Well, since you all enjoyed my degen story that stems from my 2003 jail stint in Isabella County, I feel compelled to pick up right where I left off and tell you what I got myself into in the year of 2004....
Trenton Harbour Condominium 2004
I was able to get a condo at the age of 21 with my Grandfather's co-signing and him matching my 10k down payment that I told him I saved up from working at a cyber cafe in Detroit.
I didn't lie to my Grandfather much, but this was one time I had to as I really wanted to have my own place. I was living with my Grandmother Marge, but once I started to sell drugs there was no way I ever wanted to take the chance of her door being kicked in and feel that kind of shame.
So, after I got out of jail I had to do 90 days on a tether. That's right, couldn't leave my condo unless it was for work. I had to take a job making $8.25 as a barback in a downtown Detroit restaurant and put up with bartenders, servers, and restaurant management talking down to me like I was a peon. I'd watch these servers ****/suck the management and in my head think "****, that guy's like 35-40 and only makes 50k a year, what a loser."
Tough times for me though with a tether on my foot, a promise to my grandmother to never sell drugs again, and being surrounded by people in the food service industry who liked to party. Pretty much everyone in the entire place was on cocaine and the cocaine being supplied was ****. I just kept to myself and made sure to steal a fine selection of steak, shrimp, and fish every time I could to make up for the ****ty pay I was receiving.
While I was on the tether, confined to my condo, and at least eating like a king I discovered a website called Face The Jury. It was a site you could log onto, put a few pics up, be rated, and they had very active public forums where you could post and message other users on the site.
It was on this website where I discovered what I call the "cybersuck." You just start talking to the girl in pms, listen to her stories, and make good friends with her and within a few minutes, hours, or days she'll get naked on webcam for you. Most of these girls were sexual deviants, had boyfriends, and just wanted to be the naughty girl online they couldn't be in real life. Throughout my life I have always had a few girls I talk to strictly online and these girls have been awesome as far as giving me advice on what to do with real life situations with women. The times they'll do stuff for me on webcam is just a bonus. Sometimes women just need a man they can trust with all their dirty secrets, confess all the sexual stuff they want to do, and to watch them rub their vaginas on webcam. While on a tether I had no problem devoting time to this.
Anyway, here's how the story gets degen....
I meet a guy on this site named Gene. Gene's like me as far as having "grind on the mind." He definitely never wants to work hard for any money. I had been talking to him on/off in ims for a long time on the site. I am off the tether now, started to grind maximum $100 buy in poker at greektown, and still working the **** job as a barback. I've got around $5,000.00 to my name now.
Gene starts telling me and two other Face The Jury guys about this list of 10,000 business addresses he has. He wants to create an online phonebook site like
www.switchboard.com because at that time it's just becoming the smart thing to do to get your business listed online. Gene provides me and the other would be investors with the laws around sending an invoice solicitation to businesses that looks EXACTLY like their current yellowpages bill.
So, the deal is the business gets an invoice that looks like their yellow pages bill for $249.99. The business cuts the check and pays the bill. You then add that business to the yellowpages site. The business cutting that check signals they agree to be part of the online site you are creating.
It's not fraud as long as you have the site and as long as you put a disclaimer on the invoice "blah blah blah."
So, to do 10,000 envelopes/return envelopes with the professional look/logo and window so the invoice can be folded nicely into/show the address for mailing purposes it's like $5,000.00.
If 1% of the invoices sent convert to payment received. We'll have 100 paid invoices which will equal $25,000.00. A profit of $20,000.00.
In my opinion and the other investor's opinion the math is there.
I agree to put $1500.00 towards the project. The other investors $1,500.00 as well.
We split all profits 25%, 25%, 25%, 25%.
Gene covers the other $500.00.
After during a thorough review of all the laws surrounding invoice solicitation at the time I decide that sending these invoices isn't unlawful, it's just highly unethical.
Like any degen with "grind on the mind"... I'm in and hoping for the best.
I make sure to have my hands off all of it though and have a degen friend of mine at the time receive the 10,000 envelopes, invoices, etc... so I can make sure it's all real, all legit, the finest quality.
The shipment comes in and now me and my friend have 10,000 envelopes to fill, seal, and mail out.
EVERYTHING LOOKS PERFECT.
I AM PUMPED FOR THIS.
I could make $6,250.00 off of a $1500.00 investment and this type of "grind" is 100% unethical, but 100% legal at the time as per the research I did.
Gene was such a degen he begged me to send him $500 for food, gas, rent, etc before we did it all as a loan.
I obliged. So, I was in for 2k on this project. About 50% of my net worth.
So, my guy and I grind for about 35 hours straight and prepare everything to be mailed out.
We mail the envelopes out and wait five days to see if any payments came in.
NOTHING.
10 days...
NOTHING
14 days...
NOTHING
20 days...
NOTHING
30 days...
NOTHING
45 days...
ONE BEAUTIFUL RETURN ENVELOPE WITH A CHECK!!!
Lol, that's it, $250.00 off a 5k investment.
The other investors are enraged. They are calling Gene a scam artist, con artist, etc, etc, etc, on the forum.
I'm still trying to make up my mind about it all.
I decide to come out in public forum and support Gene.
I said, "hey, this guy laid out the plan, took the $$$, sent us the envelopes, invoices, etc, etc, etc as promised. Things just didn't work out. If we have anyone to blame it's ourselves. This guy delivered all he promised to us....we're all dumb degens for believing another dumb degen that this scheme could really work..."
The other guys then thought I might be in on some sort of scam. But I had a great reputation on that site as I was known to makes online sports bets with guys in the forum and had always paid.
Eventually, the other investors relented but were so upset about the investment not working they quit the site.
However, I remained in contact with Gene, and held no hard feelings towards him.
Gene will be part of the next degen story I tell as well, make sure to look at the "brag" for a preview of what's to come.
BEAT: In 2004 I had just got out of jail, was on a tether, was working as a barback for $8.25 a hour, and had around $5,000.00 to my name. I lost almost half of that on an invoice solicitation scam that some guy on a rating site talked me into being part of.
BRAG: This same guy, Gene, would go on to work for a sports betting website in 2007/2008. Him and I would work together to drain over $30,000.00 in payouts sent to me and my good friends bank accounts.
To hear the whole degen story, tune in for Lotgrinder's next post.
Last edited by LotGrinder; 02-28-2013 at 10:47 PM.