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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Want to have some fun with a dumb company?

Okay, who wants to go on a little adventure? Check out this little doozy I got in the mail in the past week.

$25 check

This thing has a "pay to" and a "or bearer". It has "pay" next to a pair of amounts, a date, a signature, and even a bank on which it was drawn (ING Direct).

It's an advertisement. But I wonder if they went and made this a negotiable instrument? Maybe they went too far! All it takes is a bit of legal research to find out exactly what constitutes a valid instrument.

If this sounds familiar, it's probably because you remember the 1995 story of Patrick Combs. His particular adventure involved close to $100,000, but it sounds like the same trick.

Here's the catch: I don't feel like jumping through the hoops to prove how stupid this particular company is. Besides the fact they probably just mailed out a bunch of $25 checks, mine in particular was sent to a person who does not and never has existed in my family or at this address. Yep, they made up a name and started spamming my mailbox not long ago. That shows you how bad their data is.

If you know me in the real world and want this, just say so and I'll give it to you. There's just one catch: you have to keep a diary of everything that happens and publish it online so that everyone else can watch the fun.