Who's Who

A letter with a Who's Who return address logo arrived for me today. I opened it doubtfully. Stay-at-home-moms never make the cover story in their college alumni magazines, so how did I make it to a Who's Who directory?

You have been selected to represent [city, state] in the 2009/2010 Cambridge Who's Who Among Executive and Professional Women...

H'm. Perhaps the dire "Your information is not protected" messages upon renewal of my video business' domain name had some truth to them. I thought the messages were just a ploy to get me to fork over more money, supposedly to publicly unlist my contact information. Apparently I've set myself up for more junk mail. And if I have a domain, I must be executive and professional.

Curious now, I went to Google and typed in the name of the company: Cambridge Who's Who. Right under the link to the official website were numerous links to articles explaining how this publication is a fraud. Despite the letter's promise of free inclusion, the fees, big fees to the tune of $800 come later. Here's one explanation I liked: Writer Beware Blogs!

I've run into "free inclusion, but you must buy a copy" deals before, so here is just another one.

As I put the letter and envelope through the paper shredder, I noticed that the return mailing address was Uniondale, New York. Long Island. I'm really not surprised.