***Yeah!  We took on John Ashcroft, we can deal with Mrs. Larson!!!

Jeanette L. Skwor
Cofrin Library
University of WI-Green Bay
(920) 465-2670

"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will
get you through times of no libraries."
                              Anne Herbert, The Whole Earth Catalog

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Susan E. Sturgeon
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 2:47 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] The Return of Mrs. Larson (RE: Scam alert)

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