Is this a scam?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 5

I am a photographer in Canada who recently received an odd email from a man claiming to be a doctor in England wanting me to plan his entire wedding. Here is the bulk of our emails with names removed (first email at the bottom last at the top). Could someone tell me if this is a scam..? Something seems very off to me but I don't know what the intention of this "scam" would be? As you can see I advertise in a number of large centers and have been trying to get him disclose a location for the wedding.. He doesn't seem to know where I live... strange.. he does provide a lot of information like address and phone number but I can't find info about him in the town he claims to live in.. I would love to pass this off to someone experienced if this is a scam.. Have any of you seen them target people like this before?? Any help would be appreciated. Smile

Dear blank blank,
Thanks for the reply,yeah i want you to send me the contacts so i can write to them about the wedding plans
because we do not have enough time left.i want it done around your area or if you have any other areas you feel will be nice for the wedding you can aswell send me thier contacts.
Am grateful for your assistance and i promise to get back to you for thye photograing work.

Best Regards,
Weird Scam
phone number

Hello Weird,

I am not a wedding planner, but a wedding photographer. If you are in need of photography services for your wedding day I would be happy to reserve your date. And send you booking information. I do have many contacts in the wedding industry I could pass along if you tell me where your wedding is to take place?

Kind Regards,
Blank Blank

My Name is Dr Weird Scam,

I am looking for an experienced wedding planner who will handle my wedding
and arrange dinner for group of people who will be attending wedding ceremony.
Seven will arrive few days before the wedding day.

The wedding is expected to hold on the 24th january,2009 and 25 to 40 guests
are expected to attend.As i do not know what the guests might choose for
their meals and drinks,i will make a prepayment as initial deposit for this
booking via credit card once availability is confirmed by you.All checks and
balances will be made with you on 21st january which is the final day of the
booking,You are to arrange for a videography,music
Entertainment,photography,officiant/priest & church,cake,flowers and
hall.If there is any of these items that is beyond your capability,you let us
know so that another company can handle it.Get back to me with your
response as we do not have much time with us so that we can process our
accommodation within the region more convenient for you and us.

Best Regards,
Weird Scam,
Address
LONDON ,UK ,
postal code.
phone number

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:19 pm

Looks very much like a scam - I'd wager he's setting up for a pre-payment modality where you get a cheque for over the amount and you are asked to send the excess on to someone else by Western Union; or else he cancels and asks for the fee to be remitted by Western Union.

Please post the headers so we can find out where he is.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 3551

Hello photog, and welcome!

If you Google the first few sentences of the mail, you will see that it has been identified as a scam.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 5

Thanks! I did google various info in the email but duh should have tried the title line! LOL

Forgive me for being completely naive about this but what is the header I should post?

My husband told me to post here and I would have an answer.. Thank you! I am glad there are people out there providing this info to the little guy (gal Wink

like me.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 5

So after looking around more I have found a large number of photographers who have received these emails.. He has asked to send credit card payments to several photographers.. how would that work? Would it just be to lure you in? Someone states the emails are coming out of Sunnyvale, California.

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:00 pm

What sort of email account does this scammer have?

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:14 pm

The email headers can tell you roughly where the email came from. Although some free email providers withhold this information. Whoever told you Sunnyvale has checked them, . The email address is gmail or googlemail, is it? They are based there.
Any credit card used to may you will be stolen or cloned. The idea is that you forward some of the payment elsewhere by Western Union before the fraud is noticed.

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:18 pm

If you would be so kind as to PM all the information you have to a moderator, they can get the proper people to handle any credit card information you may have received.

Also, put up the original email with the headers and just delete your information out. A friend of mine who is an artist almost got conned on a similar scam and said that someone he knows did get taken for about $3,000. I'm sure someone here will like to make this scammer's life miserable.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 5

I would love that Sir Scam A lot! I will forward all the info to a mod.

He is emailing me from both a hotmail and a yahoo address. But neither have the .uk extension.

He has not answered me since I made a further inquiry into where this wedding is to take place. I don't list anywhere on my website where I live that is why I thought it was so strange that he kept referring to wanting the wedding in my area. I do mostly destination weddings.

I will forward this on to the mods and hopefully someone can rip him apart. A lot of photographers are falling for this as far as I can see online. If his grammar was better for a doctor, and he hadn't just talked about payments in the first email I might have fallen for it too.. we aren't really in a high scam industry.. I am going to post warnings on all my photography forums as well.

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:45 pm

It's been bad in the art business lately from what my friend told me. They like using phished credit cards to make payments, then ask for refunds. Once the payment bounces, you're up the creek without a paddle.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 5

Your friend is right.. I do get a ton of scam emails that are so obvious its pathetic.. I always thought that was just the nature of having an email address and most are filtered out as junk mail.. This guy emailed me directly from my website unlike any of the other generic scams I receive.

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:55 pm

The ones who do this are not your entry level scammers, these ones are pretty good at what they do. My friend also got the email at his website email, they would have got him too. Fortunately, he remembered me talking about it and called me first.

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:58 pm

photog wrote:

He is emailing me from both a hotmail and a yahoo address. But neither have the .uk extension.

The e-mail extension means nothing as regards identifying where the person is actusally located. For baiting purposes I have UK and also French mail addies. 419 scammers tend to use UK e-mail addies and impersonate UK lotteries making people think that the UK is the centre of all these scams. Twisted Evil

They use Chinese, Thailand, US - any you can think of. Lads (as we call them) like to use a few job titles out of preference believing they are considered beyond repute. Doctors, Barristers and Pastors are their top three most frequently used titles, though they'll impersonate anyone to make a fraudulent buck.

Then I often bait scammers as a female Russian model based in France - and that I ain't Laughing