contacts, but I arrived on December 17th to discover no one was there. The storefront turned out to be the Real Estate office at Hickory Hollow mall with a secretary who was not expecting me. There were no volunteers, no organizer, no activity, and no cookies. I called the organizer, and he said he was on his way and would be there soon, but when he never showed up after an hour, I drove the 45 minutes back home. It was extremely disappointing. In hindsight, "disappointing" is a mild term for being involved in what looks like it was a scam.

The organizer sent me an email that night, offering excuses, and then he said he had sold 3 of my books after I left. He asked me to come bring the books out again on Dec. 22 when he would pay me for the 3 books he sold (minus the donation for Special Spaces). I called before I left my house on the 22nd to make sure he would be there this time with his volunteers and cookies. He said he would be there waiting. Imagine my disappointment when the same Real Estate secretary greeted me and said she hadn't heard anything, and no one was there representing "Cookies for Kids." A half hour later the organizer finally showed up with small bags of vending-machine cookies, a jar, and some brochures. I sat in a plastic chair by the office door with books in my lap. I heard him solicit people in front of the Real Estate office, asking them to donate money to terminally ill children for Special Spaces, and I watched a handful of people drop money in a jar that already held quite a bit of money. He mentioned in passing that he had collected around $200 on a previous day.

I Have a Little Problem

The event was disappointing on so many levels (no volunteers, no media, no planning, no event), but it got worse - much worse. As I was getting ready to leave, the organizer asked me to leave the books with him and reminded me that he wanted three books autographed. He had me inscribe them, and after they were personalized to 2 people, he told me he had a "little problem" - he didn't have enough cash on him. The money in the jar wasn't his -- he couldn't pay me from that. He pulled out what he had to show me, and said he would just have to owe me, and I said, no, I would need to take what he had as a down payment, and he would have to owe me the rest, minus the discount I was donating to the charity. He still wanted me to leave more books with him, and with reluctance, I left 7 additional Mayberry poetry books and another book called How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget. Our agreement was we would settle up right after "Cookies for Kids" was over, and that he would bring the books to me this time since he said he had a friend who lived near me, and it would be no trouble to meet me and settle up.

The Check Is in the Mail

December 22 was almost the last time I have heard from the "Cookies for Kids" organizer. Although I have left many phone and email messages, I have only reached him twice. Both times we set a time to meet, and both times he canceled. He has been either out of town, too tired, sick, or simply not answering his phone since then, and although I have received his promises to return my books and was told a check for the books he sold was going out in the mail on January 8 (over a week ago), he has not made good on a single promise he has made to me since he first contacted me on November 28. He did, however, recently respond to a post on our mutual Mayberry list where I said the "Cookies for Kids" event had been disappointing, and in response, he emailed me a thinly veiled threat to attempt to discredit me on his lists if I posted more about the "Cookies for Kids" event.

Special Spaces Speaks

But that's not the most disturbing thing about this whole fiasco. On Monday, January 6, when it was becoming apparent to me that the event organizer probably had no intention of following through with his promises to meet me and settle with me, I contacted Special Spaces and spoke with Jennifer Swain, the Executive Director. She informed me that the individual in question has not been affiliated with them since November 2008, and that he was asked not to represent them any more because "he never followed through with his events." So, at the time I was being persuaded to participate in the charity event for Special Spaces, the event organizer, who used Special Spaces brochures, collected money in a jar to help terminally ill children in the name of Special Spaces, and had Special Spaces in his email signature, allegedly didn't work for Special Spaces at all! And as of January 17, they say they haven't seen a dime of any donation moneys collected through "Cookies for Kids."

Putting the Con in CONtinues

I am not sure what the final chapter in this story will be, but I believe I was conned at Christmas by a scam artist. Worse, I think the people who dropped money in that jar were also conned, because the organizer allegedly had no relationship with Special Spaces at the time of the event, and from what Special Speaces tells me, he has reportedly not been responding to calls from their office. But that's not all. I believe the con is continuing. On January 9, one of my friends sent me a link to Craig's List, where on December 22, the man who enlisted me to participate in "Cookies for Kids" posted the following (all punctuation and spelling is his):

Reply to: job-967707735@craigslist.org

Date: 2008-12-22, 8:51PM

I need someone to make calls for me to lawyers, Dr's , business's, friends , door to door (Dont laugh one girl is doing very well this way for the kids and herself) etc to sell boxes or packs of cookies to raise money for Critically Ill children...We build special rooms for Children that sometimes have nothing to look forward to...we enjoy changing that for them..so far we have had great success with this but we also have other projects/events starting and need extra help...and there could easily be more work along the way..this IS a PAID Position....let me know if interested This promotion is called COOKIES FOR KIDS

Rick

Special Spaces

It is now January 17, one month since I carried my books from Bellevue to Hickory Hollow Mall to participate in "Cookies for Kids." Not only have my books and money never been returned, but Special Spaces tells me they have never received a dime of the money collected and their calls are not being returned.

Sadder, Madder, and Wiser

I have learned a lesson from this -- we don't have a clue about most of the people we meet online which makes us easy pickings for someone who wants to perpetrate a scam, fraud, or con. I was on the same Mayberry list with this character since 2001, but I didn't know him. I should have contacted Special Spaces at the very beginning to make sure the "Cookies for Kids" organizer really represented them. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. So, if you come across someone on Craig's list, Ebay or Amazon used book with some Mayberry poetry books for sale, more than likely they are books from this event which were never returned to me. And if you see ads for "Cookies for Kids" or any other event to benefit Special Spaces, contact SpecialSpaces.org to make sure it is really them.

Excuses and Accusations

The "Cookies for Kids" organizer has continued to make excuses as well as stooping to accusing both the Executive Director of Special Spaces and myself of lying since I first started reporting on this probable scam. The excuses and accusations will continue, I have no doubt. However, there is nothing lower than using the name of charity which helps terminally ill children to solicit people to donate money, and KEEP it! There is no excuse for taking money from people while misrepresenting a charity, no excuse for not returning property after a month, no excuse for not returning calls, no excuse for not mailing a check on the date promised, no excuse for not sending money to the charity the donations were for, no excuse for making accusations and threats when held accountable, and no excuse for the cookie-crumb trail of excuses, broken promises and misdeeds this person appears to be leaving in the wake of his apparent scam.

It is too bad there are people like this one out there - people who will charm, schmooze, then scam, bully and intimidate folks to take advantage of them. The organizer's name also shows up on something called the Rip Off Report. If I had only Googled his name sooner. I know others like him - they are a dime a dozen. Too bad this probable con artist got my dime; don't let him get yours, too.

To anyone who donated money or otherwise participated in Cookies for Kids because of my efforts, I offer my most sincere and embarrassed apologies. I should have done better research before I got involved and published the event here on Associated Content. I sincerely hope this doesn't hurt my credibility here.

Follow Up 1/20/9: Out of the 11 or so books I left with Rick, the Cookies for Kids event organizer, today I received a check for part of what I am owed and 8 books back - including the three which I had autographed for him to "Rick," to "Joe," and to "Jaime." Obviously I cannot resell those unless people named Rick, Joe and/or Jaime order books from me!

Follow Up 1/24/9: I met Jennifer Swain, the Executive Director of Special Spaces today. I showed her my documentation including the IOU signed by the Cookies for Kids organizer, and she graciously reimbursed me for my losses and took the books which had been autographed to "Rick," to "Joe," and to "Jaime." He has left numerous anonymous comments at the end of this article which AC finally deleted as well as flooding my email with half-baked excuses and threats to try to discredit me.

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