Has Anyone Heard of This?

Hi all,

I got a very, very strange e-mail today, and I wanted to see if you thought it
was legit. I thought it was spam initially, but it appears to have been
personalized in a way that would've been hard to...well, spam. Anyway, the link
they gave seems to be broken. Maybe it should be .gov?

Here's the message: (Oh, the title was, "A Unique Opportunity for Visionaries and
Artists of All Kinds!" I opened it because of the e-mail address:
klgordon@ca.gov.)

<<Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Dear Mr. Peterson,

In March of 2003, Congress earmarked close to $29 million to be spent on the
arts. One of the committees formed to determine how best to disperse these
funds was the Committee for the Encouragement and Development of Individual
Talent (CEDIT), and I'm happy to say that I was fortunate enough to be elected
chair. My goal as chair was to seek out undiscovered talent, and for the past
year, myself and the other committee members have been scouring the nation with
that sole purpose in mind.

Not long ago, my son, Keith, happened upon your website (or "web thing", as you
call it), and brought it to my attention: http://dedalvs.free.fr/. To tell the
truth, the CEDIT had intended to focus mainly on literature and the various
performing arts, but your website intrigued me. The idea of creating
language--the necessary medium for just about any art imaginable--struck me as
utterly fascinating. I pitched the idea to the committee, and showed them
examples from your language Zhyler, and the result was favorable. So favorable,
in fact, that we've decided to award you the Creativisee Grant.

(The rest of this information can be viewed at our new website, www.creativisee.org.)

The Creativisee Grant (funded by congressional bill hr1004 96) was founded to
encourage aspiring American artists of all backgrounds to pursue their dreams
and bring their unique artistic vision to life. The grant is an award given by
the Committee for the Encouragement and Development of Individual Talent
(CEDIT), and may not be applied for (criteria for selection are the sole
discretion of the CEDIT).

The form of the award is a one-time, tax-free grant of between $75,000 and
$150,000, to be paid in 12 installments over the course of a year, beginning on
the first day of the calendar month directly following the reception of the
award. The intent of the funding is to give an artist an entire year to work on
nothing but perfecting his or her art. The artist need do nothing in return,
save devote the next year of his or her life to his or her art, and to no other
professional enterprise.

*****

The rest of the particulars can be found on the website.

Now, it is my pleasure to let you know that you've earned a $120,000 grant. You'll
receive your first check on the first of May. Before we can process the
transfer, though, we need some information from you. So, if you would be so
kind as to download and fill out the necessary paperwork and return it to the
CEDIT office (the .pdfs can be downloaded at
"www.creativisee.org/grantapp/index.html") as soon as possible, we can start to
set things in motion right away.

I want to congratulate you on your award. We see great potential in you, as in
all the other recipients, and we can't wait to see the fruits of your labor.
So, congratulations, and good luck.

Best Wishes,

Rep. Kevin L. Gordon

CEDIT Chair
500 I Street, Suite 5-400
Sacramento, CA 95814
klgordon@ca.gov
Phone: (916) 448-3221
Fax: (916) 448-3589

P.S.: There's still about $600,000 of grant money left to award. Since you're the
only language creator, and there are at least four recipients from every other
branch of art, we thought it might be ideal to give the rest of the money to
other language creators such as yourself. Can you give us any
recommendations?>>

So, what do you think? It sounds fishy... Yet, it’s hard to imagine how it could
be a scam. After all, they’re not asking for any money (yet).

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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