Did A Freeper Scam A Nigerian Scammer? (Second Thoughts)

The champagne corks were not popping at 400 N. Broad St., but there were some smiles. Circulation rose a paltry 800 to 387,692, which was an improvement over past years when the left-wing, liberal publication appeared to be in free-fall.

In 1999, the Inquirer was losing readers faster than any newspaper of comparable size in the country. An Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), the largest independent verifier of newspapers' circulation figures, showed that the Inquirer's daily circulation had dipped to just under 402,000 -- a 7.2 percent decrease from the same six-month period the previous year.

Liberals reportedly have dumped millions of dollars into something called Air America. This is supposed to be a left-wing radio network designed to steal away listeners from Rush Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters. Well, trust me when I tell you the air has been let out of that trial balloon. Air America has replaced five top executives, lost crucial producers and has been taken off the air in two of its top three markets.

-- Offer a morning prayer. Oh, what the heck, one in the afternoon and evening too.

-- Every once in a while, mention that Saddam Hussein is an evil man who should get the death penalty.

The Star Democrat of Easton, Md., reports that a fifth-grader at Maryland's Grasonville Elementary School did a class project on the topic, "What would you take on a camping trip and why?" It consisted of a shoebox containing various tools, including a steak knife. School officials declared the utensil a "weapon" and suspended the unnamed 11-year-old felon for 10 days.

There's an e-mail going around that asks people to help rescue a Nigerian military official who took a secret flight to the Russian space station, only to end up stranded.

If you send $3,000 to help get him back to Earth, the message says, you can share in the $15 million in "flight pay and interest" he gets.

The New York State Consumer Protection Board thinks it has identified it as an obvious hoax and have named it the most outrageous example of advance-fee e-mails, which are also known as the Nigerian, or 419, scam. The messages often claim to be from a representative of a former government or royal official from Africa, and say that for a few thousands dollars, millions will be put into your bank account.

Of course, you have to send the scammers your account numbers and other information first.

Most of our readers are probably familiar with the scams in which a corrupt government official or attractive young woman is willing to share ill-gotten money with a nice American if he would simply provide access to his bank account.

A resident of the World Wide Web named "lowbridge" has found a way to turn these scammers into entertainment.

He leads them on and on and on and puts the correspondence on his website. What he did to a resident of the Ivory Coast named Gloria Gium can be found at http:// www.megaone.com/lowbridge/baitinggloria.html and what he is doing to Rita Kone can be found at http://www. megaone.com/lowbridge/baitingritakone.html

Poor Gloria wound up sending him a picture of herself wearing a pair of underpants on her head and holding a sign saying "Freepersrule" and "IMADUER"-- which refer to the conservative website Free Republic and the leftist website Democratic Underground, respectively.

Wow, nice mention for you in this article, lowbridge! Congrats to you!

Also, FYI -- an update on a new, faster and cheaper way to self-publish: Instant Self-Publishing!

PRESTO - Walter Boyer, left, owner of the Bookends store in Ridgewood, N.J., and Dave Logan, the manager, with the InstaBook machine.

For Budding Authors, a Rapid-Fire Publisher
By ERIC A. TAUB
NYT - Published: June 10, 2004

HOT off the presses" has taken on a newly literal meaning with the installation of the first instant book-printing machine in an American bookstore.

Take a floppy disk or CD-ROM to Bookends in Ridgewood, N.J., or e-mail the store a file, and pow! - in as little as 17 minutes a perfect-bound paperback version of your novel, family memoir, or favorite Bulgarian desserts can be printed.

Every book comes complete with a customized cover chosen from among several thousand designs. For an additional fee, it can also be trademarked and registered with a machine-readable ISBN number, essential for any author hoping to get the work stocked by a major chain and on its way to becoming a best seller.

Of course, the chances of best-seller status are as likely as sudden world peace. Which is why Victor Celorio, president of InstaBook in Gainesville, Fla., created his print-on-demand machine in the first place.

"Best-selling books are so outside the norm that they're an anomaly," said Mr. Celorio, who comes from a long line of inventors. (He says his uncle created an automated tortilla-making machine.) "Real bookselling means selling a book here and a book there over a long period."

Walter Boyer, who owns Bookends with his wife, Pat, decided to offer print-on-demand services after he was regularly asked by novice writers how they could publish their books.

With the large capital outlay involved in traditional publishing, which involves printing and storing thousands of copies, mainstream publishers are more reluctant to take on titles that they doubt will generate quick, substantial sales.

One alternative that has surfaced in recent years is the use of Internet-based print-on-demand companies like AuthorHouse, iUniverse and Xlibris. These online services cost more than Bookends, although they may offer more assistance in getting a book sold. Copies are printed when ordered, and royalties are split between the company and the author.

Customers pay AuthorHouse (www.authorhouse.com) a minimum of $698 to prepare a black-and-white paperback book for printing and to obtain an ISBN number to make the work available at retail outlets. IUniverse (www.iuniverse .com) charges $459 for its basic package, which includes, among other items, five paperback copies, an ISBN number and availability through online and retail merchants. The $500 Xlibris package (www .xlibris.com) includes an ISBN number and bar code, registration with Amazon and other online merchants, a Web page and one author copy.

But the Bookends store in Ridgewood charges $150 for printing 10 copies of any work up to 200 pages. Larger books are priced higher, and and subsequent 10-book orders are discounted. All royalties are kept by the author. The store also offers editing and marketing services through associates at an additional cost.

Several forms of digital encryption protect an author's work from being stolen and reprinted without permission. Files can only be read through the Instabook machine. And once the book is printed, the file is automatically erased.

Customers can also choose to print any of 10,000 public-domain titles stored on InstaBook's servers. Using a high-speed Internet connection, the store downloads the file and prints the title within minutes.

Mr. Boyer believes that the print-on-demand machine helps distinguish independent booksellers from the large discount chains. "Our goal is to have lots of booksellers across the country hooked into a print-on-demand network," he said. "Anything that makes us different from the chain bookstores is useful."

In addition to working with Bookends, Mr. Celorio has placed four machines in Toronto bookstores and one each in Mexico and Italy. He envisages a day when an author instructs a bookstore in Los Angeles to send a digital book file to another shop in Lagos, to be printed in seconds for a single customer thousands of miles away.

While nothing that striking has happened at Bookends, the store, which operates a separate Web site for its printing service (www.booksbybookends.com), has received inquiries from authors as far away as Florida and California. One of Mr. Boyer's first assignments was to print copies of a Hungarian book for distribution to Hungarian bookstores throughout the United States.

"This is another important part of our mix," Mr. Boyer said. "The more books we print, the more salespeople we have out there."

Mr. lowbridge, you are my lucky charm!

I just went to your Dr. Marcus Welby web page to check it out and, lo and behold, I was the 1,000th visitor! They are giving me $1001 to take a sunny Bahama vacation. Can you believe it?! And if I call now I'll get a free $500 internet shopping spree -- See?!

Congratulations !!
You are the 1000th visitor to our website.
You have been selected to receive $1001 in travel dollars
towards a Florida / Bahama vacation.
Call 1-877-733-6145 to reserve now. Res. #184
Call now and receive a free $500 internet shopping spree.

If you will send me your bank account information to verify your identity, we can take that cozy tropical trip together and spend a glorious week in the sun! How about it, Mr. lowbridge? :-)

If you will send me your bank account information to verify your identity, we can take that cozy tropical trip together and spend a glorious week in the sun! How about it, Mr. lowbridge? :-)

My bank:

Federal Banking Insitution
Bank Address:
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Account Number:
8r6346r6r76540075
Phone number:
202-324-3000
Swift Code:
2023243000
Beneficiary:
J. Edgar Hoover

Now please send me a photograph of yourself wearing a fish on your head, and holding a sign that reads the name of my company: BRAIN DAMAGED

As you well know, the laws of my country require that before we enter into a partnership, the party of the second part must provide photo identification to the party of the first part, which is why I ask for the photo. Otherwise, no deal. :-)

Re your post #72 - lowbridge, very interesting! I had not heard of them.

However, I notice that while "free," you still need to pay "$149.95" to get the ISBN barcode number you need to have the book available online at major booksellers:

ISBN Plus, Expanded Distribution Service

For $149.95 (which is significantly lower than our competitors' price for the same services), you get: All of the features of the Basic ISBN service: a scannable barcode on the back cover, your book listed in Books in Print and the ability for local bookstores to sell your book.

Your book will be entered into Ingram's database, the largest US book wholesaler. This gets your book into the same wholesale channels as major US publishers.

Typically this service gets your book listed in the major online booksellers inventory, such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble; however each bookseller has the final say as to the inventory that gets selected for selling.

Discounted retail pricing structure. Lulu will walk you through a retail pricing option, enabling librarians, bookstore buyers and owners the ability to order copies at regular discount prices, directly from Lulu. Unlike some print-on-demand publishers who only offer their titles to bookstores at short discount prices (20% off) through the major wholesalers-making it unprofitable for bookstores to carry their titles-we always offer your book to bookstores at regular discount prices.

You can always upgrade from the ISBN Basic service and Lulu will discount the cost of the basic service from the ISBN Plus expanded distribution service price.

Also, lowbridge - according to LuLu, there's no guarantee from LuLu that any major bookseller will carry the book online. I think iUniverse guarantees both Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com will carry the book online.

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