International Society Of Poetry howard eli and steven michaels of poetry.com told me i won an editors choice award for my poem but wanted me to pay for the book it was published in Owings Mills Maryland

Howard eli and steven michaels of the International society of poetry had told me that my poem had won an editors choice award for my brilliant work, but when they sent me the award it was really small and not what they said it would be. They also told me that it would be published in a book along with other poets but the suspious part was they wanted me to pay them for the book. My parents told me that they thought this guy was trying to get money out of me and after a couple weeks of getting emails telling me about other things i could pay to get to commerate my acheivments i became more suspious of howard eli the editor and cheif of poetry.com.

So since i was suspious i decided to look up the adress that was on the envelope they sent my award in. During my search i found out it is an actual place but also i found a website link to here where i read tons of reports on howard eli and how he's ripped off alot of people, but the difference between them and me was i never sent him any money for these awards. Like anyone would i was hurt to know that this guy tried to scam me out of almost 600 dollars but i was glad i listened to my parents and didnt send them anything.

See when i got the email saying that i won an award for my poem i thought that something good was actually happening to me for a change, because that year was going so wrong for me and my family. To start with my grandma and great grandma died that year and after that my dad and my uncle were diagnoised with cancer and it was just a horrible year in 2007. Then during all of this pain i got that email and i was so excited to have something good for a change and i thought of how proud my grandma would if she new that my poems were finally being reconised but in the end it was all a ripoff and i just got more pain. During the poetry thing i also lost a best friend who didn't want to be friends anymore so it was just good to i had something going for me but in reality it was all a lie and my whole family was affected by this and were so mad about what these guys put all of us through.

So to this day they are still emailing me saying theres a convention in las vegas nevada that they want me to attend but i never responded to them and they said if i enter my poem and send them $160 plus $18 shipping and handeling they can have someone read my poem to judges and send my crystal award and bronze medal to me and i thought why should i pay to get my award its not right. Anyway this convention is where steven michaels came into the picture he is the main guy for this and so he's trying to rip me off too. So if you get an email from poetry.com saying your poem won an editors choice award don't send them any money cause its a scam and it hurt alot of people so thank you for listening to my story of how i got ripped off even though i never sent any money.

Ariel16
boyne falls, Michigan
U.S.A.