From the 1800s to the Internet: The Evolution of a Con

I am sure most of you have received one of those e-mail scams quite common these days, in which some prince of Liberia (or some such place) just so happens to have all this money and through complete legitimate and legal means they need the assistance of random strangers online, of whom they are prepared to give a large sum of money for their help, if only you would be so kind to provide your name, phone number, address, banking information and so forth.

Well believe it or not that sort of thing actually got its start in the 1800's in a con known as green goods. The basic idea behind the scam, is a person would be offered a large sum of money, of which they would have to purchase for a sum smaller than its value, but when they came to collect the money the bag of which was to contain their money was swapped with one filled with rags or paper.

And as part of the scam letters would be sent out randomly within the mail to various people, and the content and wording within said letters are quite astonishingly similar to those e-mails quite popular today, if one adjusts for the way in which the scam has evolved to suit the modern digital age.

Here is a copy of what one of those letters would look like:

Dear Sir: I will confide to you through this circular a secret by which you can make a speedy fortune. I have on hand a large amount of counterfeit notes of the following denominations: $1, $2, $5, $10, and $20. I grantee every note to be perfect, as it is examined carefully by me as soon as finished, and if not strictly perfect is immediately destroyed. Of course it would be perfectly foolish to send out poor work, and it would not only get my customers into trouble, but would break up my business and ruin me. So, for professional safety, I am compelled to issue nothing that will not compare with the genuine. I furnish you with my goods at the following low price, which will be found as reasonable as the nature of my business will allow:

For $1,200 in my goods (assorted) I charge........$100

For $2,500 in my goods (assorted) I charge........200

For $5,000 in my goods (assorted) I charge........350

For 10,000 in my goods (assorted) I charge........600

5:36 PM - 11/24/2009 - comments {1} - post comment

Drawing Lots

8:48 AM - 10/16/2009 - comments {0} - post comment

Blackmail

2:25 PM - 5/17/2009 - comments {0} - post comment

Fact and Fiction

It is always amazing how many of the things about history we learn in school are latter proven to be inaccurate, or the things that are left out of the histroy books. I just read this article about forgotton massacars in American histroy, things that simply are not talked about. And so I have this speicil addtion of Roots, a few random myths of history and the truth behind them.

Myth:

Philadelphia seamstress Besty Ross designed the first American flag.

Fact:

Ross ran an upholstery shop and swed ships' flags for the state of Pennsylvanis, but there is no crediable evidence that supports the flag story, which is based widely on a discredited account.

Myth:

Germany ushered in the age of chemical warfare by using chlorine and mustard gasses in World War 1

Fact:

The world's chemical arsenals have ancient origins. Peloponnesian warriors used sulfur-laden smoke to attack the city of Plataea, naplam-like "Greek fire" fended off Byzantium's eneimies, and toxic gasses kept invaders at bay in China.

Myth:

Slaves built Egypt's Greay Pyramids

Fact:

Pharohos hired villagers to help thier personal staffs haul massive limestone blocks into position.

9:26 AM - 7/24/2008 - comments {1} - post comment

Happy as a Clam

Many of us are probably familair with the expression "Happy as a clam" and though most expressons generally tend to be based on something that has some logic or reason behind it, few perhaps understand just what this one means, as it appears as nothing but nonsense. But the problem is that over time, the original phrase had been simplifed.

Originally the saying follows: Happy as a clam at high tide" becasue during the high tide is when clams are protected from poetential preadators, and they are safe.

7:31 AM - 6/20/2008 - comments {1} - post comment

Mesmorize

The word mesmorize derrives from a Mozard Opera called Cosi fan tuti which roghly translates to All Women are the Same, and the basic plot is these two friends are in love with a pair of sisters and they are bragging about thier love to an older man who is a friend of thiers and he laughs at them and tells them that they are foolish, and no woman could truly be faithful. So they gete into an argue and agree to make a bet, so the old man is going to prove to them that thier women are no different then any other, and they hatch this plot in which the men whom are soliders tell thier women they are too be shipped off to war and then they come in disguised as Albanians, and each tries to seduce the other's woman in disguise. At first the women send them away, and tell them they have no bussiness there and to leave them alone, but later the men come back still in disguise and tell the women they will die without them, and drink a vial of fake posion then collapse upon the floor as if dead.

So the women's servant whose help had been enlisted by the old man comes in, disguised as the Dr. Mesmor and she waves a gaint magenent over the men, becasue even back then people were experimentning with magnagtics for healing, and the men are "revivied" and it is from Dr. Mesmor, that we get the word Mesmorize

9:12 PM - 10/18/2007 - comments {0} - post comment

Threshold

Most of us are commonly familair with the use of the word Threshold, in order to describe a doorway, or entry way, but where did that term first come from?

In the middle ages, when peseants commonly had dirt floors, they would bring in hay, and grass to lay down upon the floor to make it softer, and then lay down a plank of wood before the doorway, to help keep it back and from just sweeping out into the street.

And thresh is a word that was used to desribe grasses, so it was that the wooden plank, head back the thresh.

9:09 PM - 10/4/2007 - comments {0} - post comment

A Rock and a Hard Place

I am sure most of us are famillar with the expression a rock and a hard place, but where did it first come from? Most common beleif is that it came from Greek Mythology.

There were two great sea monsters one called Scylla and the other called Charybdis and they lived on opposite sides of a narrow channel such that if one would try to and aviod Charybdis they would pass too close to Scylla and vica verse. In fact from this came the expression between Scylla and Charybdis.

But it is beleived that overtime Scylla transformed into a dangerous outcropping of rock which is said to still be there today and it is from Scylla and Charybdis that the term a rock and a hard place orginated to describe a difficult posistion.

10:45 AM - 9/27/2007 - comments {0} - post comment

Wish upon a star

Most of us are famillar with the idea of making a wish upon a falling star. But where did that idea first derive from? How did we come to associate falling stars with wishmaking? Well it may frighten some people to know, that every time they wished upon a falling star, they were casting a form of an old Pagan spell.

The idea of wishing upon falling stars came from the old tradidtional branch of Tuscan Witchcraft which was passed down to them from the mysterious and ancient Etruscans. They had a strong beleive in incoraptating natural objects and occurances into magick. And one of the things they belived as that when you saw a falling star, or a fruti falling from a branch, you should link that falling motion with a spell.

For example, they would upona falling start wish for someone to fall in love, or fan an ememy to "fall" and it is from this belief that we came to assocaite falling stars with wish making.

10:04 AM - 7/30/2007 - comments {0} - post comment

Cloud 9

Yes another new catagory for my blog, just when you thought I was done. It is ever evolving. This catagory was inspired by something I came acorss in an article I read today, and thought it would be kind of neat. It is going to be dedicated to explaining the orgions of certain words or phrases that are common day today. And so to start the one that inspired me to start this catagory.

Many of us are probaly famillaer with the phrase Cloud 9, usually it is used to describe a great joy and happiness when someone is at the height of thier pleasure, it can also be used when someone is in love or falling in love, to say they are on Cloud 9, and it is often also associated with the heavens,but where did it come from?

In the 1800s English meterologist Luke Howard made a list of 10 cloud types. Number nine in the list was cumulonimbus which is the tallest of all types of clouds.

10:39 AM - 7/28/2007 - comments {0} - post comment

For though All are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them. ~The Monk

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