h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a bizarre evening. New job, (yup, another one), in London for training and we were out for an evening meal. Blethering away as the booze flowed and getting a bit loud, when this strange chap came over and introduced himself. The chap was a Romany or, as he described himself, a Pikey. He'd been listening to us and wanted us to join a venture he was setting up. My bullshit detector started buzzing like crazy as he described an online rpg-style venture, along the lines of "2nd Life" where the game is actually a front for a political, anti-globalisation movement. He then name-dropped a phone company he claims his consortium owns, along with several exremely wealthy people, of whom I'd vaguely heard of one. The game is also to be linked to a company called "Magic Box", the ones behind chips embedded in advertising hoardings that Bluetooth ads to your phone as you pass.

The gist of it is, this online game will be linked to RL through accessing public CCTV and communicating with the players through Bluetooth.

Is this making sense?

Anyway, I was extremely sceptical of the guy as he talked of his Chateau in France, his farm in Kenya, blah, blah, blah. But he paid for our meal, (5 of us) with a titanium American Express card - (invitation-only to customers who spend more than £150k per year. His jacket was Versace and my boss recognised his mobile as a hand-made bespoke model that costs over £2k. (I forget the name, Pr-something).

We chatted for a few hours, never talking about the "job offer" again. I left early, but he asked for my card. My boss just got back and says he was asked for his card too.

I dunno if I'll ever hear from him again. My boss is more sanguine and talks about gift horses. I tend to look at the teeth in gift horses myself.

Anyway, I'm a little tipsy and I don't know if this makes sense. I might just delete this entry in the morning.

But has anyone ever heard of "String Media" or "Magic Box"?

Not personally, no.

Not before this journal. Both names come up in Google though. String Media is fairly new, into a lot of software solutions, with some gaming on the side. Magix Box is a 20+ year old company dealing in communications services and systems. They could, in theory, make quite a potent team.

They could just as easily be names plucked from some technical survey of the web, and bandied about ... in hopes of scamming someone. A natural bit of a pessimist, and generally curious, I'd want to know more.

If he's a conman he sounds like a very convincing one! I've heard of Magic Box before though. Did anyone get his card at all?

An interesting mix!

You've got just enough information to make it seem plausible, but not enough proof that it all ties together. That would make my antenna go up.

I guess you have to ask yourself, would a highly successful business man be trolling for venture capital in a pub? Sure, anything is possible, and the world of business is different than 50 years ago, but not that much.

If you get invited to the offices of a business that it turns out has been there more than 2 weeks then maybe you got lucky. I guess you can hope, but do your homework if you get a call.

Like I said my bullshit detector was buzzing - but....

He claimed to be Romany... one of the guys in our group knows a Romany family in Scunthorpe and the guy was able to name the senior members.

He claimed to have a farm in Kenya .... one of the guys speaks Swahili (what's the chances of that?) and the 2 of them had a short conversation in Swahili.

He claimed to have a Penthouse flat nearby that he visits every month or so and the restaurant was his local ... a quiet word with the waiter confirmed he comes in every few weeks.

It's not venture capital he's after. He claims to have the Deutsche Bank on the consortium. It's a sales team he wants.

Crucially he claimed to be an honorary professor at a Dutch University where he has to lecture 4 times a year (his credit card was Prof John .....).

But dammit, I've forgotten his surname.

I didn't have a card to give him and I left early.