small motel scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 09 Sep 2008 Posts: 5

I received a strange request for room rates from a guy claiming to represent a movie production company (don't have original email). The main point he stressed was he was sending ACTORS! (as if most motels have not seen their share of celebrities - real ones not scottish). I sent him back the info and then received this email.

I guess he didn't think I would notice that ACTORS have changed to trainee, or that he now works for a travel agency but wants me to pay a travel agency.

*------------------
From: "david morrow" <[email protected]>
To: "motel" <[email protected]>
Subject: PAYMENT UPDATE

Hello,
Thanks for your reply and assistance so far.I am glad to tell you that we have concluded payment with the GROUP. However we are going to send you my credit card details that will cover the cost of our accomodation,and the necessary arrangment for the trainee.Moreover, we also made an arrangement with a pre-paid travel agent who will take care of all the groups transportation/flight arrnangements during their stay,butbecause of security reasons and confidentiality,we have decided that only one person will have to handle the credit card information. So once you are in receipt of it, you are required to charge the total cost of $9,063 + Bank charges,deduct your 100%
deposit charge for our reservation which is $3.063 for 4 ADULTS ] and send the balance of $6,000 via Bank Transfer,tothe Travel agent whose information will be forwarded to you once this is confirmed. So confirm this and provide me with your
1.YOUR FULL NAME
2. ADDRESS
3. PHONE NUMBERS for office records.
Please remember that the integrity of our agency is involved, so this business requires prompt response. I also hope the stay of the trainee will be made comfortable.

Kind Regards,
David Morrow
RSV TRAVEL
126 Corstorphine Road
EH12 6UD Edinburgh
Tel:+447024064942
Fax:+447884514786
*------------------

Of course I didn't respond but wondered about how many this scumbag got. $9,063.00 loss would devestate most small businesses he is targeting. He is messing with peoples livlihood and lifes work.

I'm going to stick around this site and hopfully learn enough to do something next time.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:17 pm

Quote:

you are required to charge the total cost of $9,063 + Bank charges,deduct your 100%
deposit charge for our reservation which is $3.063 for 4 ADULTS ] and send the balance of $6,000 via Bank Transfer

So you send back the $6.000 and then later discover their credit card was stolen or from a ITP and the bank gives them the money back, you're out of $9.000 + dollars then.
Even if this is not a scam, once you have the credit card info a fast check with that credit company might be nice to insure that the card is valid and not stolen.

But I'm 99.9 % sure that it is a scam. Why charge the card for more and send the rest back?

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:20 pm

Welcome Entropy. Please do stick around Very Happy

Sadly many people do fall for this scam. The scammer will use a stolen credit card, the victim sends the money on to the "travel agent" and once the fraud is discovered, the lad has his money and the victim left facing fraud charges and a huge repayment.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:28 pm

What makes me boil is the fact that they target small businesses with this kind of scam. Of course, a mega-hotel chain would either discard the initial contact without even thinking, or they would never agree to such a proposal if things got that far.

No, they target the small motel that can't afford to lose the money, but the pre-paid reservation for four adults would do their bottom line some good.

I hope the lad-huggers are reading this thread. Evil or Very Mad