Emily Dickinson tackles e-crime and more

By BY MARY CAREY Staff Writer

Published on September 14, 2007

Scam artists, there's a new sheriff in town. Dickinson's her name. Emily Dickinson. She's good with words and she's got an online diary, otherwise known as a blog.

Created by Amherst writing, research and Web site consultant Gina Rheault and written in the persona of Dickinson since a day after the Belle of Amherst's 175th birthday on Dec. 10, 2005, Amherst01002.blogspot.com is mostly about poetry and nature.

But, last month, a letter from Great Britain on "lawyerly letterhead from Humphrey's and Company attorneys, in all their lawyerly regalia" grabbed the poet's attention away from her usual subjects of interest.

"It told a convoluted story of client, and his family killed in a fiery crash with no heirs," Emily, as she prefers to be called, says of the letter on her blog.

"Because my name was like the client's name I might be heir to the unclaimed estate: $4.9 Million UK pounds! Oh my! I could respond by phone, or by email to: david.campbell@techemail.com."

It was nothing more than "an old scam in new scamshell," Emily writes. "I detest scammers - it is disgusting to prey on the gullible, disabled, desperate, and uninformed."

So she sent the whole thing to the Springfield office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, Consumer Fraud Division.

Then she sent the author of the letter an email, addressed to Barrister David Campbell from Emily, telling him she has forwarded his letter to the attorney general. "I guess you will have to think quick, and stop mailing to our state, since our top police folks are now watching you," she warned him.

Campbell got back to her in 12 hours. "Dear emily," he wrote in somewhat broken English with punctuation as unconventional as can be found in Dickinson's poems. "Well too bad as what i sent to you is only a proposal. There is not fraud determined here and i guess you and your attorney knows that. You can only ignore not take part and thats it. I don't know why all this insult is coming up. Well you take care and remain poor."

It is signed "Happily, Barrister Campbell."

Emily couldn't be happier about it.

"I never expected such a quick and comic response," she writes. "Further, I hope exposing this ruffian to bloggerly sunlight will cause his tired old scam to completely fade away, in Massachusetts at least."

<h4>New Amherst blog</h4>

Select Board member Alisa Brewer has joined the swelling ranks of Amherst bloggers with AlisaforAmherst.blogspot.com, a personal blog that does not represent the views of the Select Board.

Recent postings are on the Lincoln Street speed cushions, Deval Patrick's visit to Amherst College, property taxes and - what else? - the Select Board.

"Note to self: do not criticize colleagues as preface to a motion, no matter how innocuous the motion, if you expect a second rather than dead silence," she writes on Sept. 11.

Brewer, a former Amherst School Committee member, is still absorbing the way the Select Board operates. It's not "motion-driven," she says. "(W)e talk about agenda items and often no vote at all is taken, unlike some bodies that can't even discuss an item until a motion has been made (e.g., Town Meeting)."

If anything, Brewer is beginning to gather, "the tradition at Select Board seems to be ‘don't make a motion til you're sure how the vote is going to go, and then someone who is voting with you - or who is just tired of the discussion - may second it.'"

There's good news. In the future, people who are unversed in the ways of the board will have a few pointers to consult before they find themselves before it, Brewer reports. Members are working on a two- to three-page "guide for people walking in the door to the Select Board meeting," as she puts it, "so people know what to expect."

<h4>Meetings</h4>

MONDAY: Select Board, 6:30 p.m., Town Room Town Hall, joint meeting with Amherst Redevelopment Authority, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY: Board of Assessors, 6 p.m., first floor meeting room, Town Hall; Amherst School Committee, 7 p.m., library, Regional High School; Zoning Board of Appeals, 7:30 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall to continue hearings on request to install two signs at Hawkins Meadows and add a second floor deck at 170 Pine St.

WEDNESDAY: 250th Anniversary Commission, 3 p.m., Glass Room, Bangs Community Center; Public Shade Tree Committee, 4 p.m., first floor meeting room, Town Hall; Planning Board, 7 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall for public hearing on proposed zoning changes for College and South East streets.

THURSDAY: 250th Anniversary Arts and Literature Subcommittee, 4 p.m., first floor meeting room, Town Hall; Jones Library Board of Trustees, 7 p.m., Trustees Room, Jones Library; Board of Health, 7 p.m., Room 318, Bangs Center; Zoning Board of Appeals, 7:30 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall for public hearings on request to expand parking at the Hangar, 55 University Drive; a flag lot at 391 Main St.; to increase parking by 24 spaces at 950 North Pleasant St.

Contact Mary Carey with suggestions for Around Amherst at mary.carey@att.net.