Rick - Keep up the good work.  I will contribute to your defense fund
if need be.  Susan

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:59:00 -0800 Rick Anderson
<rickand@UNR.EDU> wrote:

> Hi, everyone --
>
> For those who might be interested in hearing the latest in the "Mrs.
> Larson" saga: On December 17 I posted a message alerting readers of this
> list to the possibility that they might receive aggressive phone calls
> from a woman identifying herself only as "Mrs. Larson" and claiming to
> represent a company to which the library owes money.
>
> The woman who calls herself "Mrs. Larson" (but refuses to provide her
> full name) apparently saw that posting today and left a voicemail
> message for me this morning.  She was very irate.   She claims that she
> never told me Pentium Capital was a law firm (she now says that it's a
> collection agency), and said that my posting was full of lies.  She also
> says that she's going to forward my posting to the Federal Trade
> Commission and the Better Business Bureau.  Some of the other things she
> said were syntactically incoherent, but if I understood some of it
> correctly, she did mention that she had not originally called on behalf
> of the American Directory Listing Service, so be on the lookout for
> calls from her on behalf of some other company.
>
> After receiving that message, I did another Google search to try to find
> any trace of a company called Pentium Capital.  I still found nothing.
> However, when I called "Mrs. Larson"'s phone number following our
> conversation on 12/17 I was able to get the receptionist to tell me what
> physical address I would use if I were going to send a UPS shipment to
> her company, and the address she gave me was 2660 20th St., Port Huron,
> MI, 48060.  As it turns out, a company called DHL Danzas Air & Ocean has
> its offices at that address.  When I called that company, they said that
> they have no record of any dealings with a company called Pentium
> Capital -- however, they do handle postal returns for a company called
> (wait for it...) American Directory Listing Service.  The person I spoke
> with at DHL Danzas is doing some investigation.
>
> By the way, the phone number that "Mrs. Larson" gave me is a Canadian
> number (514-693-5171; her extension is 355).  When I called it again
> today and tried to get the receptionist to give me the address of the
> office in which she works, she refused.  When I asked her again to tell
> me the names of the six companies that she says have offices there, she
> told me she was "very busy" and put me on hold.
>
> When "Mrs. Larson" called me again today, one point on which she was
> emphatic was that I was going to be hearing from her personal attorney,
> since I have made public statements about her that she finds
> objectionable.  I called her back and she didn't answer her phone, so I
> left her a voicemail message saying that if she would give me her full
> name, explain the nature of her business with my library, and
> substantiate whatever claims she may have on our money, I will happily
> and publicly retract my earlier characterization of her as a probable
> scam artist.  I'll let you know if I get a response.
>
> Incidentally, since I sent out that posting on 12/17 I've heard from
> several people outside the library profession who have had similar
> dealings with "Mrs. Larson" and the companies she represents.  (These
> companies do not only target libraries -- they also go after small
> business owners.)
>
> ----
> Rick Anderson
> Dir. of Resource Acquisition
> University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
> (775) 784-6500 x273
> rickand@unr.edu

------------------
Susan Sturgeon
Serials Librarian
Salem State College Library
352 Lafayette St.
Salem, MA 01970
(978) 542-6765
susan.sturgeon@salemstate.edu

Email: susan.sturgeon@salemstate.edu
Salem State College