Beware of this wedding email scam

[Chirimoya]

Yes, how can you tell it isn't an innocent typo? How do you protect yourself against scams AND against losing genuine customers?

[Lambada]

There are certain clues like picking a famous place Hyde Park and adding street to it, the overall construction, mispelling etc etc, the mention of the credit card. Plus you look for where 'Paulson Cole' has done this before:

Hello Sir/ Madam,

I am Engr Paulson Cole, the director of Staff welfare Independent petroleum UK. I want to book dinner for my group of workers .They will all come for dinner in your place on April 23rd throu 25th 2009 by 7:00pm each day. We are 12 in number. Get back with your response if there is availability in your restaurant so that i can book immediately with my credit card.

Kind Regards,

Paulson Cole

2 Central Quay 89 Hydepark Street Glasgow, Scothland
United Kingdom..
TeL:+447024077176

EL VIENTO BUFFET CEBU PIHILIPPINES | Restaurants and English schools in Cebu Philippines
Scroll down three quarters of page.

I presume he got no pickup from that one so has now decided to fish for his own supper with Mike .

[MikeFisher]

how it works out for them, at least what they plan:
they book several consecutive fishing charter days with me,
let's say for 10KUS$.
i confirm that with pick up times and the details to process their payments.
they pay the amount by credit card, not with one, they use several, which of course would not be a concern for me as the outfitter, to me it just matters that my customers pay.
but before they proceed the payment they come up with the following:
Dear Sir,
we are ready to pay the full amount for your services with our credit cards. we booked our flights with a small travel agent and would like to transfer his/her fee for our airfare together with the payment to you. of course we know that due this some extra transfer fees will occur to you. we would like you to transfer $1.850.- US$ to our agent's account after you received our payment. please advice about the full sum we have to send to you including our complete fishing charter rate plus the agent's rate plus abny extra cost you have due this.

a e-mail like the mentioned above(written in my own words, it is not a exat copy) reaches you shortly before the 'customers' planned to arrive here for their fishing vacations.
so you have to act quick.
they send you the money,
the next day you forward the agent's fee to the provided account, the next day the payment to you get's taken back by the wireing bank b/c they found out it was done by stolen aso credit cards, the money you forwarded to the 'agent' of course they took out from that account at an ATM, no money back for you.

how to spot such false e-mails:
sure it is not a simple typo, everybody writes typos, i do such in quantities on daily bases, ha ha.
but first of all:
nobody has a typo in the signature of his e-mails, written his homecountry misspelled, that's very suspicious at least.
and suspicious is the way the e-mail is written. it is clearly not written by an educated englishmen.
and they offer right away full payments for multiple charter days for high rates by credit card, that's the most suspicious point in my own charter business situation.
in my kind of business only one kind of customer would offer such right away without asking a million questions about fishing/boats/crews/baits/seasons aso in the first place, and that kind of person would be a friend of a regular customer who highly recommended my outfit, so that request would right away include the name of the regular who recommended my business, and of course regulars themselves, but those i know by their e-mail address anyways and they usually drop a phone call first to ask how's fishing lately, how's it going buddy aso.

nobody offers to a stranger outfit to pay several K'sUS$ without asking details about the outfit/operation.

i have many UK customers in my business,
even that english is only my 3rd language i can read right away the differences between a british customer requesting a charter service and those fraudulent e-mails. of course there is reading experience involved, i run my business online since many years now and receive such scammers since the beginning.

i even had some who mention me in their e-mail with my name, so they prepared their e-mail specifically for me, but the writing style is always the same.
the one i copied in the prior post is very typical in case of fishing.

i know from many american sportfishing bords where i am a sponsor and chat regularily with other Captains and business owners that those mails are usual around the globe and since many years.
some sorrily even fell into the trap and lost some money on it.

in case of the fishing they very often suggerate to be british, i don't know if they are or not, but at least 90% of the scam mails i receive myself say they are british.

prevention:
i can only speak for myself and how i protect myself/business on such:
* i do not accept forwarding any money to a third party, who books with me pays to me and travel agents/flights aso are not my business
* full payments by credit cards i usually accept only by regular customers. new customers have to pay a small $100.- deposit first, that way i see that the transaction been legitimate and not done with a stolen credit card, if such deposit been fine for a week the customer can do the rest payment by credit card prior to arrival.
* basically i try to get as upfront payment only the $100.- deposit and try to convince the customer which wanna pay the rest by credit card to do so upon arrival at the Marina, on board of the boats, i have wireless card processing machines on board, that way i see the card physically (so nobody can use just a stolen card number) and i see the person physically, i can ask a ID to compare to the name on the credit card, aso.

of course there's no 100% security procedure to not get caught by some kind of scam/fraud aso,
but at least for myself my lil security procedures worked fine til today and i get never caught in such kind of trap.

the only fraud caught in been a few years back a false $100.- bill which i found out later on when i couldn't say sure which customer gave me the bill. it was a really bad copy on very bad paper, clear false, but that morning i had too many customers at the same time so it slipped throu my guards.
100 bucks in 14 years i name a good average, hope it stays that way.
Mike

[MikeFisher]

Originally Posted by Lambada

There are certain clues like picking a famous place Hyde Park and adding street to it, the overall construction, mispelling etc etc, the mention of the credit card. Plus you look for where 'Paulson Cole' has done this before:

Hello Sir/ Madam,

I am Engr Paulson Cole, the director of Staff welfare Independent petroleum UK. I want to book dinner for my group of workers .They will all come for dinner in your place on April 23rd throu 25th 2009 by 7:00pm each day. We are 12 in number. Get back with your response if there is availability in your restaurant so that i can book immediately with my credit card.

Kind Regards,

Paulson Cole

2 Central Quay 89 Hydepark Street Glasgow, Scothland
United Kingdom..
TeL:+447024077176

EL VIENTO BUFFET CEBU PIHILIPPINES | Restaurants and English schools in Cebu Philippines
Scroll down three quarters of page.

I presume he got no pickup from that one so has now decided to fish for his own supper with Mike .

ha ha
right Ginnie.
and it is like i wrote above exactly the same writing style, even for a non englishman like myself, lol.
and back in March he had the same typo in his signature misspelling his homecountry Scottland, he he.

i wish he would come fishing,
would not even charge a thing, charter on the house, would invite friends to the show, sharkbait always welcome, wooohahaha
Mike

[sandra vancouver]

Still haven't had a reply back to my 43 questions!!

In my case which is different of course from the restaurant business I was suspicious that he would want to hire me without checking out my references as I do not even have a website.

Also although the English was very good, to a native English speaker it was just the tiniest bit off.

Also what upper class British gentleman would have a fiancee with the email address radiatingbeauty51??

The biggest clue was that he wanted a four-tier traditional fruit cake. (To feed 50 people?) That cake would feed 500.

I believe what he was going to try to do to me was give me a huge whack of money on a stolen credit card ($55,000 USD) PLUS probably add an extra few thousand and ask me to pay the "logistics manager" (John Clarke or his partner) who figured prominantly in both emails. Then I would have ended up running around in Cabarete like a mad fool pre-paying the judge, paying for the hotel rooms, flowers, restaurant, cake, EVERYTHING!! and then waiting in my gorgeously decorated wedding venue by myself with the soloist warbling on when no one showed up!!! Can you imagine??? Guess my Dominican friends would have had a great party that night though!

This could easily have happened - IF I was stupid and IF he could convince me to accept his credit card info after I got to Cabarete next week because all my mail comes to Vancouver and I would not have known until I got back here in mid-August that I had been royally fleeced to the tune of about $60,000 USD.

Wish he would reply back - I'd love to have some more fun with him.

[Drperson]

Originally Posted by MikeFisher

how it works out for them, at least what they plan:
they book several consecutive fishing charter days with me,
let's say for 10KUS$.
i confirm that with pick up times and the details to process their payments.
they pay the amount by credit card, not with one, they use several, which of course would not be a concern for me as the outfitter, to me it just matters that my customers pay.
but before they proceed the payment they come up with the following:
Dear Sir,
we are ready to pay the full amount for your services with our credit cards. we booked our flights with a small travel agent and would like to transfer his/her fee for our airfare together with the payment to you. of course we know that due this some extra transfer fees will occur to you. we would like you to transfer $1.850.- US$ to our agent's account after you received our payment. please advice about the full sum we have to send to you including our complete fishing charter rate plus the agent's rate plus abny extra cost you have due this.

a e-mail like the mentioned above(written in my own words, it is not a exat copy) reaches you shortly before the 'customers' planned to arrive here for their fishing vacations.
so you have to act quick.
they send you the money,
the next day you forward the agent's fee to the provided account, the next day the payment to you get's taken back by the wireing bank b/c they found out it was done by stolen aso credit cards, the money you forwarded to the 'agent' of course they took out from that account at an ATM, no money back for you.

how to spot such false e-mails:
sure it is not a simple typo, everybody writes typos, i do such in quantities on daily bases, ha ha.
but first of all:
nobody has a typo in the signature of his e-mails, written his homecountry misspelled, that's very suspicious at least.
and suspicious is the way the e-mail is written. it is clearly not written by an educated englishmen.
and they offer right away full payments for multiple charter days for high rates by credit card, that's the most suspicious point in my own charter business situation.
in my kind of business only one kind of customer would offer such right away without asking a million questions about fishing/boats/crews/baits/seasons aso in the first place, and that kind of person would be a friend of a regular customer who highly recommended my outfit, so that request would right away include the name of the regular who recommended my business, and of course regulars themselves, but those i know by their e-mail address anyways and they usually drop a phone call first to ask how's fishing lately, how's it going buddy aso.

nobody offers to a stranger outfit to pay several K'sUS$ without asking details about the outfit/operation.

i have many UK customers in my business,
even that english is only my 3rd language i can read right away the differences between a british customer requesting a charter service and those fraudulent e-mails. of course there is reading experience involved, i run my business online since many years now and receive such scammers since the beginning.

i even had some who mention me in their e-mail with my name, so they prepared their e-mail specifically for me, but the writing style is always the same.
the one i copied in the prior post is very typical in case of fishing.

i know from many american sportfishing bords where i am a sponsor and chat regularily with other Captains and business owners that those mails are usual around the globe and since many years.
some sorrily even fell into the trap and lost some money on it.

in case of the fishing they very often suggerate to be british, i don't know if they are or not, but at least 90% of the scam mails i receive myself say they are british.

prevention:
i can only speak for myself and how i protect myself/business on such:
* i do not accept forwarding any money to a third party, who books with me pays to me and travel agents/flights aso are not my business
* full payments by credit cards i usually accept only by regular customers. new customers have to pay a small $100.- deposit first, that way i see that the transaction been legitimate and not done with a stolen credit card, if such deposit been fine for a week the customer can do the rest payment by credit card prior to arrival.
* basically i try to get as upfront payment only the $100.- deposit and try to convince the customer which wanna pay the rest by credit card to do so upon arrival at the Marina, on board of the boats, i have wireless card processing machines on board, that way i see the card physically (so nobody can use just a stolen card number) and i see the person physically, i can ask a ID to compare to the name on the credit card, aso.

of course there's no 100% security procedure to not get caught by some kind of scam/fraud aso,
but at least for myself my lil security procedures worked fine til today and i get never caught in such kind of trap.

the only fraud caught in been a few years back a false $100.- bill which i found out later on when i couldn't say sure which customer gave me the bill. it was a really bad copy on very bad paper, clear false, but that morning i had too many customers at the same time so it slipped throu my guards.
100 bucks in 14 years i name a good average, hope it stays that way.
Mike

Thanks MikeFisher for this excellent lesson.

[Conchman]

So basically, as long as you refund or credit only the original card that made the orginal deposit, you can avoid this?

[MikeFisher]

hi Mark,
don't know if that Q been to me or someone else.
but generally if you feel 'trapped/scammed',
just do not deliver any kind of services until you are sure about the source.
speaking on the phone/e-mail to potential customers clearly about your concerns does usually not keep those customers away from you, the opposite, they appreciate that you take care of the stuff and ask questions back.
on the several occasions when i answered on such e-mails/requests the back answers to my Q's showed very clear that there is no customer present on the other end of the line.
Sandra,
if a customer requests such a high volume service just ask for a usual and sure not overdone 20% of upfront payment/deposit, if such arrives and does not get cancelled the next 2 weeks you should be sure to be on the safe side.
just do not agree to any forwarding of any money to any other account/3rd party/travel agent/flight booking agent aso, b/c that's their usual simple way to get real physically bucks for themselves, when you transfer money to them/their 'agent' aso.
Mike

[pgibson18]

Hi All,
Thank you for posting info on this Wedding Planning scammer. Anyway, he is at it again. I received this from him on 6/29/2009. I replied with a bunch of questions which he could not answer so I googled him and found this. I knew something was fishy about him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: John Clarke [mailto:john_clarke105@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 2:01 PM
Subject: More details.

Thanks. I'm really very glad to hear from you. It is the wish of my finance to get married in your area and I have to give in to her wish and due to the fact that I do not have any one there, you will be responsible for all arrangements.

My Fiancé (Mary Robins) and I will be arriving 7 days before the wedding and I need you to also make arrangement for our accommodation. I will need you to book 2 double rooms for us for 7 nights and one honeymoon suite for the night of the wedding 31st October 2009 (wedding date is flexible).

We have a budget of about $45,000 USD which includes payment for your fees, all the other vendors you will be working with and that of our logistic agent aside us, I am also expecting 40 to 50 other guest from UK, USA, Asia.

Below are other requirements we’ll need.

My fiancé decided that the colour for the wedding should be white and gold.
For flowers: majority of pink and red roses. She loves red roses and we'll want lots of them at the wedding. Please feel free to introduce any nice flower of your choice to make the venue more beautiful.
For music, a DJ
Food, a buffet will be perfect.
3 or 4 tier fruit cake
Drinks: open bar
Wedding is a civil wedding
Civil marriage celebrant
Videographer for 3-4 hours
Photographer for 3-4 hours
Venue: out door or indoor
Bridal party: 2 bridesmaid and 2 groomsmen.
Flowers for bridal party
Accommodation for out of town guest (15 single or 10 doubles from for the wedding night only)
Wedding time: 4pm to 9pm.

Both the wedding and reception will be in same venue.

I need you to get back to me with a total estimate that will cover this arrangement so that I can make a deposit payment to enable you start arrangements as time is not on our side.
I'm presently in Iran for a world health organization program which will last for another month or two and the only means of payment that will be possible for me from here will be via my Credit card. I hope this will not pose any problem to you.

Get back to me as soon as you have the estimate so that we can start of all preparation for my wedding.

I await your response.
John Clarke.

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Clarke"
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2009 1:47 PM
Subject: My Wedding

>I am John Clarke, from London England. I am writing to get information
> on wedding/reception venues and also so in need of the services of a
> wedding planner.
>
> Mary and I are planning to have a wedding in October 2009 (any date in
> October will be fine) and will require more information on this as we
> plan also to have the wedding in your region. We are looking for a
> venue and planner to help us plan our wedding/reception.
>
> 40 to 50 guests are expected to attend. Please advise on weather
> conditions and the possibilities of rain.
>
> Please note that you (wedding planner) is to arrange for a food,
> Videography, Music Entertainment, Photography, Officiant, cake and
> flowers, decoration etc.
>
> Please do confirm this date and get back to me.
>
> Thanks for your anticipated response
>
> Best regards,
> John Clarke.

[Drperson]

Same thing. It's the details that they get you on. It sounds so authentic.; Another good way is to google the text in what you think is the scam. It is surprising what comes up