Since I just found the "Twitter" and "Follow Me On Twitter" groups, I'm reposting this. 

Has it come to your area?  Has it happened to you?  Here's how it went down on my block. 

Last December I got an iPhone.  Hooray!  My first thought was, "Wow, this thing is cool!"  My second thought was, "It's time to sign up for Twitter."  (Yes, I know I'm late coming to the dance, but at least I've arrived.)  I went online, signed up for Twitter, and promptly posted my first tweet.

Then came the delimma.  How do I get Twitter followers?  My husband quickly signed up and agreed to follow me, mainly since he wanted to keep tabs on Coach Calipari and UK basketball, but my son was not quite so anxious.  Okay, I had one follower.  Not too cool.  What would it look like for others to check out my Twitter page only to find out I had one follower?  Embarrassing!!

Then I had an idea...  I'll send an email to my CLOSE friends and family members and ask them to follow me on Twitter.  I was able to pick up a friend here, a friend there.  I was quickly up to maybe 7-8 followers.  Still not blowing the doors off, but things were progressing.

While I was pondering what to do next, the phone rang.  It was my good buddy "Chad" from church.  (Yes, the name has been changed to protect the guilty.)  We chatted for awhile and then I said, "Hey, I've just signed up for Twitter and need to pick up more followers.  How 'bout it?"  He immediately went into a rave about how he had no time for such things, he was on FaceBook and hated it because it was so time consuming and such a nuisance to get all those updates, he was busy at work, blah, blah, blah.  I tried to explain to him, "But Twitter is nothing like FaceBook.  The beauty of Twitter is that it takes all of 5 minutes to set up your profile, then about 30 seconds a day to tweet.  It's fun!  Try it, you'll like it!"  But he was having none of Twitter.  I went on to my next victim prospect and signed up another one.  Now I had 10 followers.

A couple of weeks passed and one day the phone rang.  Guess who?   Chad.  Guess what he wanted?  His son's ball team was trying to raise money for a new dugout.  Would I help them out by donating $20.00?  Gotcha!!!  I replied, "I'll be happy to, if you'll sign up for Twitter and follow me."  He promptly agreed, said he would do it right away, and thanked me for the donation.  I warned him, "You know, they send out a notice when anyone new signs up to follow you.  I'll know if you don't follow through."  "No problem," Chad said.  "I'll do it right away."

Well, a few days passed and no notice from Twitter telling me "Chad" was now following me.  Then a week went by, then another week.  Finally I couldn't stand it any longer.  I made a point of "bumping into him" at church the next Sunday and said, "Hey, I gave you the $20 bucks for the ball team.  Why aren't you following me on Twitter?"  And that's when it hit me.  I'd been duped by the "Dollars for Twitter Followers" scam!!!!  How could I have been so stupid?  Why didn't I see it coming?  The warning bells were going off, but I didn't hear them.  And where is Clark Howard when you need him?

Folks, the "Dollars for Twitter Followers" scam is very real.  It's too late for me, but, hopefully, not for you.  I'm posting this as a warning to all you tweeters out there.  Beware of those who say they will follow you on Twitter for a few bucks.  Trust me, you don't want to go there.  If I can save just one of you from the same shame and humiliation I've suffered in this terrible ordeal, then it will be worth it.  Watch your back!  You could be next!                             Follow Me On Twitter???