I got this email a while back and the person who calls herself Shulamis sent it again and asked me to respond kindly, at least she didn’t ask me for my account number and password. I responded that since the letter contained no sources such as last name, rabbis endorsement, or proof that it was real I disregarded it as frum spam – I get loads of frum spam – I could imagine that spammers and scammers will learn sooner or later that frum people are used to meshulachim so why not take that art to the inbox.
You decide for yourselves if this is real or spam – even if it’s spam – there must be someone who has the names at bottom and they are going to have some mad brownie points for all of the random tehillim requests.
BS”D
To Whom it may Concern:
As I write this letter nothing but tears roll down my face. R”L my hubby has been diagnosed with cancer several months ago. For several months already he has stopped working and will not be able to return to work for several more months. Presently he’s in the middle of receiving his treatment and his treatment is not over for another 2 1/2 -3 months. Once the treatment is finally over he must then take off time to fully recuperate. May Hashem continuously send him a Refuah Sheleimah. For this reason he cannot go back to work. Even when he does go back to work it will be extremely part time. Unfortunately for some time now there is no income whatsoever.
Baruch Hashem he has insurance and supplement to help pay for his medical treatment. We are Baruch hashem affiliated with RCCS to help pay his medical treatment. Even with his insurance and RCCS’ help, there’s still alot of medical expenses that must be paid like transportation, medication, etc etc etc. Due to the astronomical cost of his illness, I am unable to pay for daily living expenses.
I am struggling for a very long time in finding employment. Unfortunately I’m still not working. I know that Hashem will provide for me but until then there’s no income.
Unfortunately I am in need of financial aid to help pay with daily living expenses- which includes rent, utility bills, insurance, etc etc etc. Because of lack of money, I am behind paying the rent and many utilities. I am extremely afraid that we do not end up on the street, C”V any day now.
Over a course of time I have made several thousand calls to different organizations where I live,(I live in FL) and then thereafter reached out to different states as well. Unfortunately I have not been successful with receiving financial aid in helping me pay for daily living expenses.
I would greatly appreciate if you can help me with my plight. Perhaps you may know of an individual(s), an organization in your area or anywhere else in the world that might be able to assist me with financial aid.
Your assistance is extremely appreciated.
Kindly say Tehillim for Avruhom Yehida Ben Esther for Refuah Sheleimah
Esther Chava Shulamis Bas Fruma for Parnassa
Kol Tuv,
Shulamis
Spam is everywhere. And scumbags are everywhere. When will people realize that the Frum community isn’t some holy thing. They should get off their high horses and stop placing the religious community on a pedestal. Remove the image of saintliness- hasnt your momma told you- saints don’t exist.
Thank you for your insight. Your always so wise and deep.
I’m 100% sure you don’t have ANY chip on your shoulder or internal turmoil which might cause you to think the way you do. Your very obviously a straight arrow shooter who is very thought out and logical.
again, I do. I never claim to be perfect. But many ppl claim the frum community, wondeful as many ppl part of it are, are beter than the rest. Many are, but to scandlas in the community shudnt be such a shocker. That’s all.
Isn’t is surprising that the mother’s name and the wife’s name are the same? I thought that was a no-no.
Good pick-up there
I think the daughter in law just has to go by a different name. Like her name is esther, so she goes by shulamis
Actaully the names have to be exactly the same. Although both are named Esther, one is just Esther the other is Esther Chava Shulamis so it’s not an issue. As for spam I can’t really tell. It sounds to me like she is just looking to you for assistance as someone who is well connected in the frum community, to help find an organization or individuals to help her financially. Unless I misread she didn’t ask you directly for money. So I wouldn’t be so quick to judge.
I don’t consider this spam! The woman is desperate and needs help. I think I’ll say tehillim for her husband.
Yeah, she didn’t ask directly for money, just referrals to any organization or individuals that could help, right?
The request for organizations is probably a red herring. I doubt any spammer thinks they’ll be able to scam an organization. Organizations are usually pretty good at verifying things. Although ‘she’ did not ask directly for money (I’ll bet it’s a guy), the intention is for you to shell out on your own, or ask an ‘individual’ who will rely on you and give ‘her’ money without checking it – because they got the call from you who apparantly knows ‘her’.
Again, this is all just assuming that she did not reply or provide any references. For all we know it is legit, and she just missed Heshy’s email and therefore didn’t respond. Unlikely, but possible.
There’s absolutely no way to tell from the email if it’s spam or not. This is exactly the way a typical letter from someone in need looks. However, if you have replied to the email and asked for sources, like the rabbi of her community, or some of the organizations which she has dealt with, and there has been no reply, then I would assume that it is in fact spam, and that there is probably some sleaze somewhere, who is trying to make a quick buck by parasiting off the sypmathy of Jews.
The first thing anyone who needs tzedaka does, is get backing by a reliable source. If one cannot provide any source, or furthermore doesn’t even reply to your inquiries, then that strongly suggests that something is fishy.
All I can say for whoever this guy is (if it really is spam), is “Kol she’eino lo chiger, v’lo suma, v’lo piseach, v’asa atzmo k’achas meihem, eino mes min ha’zikna ad she’yiyeh k’achas meihem”. “Whoever is neither lame nor blind nor crippled, and pretends to be one of these, will not die of old age until he becomes like one of these.” (last mishna in Peah)
What a great quote Yankel.
A few observations:
1. You don’t get much spam if you don’t recognize this script.
2. I appreciate her assuring us that while this may be a tough time and money is tight, NOTHING but tears are running down her face. What a relief.
3. If someone emails you and doesn’t give their name, there is a problem.
Doesn’t look like spam to me, especially as she isn’t asking for $$$ directly, and is asking people to say tehillim.
BTW, most poskim rule that you aren’t obligated to give anything to organizations that solicit by mail, even though they paid for a stamp to do so. Even more so for organizations that solicit by email.
I get ton’s of sob stories and yeshiva raffle offers, they go straight into my deleted items, no way of knowing which are legit.
I figured I would post it – if it’s spam people would say something, if it’s not spam they would bust out some tehillim as someone mentioned they would do – win/win situation.
LOL
What about the guy who will look at the thread and say “Hey! I’ve been giving x dollars a month to that lady! You mean this was all just a spam? I’m never giving tzedaka again!”
It’s not my problem if they are dumbasses
I am friends with this woman on Facebook. She is a chassidish woman and recently got married. While I was hesitant to give her my email, she emailed me about the same email as above, and I responded to it, being the social worker that I am. We corresponded back and forth via email about her community, rabbi and possible forms of aid as well as thru Facebook messages and chat. There are pics of her and her husband along with wedding and family photos. She is older, probably in her 40s or 50s. While I am usually the first to send someone away when it looks sketchy, she seems to be a real woman in desperate need of help. If you want to look her up her name is Shulamis Balser.
Whether this is real or not, even though she asked for help in finding financial assistance she did request tehilim as well. In the event they are struggling and he is ill i think it is important to look at the bigger picture. Thank you for posting this.
1) You’ve got to have a better source than facebook…
2) Who says you’re not the ‘lady’ herself?
I looked up “Shulamis Balser” on Facebook and the only profile I found for that name had no pic, not even a profile pic, and nothing was visible on her wall.
That does not mean she is not a real person in need of prayers, but it’s hard to determine what’s going on here.
There’s coincidentally another lady with a similar name ( Shuli or Shulamit ) who claims she was asked by this woman to be added to her facebook list. Shuli ( a Florida resident staying often with family in Israel ) may be too liberal in adding “friends”; she has in excess of 4, 200 so-called friends on facebook. Shulamit has thereby exposed all her other friends to Shulamis.
No direct evidence, but my spam-abatement senses are tingling. It’s got a lot of patterns in common with scams I’ve seen before. Not all of it comes from Nigeria.
A look at headers and mail logs would help pin it down, but we don’t have those. Following up with sympathetic good wishes, promises of tehillim and a list of Jewish charities and looking at the replies could be instructive.
I think I am going to start spamming my Shidduch Resume 😀
Haha! Resume spam. I guess that’s the equivalent of frum porn.
If you can get off to what schools I went to. Sure. Why not.
Depending on which schools you went to… That might actually be possible.
If you have a Catholic School Girl/Super Frum fetish than yea maybe…
Don’t get me started here, it’s Elul y’know…
It’s ok I’ve dated/ran into a lot of your sort.
I don’t think so. You see I’m actually not serious.
Rite.
I’m starting to understand why you would want to spam your resume.
Do whatever it takes to get you married.
This person is real and lives in South Florida. I have seen her once or twice around a few Shuls. We also got the emails even though we don’t live there anymore. I think the way she is emailing people is totally inappropriate.
Who says you’re legit? Maybe you’re in on it too?
And if you are, tell the woman to get some Rabbonim and/or organizations to confirm her existance, and her honesty.
Just fyi, it is now two months later, and I received the IDENTICAL email. Where she got my name, who she is, etc. I don’t know. I’m almost tempted to ask her where to send the check so that she will reveal her hand.
FB profiles are easy to create and the replies giving her credibility are easy to fake. Proceed with great caution.
I’m so glad I found your post because in the past couple of weeks, I keep getting facebook requests from her to be my “friend” and when I’ve ignored her request, she keeps writing back to me saying that I’ve not yet responded to her friend request and do I want to be her friend? I even wrote to her that I don’t “friend” people that I don’t know for safety reasons and she keeps asking me…