If You Are a Special, Unique Person, Beware, Someone Could Scam You!

The internet has been a great, new target for marketing for a long time but this could be used for fraud as well.
Today I received in my mailbox a nice-looking envelope and I quickly opened it to find what was this about.

I'm special!

'Jose, please forgive us, but we have just taken a closer look at your profile. It turns out you're more special than any of us imagine!'
That's the first sentence this letter opens with and I'm not just trying to brag or lie. This surely made me read the whole thing even though it was 8 pages long.

'Did you know that you possess some very rare, hidden traits? In fact, there is a famous person (someone you would instantly recognize, he's on TV every night) who possesses these same special, incredible rare traits .... It turns out that people who possess these same rare and ofter hidden traits that you do are some of the most famous and successful people on this planet! Jose, you are indeed blessed! I know those around you don't know this yet, but they will! Dow deep, you sense it, too. Right? I'm so excited about you'

'Wow!' - that was my expression after reading this first paragraph. So, it turns out I have 'rare' and 'hidden traits' which I was not aware of (hopefully this doesn't make a 'weirdo' lol) I don't know who this person might as he doesn't reveal his real name but according to him, I was found by some kind of group who consider me a special person.

The letter gives a testimonial about a guy who literally went from rags to riches thanks to a 2,300 year-old magical manuscript used by an elite Greek group.

Since I'm so special I have been invited to join a "secret society" of famous people who include famous actors, musicians, entrepreneurs, artists, statesmen, millionaires, gamblers and Casanovas. [I bet Bill Gates read this manuscript! No wonder why he's the richest man on this planet]

What this manuscript promises I will be able to do! :

• You'll know exactly how to make $5,000, $10,000, even $100,000 cash
• You'll even learn how to control anyone and make any man or woman like you, admire you, or love you! [I wonder if this is actually a witchcraft book .. hmmm...]
• All the money, power, and romantic love you've ever wanted can come to you EASILY, EFFORTLESSLY and AUTOMATICALLY.
• Lose ANY KIND of addiction

All I have to do is learn the SIMPLE, and SECRET system a renowned Du Pont scientist [never heard of him before] spent his entire life uncovering. The society shares its secrets for getting rich and powerful only with each other. And I have been chosen to join.

Can you believe it? The chance to "learn how to control anyone, man or woman, anywhere," lose weight or kick addictions "virtually overnight," or win every time at the poker table. [Please, don't be jealous. It's not my fault I'm so special]

Wait a minute, so how did you find me?

That's the exact question I asked myself. This letter says these people looked at my profile but WHAT PROFILE?
'... I can shed light on how we found you by first telling you my own story: Seven years ago .....'
It curious after I read the whole thing he never actually said what profile they looked at because I never created a public profile waiting for some mysterious, secret society read about.

What if this is true? I mean, he swears on the Bible! He can't be lying, can he?

"It seems you, Jose, possess several rare traits we are searching for. Because of these traits, which we'll talk about later, you are eligible to become part of our exclusive club and to share our Greatest Kept Secrets, too, absolutely free! By the way, as you read this, you may be saying to yourself that this is all a bunch of hooey. But I swear on the Bible we will send you our Greatest Kept Secrets free of charge."

• We're humans, and of course we CAN lie. Some people don't believe in God, so why couldn't they swear on a book which talks about a deity who they don't believe in?
• Search engines are your friends
OK, let's assume for a minute this magical manuscript at least exists. Let's use the very first sentence [please forgive us, but we have ..... ] search for it and wait what people around the world says about it. I mean, I'm sure I'm not the only person who has gotten this, am I? :O

Searching about a company, people, products, et al if they're a scam would be 'name of company + scam' (placing a plus sign between keywords is a great way to look for specific details)

This letter actually doesn't ask you for you credit card information, address [there's no need because then you wouldn't have gotten this letter at the first place >.>], phone number, bank information. You only need to send back a form which is found at the end of the letter.

"I, YOUR NAME, feel that something astounding is about to happen in my life! The association has discovered me. I possess very special and rare membership and send me their Greatest Kept Secrets that lead to enormous wealth, love and the most phenomenal personal abilities, absolutely free, as long as this Free-Membership Invitation Form is postmarked on or before Friday, February 26, 2010. After this Friday, I understand that this opportunity closes, and I won't be given this membership invitation again. Without hesitation, please send me my personally reserved, 56-page, numbered booklet containing the Greatest Kept Secrets, completely free of charge, today!"

They placed a deadline so they make sure at least I'm hesitated to send this but since it's a 'wonderful opportunity' they bet I'll send it before Friday. And to make it even more believable they even placed my account number and manuscript number. Yay!

Wait, so is it a scam?

At this point my friend, I really hope you could noticed by yourself that this is indeed an obvious scam. Well, maybe it's not that obvious if you read the entire letter because this 'John' guy who share his testimonial but doesn't show his real name because [his] "lawyer will not let [him] reveal [it]" even swears on the Bible!
I actually enjoyed this short-fairy-tale testimonial about John who owns a "$200,000 Mercedes and live in a magnificent $3 million mansion, vacations a month at a time at the most spectacular and beautiful resorts in the world ... all first class." He then explains in detail how he meet this 'mystery man' in Las Vegas and 7 moths later he gave him 'a copy of a manuscript written almost 2300 years ago, translated into English'

At least they promised me that I will never get another letter from them if I don't send them the form.

Are you curious about what happens if one DOES SEND the form?

I'm sure you are if you are like me.
The following are quotes from people which Google found related to the Greatest Kept Secrets manuscript fraud, I do not own any of these or I'm related to any of the quotes:

- I also got the same letter, I sent the first letter back out of curiosity. Today (July 28) , I received a small "orientation booklet " in the mail, which is suppose to contain a secret message. It is basically a reprinted version of the original letter, except this time they want me to send $139.95. My only question is, If these people are so wealthy and famous , why do they need my money? I, of course, know the answer. There is a secret message in the booklet. It's the message that all who get this package should see very clearly. "This is a scam"

- Well, what I found so far is that this letter is circulating for at least 4 years and thousands of people got it. Not sure which marketing organization sold the list with the names of people who got it but I am getting to the idea it could be ciao surveys (70% positive it is them) :-)

- I got the same letter, inviting me to send off to the same address. Mine originated in Taiwan...
I assumed they were fishing for the terminally gullible.

- Hi,
I received this letter a few years ago.
I read it. And thought what if?
I received what they sent me and they said I was an exclusive member of their
secret society. They said, now buy this book for $149 and all the secrets will be revealed.
I DID! I am an easy sell. Then about a month or two went by, they sent me another letter, stating a second book
was just written, secrets to your millions will be revealed and you will be excepted into the secret society secret meetings, when you purchase this book for $149. This is the last book ever written. I thought cool, I am really into something here and maybe there really is secrets to millions. I bought the book. Got me again!

Then I received another letter a month later stating a new secret method has been revealed it is book 3 of 3.
I thought there was suppose to be only on book? By this time I lost my job and had no money to pay bills, so I skipped the third book. So after a year of letters every 3 months telling me I am no longer in this so called secret society. I received another letter today trying to sell me the last book ever written because the founder has died.
I also got a letter telling me they are now online. They application fee is $1000 and they monthly fees are $200. But I am not sure how much all together it ends up.

There is a ton of people on the internet that believe and love there lives by this so called secret society (Neo Tech) or whatever it's called. I actually read the two 1000 plus page books and they were filled with a lot of business insight. But I never bought another book. I don't know how real this society is (if at all), but they sure are good at their mail-order business.

- You may suspect that after sending a request off to P.O. Box 6304 in Dover, Del., for a glimpse of the free secrets, people get another letter demanding $140 or so for the entire guide.