Earlier this week, some interesting characters, and their entourage, visited the Rackspace Castle location in San Antonio. The WOAI.com program Perspectives, was on location at the former Windsor Park Mall to do a little investigative reporting. This was no ordinary news crew, however. In fact, to say that this crew was “unreal” would be an understatement.

Perspectives is hosted by puppets. Yes, you’ve read correctly, puppets. In this episode, anchor Laughn De La Croix becomes convinced that the old mall is haunted and his co-host, Rodney Grimes, knowingly allows the entire fiasco to unfold.

The show’s talent, crew and creators Bob Gambert, Jerrod Kingery and Pete Mills are the masterminds behind the show and use ‘historic’ (and aging) 3/4-inch-tape archive video from the San Antonio news station as the basis for each episode. Check out the full episode of Perspectives to find out what our friends uncovered.

Over the past two years, Rackspace Hosting® has witnessed some exciting times. We went public at a time when no one thought any company could do it. We launched The Rackspace Cloud, and our Cloud Strategy. We also acquired three companies, including Mailtrust , Slicehost and Jungle Disk all focused on providing solutions complimentary to the Rackspace vision.

All amazing activities in a very short amount time, no matter how you look at it. Many of you may be asking why? Or wonder what Rackspace is up to and where the company is headed?

Well, I can’t answer all of those questions today, but I hope to provide you a glimpse into where we are headed. There are some changes you may have seen on Rackspace.com and additional changes regarding our product branding.

I am excited to announce as of today, all of our Managed, Cloud and Email hosted offerings will now live under the Rackspace brand. So moving forward Rackspace’s core brands will include Rackspace Managed Hosting, The Rackspace Cloud (Mosso) and Rackspace Email (formerly known as Mailtrust), all of which are of course backed by Fanatical Support.  

We have also integrated the navigation of our Web properties to make it easier for our customers to find the specific information relevant to their business needs. As you look over our web site, we hope you will find it easier to navigate and that information is presented in a more cohesive look and feel. We would love to hear your feedback.

While the brands are moving under one umbrella, we continue to believe in the power of small entrepreneurial teams focused on building world class offers, while also leveraging the resources and brain trust of the larger Rackspace community.  While total integration is not complete, we will be working to enhance that over time.

You will be hearing more from Rackspace in the coming weeks as we provide more details about our future. Keep an eye out for more on Rackspace.

Please feel free to provide us with your feedback and ask any questions you may have. We will take your feedback seriously and answer your questions promptly.

Fanatical Support® is what we do, and for Rackspace customer Laughing Squid, we’ve been doing it for 10 years.  Happy 10th Anniversary, Laughing Squid!  We’re pretty sure we owe you something made out of tin, or is 10 years aluminum?
Check out the blog post from Laughing Squid here.

So, it’s come to our attention that there’s a sweepstakes scam out there involving a fraudulent check from Rackspace. We repeat – this is a scam. Ignore it. Don’t call the claims agent. Don’t try to cash the forged check. This is not a legitimate sweepstakes and Rackspace has no involvement in it, whatsoever.

This is how it unfolds. People are receiving a forged check supposedly from Rackspace and are told they have won a prize through a sweepstakes entry. All they have to do is contact a claims agent and pay taxes upfront on their winnings to claim their prize. Those that pay the taxes never see their prize because their prize never existed.

The fact that scammers are using the Rackspace name to take advantage of people is regrettable and upsetting. We just hope that no one has fallen prey to them.

If you’ve been affected by this scam please contact the Federal Trade Commission. You can reach them in a couple of ways:

- Visit their website: ftc.gov
- Call them toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261

If you received a notification through the mail, you can report the scam to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service by phone, toll-free, at 1-888-877-7644 or by email at www.uspsoig.gov.