It was exactly 10 days ago, I was bored, and broke a cardinal rule. Do not get your news from Facebook, and under no circumstances buy anything from a Facebook ad. Facebook news is about as reliable as a 1970’s British sports car with Lucas electric components. It might get you to the local pub and back, but repeating this activity, lets say 3 times, greatly increases the chances of needing a tow.

Anyway, I saw an ad on Facebook. To be exact it was for this product.

Obviously there had to be a catch, no one in their right mind sells lap tops with this kind of specs for $48. I like a good joke, and this deal had SCAM written all over it. And so started the saga of Tracking number LT919315575CN. It was two days after purchase that the email arrived.

Dear Customer,

Thank you  so much of your purchased from the website
Your order has been shipped out, the Tracking No. is

There was no mention of which delivery service it might be, but a wild guess it would be air freighted from China, and the good old USPS would handle the ‘last mile’ . Sure enough LT919315575CN appeared on the USPS website. The tracking number had been assigned by the Chinese shipper EMS, as you will see, the tracking number has a role in the story.

On Friday July 19th, LT919315575CN cleared customs in Miami FL and began its trek to darkest Mississippi. The expected delivery being Monday 22nd.

Monday morning I wore out the refresh button on the USPS web site! Overnight it had traveled from Mobile Al to Harrisburg MS, to Picayune and was out for delivery.

It was around 10:30 that things took a strange twist. The status claimed it was at the Post office and available for Pickup. I told you that Tracking Number played a part in the story.. I phoned the USPS and asked if they could tell me why LT919315575CN was waiting to be picked up? The nice lady explained that indeed she had LT919315575CN at the post office but the tracking info had a different name and address. Her advice was to contact the company and verify they had given the correct Tracking Number.

Picayune MS is right at the end of the world, 20,000 lost souls, a Supermarket and a Walmart, sums the place up The chances of two people ordering something from an obscure Chinese web site. are infinitesimally small. This morning I called the USPS back with a question. I was pretty sure I was part of a scam, and I had one sure fire to prove it. I called USPS and talked to the same nice lady. My question was a simple one, ‘You can not tell me the name and address of where the package is going. But could you tell me if it is big enough to contain a 17 inch lap top.

It turned out that the package was already out for delivery, but it was the same nice lady that answered the phone the day before. She had flagged the package, based on our conversation the day before. Apparently the Tracking Number from EMS (China) was bullshit, but it turned out that the address was correct.

I asked the nice lady if she could answer one simple question? Was the package large enough to contain a 17 inch lap top? The nice lady called the person delivering the package known as LT919315575CN.

“haha no” the nice lady told me “it is certainly not a 17 Inch Lap Top.

here is what I received

Yes folks a genuine Gucci fake ladies wallet all the way from China.  There is a part 2 to this story. In it I will introduce you to a new and exciting Tracking Number. I will share the emails and pontificate why this obviously upstanding Chinese company changed email addresses. Actually I think that is where part 2 will begin

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