Murry's Missive

I posted an Ad on Craigslist Los Angeles yesterday hoping to sell and old camera of mine – some dude called Mark Paul tried to scam me into sending the camera to Nigeria….it all look a bit suspicious so I used the google voice search application on my iPhone “craigslist Nigeria Scam” and found loads of postings about exactly what was happening to me (Links below). After reading the posts I saw what the deal was……these guys use a hacked paypal account to pay you…..you see the funds are in your account, send the stuff to Nigeria. As soon as the funds go through they are marked as fraud and are returned to the hacked users account. Awesome….you have just sent your item to Nigeria and there is no way of getting you stuff back….

Here are two links that I read that where usefull:

http://www.fraudguides.com/internet-craigslist-scams.asp
http://forums.gumtree.com/topic73431.html

And here is the email conversation with this guy:

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 5:37 PM, mark paul <mcpaul01@msn.com> wrote:
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY — AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Let me know your firm price?

— On Wed, 11/19/08, Murry> wrote:
From: Kurt Heim
Subject: Re: Canon 20D + Grip + 28-135 Canon Lens – $600 (Santa Monica)
To: mcpaul020@yahoo.com
Cc: sale-924768625@craigslist.org
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 3:06 AM

its firm at 600 – whats your offer?
On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 7:15 PM, Mark Paul <mcpaul020@yahoo.com> wrote:

I am glad to recieve your mail,And i hope we can do business,any way am ok with the amount you want to sell the item.i would have love to come and pick it up by myself but due to the nature of my job that made me to be out of town right now.So i need you to do me a favour now,Provide me with your via paypal address for the payment or your full Name and You Home Address for the payment, i want you to consider the item sold to me.And I will like you to remove your item from the craiglist site and have it package in other for the shipment because as soon as i have the information of the payment i demanded,i will do the payment immediatly,including the shipping fee. so that you will ship it fast to enable My son David to have it before his Birthday party.

Waiting to recieve the information.

Thanks and regards

— On Wed, 11/19/08, Murry wrote:

From: Murry
Subject: Re: Canon 20D + Grip + 28-135 Canon Lens – $600 (Santa Monica)
To: mcpaul020@yahoo.com

Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 3:38 AMhey Mark,

Ok – consider it sold to you – where am I going to ship the package to so that I can include the shipping fee?

Murry

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 8:07 PM, Mark Paul <mcpaul020@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for the assurance.I want the package shipped to my son who will be celebrating his B day in Nigeria.I will take care of the shipment cost.

Just go ahead and provide me with your payment information for immediate payment.

Regards

— On Wed, 11/19/08, Murry> wrote:

From: Murry
Subject: Re: Canon 20D + Grip + 28-135 Canon Lens – $600 (Santa Monica)
To: mcpaul020@yahoo.com

Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 4:20 AMokay but we need a shipping address…..

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 8:27 PM, Mark Paul <mcpaul020@yahoo.com> wrote:
Below is the address as stated:Address:26 Peter Okoye Street Uwani
City:Enugu
State:Enugu State
Country:Nigeria
Postal code:400001

I will be waiting to hear from you asap.

And the I said:

his is way to close to this:http://www.fraudguides.com/internet-craigslist-scams.asp
http://forums.gumtree.com/topic73431.html

consider this item not for sale.

Thank you for your time and please do not contact me again

Never heard back from him – I posted this just because in talking with friends about this today, I am not the only one who had this experience….

How many times have you see the Barack Obama “Change” Poster, how many times have you seen it today? The image of Barack Obama is fast becoming one of the most recognizable icons of our generation. Amplified by the 24/7 coverage of the presidential race, the image of Obama is what is going to stand out as a reminder of the epic battle of the changing of the guard in US politics.

What is a Pop culture icon? Wikipedia defines it as “Pop Icon is a celebrity whose fame in pop constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. Although there is no single definitive test for establishing “pop icon” status, such status is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction. Moreover, “pop icon” status is distinguishable from other kinds of notoriety outside of popular culture, such as with historic figures.” Examples that I can think of off hand are: The Che Guevara image on a t-shirt, the image of Bob Marley…on buttons, t-shirts stickers, Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Kurt Cobain, The Rolling Stones’ Lips, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee.

After all is said and done, the true litmus for an image to be considered a “Pop Culture” icon would be how many times you see the image on t-shirts and stickers on the Hippie Highway in Venice Beach California (Hippie Highway = Venice Beach Boardwalk.) So, I tried an experiment, I got on my skateboard with my camera and cruised down the board walk to go and see how many times I could photograph the Barack Obama “Icon.” I was pleasantly surprised to find it all over! Here are my pictures, Enjoy!