Received this email today. Anyone getting something similar?

Dear Sir,
I am writing this letter from India. I am a FCM member for the last 20 years. I am a storywriter in my mother tongue and 70 of my books were printed. I translated 2 of my books in to English. They are good collection of stories which can be used to tell stories to Sunday school children or can be used as illustrations by evangelists and pastors.
If you want to buy these books please let me know. For 5 US dollars you can get these books. I will bear the postage.
Manohar
My snail Mail :
P.B. Manohar
# 5-22-8, Itha Nagar,
TENALI 522 201
South India

Is this the beginning of a scam? Why not post on FCM or Café? Just curious. Hope this isn't the beginning of a new trend of junk mail.

I have not received the email. I am a member of FCM, IBM, SAM, KIDabra!, and am on various web sites. So I have no idea if legit or not. He should find a publisher or distributor in the U.S., I myself personally would not mail money directly to India. MagicBob, Brad Brown, and Toby Travis have been to India many times, you may want to send a note to them if you are still curious. MagicBob has visited the main "magic producer" in India, very large business now. Even if you got the book from this gentleman, who knows if it could be useful for you at all without a "product review" in The Christian Conjurer first at least.

I got the same message two different places.... I just passed on it because it seemed like SPAM! I have been getting a lot of JUNK lately dealing with magic

Greetings:

I have been corresponding with Manohar for several years and when I went to India, he traveled 21 hours by train to come see my program. We spent a couple days together and he was a guest performer on my last program in India.

Manohar is legit. I have both of his books. one is filled with 153 short inspirational stories. He did not write all the stories, but he did compile them. The other is a smaller book.

India is a very poor country, my time there was a life changing experience. Manahar is a gentleman and a good magician. He is married with children. I feel you would be safe to support this ministry he uses to help support his family.

Steve Varro

Just a question then in regards to members using the mailing list to send out spam to other members. Is this practice exceptable by FCM?

Thanks for the Info Steve... will then check it out

Steve, I appreciate the heads up. But I do second Gospel Dan's question. While I'm more than interested in learning from other FCMers, this might be the beginning of the proverbial "slippery slope." Wouldn't a simple post here be just, if not more, effective?

And a personal note, my thoughts and prayers are with you in your recovery.

Steve

I also second the question. I also received the e-mail and figured it was a spam attempt along with all the others that are telling me I have countless millions of dollars waiting for me.

I am however glad to hear that this gentleman appears legit.

God bless,

M. Reist

In answer to the question “ Just a question then in regards to members using the mailing list to send out spam to other members. Is this practice exceptable by FCM?”

The FCM in no way condones the sending of spam by FCM members under any circumstances. Whether they are using our membership list or not.

Manohar was not sending spam. His e-mail was for a legitimate product he was selling. I’m not sure how many E-mails he sent out offering to sell copies of his book.

It would have been best for him to post an email on the Café however I am not sure he’s a member of the Magic Café.

One thing I have found as I've traveled to many third world countries is that they do not understand things like copy write law and things like that. I do not for one minute believe Manohar was knowingly attempting to abuse the FCM membership list. He was just attempting to sell a product, in this case a book he compiled, to supplement a very meager income and support his family.

I recall giving my “Christian” brochure to a “Christian” magician overseas, and several months later he sent me a copy of his “new” brochure. He was so proud of it and anxious to share it with me. His “New” brochure was an exact replica of MY brochure word for word, except for his name and photos. He even used the quotes from those who had seen my program, but changed the names to be names familiar in his country. I was shocked! When I approached him about it he had no idea he had done anything wrong. It’s a strange and different world out there. Once we talked about it he agreed to destroy the brochures and never do it again.

Hope this helps.

Still In HIS service,
Steve Varro

Thanks Steve for answering the question. I hope all is well for you.

I take it then that your answer in short is yes. (lol)

wikipedia.org definition of spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, Online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, and file sharing network spam.

I fully believe that the indavidual meant no harm in it. By all means we all make mistakes. I hope my question is not taken in the wrong way. The original email is considered spam and most people do not respond to them. It would probally be very helpful if this indavidual knew that. I would rather see this person use the appropriate channels instead of compiling a mailing list of unsuspecting members. It would serve him better, and the email or notice would be taken with more seriousness. Most would just delete unknown requests for money. If he posted on the FCM forum, it would probally respond better.