The scam may not be as serious as the title suggests, but it irks me just the same. Actually it’s not new either, but I’m just now figuring it out.

Apparently last year eBay banned the sale of digital products on the site. Really I don’t blame them, because I always questioned if some of those “resell right” ebooks weren’t ripped off from others. Which is why when I purchased them (and yes, I’ll admit that I was a bit of a resell right junkie there for awhile), I’d edit them myself before reselling and only use things such as recipes which have little to no copyright protection.

Now I didn’t know this, even though I both buy and sell on eBay. It’s been awhile since I’ve sold anything though, so maybe that’s why it slipped past me. So when I was shopping for a few more recipe ebooks on eBay the other day and saw “CD”, I thought “hey cool, that would keep things a little more organized and I could go between both our computers, plus there might be a little something extra to it”. Little did I know the “CD” part was to slip past the eBay guidelines and the seller never did intend to send a CD. Only when I left negative feedback did he offer it (which would have been exactly what what could have been downloaded), and harassed me to reverse the negative (I had I don’t know how many phone calls and emails sent my way, all of which I ignored).

This might not seem like a big deal, but it ticked me off. It was unethical to me. Would I have cared if it wasn’t a CD? Probably not, but then again I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Am I little disappointed in eBay’s decision? Slightly, yes, but really it’s not THAT big of a deal. I understand why they did it, and it cleared up some junk on the site. There’s still the option of letting them run “classifieds” to point to a site that sells resell right ebooks, so what’s the problem? Had I seen one that I liked, I may have bought from them. But apparently this is too much work for some of them that use to sell ebooks.

I think what bothers me the most is the sneaky way these people are trying to get around the rules. The seller tried to tell me he would “lose sales if people had to wait for a CD”, yet here I was one that didn’t CARE if I had to wait. Well I guess you’ll lose more sales now with the negative on your account, eh?

You almost feel bad for those who lost a stream of income by eBay yanking those sales, but you know what? I’ve been there. Only it wasn’t eBay, it was Google and rankings on affiliate pages, and I didn’t use any sneaky tactics to keep my income. I use to have a real good set up that was my cash cow until Google decided pages with nothing but affiliate products was junk. Those who were buying apparently didn’t think so, but that was my opinion. I could have come back with some sneaky tactics like black hat SEO, but I didn’t. I like to sleep at night, and guess I get the short end of the stick sometimes because I play by the rules.

My dad’s strong work ethics are hammered into my brain as well – you got to work for what you want in life, and no one gets a free ride. Or shouldn’t get a free ride, anyway. Not to say building a residual income is a bad thing, but you really should have to put a little effort into it. Case in point, Idea Queen. It makes a nice steady income, but I’ve put a LOT of work into that site. A LOT. The site was built in 2005, and has been added on to for the past 3+ years. Sure I’ve let it sit for several months at a time before, but as mentioned before I’ve put a LOT of hours into building, editing, and adding to that site. In fact, I just added several new pages the other day. Plus the blog has been published to at least several times a month (if not daily) for the past year and a half. Have I earned the money received from that site? You betcha.

Anyway, I wanted to vent a tad about this and possibly warn others who think they are getting a CD or from an HONEST eBayer when in fact they aren’t.

A few weeks ago I received an email about how our candles had been “tested and reviewed”, and had “been given a 5-start rating” by W.I.C Warm Impression. I thought this interesting and my red flag alarms didn’t immediately go off, so I read on.

Our site was listed on their site (just the link, not active), with a note they had tried our jar candles and votives. That was when the first red flag went up. We don’t sell votives. Well, we did sell votive jars already filled, but not what you would call actual votives. (You just can’t do that with 100% soy wax, only with a blend).

I looked further and found if you really wanted to be listed on their site (active link, detailed description of your company, etc), then it would cost you. Monthly. When I looked I could have sworn it was $30/mo, but I see now their “upgrade” is only $10/mo now. Which is still way too much for a brand new site with little to no traffic.

So I was curious to see how legit this company really was, and emailed them for information about their order. I questioned them about what they meant by “votives” and made the mistake of saying we only had jars as our votives. They fired back an email saying yes they meant the votives and they order under a fake name so we can’t “bulk up their order” to make the company look better. Why would we do that if we’d never heard from them? It’s a brand new site remember.

Now I’m really skeptical, and start asking if any other candle maker has heard from them. No one has, of course. Before I can turn anything up though, I get another spam email from them that’s almost exactly the same as the previous. The second red flag goes up, but I’m not ready to bust them yet.

I email them again, asking them to please give me the info of their order so I can verify they did indeed test our candles. Again I’m denied, saying they don’t want to me to tell all the other candle makers. Now why would I do that? I really don’t care, I just want to find out if this is legit or not.

Still I dug through records, looking for a zip that matches or at least the last time we sold a votive jar. It was then I realized I had taken the votives OFF some time ago (I don’t remember when, so it’s been awhile, and I do remember there were several reasons we stopped selling them). The third red flag was waving and it was time to call them out.

I emailed them again, saying we hadn’t sold them so I really needed that order information to check to see what they really did order, and was denied yet again. But before I could blow the whistle here, I got one final spam from them – same one as before, pushing me to upgrade my listing or put their “5 star graphic” on my site to keep my free. NO NO AND NO.

What bothers me the most about this (other than the spam) is they are pretending to test these products and get others to “upgrade” to a monthly fee to keep a listing. What happens when a sub-par candle gets bought by a customer who was promised this was a 5-star candle? They no longer trust that site, and none who are listed there. Plus of course they are scamming candle makers into paying them monthly, which is just wrong.

There are other sites, one in particular, that charges NOTHING for you to have a listing on their site. All you have to do is ask to be listed, and REAL PEOPLE can post their honest ratings and reviews. It’s a much better set up and it doesn’t cost a dime. Go to CandleFind.com if you are looking for candle reviews, and skip the scam Warm Impressions.

We all get junk mail by the tons, most of which we never see. But the ones that bother me the most are the ones who think spamming “just once” is fine.

Yesterday my information was pulled off a website and I received this:

—–

Hello, there, Kara,

I was reading about you and your business ad in
Mom Chats.

I know there are some people in our community of 170,000 that would love to
get in touch with you about your unique opportunity at no cost to you.

Our site give you more for free than tons of other sites do for a fee! Just ask for invite and you will see!

We are an invitation only company.

Would you like help in promoting your business FREE!

May I offer you an invitation?

All my best from,
Mary Jo
[Email and website removed, I refuse to give her business!]
—-
For one, the “opportunity” she describes screams scam. I didn’t look to far into it, but apparently this is some type of networking idea. Well, if it’s invitation only, I can’t see how that would work so well.

Regardless of what the actual opportunity was, I replied to her explaining what she was doing was spam. Here is my exact reply:

—-

Mary Jo,

Please be aware that what you are doing is considered spam and poor business practices. I am telling you this because I would not want to see someone’s reputation tarnished before you have a chance to make a go on the internet. I could have just as easily turned this over to authorities, but I decided you should be aware of your actions first.

I hope that in the future you will make wise choices in regards to your business

—-

Not too harsh, right? I didn’t think so anyway. If I was new and had done something wrong, I would want it pointed out. I guess that’s just me though, because here was my reply:

—-

Well Gee I really do not think that sending out an invitation to other business owners once is such a bad thing to do. It sounds like to me that you are not making money in your business!! Bitter much? I get junk emails in all my email accounts and I just delete them. really why do people like your self have to be so negative and on a power trip.IF, your going to find any success you really need to be networking on more than one site.

Good Day.

—-

Hmm, shame on me for being thoughtful I guess. I learned something though – apparently it’s alright to spam people as long as you do it just once. (Note sarcasm)

Seriously though, if this is the way people on her “networking site” talk to others, I want no part of it. Also, if they think spamming is alright to do, then I’m out completely. Why would I want my business associated with something like that?

Every day we get spam, and most of it gets automatically deleted. But today I decided to have a little fun, since the spam was SEO related and they were targeting my fully optimized niche site. I just couldn’t resist.

Here is the original email I received:

> Hello, my name is [name deleted] and I am an internet marketing specialist. I
> was looking at websites under the keyword hazelnut coffee and came across
> your website http://www.vanilla-candles.net. I see that you’re not ranked
> on the first page of Google for a hazelnut coffee search.
>
> I’m not sure if you’re aware of why you’re ranked this low but more
> importantly how easily correctable this is.
>
> There’s no reason you can’t have a top three ranking for the keyword
> hazelnut coffee based on your site structure and content. You have a very
> nice site.
>
> You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you’re
> interested I can help you with this…
>
> I’m talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new
> backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high PR quality websites
> is what produces the rankings you are looking for
> http://www.vanilla-candles.net.
>
> The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking….and I
> can hand deliver these quality links to you.
>
> My partners and I own 1000′s websites and offer private linking to
> hundreds of website owners just like yourself.
>
> I didn’t send this email out to very many people but I am currently
> reaching out to a list of your ‘keyword competitors’ as well. But I do
> favor your website because I can see your website monetizing the targeted
> website traffic the keyword hazelnut coffee can deliver.
>
> I have your contact information and phone number. Is it ok if I give you a
> call?
>
> I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it’s risk free
> for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes
>
> Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over
> the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?
>
> Sincerely,
>[Personal info deleted]
>
> P.S – If the tables were turned and somebody I didn’t know came to me with
> a proposition, even one that was appealing, I would be hesitant because I
> would be wondering – what’s the catch? What does this guy know that I
> don’t.
>
> But then I would think he does know something that I don’t know. He does
> have thousands of high PR websites, he does have hundreds of thousands of
> pages indexed and ranking in Google Yahoo and MSN. Sites that can deliver
> the quality anchor text backlinks. I would also think that I need to get
> my website in the top rankings. And he is offering to turn key top
> rankings for me…on all my keywords including hazelnut coffee. Even
> keywords I’m not currently competing for. Keywords that produce traffic
> that’s potentially worth tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands,
> millions of dollars.
>
> I emailed you because It’s a win -win for both of us. Think of it this
> way – Who wouldn’t be interested in buying money at a discount? Because
> that’s what I’ll be able to do offer you…Money at a discount.
>
> Is it Ok to give you a call? Or you can can call me anytime at the number
> above?

Now I’m sure most of us know how scam-ish that email really looks. I get these almost daily and most are tossed in the trash. However, the part about “hazelnut coffee” caught my attention, and I just had to have a little fun. Here was my reply:

—-

Just a word of advice – before you send out spam to companies, it would be wise to do a little research on the company itself first. Plus it doesn’t hurt to actually know what you are doing, which obviously you do not.

First, why would a candle site need to be ranked for “hazelnut coffee”? We don’t sell coffee, nor do we plan to. As the domain suggests, we sell candles.

Second, if you took the time to actually look at the site, you’ll see it’s already optimized for various keyword phrases. Not just any phrases, but keywords that actually are related to the site (unlike the term you are suggesting here).

Finally, according to WordTracker, the term “hazelnut coffee” gets a whole 13 searches a day. That’s it. While this is by no means an exact figure, I can tell you it’s pretty close. I would not waste my time (or buy into your linking scam) just for a term that not only has absolutely nothing to do with the site, but gets that little searches.

Just a few helpful hints, I suggest you take them.

—–

Maybe I was mean, but I’m just sick of emails like this. Yes I know I can delete, but they have taken over my inbox. I shouldn’t HAVE to spend that much time a day deleting spam or trying to find what’s legit and what isn’t. Plus I had a feeling a real person was sitting behind this one, so it wouldn’t go unread. Maybe they will take the advice, thinking twice about sending more of their crap out. I doubt it, but at least I feel better.

Today I got yet another spam email from Mrs. Samantha Kobs. This time she’s crossed a very large line.

If selling advertising for insane prices on new sites wasn’t bad enough, she’s now offering a “business opportunity” that may or may not exist. The cost could very well bankrupt many WAHMs. Fortunately the website is not that well put together, so it’s unlikely that people will fall for it.

For $3,000 she’s offering a few free magazines (which we have yet to see exist and was to be released just last month), and a weak set up to sell these magazines. In return they get 30% commission on advertising they sell.

Here’s the major red flags that go up for us:

- No examples of the magazine and no proof it exists
While it was suppose to be released in June 2008, there is no real proof this magazine exists. Actually, I’ve now seen two different dates – June and July. In fact, I saw these two dates on the same page! There’s also no details on how it’s published, where it’s printed, and so on.

- Poorly designed and organized site
It’s hard to follow anything on the site, and it really is very poorly organized. Scattered general content is just stuffed here and there, and the home page is nothing but one big ad space. A professional, serious magazine’s website does NOT look like this.

- Too many ad spaces
In addition to selling ad space in this “magazine” and selling copies of it, she’s also selling ad space. There is NO reason for this many ad spaces since the magazine can’t be viewed online – unless of course your trying to swindle every dollar you can from wahms (see publications like “Parents” – even they use advertising sparely because their goal is subscriptions). Not to mention this site is very new, so to charge what she’s charging is a true rip-off, in my opinion.

- Known spammer
This person has used some pretty unethical (and illegal) tactics for building her mailing lists. I ended up with just 2 email addresses on her list, but others had several more. The addresses were made up or harvested from groups, message boards, and websites. What’s worse she KNEW what she was doing. She was TOLD this was illegal and unethical, but continued to spam people anyway. She still has yet to take one of my email addresses (one that was only used to accept payments and had to be harvested off a website). BIG mistake on her part, since I now know about her latest scam.

People, don’t fall for this. $3,000 is a lot of money to most WAHMs, and I can tell you right now you probably won’t get anything in return. Since everything is so poorly put together, I doubt many would fall for it, but I wanted to put this warning out there anyway. Do NOT give money to Samantha Kobs, KobsMedia, WahmWahm Magazine, or any of her other websites. In my opinion, she is a true scam artist and needs to learn how to be a professional, honest business woman.

Oh boy has this one hit home BIG TIME in the past couple of weeks.  There is a huge spammer around right now who’s not only spamming a bunch of work at home moms … but also harvesting email addresses.

Between myself, Kara, Val and Lauren I’m guessing that we’ve now received probably over 50 of this women’s newsletters.  And guess what?  We’ve received this many copies within about 2 or 3 issues! 

She’s sent to every one of our legitimate email addresses as well as some fake.  See, I myself have something set up as a “catch all” email account.  So, if someone sends something to anything that ends in @mommyshelperonline.com, I still receive it.  For me, she made up addresses such as contact@, sales@, etc. etc. 

She must be using some form of harvesting software because for Kara and I, she also used an email address that is used to only accept payments.  This email address is not published anywhere besides in HTML code for our shopping cart on one site.

Normally, when I’m adding things to my “unprofessional business acts” series I don’t use names or website addresses unless I have permission.  However, in this case … We’re all so tired of receiving these emails that this time I am going to.  Another reason I’m going to is because this particular women is well aware that this is not allowed.  I know this because I have told her and so has all three of the others mentioned above.

I know for a fact that she certainly read my warning because she did indeed remove some of my email addresses.  I’d also like to share with each of our readers exactly what can happen if you’re caught for spamming and/or email harvesting:

The following is an overview of the CAN SPAM Act from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission):

– > You cannot use false or misleading header information. This must be accurate and identify you or who you are affiliated with.

– > You cannot use deceptive subject lines. You cannot use one subject line to encourage someone to open the email and have the contents of the email say something different.

– > You must offer an opt-out method. This is so that the receiver can choose to not receive any other mail from you. This law is often misconcepted at being for mailing lists only. By law, this is not so. This includes any commerical emailing at all. (This includes business opportunities.)

– > The email must be identified as an advertisement and you must include a valid physical postal address. You must let it be known that you are sending a solicitation email which is an advertisement. You also must include your postal address along with opt-out instructions.

Be sure to read and inform yourself of the full Can Spam Act. Ignorance is NOT an excuse! Did you know that each violation is subject to fines of $11,000.00?

As I said, this particular spammer has been well-warned and has decided to NOT take the proper action. It’s bad enough that she’s harvesting emails. It’s bad enough that we’re recieving issues of a newsletter that we did NOT opt to receive. But we’re not just recieving one per issue – we’re receiving several per issue. It’s gotten entirely out of hand!

The more I investigate this all … the more people I find she’s doing this too. There is one particular yahoo group that is immense in size. She’s apparently chose to take the addresses from these people also. It’s also obvious that she’s targeting work at home moms. I guess I could say this is about the only thing she’s doing right. With her list of websites … she’s targeting the right group, lol!

For those of you that also have fallen victim to Samantha Kobs of KobsMedia, WahmWahm.com, DirectSalesMommy.com and SalesMommy.com to name a few … you can take the following actions to report her:

Simply forward the newsletter that you did not subscribe for to her mailing list provider here:
abuse@streamsend.com (Use this email address ONLY for emails received from Samantha Kobs!)

You can also forward this newsletter to the FTC here:
spam@uce.gov

Now keep in mind … if you’ve fallen victim to any spammer, you can forward the email to the above address to the FTC. This email account creates a database to store the information so they can pursue law enforcement actions against spammers.

And if you haven’t figured it out from what I’ve said above … NEVER, EVER, EVER SPAM! It’s just not worth it.

Apparently the possibility of having the Unprofessional Business Acts  a “regular thing” here is a good idea!  I’ve had many requests to continue with this series and I’ll do my best to keep up with it.  I do have a few more stories to share but, if you really want it to continue, make sure you share your experiences with me.  Like one reader said:

I think you should make a series of it. Not only can us old timers learn and laugh about things but I think its a great learning source for newbies who are clueless. I would love to see a series on that topic so I am giving you my personal vote on it!

So, that said … let’s move onto today’s Unprofessional Business Act – Unprofessional Direct Sales Representatives

Kara actually shared this story with me.  
A friend of hers was invited to an ”adult company” party.  Her friend as well as many of the guests had been looking forward to it because these types of parties have quite a reputation for being a lot of fun.  Her friend had actually had every intention of booking a party and one of the guests had saved of $200 in cash just for this party.  Can’t beat that!  Ready made bookees AND sales – before they even got there! 

 Well apparently this particular representative had it in mind that it was all professional – meaning NO fun allowed.  This representative actually scolded the girls for giggling – saying “come on girls, let’s get serious“.  She told them not to make any jokes about it as it “is a serious matter and we all jsut need to get through this together“.

Of course as a result … the lady who had been saving money just for the party got up and left.  Two others followed behind her and Kara’s friend decided to not book a party.  Ouch!  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

There’s definitely a few lessons to be learned here:

 - > Never, ever scold your guests.  Never – end of story.

 - > Yes, you DO need to maintain some level of professionalism at a home party, I agree.  However, the idea of a home party is to create a fun and inviting atmosphere. 

 - > We all know there are a few important messages to be heard at all parties.  This message of course would be to book future parties, make sales and hopefully do some recruiting.  So, when it’s time to hear the important messages, say something like:

I’m so glad you ladies are having such a great time.  This is what makes my parties such a success.  However, if you could please just give me 5 minutes of your un-divided attention, I promise we’ll get right back to the fun stuff.Your guests will appreciate this.  There’s not a single guest sitting in front of you that don’t already know you’re going to pitch the business.  They expect it.  With the promise of getting back to the “fun stuff” … they will give you their attention.

  - > You let your guests decide how the party is going to “go”.  I guarantee you this – Laughing, giggling, joking and story sharing WILL mean more sales and probably more bookings.  This is a guarantee for all companies but especially a company such as this.  When the guests are sharing stories – guess what they’re doing?  They are selling your product for you.

 - > Always treat your guests with the utmost respect – always.  Scolding and nasty looks is how you treat a kindergartener – NOT your potential customers, party bookers and recruits. 

There of course is so many more lessons to be learned here and I could go on all day.  However, a lot of these are just plain common sense.  Use it at all parties – yes, all of them.

Click here to visit our message boards to read the conversation of many others who had something to say about this matter as well as hear from the guest who didn’t book a party. 

So, what do you think?  Is laughing at home parties acceptable?

—————————————————————————————–
If you have a story you’d like to be heard … feel free to send me an email to mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Unprofessional Business Acts in the subject line.  And no worries … if you’d like, we can keep it completely anonymous.

Please keep in mind:  I reserve the right to refuse any stories.  Remember, I have to draw the line somewhere.

I think sometimes the words “business professional” is just way over-used.  It often becomes a way to justify something that ends up being very unprofessional anyway.  I have to say this too … some people never cease to amaze me.

The past couple of days I’ve either been witness to or heard of some really unprofessional business acts which turned into some really good blog content if you ask me. 

It’s a fact, you can learn a lot from someone else’s mistakes and this topic is going to give you the opportunity to do exactly that.  (If not even a little giggle here and there because … yeah, some of it is just too darn funny!)

The first unprofessional business act I want to share with you happened to at least 3 good friends of mine.  I say at least because there were actually many involved with this but I only for sure know three of them.  I will also only share the name of one because she is the only one I’ve asked permission.

It all started when Shelly became the member of a particular parenting & pregnancy message board.  Now I do have to tell you upfront before I even go on that Shelly is a very upstanding message board member.  I can certainly vouch for her because she’s been a member of my own boards for I couldn’t even begin to tell you how long plus I’ve seen her at many other boards.  Long story short, she really is an outstanding member.   She starts new posts, helps fellow members - she even helps moderate and invites new members on a regular basis.  I’ve never once had a single problem and actually view Shelly as a very important asset to my community.  That said …

At this particular message board, Shelly posted an introduction and made a total of 17 posts – all of which can be proved to not being an ad or spam.  After a while she had invited a few friends as well as one of her direct sales team members.  A few days later she sent out an email to a few more friends as well as made an announcement at her own message board.  This resulted in quite a few sign ups.

Within these sign ups, there happened to be quite a few consultants from one particular direct sales company joined.  According to the owner of this message board owner, one of these consultants posted an ad.  (By the way, this has yet to be confirmed for sure anyway.)

Here’s where the story gets good …
Since one of these consultants supposedly posted an advertisement, the owner took it upon herself to not only ban this particular consultant but also every other consultant with this company AND Shelly (because she invited them) AND (yeah, I’m not done yet …) Shelly’s downline member – because she was in Shelly’s downline and because Shelly invited her!  Oh and I have to mention some of these ladies were banned before they were able to so much as post an introduction!  What?!?

And there’s more …
Not only did she ban all these ladies, she also decided to write Shelly a nasty email explaining that she banned her because she invited spammers and went on to call herself as well as the rest of the consultants horrible names.  She also stated that she tries to head off any trouble before it starts.

Hmm …
This by far is an interesting way to run an online community.  As a message board owner myself, I can totally respect her “wanting to head off any trouble before it starts” – however, this is not the way to do things.  There’s certainly a few lessons to be learned from this story …

 - > First of all, even if this particular person did indeed spam, you cannot hold another person responsible for their actions.  Could Shelly control what this other girl posted?  Of course not!

 - > Just because one person from a particular company spams a message board, it doesn’t mean that every single other person associated with this company is going to do the same.  Nor should they be punished for the other consultants acts.  They can’t be held responsible for what she did anymore than Shelly can be!  So one student in a class does something bad.  Do you punish the entire class?  Of course you don’t!  You punish the student who did the wrong doing!

 - > Do you ban a new member the first time they post something of spam nature?  Of course you do not.  Yes, you can have “No Spamming Allowed” posted all over the boards you want but you’re still going to have a new member who “misses it” or thinks they can get away with a little “sneaky spam”.  (Trust me, it’s inevitable!)  When it happens, you warn the offending member (only) and you delete the spam.  If it happens again – then by all means – give them the boot!

 - > Do you ban everyone else invited by a particular member because she invited someone else who spammed?  Need I really answer this one?

 - > Do you send an email to the person who invited the “offending member”, call her and everyone else who just happens to be in the same direct sales company nasty names?  I think not!

I can’t let this story end with out mentioning that after Shelly contacted the owner and complained as well as pointed out how wrong this was, the owner decided to re-instate her membership.  Uh, a little too late for that don’t you think?  If I were Shelly (or any of the others effected for that matter) I wouldn’t come back if she paid me!

Be sure to click here to stop by Shelly’s blog and read the whole story in more detail.

So, have you been treated unfairly or been witness to an Unprofessional Business Act?  I’ll be sharing a few that have happened to me over the next few days but I’d love to feature your story too!  Who knows – we could come up with a whole new regular feature here!

If you have a story you’d like to be featured … feel free to send me an email to mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Unprofessional Business Acts in the subject line.  And no worries … if you’d like, we can keep it completely anonymous.

Please keep in mind:  I reserve the right to refuse any stories.  Remember, I have to draw the line somewhere.