I got a simple idea that might help out your story a bit, garrett. Post the email you received. The entire thing, if you are able. Post it here, along with all the headers and info, or forward it to me if you want, at crowediddly AT gmail. Seems to me we should be able to clear at least a little bit of this mess up if you do that.

The email from getastake is the shakiest part of this entire story, so an examination of it should go a decent way to figuring out the truth here.