Scam alert: Watch out for phone calls from "Mrs. Larson"/American Directory Listing

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

Hi, everyone --

I just got off the phone with someone who identified herself only as "Mrs.
Larson", and said she was calling because of a fax I had sent to a
directory publisher.  (She said the name of the publisher very quickly,
and I didn't catch it.)  She said that she wanted to speak with our
attorney.  I offered to give her the name and number of the appropriate
office, but first I wanted to ask her a few questions of my own.  I asked
for her full name, which she refused to give me.  I asked for the name of
the company she works for.  She said her "office" was called Pentium
Capital.  I asked whether it was a law firm, and she said yes. When I
asked for her phone number, she gave me (514) 693-5171.  When I tried to
ask another couple of questions, she got very indignant and asked if I was
refusing to give her the name of our attorney.  I said no, but that I
wanted to know a little bit more about what was going on. She told me
she'd see me in court and hung up.

I looked up "Pentium Capital" on Google and found an Asian financial
company or two, but nothing else.  Since she had given me a phone number,
I decided to call it and see what happened.  The call was answered by an
automated attendant that said "Welcome to our corporate offices."  When I
dialed zero I got a live person who said the same thing, so I asked what
company had its offices there.  She said that several companies did, and
when I asked her to list them she did so quickly and nervously; one of
them was American Directory Listing.  When I asked her to repeat the list
more slowly so that I could write them down, she got very uneasy and said
she was just a receptionist; then she said she was just an answering
service.  When I said "That's okay, all I need is the names of the
companies," she told me to hold.  Then she transferred me to another phone
line, which was answered by none other than "Mrs. Larson."  When I asked
"Mrs. Larson" the names of the companies she represented, she got very
huffy indeed and asked me who I thought I was.  I told her I thought I was
the person she had called and threatened with legal action just ten
minutes earlier.  Strangely, she didn't seem to remember me, but she got
very angry and started yelling, and told me never to call that number
again.

The reason I'm telling you all this story in such detail is that ADL is a
company we've all had dealings with before, and I know of at least one
other librarian who has gotten a call from "Mrs. Larson" recently, so we
(and our staffs) all need to be on the alert.  She is very aggressive and
probably capable of bringing someone on your staff to tears if she gets
the right person on the phone.  (I'm fairly experienced in dealing with
these people, and even I was a bit shaken after our initial conversation.  
The second conversation was so off-the-wall that it was actually quite
comforting -- there was no longer any doubt in my mind that I was dealing
with a scam artist.)

Be strong and wary...

----
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu