Jackson Free Press

Folks, the trolls are up to it again. There is a round of e-mails going around to people who post here made to look like they come from people at the JFP. They don't. (Funny how this happens everytime I write a column about race.) Forward them to us if you want, and we can send them on to the authorities who we've reported this fraud to in the past and who have asked us to report them. Thanks, all, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Previous Commentsshow

BTW, if you don't want to get these kinds of e-mails, just click on your user profile and turn your e-mail address off. You can also change it if you wish. Thanks, all.

DonnaLadd

Jan 17 2008

I just forwarded you a suspect e-mail. The sender seems legit, as the name is of a respected poster here, but I just want to make sure the sender is on the up and up.

golden eagle

Jan 17 2008

I've gotten one. Nothing too terrible. Said it was sent from Em. It definitely wasn't from her as I'm talking to her right now. Stupid people do stupid things. But, at least on the blog they refer to me as "their favorite diva". Interesting.

Lori G

Jan 17 2008

Yes, none of the weird e-mails come from anyone at the JFP. This guy does this every few months. Last time, it was after we wrote the in-depth story about the DA's race. And it always happens after an intense race column. They fake them by going to another site and using their site form to forward a story and pretend they're someone else. Remember when I was supposedly writing everybody in site about Jim Hood? It was done through the AG's site form, which is an odd thing to do for a cyberstalker, I must say. ;-)

DonnaLadd

Jan 17 2008

Well, to tell you the truth, I've sort of gotten used to it. After the NJAM spam attack I got when I first starting writing for the JFP and the ongoing random emails sent from MY OWN DAMN BLOG to my best friends...its just sort of "ho hum, don't you have something better to do than send me a fake email at 3pm?" Because at 3pm, I was eating chocolate and doing therapeutic exercises teaching a foster child how to deal with his anger and ADHD. I feel my afternoon was much more productive and good for society. But, I then made the mistake of telling The Boyfriend. He, unfortunately, is not very used to it...and got very, very upset. I thought he was going to kill someone for about seven minutes until he calmed down. It was sort of sexy. I hope they send me more. :P

Lori G

Jan 17 2008

I hear you, Lori. Your afternoon was certainly more productive than worrying about fake e-mails. My evening certainly was—I had an amazing writing class in my NEW JFP CLASSROOM. Woo, hoo! I don't have shlep all over the place to teach it any longer. It's also going to be our community room if people need to use it for a good cause. People showed me a lot of love letting me use conferences rooms here and yonder to teach the class; it's now time to give back. MIPA's already met there, yesterday, in fact. As for The Boyfriend, that is sexy. ;-)

DonnaLadd

Jan 17 2008

I've gotten one. Nothing too terrible. Said it was sent from Em. It definitely wasn't from her as I'm talking to her right now. Was it one that had a link to a blog?

golden eagle

Jan 17 2008

Yeah, Golden, that's the M.O. that I've always seen. Those blogger blogs do not require email address registration to send a link to a blog. So, whoever it is enters in a valid email address (like emily's) and sends it to another valid email address (like mine...taken from this board) and then sends a link with a comment. But, none of its real. They used to send them to my friends, Donna, and several other people from MY blog saying they were from me and stuff like "Someone buy me another drink". (Har, har! right?) I actually thought mine WAS from Emily since she does send me emails and it really didn't say anything strange. I think the text of the email was "OUCH". So, that didn't even make sense to me. Although, on part of the blog they sort of make fun of me...so I thought the "ouch" referred to that. But, I'm narcissitic enough to LIKE the fact that they mentioned me at all. :) Some of them are not as innocent as that, though. I think Emily got one that was sort of mean.

Lori G

Jan 18 2008

Ladd-Congrats on the classroom!! That's been a long time coming, huh? Would you be interested in a 13-year-old I've been working with who is an extremely talented writer? I'm trying to get her into "positive" activities and her ability to express herself at 13 (despite her problems) is just AMAZING. She blew me away. I really want to focus that into some structured writing activities. I'm running journaling groups with some of my kids out in a shelter in south jackson, but she's so far beyond those kids I don't want to insult her with that. :) She needs a step up. If you have any ideas I would love to hear them!

Lori G

Jan 18 2008

Lori, I've had a number of parents contact me about teaching writing to their young teens. I'll see if I can put something together, perhaps for the summer. That would be big fun. As for the e-mails, some of ours have been threatening. Most are just stupid, though.

DonnaLadd

Jan 18 2008

What's MIPA??

gipper

Jan 18 2008

What's MIPA?? Sorry. That's the Mississippi Independent Publishers Alliance—a group of local publishers that we helped form in the summer of 2006 when The Clarion-Ledger tried to take over our distribution network with its TDN scheme. We were broadsided by Goliath when we found out they had been going around to businesses that distribute us and other local publications and giving them a list of publications that were "accepted" into a new scheme they had to put big-a$$ boxes in front of the businesses, and kick out all of the local publications except that ones that agreed to pay The Clarion-Ledger to go into the boxes. (And then the Ledger would share the cut with the business.) We contacted other local publishers (of publications like Metro Christian Living, Home and Land, Parents & Kids, The Apartment Guide, and others) and formed an alliance of very different small business owners to fight back and try to save our businesses from Goliath's strong hand. It took a lot of time and resources, but we got a lot of the spots back by educating the businesses about the fact that we all were NOT on board as they had been led to believe. Then we pooled resources and bought our own big red and gray multi-boxes to offer to businesses (without asking for exclusivity as the Ledger insists on). It made 2006 an interesting year, but the upshot was that we came out stronger (and with more distribution spots) and with new friends in the local publishing world. (We help each other now in lots of ways, have Christmas parties togetjer and are now meeting in the new JFP classroom/community room that you can tell I'm so proud of!). We also attracted a lot of national attention for our David v. Goliath battle, which is all collected on our GoliathBlog. Enjoy. ;-) It's also fun to do a Google search on "TDN" and "Gannett."

DonnaLadd

Jan 18 2008

I have some students who would LOVE a writing workshop. Keep me in the loop on that one. I've created some writaholics in one of my classes, and they are looking for an outlet.

emilyb

Jan 18 2008

Emily, if I do this, I will be happy to do scholarships for students. Or, I'll give a first-come, first-served free Saturday workshop here int he classroom. Would love to.

DonnaLadd

Jan 18 2008

I've got your girl. And boy. Email me a date :) And let me know what I can do besides recruit.

emilyb

Jan 18 2008

Emily, we could look toward later in February on a Saturday. I can take up to about 10 students in the new classroom here. Let's do it.

DonnaLadd

Jan 18 2008

*We were broadsided by Goliath when we found out they had been going around to businesses that distribute us and other local publications and giving them a list of publications that were "accepted" into a new scheme they had to put big-a$$ boxes in front of the businesses, and kick out all of the local publications except that ones that agreed to pay The Clarion-Ledger to go into the boxes.* Ahh, I remember that. What a mess. That must have felt like you were struck by a freight train. *It made 2006 an interesting year, but the upshot was that we came out stronger (and with more distribution spots) and with new friends in the local publishing world. * As they say, what goes around comes around.

gipper

Jan 21 2008

No question. They made our lives tougher there for a while, and cost us time and money, especially in '06. But we have hard-working people at the JFP, in the community, and in MIPA, who believe in Jackson and *local* business, to help us weather it.

DonnaLadd

Jan 21 2008

YAY! I'm going to create applications.

emilyb

Jan 21 2008

Folks, it looks there's a solid lead in the fraudulent e-mail scam (he is sending more in the last 24 hours). Please keep forwarding those e-mails; we have a great collection to hand over. Thanks, gang.

DonnaLadd

Jan 22 2008

It seems rather obvious who is doing it, no? Who has the most attention to gain?

gipper

Jan 22 2008

"It seems rather obvious who is doing it, no? Who has the most attention to gain?" Well help us sporadic readers! Who! I haven't received anything.

lady

Jan 22 2008

Probably because your e-mail address doesn't show up. ;-) Don't worry; this only happens once every six months ago—usually after I write a column about race, as I said. It's almost like clockwork. It is not appropriate for anyone to post guesses about the poser on the site. The best thing to do is ignore it. We did this thread so that people who are confused by the faked senders of the e-mail can know that it's a scam. And an old one.

DonnaLadd

Jan 22 2008