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Topic: Mystery Packages (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133363
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 7:07am | IP Logged | 1  

A few months back I received in the mail a regular white business envelope from "Wong Trading International." This rang no bells, but sometimes things I order from Amazon come from second and third parties, so I opened it. Inside was a second white envelope, mailed, according to the cancelation, from Norway, and addressed to this same "Wong" company. Inside were newspaper clippings which had nothing to do with me, comics, or anything else I could make out. So I threw it away.

Not long after, another such envelope arrived, which I also threw away.

Then came a larger manilla envelope, with a larger white envelope also from Norway, and again addressed to the "Wong" company. Inside was a "fragment" of some kind of "Viking legend", along with a hand written note that further described said "legend."

Finally there arrived a manilla envelope containing, by the feel of it, an objsect about the size of a pack of playing cards, but about one third as thick.

By this time I'd had enough. An internet search had revealed nothing that matched precisely with "Wong Trading International," so I drove to the local post office and showed the envelopes to one of the staff. She took them all, and said she would send them to the main office in Hartford. I've heard nothing back from them since.

But yesterday there arrived a white cardboard envelope from something called "MPC". Inside that was a black envelope with my name hand written in gold ink. Inside the black envelope was a letter, sealed with wax. I opened it, not thinking it was in any way connected to what I have described above. What I found was a note of "congratulations" from MysteryPackages.com, saying they hoped I had enjoyed this little "adventure." There was a website address from which I learned the name of the perpetrator, a regular on this forum. (Note, this was someone who knew my address because he has actually been to my house, something of a vote of trust on my part. Trust now violated.)

Furious does not begin to describe my reaction. The very idea that there is a company out there that sends out "mystery packages" in these troubled times is outrageous. That someone would, without my permission, give to them my actual street address was galling beyond measure. How many mailing lists did this get me on? How much junk will be turning up in my mailbox?

This seems to me a gross invasion of privacy, and I will be taking the final "note" to the post office in the hopes they can launch some kind of investigation of the extremely irresponsible "MysteryPackages.com".

Not funny. Not even a little bit.

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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12723
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 7:12am | IP Logged | 2  

How soon before some terrorist group uses this "adventure"?

The entire affair is appalling.
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Joe Hollon
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Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13699
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 7:27am | IP Logged | 3  

I don't get what the purpose of that "adventure" was supposed to be.  So what was in the package that was the size of a deck of cards...?
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Brian Miller
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Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31196
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 7:29am | IP Logged | 4  

Not cool. 
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Anthony J Lombardi
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Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9410
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 7:38am | IP Logged | 5  

I got filled with a anxiety and anger just reading that. I can imagine how you must have felt when you discovered who was responsible. 

This is the kind of thing that would stop me from welcoming anyone into my home who wasn't friend or family. 

To the person who did this shame on you. This was such a betrayal of trust. 

Honestly short of causing physical harm to the person. I don't think there is a way you could over react to this sort of thing JB.
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Paul Greer
Byrne Robotics Security
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Joined: 18 August 2004
Posts: 14191
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:01am | IP Logged | 6  

Yikes. In this day and age I don't even bother opening
letters from people I don't know. Since this person knew
you, they should have asked if this was something that
would interest you before signing you up.
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Joe Hollon
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Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13699
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:02am | IP Logged | 7  

I just checked out their website and now I'm even more confused. 
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Shaun Barry
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Joined: 08 December 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 6910
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:16am | IP Logged | 8  


And a Forum member did this?? Good grief... not smart.


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Rich Marzullo
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Joined: 13 January 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 2737
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:31am | IP Logged | 9  

This is...disturbing. Hoping it gets resolved to your satisfaction, JB.
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Thom Price
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L’Homme Diabolique

Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7593
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:38am | IP Logged | 10  

A Google search shows at least three companies offering this kind of "adventure".

Maybe this would be fun for someone who knows to expect it, but otherwise it seems like a poorly thought out idea.  Assuming that most people would send something like this to a person they know better than a forum acquaintance, this still seems like a dubious surprise.  Unless a person is expecting this, how many would even realize they're starting an "adventure"?  I throw away, unopened, 95% of the mail I receive.  Something like this would be in the trash, with me never realizing I had received it.  Others would likely be freaked out by receiving such weird and unexpected deliveries. 
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Kevin Hagerman
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Joined: 15 April 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 18043
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:40am | IP Logged | 11  

I bought a game back in the late 90s for my brother that you played partially online.  It had varying levels of immersion and the premise was, essentially, that the first time you logged into the game they told you that unfortunately it had been cancelled.

Then a couple of days later you got an email telling you how deep the rabbit hole went and the real game was afoot.  You would eventually end up getting actual phone calls from actors propelling the game along.  But at every point during play you could go online and change the level of immersion, and every email/snail mail/phone call included a disclaimer.  So you knew you were playing a game.  They made that clear when I bought it, or I never would have.

How dumb do you have to be to pay strangers to fuck with someone you know without their knowledge?  Even if there is no malice intended, that's just stupid.

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Shaun Barry
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Joined: 08 December 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 6910
Posted: 02 October 2016 at 8:43am | IP Logged | 12  


How long before someone receives an envelope filled with white powder?

As a hardy-har joke, of course?



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