Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2021 Issue

I Have Been Offered $950,000, But Is It Real?

Is this $950,000 offer real?

Is this $950,000 offer real?

I get lots of “free” offers and I have learned to ignore most of them. They are generally for things I don't want anyway. But, when someone offers me $950,000, I do take notice. That is especially true if it comes from the head of a major bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. They have a lot of money. This isn't even pocket change considering how much they spend. Unlike those other “free” gifts, $950,000 is something I definitely can use.

 

The email came from Mr. Timothy (Tim) Gribben, Commissioner of Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Now, I must admit that I was not aware of this bureau. I even wondered whether it existed, or Mr. Gribben was a real person. It turns out my suspicions were misplaced. There is a such an office and Timothy (Tim) Gribben is its Commissioner. I'm embarrassed not to be familiar with it considering the amount of money that runs through it. Their website says they “awarded $18.17 trillion in wholesale Treasury marketable securities” last year. More importantly to me, it says, “we disbursed 1.4 billion payments totaling more than $5.4 trillion.” That's on average more than four payments per man, woman, and child living in the United States. Surely one of those could be for me, and $950,000 is hardly a dent in $5.4 trillion. Maybe this is for real.

 

Still, I had this gnawing feeling maybe something wasn't right. His English isn't very good. I was expecting someone with such a high position in the U.S. government to have a better grasp of the English language. Mr. Gribben explained the job of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service as, they “disburse funds to millions of Americans and None American ensuring their timely receipt of unpaid contract,compensation funds...” I'm not entirely sure what that means. After informing me that I am to receive $950,000, he concludes, “You will be given the honor to transfer this funds yourself to your designated account details anywhere in the world.” That is an awkward way of saying something or other.

 

Still, good English isn't really a prerequisite for this type of job. It requires great facility with figures, not words. “Tim” must be a numbers person, not a language expert. You don't want someone in this position who speaks well but loses track of a trillion dollars here and there.

 

I also found the postscript at the end of the email odd. It reads, “Note: If you received this message in your SPAM/JUNK folder, it is because of the restrictions implemented by your Internet Service Provider, we urge you to treat it genuinely.” Would my internet provider send an email from a government office to my spam folder? That's not a very good algorithm they have there. Besides which, isn't that something my email provider would do, not my internet service provider? Then again, if they are sending out 1.4 billion emails a year offering people money, that would set off spam filters that this was a mass mailing of spam. I have explained that one away.

 

Then, there was one more thing. Timothy wanted me to know what to do if I thought I wasn't the person who was supposed to receive this money (as if I would tell him). He writes, “If you are not the intended recipient, please notify us, preferably by e-mail, you will get an official reply from my official U.s Treasury email.” Well, of course, where else would he send it from? That led me to check this email, to make sure it came from his “official U.s Treasury email.” This one was a surprise. It came from mastodon@salsa.gg. Mastodon? I know he uses “Tim” as a nickname, but “mastodon” too? Is he a very large man? His bio on the treasury website does not list his height or weight, so perhaps. It is odd that he would use this nickname in an official email, but for $950,000, I'll overlook it.

 

But... why did he send official treasury emails, offering $950,000, from an email account on salsa.gg? That can't be his official Treasury email, can it? What is salsa.gg? I looked it up. A Google search listed Salsa God as the first match. They make, no surprise here, salsa. They say it's very good, though I haven't tried it. But, their website is salsagod.com, not salsa.gg. That one is a mystery. The .gg url is from the Bailiwick of Guernsey. They are some islands in the English Channel, not officially part of the U.K. but in some way or other closely related. Why would the U.S. Commissioner of Bureau of the Fiscal Service use an email address originating in another country? Is he sending out money he should not be giving away, and if so, why did he choose me? Maybe I'm just lucky? I tried going to the salsa.gg website, but my browser warned me, “Your connection is not private. Attackers might be trying to steal your information from salsa.gg.”

 

I don't know. I want to believe this. Is it that you can't believe everything you read on the internet anymore? Am I going to find out that Bill Gates really didn't inject a microchip in me when I got my Covid vaccine? I did kind of wonder how you get a microchip to fit through that needle, but I do know they can make them very small these days. I guess you just don't know who you can trust, not even the U.S. Department of the Treasury.


Posted On: 2021-05-01 12:55
User Name: battledore

Dear Michael Stillman, Excellent detective work unraveling an extraordinary circumstance of situations that in the end discloses this "too good to be true" moment is exactly that. What the so-called Tim Gribben was hoping to achieve might have been direct access to your bank account, but all those years of reading Agatha Christie paid off. One might never know why this was done or to whom else similar letters were sent. Your disclosure of these incidents is extremely useful to all the rest of us who have not received such wonderful news and thank goodness for your inquisitive mind. As in researching anything, Knowledge is Power as there should always be a need to validate situations that come unexpectedly.


Posted On: 2021-05-01 20:13
User Name: artbooks1

I'll give you $975,000


Posted On: 2021-05-01 23:04
User Name: adminm

Writer's response: Too late. You have already been outbid by a former Nigerian dictator who will give me half his wealth for allowing him to use my bank account to take his riches out of the country.


Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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