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Has anyone else gotten a letter from this guy? He says he graduated from Harvard 2 years ago and is offering to look over people's essays. Who is this guy, and is it a scam to steal people's essays and sell them?

By Trojan1444 (Trojan1444) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:03 pm: Edit

I got a similar email from someone named Jason Freedman (or Freeman maybe.) I just said no thanks.

He told me he had a degree in British Lit from Harvard, so I thought it was a little odd that he was roaming these boards.....

By Alise (Alise) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:10 pm: Edit

yeah me too =) hehe i didn't send an essay and said i'd welcome advice. and considering i never asked for essay advice (personally i think my essay-writing skills rock) he seemed odd.

By Haan (Haan) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:16 pm: Edit

yeah i got an email from jason freedman or something

By Madrigal (Madrigal) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:22 pm: Edit

I got the one from Andrew Brentley. Same thing about the degree British Literature. Weird.

By Pookdogg (Pookdogg) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:24 pm: Edit

do you guys smell a scam?

By Chemyst (Chemyst) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:37 pm: Edit

Odd.....I got one from an Alison Duffy today. She graduated from Harvard with a degree in British Lit. Smelled fishy so I decided to investigate. I'm a female, and my theory now is males get these letters from males and females from females. Though it is probably just the same person with a huge scam. Wonder how many people got this stuff....the whole board perhaps? Maybe some people are a little naive about this stuff. Whatever.... Hey does anyone want to post the text of the letter they got? It could be a form letter...the language makes it seem that way, at any rate.
~Anna

By Madrigal (Madrigal) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:40 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 20:53:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Andrew Brentley" <andrewbrentley@yahoo.com> | This is spam | Add to Address Book
Subject: Fwd: college essay
To: jasonfreedman2000@yahoo.com




Hey:

I saw your post online and I couldn't help but think
that I could offer some help with your essay. I just
graduated from Harvard 2 years ago (British Literature
major) and I've helped several of my friends' younger
siblings write/edit their college essays. Let me know
if you think I can be of help!

Thanks,
Alison

---

By Alise (Alise) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:45 pm: Edit

Exactly the same:

Subject: college essay
Date: 10/19/2003 11:59:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Jason Freedman
To: jasonfreedman2000@yahoo.com
« Previous | Next »




Hey:

I saw your post online and I couldn't help but think
that I could offer some help with your essay. I just
graduated from Harvard 2 years ago (British Literature
major) and I've helped several of my friends' younger
siblings write/edit their college essays. Let me know
if you think I can be of help!

Thanks,
Jason


Does anyone feel a need scam them back? I do.

By Chemyst (Chemyst) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:47 pm: Edit

Aiyaiyai....that's bad.....can't even get their name right. If you want to start a scam, first lesson is get a name! :-P My letter was exactly the same:
Hey,

I saw your post online and I couldn't help but think
that I could offer some help with your essay. I just
graduated from Harvard 2 years ago (British Literature
major) and I've helped several of my friends' younger
siblings write/edit their college essays.

Let me know if you think I can be of help!

Thanks,
Alison


Same thing. Quite obviously a scam or form letter, else they would have been able to put your name after "Hey." Whatever....I'm deleting it. Don't need no help with my grammar, lol. ;-) Or essay for that matter. I thought it was odd since I hadn't posted in about a month, lol.
~Anna

By Chemyst (Chemyst) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:55 pm: Edit

E-mail addy was alisonduffy2001@yahoo.com......I have yahoo messenger.....wonder if they're on, hehe. ;-)
~Anna

By Chemyst (Chemyst) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 09:57 pm: Edit

Try searching for them in People Search by Yahoo! ID in Yahoo!.....they don't even exist, lol.
~Anna

By Trojan1444 (Trojan1444) on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 10:33 pm: Edit

I got the same exact letter. I was THIS close to actually sending them my essay too! WHEW!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 12:11 am: Edit

Andrew Brentley...

Hey:

I saw your post online and I couldn't help but think
that I could offer some help with your essay. I just
graduated from Harvard 2 years ago (British Literature
major) and I've helped several of my friends' younger
siblings write/edit their college essays. Let me know
if you think I can be of help!

Thanks,
Andrew

Got that today.

Funny thing is, I've already graduated from college. Also, does Harvard have a Brit. Lit majour? They do English, but probably do not have their concentrators specify. (Oh yeah, most Harvardians would say they concentrated in something; most collegiate alums say they have a degree in something.)

By Rosiebabe5 (Rosiebabe5) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 12:32 am: Edit

Haha, I never even posted an essay either and got this. I guess they saw my essay through ESP.

By Xerox (Xerox) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 09:17 am: Edit

hmm, this is truly an attemp to stole people's work. I will give that e mail address to some of my friends, they, hacker-lovers, know how to deal with that.

By Dylan (Dylan) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 10:51 am: Edit

Xerox, don't bother. I sent "Andrew Brentley" a quick note. I discovered that the email address is invalid.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 11:14 am: Edit

It's all SPAM. Ignore it. Just because someone claims to have gone to Harvard, it doesn't mean they have any insight into admissions or writing essays and you can be sure they'd want you to pay for their so-called "help." I feel sorry for anyone who would fall into the trap of believing this guy/girl/idiot.

By Yz16 (Yz16) on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 12:35 pm: Edit

oh plus, read somewhere replying just confirms your existence.

just a quick tip.

-yz