I'm acquainted with an elderly couple who once came to me with a question. They had received a letter in the (snail) mail from a self-proclaimed lawyer who told them (bet you can guess) that a long-lost relative had passed away in the Phuket tsunami, and had left them several hundred thousand dollars' worth of inheritance. My acquaintances were being asked to send this kindly lawyer a few hundred dollars for 'administration' of the estate.
My acquaintances had made the mistake of contacting this 'lawyer' by phone, and over the following weeks were in constant phone contact with this man. They actually grew to like the guy.
I tried several things to convince my elderly friends that this was not a legitimate offer. My unsuccessful approaches included:
I said the offer was a scam.
I googled 'tsunami inheritance scam' and showed my friends that this yarn was a widely-used ploy.
I told them I would eat my shoes if the deal were legit.
I quoted local authorities who stated that inheritance or winnings should never require a recipient's payment up front.
I pointed out the unlikelihood that my acquaintances had any relatives living anywhere near Phuket.
I googled the supposed bank that held the inheritance and could find no such institution.
I pointed out that the letters and emails that the 'lawyer' had written did not show a convincing grasp of the English language, let alone inheritance procedure.
I also noted that the letters contained a lot of meaningless faux-legalese bafflegab.
I showed my friends a few examples from my own junk mail inbox of similar scams
For some reason, nothing I said convinced my friends. Finally, I tried to trace the source of the 'lawyer's' emails, and found that the correspondence that was supposedly coming from Ireland was actually coming from a computer in Malaysia...and the Malaysian email was coming from an ip address near Munich, Germany. It was this last piece of information that finally convinced the elderly couple that there was no inheritance.
On another note: happen to remember Howard Jones? He had a big-selling album in 1985 ('Dream Into Action') – with an especially popular single called 'No One Is to Blame'. Curiously, the version of the song on the album was not the version of the song that burned up the charts that summer. The popular version of 'Blame' was re-recorded under the production auspices of Mr. Phil Collins. The lyrics, the form, the chords, the tempo were all the same in both versions – but the Phil Collins version had Collins himself on backing vocals, drums (and whatever you have to say about his songwriting, his drumming is beyond reproach) and adding, shall we say – just a little more aural sparkle. The new version of the song became Howard Jones' best-selling single, reaching #4 on the Billboard charts.
What is probably glaringly obvious to most observers of pop music, but is still sometimes a bitter pill for me to swallow, is the idea that a very substantial message (or song) can so easily go ignored if not for just the right presentation. Record companies and many artists often believe that an artist does not have the skill to present his/her music with the best presentation possible – hence the producer. A producer rarely writes music for an album, but he/she has the job of putting the music in its most flattering form. This is the person who supposedly knows how to press that hidden button in the listener that activates the 'I love this song!' mechanism. Some producers have quite a track-record with finding that button, and a very tiny number are the artists themselves (Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin leaps to mind). There are certainly many cases of long-established artists whose record sales suddenly went crazy just as soon as they were paired up with a hot producer of the day (Peter Gabriel with Daniel Lanois, Yes with Trevor Horn, AC/DC with “Mutt” Lang, the Cars with Lang, Red Hot Chili Peppers with Rick Rubin, Robert Plant with T-Bone Burnett, and many more) – but to the best of my knowledge, no producer has a perfect track-record. The 'love-it' button is indeed elusive, and artists themselves are probably better off ignoring it completely. Meanwhile – is it wise for an artist to produce his/her own music? You tell me, gentle reader. Mike Luno Band's new CD, 'Get Inside' is self-produced. Granted, you wouldn't have the uber-producer version of the album with which to compare it (and if I had the choice of the world's best-known producers, I'm a bit stumped as to whom I would choose...'though Terry Brown, Steve Lillywhite and Bob Ezrin leap to mind first...it never hurts to dream ;)).If I have any luck in hitting the 'love it' button with the new CD, I suspect it would be pure serendipity, because there's a significant difference between trying to do a piece of music full justice and trying to entice someone with it. Still, the CD has not yet officially been released – I could still add a message somewhere on the packaging threatening to eat my shoes unless the reader purchased the disc. Did I ever mention marketing is not my passion?
My acquaintances had made the mistake of contacting this 'lawyer' by phone, and over the following weeks were in constant phone contact with this man. They actually grew to like the guy.
I tried several things to convince my elderly friends that this was not a legitimate offer. My unsuccessful approaches included:
I said the offer was a scam.
I googled 'tsunami inheritance scam' and showed my friends that this yarn was a widely-used ploy.
I told them I would eat my shoes if the deal were legit.
I quoted local authorities who stated that inheritance or winnings should never require a recipient's payment up front.
I pointed out the unlikelihood that my acquaintances had any relatives living anywhere near Phuket.
I googled the supposed bank that held the inheritance and could find no such institution.
I pointed out that the letters and emails that the 'lawyer' had written did not show a convincing grasp of the English language, let alone inheritance procedure.
I also noted that the letters contained a lot of meaningless faux-legalese bafflegab.
I showed my friends a few examples from my own junk mail inbox of similar scams
For some reason, nothing I said convinced my friends. Finally, I tried to trace the source of the 'lawyer's' emails, and found that the correspondence that was supposedly coming from Ireland was actually coming from a computer in Malaysia...and the Malaysian email was coming from an ip address near Munich, Germany. It was this last piece of information that finally convinced the elderly couple that there was no inheritance.
On another note: happen to remember Howard Jones? He had a big-selling album in 1985 ('Dream Into Action') – with an especially popular single called 'No One Is to Blame'. Curiously, the version of the song on the album was not the version of the song that burned up the charts that summer. The popular version of 'Blame' was re-recorded under the production auspices of Mr. Phil Collins. The lyrics, the form, the chords, the tempo were all the same in both versions – but the Phil Collins version had Collins himself on backing vocals, drums (and whatever you have to say about his songwriting, his drumming is beyond reproach) and adding, shall we say – just a little more aural sparkle. The new version of the song became Howard Jones' best-selling single, reaching #4 on the Billboard charts.
What is probably glaringly obvious to most observers of pop music, but is still sometimes a bitter pill for me to swallow, is the idea that a very substantial message (or song) can so easily go ignored if not for just the right presentation. Record companies and many artists often believe that an artist does not have the skill to present his/her music with the best presentation possible – hence the producer. A producer rarely writes music for an album, but he/she has the job of putting the music in its most flattering form. This is the person who supposedly knows how to press that hidden button in the listener that activates the 'I love this song!' mechanism. Some producers have quite a track-record with finding that button, and a very tiny number are the artists themselves (Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin leaps to mind). There are certainly many cases of long-established artists whose record sales suddenly went crazy just as soon as they were paired up with a hot producer of the day (Peter Gabriel with Daniel Lanois, Yes with Trevor Horn, AC/DC with “Mutt” Lang, the Cars with Lang, Red Hot Chili Peppers with Rick Rubin, Robert Plant with T-Bone Burnett, and many more) – but to the best of my knowledge, no producer has a perfect track-record. The 'love-it' button is indeed elusive, and artists themselves are probably better off ignoring it completely. Meanwhile – is it wise for an artist to produce his/her own music? You tell me, gentle reader. Mike Luno Band's new CD, 'Get Inside' is self-produced. Granted, you wouldn't have the uber-producer version of the album with which to compare it (and if I had the choice of the world's best-known producers, I'm a bit stumped as to whom I would choose...'though Terry Brown, Steve Lillywhite and Bob Ezrin leap to mind first...it never hurts to dream ;)).If I have any luck in hitting the 'love it' button with the new CD, I suspect it would be pure serendipity, because there's a significant difference between trying to do a piece of music full justice and trying to entice someone with it. Still, the CD has not yet officially been released – I could still add a message somewhere on the packaging threatening to eat my shoes unless the reader purchased the disc. Did I ever mention marketing is not my passion?