I am a young woman who has a dream of one day getting published. I went online and was just messing around on a website, when I saw the advertisement for Poetry.com. It said I could win up to $1,000 or one of 10,000 other prizes.
I entered a poem, just to see what would happen and if my skill was good enough. That was on the 24th of May. On the 9th of June, I got a letter saying they loved my poem, and were going to publish it. They said I was a semi-finalist and some time in June they would pick the finalist from all the poems collected from the semi's.
I was so excited about the good news, I bragged about it to my friends, my family, anyone who knew me. They were going to put my poem in a Coffee Table Album, and if you wanted a copy, you would have to pay $30, which according to them would cover the book, the "one of a kind cover" and the name embossing. Two days ago I got a second letter saying I was "Cordially invited" to a convention and symposium where I would be presented with an award and a medal.
My mother advised that I look on the internet to see if these people were legitimate. All I found on there was terrible things. Conventions that weren't real, and outrageous fees to attend.
I was devistated to say the least. I thought I finally got a shot at something, then had it all ripped out from under me. I cried for hours. My mother and I both were taken in by the first letter, the "semi finalist". She even bragged to her friends. Neither one of us could believe what we were reading on the internet about this company and it's a good thing we didn't send them any money, because if we did we'd still never get even the phony book.
What these people don't understand when they pull scams like this, is that some of us in the real world who need to be built up because of depression and self esteem issues become devastated when we find out the truth. I haven't taken my anti-depressants for a few months now because I've been feeling better, but my mom was really scared last night because of the abyss I fell in to over the truth. And just for the record, she's contacting the DA's office of Consumer Affairs, the Postal Inspector and ABC's 7 on Your Side. There has to be a stop to this. I may be young but from the previous letters and reports written (by adults), these people don't care how old you are because money is money no matter who it comes from. Let's hope that by reporting this, other adults or caring moms will look on-line before they're taken for a ride. This ride was supposed to be in Las Vegas June 19-22.
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