Thomas Wictor

It’s a red-letter day for shitbag grifters from my past. First Becca Pilkington tried to convince me that she’s just as much a victim of Mike Albee as I am. Now I’ve received a tip that Mike Albee has created a new scam, School Marketing Strategies. Like everything Albee does, it’s phony.

The home page of the Website.

Right off the bat, the lies begin. This is the “company’s” address.

Here’s 2601 Mission Street.

It’s an office building. The legitimate businesses are in suites.

School Marketing Strategies has no suite number. You know what’s on the third floor of 2601 Mission Street? WIX Lounge SF. It’s an Internet cafe. I’ve been told that Mike has his computer set up there, but I don’t believe it. Anyway, add the San Francisco Police Department to the list of law-enforcement agencies who can’t be bothered to investigate a merciless predator.

Tim recently went to San Francisco to visit Eric, who’d just come from an extended vacation in Africa.

“Holy fuck, Tom!” Eric wrote me. “I’ve already seen more homeless people in one day than I saw in thirty-three years of life beforehand! There are more homeless people here than in all the African countries I went to put together!”

So why would the SFPD look into Mike Albee’s crimes? Al Qaeda moves into failed states, and Mike Albee moves into failed cities.

Back to School Marketing Strategies.

You can tell it’s another scam because it has the same empty, semi-literate blather that Mike used on his Sandpiper Publicity and Magnus Publicity Websites.

Nope. There’s no staff. School Marketing Strategies is three people. First, we have Michael Albee, founder and president.

Notice that his “résumé” has no specific places of employment. Also, he told me in writing that he spent twenty years in the publishing business.

How did he manage to accumulate twenty-five years’ experience in marketing, database analytics, information technology, and private-school management when he was also working in the publishing industry? Or are we talking consecutive years’ experience? Has Michael Albee worked for over forty-five years? Did he get his first job at the age of two, or is he an extraordinarily youthful-looking man in his late sixties?

The CEO of School Marketing Strategies is Uwe Gemba.

To be clear: Mike or Michael Albee is a fraud, a liar, and a con man. I know nothing about Uwe Gemba; I’m not accusing him of anything. All I know about him is what I found online. Some of his former students are not impressed with him.

And there’s this video.

Like I said, I’m not accusing Mr. Gemba of anything. It’s entirely possible that he unknowingly enmeshed himself with criminals. Michael Albee and his lovely, tilting wife Lura Dold are professional con artists.

Like Michael Albee’s phony curriculum vitae, Lura Dold’s says nothing. That’s because she has NO LEGITIMATE BUSINESS EXPERIENCE.

The Website for School Marketing Strategies touts the fake company’s expertise in search-engine optimization or SEO.

It’s another lie. Mike Albee knows crap about SEO. I have the evidence right here. Scroll down to number 9, which begins “They offer to do everything for you[.]”

Most importantly, anyone who wants to hire Mike or Michael Albee and Lura Dold IN ANY CAPACITY should be aware that PayPal refunded me every penny they could get from Albee, based on my proof of fraud. Do you know how rare that is?

Here’s my message to Mike and Lura. This is NOT addressed to Uwe Gemba, who’s done nothing to me.

Mike and Lura, I thought that the deaths of my parents, your exploitation of me in my madness, and the collapse of my writing career were as low as I could go. Well, guess what? All of that was nothing compared to what came next. What you did to me became insignificant, which is why I haven’t been following your rinky-dink, cheap-ass crimes. I’m writing this post as a favor to someone else.

You two are sociopaths, but there are entities out there that are worse than you can imagine. They’re creatures of inconceivable violence. I don’t have to imagine them. What you need to understand is that they’ve taken an interest in you.

Nobody forced you to defraud me. You exercised your free will. The person who tipped me off about your latest penny-ante con job asked if I was afraid of you. The answer is absolutely not. I’m afraid for you.

My various illnesses are getting worse. What I’ve discovered in the past few months is eating me alive. Almost every person I’ve known has not lived up to their promises. I look around and see almost nothing that’s relevant to what’s left of my life. To me it all seems trivial, fatuous, and deluded.

All I wanted was to publish my memoir and have a few years of peace before I take my dirt nap. As a direct result of your actions, I’m now exposed to concepts that I still can’t wrap my mind around. Part of me wants to go to San Francisco and beg you to move to Tierra del Fuego. But I know you wouldn’t listen.

You’re swinishly arrogant, you hold me in contempt, and you think—in your innocence—that you can handle anything that comes along. I’ll never be able to convey to you or anybody else how wrong you are.

What a colossal waste. Think of what you could’ve accomplished if you’d chosen different paths. As you get older, your grifting skills are eroding, and you’re making enemies who will stop at nothing. You too, Becca.

When you commit crimes, there’s always the chance that you’ll run across someone capable of far more hideousness than you.

As my father used to say, “Hope it all works out for you.”

Run, run, the shotgun has got you in its range
Turn, turn away, when it’s time to make a change
Look where you’re going, try not to lose your way
What good is knowing, you have to go away
Go, you may go, never know, never know
Time’s run away, so have to go, have to go
Put back the ace black, you never made it good
Go while you can go, go while the going’s good

And the power and the glory is over, so I’ll take it
The power and the glory is over, so I’ll make it
The power and the glory is over, and I’ll break it
The power and the glory is over

Face up to reason, you know it’s up to you
Do what you can do, all that you have to do
Move over now, and I’ll try to take your place
Time to remember that I have won the race
Go, you may go, never know, never know
Time’s run away, so have to go, have to go
Pick up the pieces, to you I’ll have to stand
Break up the power, the glory’s at the end