Maria Scordo Allen wants everyone on her e-mail list to know she is alive, well and working in her Centennial office as Italy’s vice consul in Colorado. Her account apparently was hacked Monday by a scammer who sent out an “urgent” spam e-mail that was allegedly from Allen. It said she was stranded in London because she had lost her wallet on the way to the hotel and needed 2,000 pounds to pay the bill and get home.
Allen learned of the hoax when a friend called at 7 a.m. Monday to find out if she was OK. The vice consul, who doesn’t have another e-mail address and couldn’t warn people about the scam, changed her e-mail provider and password.
One of her friends tested the shyster and replied, asking where to send money. The person responded with an e-mail address from the U.S. Embassy in London. Allen called the cops.
“I have a call in to a sergeant with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office,” she said Thursday. “This is why I don’t belong to Facebook or LinkedIn or any of those.”
Gwin’s gig.
Gwin Johnston, founder of JohnstonWells, Denver’s largest independent PR firm, is back in the chief-executive saddle again. Her daughter, GG, who took over Mom’s top spot 15 years ago, will leave the firm at the end of this month.
“She wants to try her wings independently,” the senior Johnston said. “She doesn’t know what she wants to do, but (she wants) to stay in PR. She’ll take a month off and think about it.”
When Gwin stepped down as CEO, she kept a hand in the company as chairman of the board.
“I still intend to come in a bit later in the mornings, and some days leave earlier in the afternoon, but I work from home very effectively,” she said.
JohnstonWells clients include sewing-machine maker Bernina USA, Goodwill Industries and law firm Faegre & Benson. The firm moved into the historic Rocky Mountain Seed Co. building in LoDo a year ago after gutting and remodeling the place.
Broker poker.
Kentwood City Properties broker Donna Ryan had the luck of the draw Wednesday during a broker open house in Denver’s Highland neighborhood.
The 30 brokers at the event drew a card at each of the five homes on the tour to complete a poker hand. Ryan ended up with four kings and an ace to win a $200 gift certificate from LoHi SteakBar.
Sweet server.
Wendy Berve, a 35-year veteran in Denver’s restaurant world, died Wednesday after losing her battle against cancer.
She started in the late ’60s as a restaurant manager at Josephina’s and moved on to stints at Dudley’s, Marlowe’s, the Brokers and the Baywolf. I remember her best as a spot-on server at Del Frisco’s when the steak place opened in the Tech Center.
Westword named Berve Best Female Server in its 2001 Best of Denver issue, while she was at Del’s. Friends, family and co-workers are gathering for a celebration of her life at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Piatti, 190 St. Paul St.
EAVESDROPPING
Two men at Houston’s:
“I told my girlfriend she needs to be nicer to me, and she just scoffed.”
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scoffing.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-630 AM. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
