Re: The Return of Mrs. Larson (RE: Scam alert) Skwor, Jeanette 14 Jan 2005 21:00 UTC
***Yeah! We took on John Ashcroft, we can deal with Mrs. Larson!!! Jeanette L. Skwor Cofrin Library University of WI-Green Bay (920) 465-2670 "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries." Anne Herbert, The Whole Earth Catalog -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Susan E. Sturgeon Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 2:47 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] The Return of Mrs. Larson (RE: Scam alert) Rick - Keep up the good work. I will contribute to your defense fund if need be. Susan On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:59:00 -0800 Rick Anderson <rickand@UNR.EDU> wrote: > Hi, everyone -- > > For those who might be interested in hearing the latest in the "Mrs. > Larson" saga: On December 17 I posted a message alerting readers of > this list to the possibility that they might receive aggressive phone > calls from a woman identifying herself only as "Mrs. Larson" and > claiming to represent a company to which the library owes money. > > The woman who calls herself "Mrs. Larson" (but refuses to provide her > full name) apparently saw that posting today and left a voicemail > message for me this morning. She was very irate. She claims that she > never told me Pentium Capital was a law firm (she now says that it's a > collection agency), and said that my posting was full of lies. She > also says that she's going to forward my posting to the Federal Trade > Commission and the Better Business Bureau. Some of the other things > she said were syntactically incoherent, but if I understood some of it > correctly, she did mention that she had not originally called on > behalf of the American Directory Listing Service, so be on the lookout > for calls from her on behalf of some other company. > > After receiving that message, I did another Google search to try to > find any trace of a company called Pentium Capital. I still found nothing. > However, when I called "Mrs. Larson"'s phone number following our > conversation on 12/17 I was able to get the receptionist to tell me > what physical address I would use if I were going to send a UPS > shipment to her company, and the address she gave me was 2660 20th > St., Port Huron, MI, 48060. As it turns out, a company called DHL > Danzas Air & Ocean has its offices at that address. When I called > that company, they said that they have no record of any dealings with > a company called Pentium Capital -- however, they do handle postal > returns for a company called (wait for it...) American Directory > Listing Service. The person I spoke with at DHL Danzas is doing some investigation. > > By the way, the phone number that "Mrs. Larson" gave me is a Canadian > number (514-693-5171; her extension is 355). When I called it again > today and tried to get the receptionist to give me the address of the > office in which she works, she refused. When I asked her again to > tell me the names of the six companies that she says have offices > there, she told me she was "very busy" and put me on hold. > > When "Mrs. Larson" called me again today, one point on which she was > emphatic was that I was going to be hearing from her personal > attorney, since I have made public statements about her that she finds > objectionable. I called her back and she didn't answer her phone, so > I left her a voicemail message saying that if she would give me her > full name, explain the nature of her business with my library, and > substantiate whatever claims she may have on our money, I will happily > and publicly retract my earlier characterization of her as a probable > scam artist. I'll let you know if I get a response. > > Incidentally, since I sent out that posting on 12/17 I've heard from > several people outside the library profession who have had similar > dealings with "Mrs. Larson" and the companies she represents. (These > companies do not only target libraries -- they also go after small > business owners.) > > ---- > Rick Anderson > Dir. of Resource Acquisition > University of Nevada, Reno Libraries > (775) 784-6500 x273 > rickand@unr.edu ------------------ Susan Sturgeon Serials Librarian Salem State College Library 352 Lafayette St. Salem, MA 01970 (978) 542-6765 susan.sturgeon@salemstate.edu Email: susan.sturgeon@salemstate.edu Salem State College