kellicat: I fell for this too when I was in high school. I saw a link to one of their contests on Teen Ink and I submitted a poem. I got a letter with loads of praise for my crappy poem, a request for an artist's proof and $30 dollars for an exclusive anthology not sold in stores (imagine that).

Fortunately, I showed the letter to my parents and they both told me that it was bullshit. Therefore, those pieces of scam sludge never got my money.

Nathan: My sister sent them a poem she wrote about a guy she really liked. She was about 12. When she got the 'u r ossum' letter, I got suspicious and submitted a POS poem of my own. Then another.

Both got the same letter.

My mom was a little annoyed that I uncovered it, saying that 'it was something special she had and you ruined it.'

I'm just glad I 'ruined' it before she spent any money on it.