Seems A Little Fishy To Me

We may have gone a bit over the line in making things accessible. I tried to send an email to one of my customers today and got this form back from Earthlink. It is a pretty cool way to avoid spam, but I am puzzled by the link for the visually impaired at the bottom. If they are visually impaired, how do they.....well.....you know.....see it to click? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please complete the short form below. If xxx@earthlink.net chooses to allow email from your address, the message(s) that have been intercepted will be delivered immediately, and any future message(s) will be delivered without delay. Your First Name: M.I. Your Last Name: Enter your additional email addresses here: Address 1: Add other addresses (if you have more than one). Please type a short message to xxx@earthlink.net. (100 characters, max.) Enter the text you see below into the box to its right. This step is for added security. Visually impaired? Click here ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's something else. I heard a woman on a call-in radio program over the weekend who had an interesting tale to tell. It seems that she has a house in a college town, where her student-daughter lives during the school year. In that house she also has several other rooms for rent, which she advertises to other college students. She got a call from a prospective renter who lived out of the country and claimed to be an incoming student at the college. This person made the usual inquiries about the room and agreed to rent one for the upcoming school term. This person sent our landlady several money orders in payment for first, last and security deposit. The money orders totaled $4,000. This was more than the amount required. The sender asked her to deposit the money orders and to send the overage to another person in the US who was allegedly making additional arrangements for shipping the sender's belongings or something. The landlady took the money orders to the bank and deposited them. The bank allowed her to get a cashier's check for the overage, which she sent along to the third party. She also spent some of the proceeds that were coming to her. Several days later the bank informed her that the money orders were bogus and that they wanted the 4 Gs back. Duh. This is a variation on an old scheme. I've heard it done with items for sale on Ebay and in the classified ads. You advertise something for sale for a $1000 and get a cashier's check for $2000. Being honest, the seller then calls the buyer and is instructed to cash the check and send the extra $1000, plus the item purchased, to the buyer. Later the seller discovers the check is a forgery and is out $1000 plus the item sold. The trick is this. If you get a check from someone for a transaction, hold the damn thing until it clears. Don't assume that because it is a cashier's check or money order that you are home free. Never send any money back to anyone, it is always a scam. The bank is not responsible, you are. Tag: Daily Life