Here is how to say, “You can’t believe anything in our magazine, and the whole thing is a marketing gimmick, but would you like to also fall for a scam, too?” in one, easy e-mail. Thank “Women of Distinction” for the helpful tip:
This was emailed to me…Jack Marshall….this morning. Note the nice personal touch: “Dear { FIRST NAME }. To append that to a letter adopting the tone of a specific message tailored to the recipient means “We think you are a moron. You know—like us.”
Based on the efforts of their crack research team, they think my profile meets their criteria for an accomplished, rising young professional woman. Sure they do. All I have to do is register before July 20.
Using my DeLorean.
This is in the category of incompetent fraudulent advertising. It is an insult to all direct marketing scamsters, liars and slimeballs, who work hard at their profession, despicable as it is, and have standards, dammit.! This kind of self-destroying garbage makes the whole field look bad. Or good.
You know what I mean.
Ethics Alarms 
Tee hee. I bet you’ve misplaced the keys to your DeLorean, too. That is so sad.
This reminds me of an e-mail I got a year or two ago, informing me that my business had been selected for inclusion in some sort of directory of exemplary businesses (or something of the sort), although I have to admit it was not an organization of young, professional women. That’s such a special touch.
All I had to do was fill out their form and send them some money and I was in. Who knows — perhaps they really did create some sort of directory for the folks who were suckered into it. I actually took it seriously for a bit — it was quite well done, I think.
I am a part of the magazine and there is no gimmick or scam, I am sure it was sent on error, maybe you should look at the actual magazine.
Baloney. That is meaningless. Sure, the letter was sent to me in error, but it still falsely suggest that the recipient is getting it because of some accomplishment, and not that the name was spit out of a mailing list.
Could someone have sent it to you as a tip-off?
You mean, that I AM a women of distinction and haven’t realized it yet?
Heh. As amusing as that would be, and in keeping with the insane culture currently infecting the far left, I meant perhaps someone who works at this company disagrees with the practice and sent you this so you would write about it.
I wonder if Bruce Jenner got one of those, Jack? Maybe you can share the stage for a joint award! What color dress do you prefer; pink or blue? (heh-heh-heh)
Do you identify as a Woman of Distinction? Because, It’s really hard to know who is and is not a woman these days.
I almost made that joke in the post. I don’t even identify as a MAN of distinction….
My ex-wife got one something like this 40 years or so ago. It was actually just a notification that she was going to be included in a book of exemplary, fast-rising professional women. The rip-off came when they offered to sell her a copy of the book for $65. She felt quite honored until she got the “buy the book” offer. However, she was definitely female, and they got her name right on the letter.
And how about the photo-shopped busts on a few of the women of distinction in the picture. Nice touch.
Looking DOWN at them too that’s a subtle touch.
This looks like it might be a data processing glitch, like you’re on some junk mail list, but the company that runs the spam campaign ran the mail merge against the wrong template, so you got an old WDM mailing instead of whatever they were supposed to send you, and the field name in the template didn’t match up with the data file. I’ll bet a lot of people got these.
Ah, yes, the old “They are just as stupid with a lot of people” rationalization! 🙂
Are you sure this wasn’t a phishing scam? Some actual subscriber with a virus may have simply had her message copied into a spammer’s database to lure the confused lazy with shiny bait.
The judging from the typos, I can only hope no professional editor approved this… (“Ones” head is liable to explode!)
” The rip-off came when they offered to sell her a copy of the book for $65. She felt quite honored until she got the “buy the book” offer. ”
My family, too, only it was some kind of family history they were selling, the ‘Book of (my family)’ , the ‘illustrious family history of the (my family) has been thoroughly researched by professionals’ on and on it went. My mother was all set to shell out for it, my father looked into it and found out it was a scam where they just put your name into each family name reference throughout the book, whoever bought it.
That reminds me of ads I’ve heard for what I believe is called the Star Registry. They say they’re name a star after you (or someone else) and register it with the Copyright office.
As I recall they print a book with your name and the star’s name (and probably information about the star) and then copyright the book (hence ‘protected’ by the copyright office). Astronomers, of course, have nothing to do with this little operation.
Had to google this scam when I got the same email today – reminded me of the poetry book letters from the 1980s. Like your spot on response
Yes, I got that same email and I replied to see how much they were going to try to shaft me for. Said I landed on their page? She said it would be 295.00 for one page because they were self publishing.
Would I agree to that? And I said no and she said oh.
Well Darn they quoted me a 395.00 charge.for a 1 pager and “Jamie” got serious attitude when I wouldn’t whip my credit card out!
I just got the letter and responded because I am curious to see how much they charge too. Don’t they realize it would be easier to sell adds and have a legit magazine. Jeeze.
They gave me the price of 1 page $295 and 2 pages $495. They said that this was a non profit deal because I run a non profit. I told them that I had to research them so the lady dropped the price of the 1 page down to $195! She seemed extremely confused that I still wanted to research them and would have to have any financial expenditures approved by our Board of Directors.
Well dang! They quoted me 395.00 for a 1 page and 695.00 for a 2 page, then “Jamie” got serious attitude when i wouldn’t act right away as there were 40 other people doing research for the special edition and she could not save my spot.
Wow! Funny! I received the same email a few weeks ago and today I was called and interviewed! The interview lasted for about 15 minutes and I was chosen to be in the publication! Yay me!! Now all I have to do to own my article outright is pay $495 for a two page article or $795 for three page article. Lol obviously that interview ended quickly.
Just finished my “interview”. Odd they called me from a phine number with my same area code. At the end of the praise pitch of being such an over-achieving woman… Came the $395 for one page and $495 for two page article about me. I was also offered up to 25 mailings of the magazine to people of my choice (for an additional charge)
This woman is distinctly calling bullshit
I too received the same email, and researched the name before going any further, as did all of you and came to this page with all of your wonderful comments. Shameful of them to do this.
Having just received this “awesome offer” today myself, I tried to leave them some feedback on their site, But, of course, there was no place to do, because, of course, they don’t want any feedback. So if anyone is still perusing these from the organization, here it is:
Since your name is listed as “editor,” I’ll provide some free editorial advice for you for future reference.
1) “Dear (first name)” is not the way to begin an email saying you’ve selected me for some dubious honor…that doesn’t exactly make me feel “chosen” as was in your subject line.
2) Please edit your own type and ensure that there are no grammatical errors if you’re sending this to professional women like myself. I have no interest in appearing in a volume of anything that is rife with language errors.
3) Receiving this on Aug. 30 with a “respond by July 20” date shows another LACK of professionalism on your part.
For these reason, I have absolutely NO interest in this endeavor.
A sneaky magazine. After being approached by them, I interviewed for 45 minutes and was told that I’d be a great choice for their premier edition. Only then did the sales pitch begin. If you’re going to be a pay for publish enterprise, you should state that upfront.
They just left me a voicemail. I dont know how they even got my number.
“Cindy” was her name. 1-800-283-6167 x 1024 if anyone would like to call her back for an interview. Ha!
I received a similar email from WDM a few minutes ago. I marked as spam, THEN looked it up and found all your responses to this shameful gimmick! The things people do….
I received not one but two emails. I am a stay at home mom with 4 children, 2 of whom are special needs. When I can, I advocate for children’s mental health, speaking about our journey. I was astounded to receive the email and felt proud until I realized it was probably a scam. I could sure do a lot with $295 plus dollars! I believe I am a Woman of Distinction without this publication!
Damn right.