newb

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 20

i found the site while looking for info as i received one of these mails recently for a booking in my B&B. the lad as you call it, might have gained access to the customer directory at a website with my information and used the button 'mail directly', thus avoiding to end up where he should be - in the bin. very smart.

there is a nigerian connection, via the nickname of a nigerian film actor. googled all the info adress and the like and it was all bullshit. i presented the mail to several people, who couldn't figure out what his idea was - after reading here, quite clear to me.

more and more in my country, small businesses are attacked. photographers for weddings, restaurants, small hotels, B&B's.

the phenomena is i think relatively new in my country. after reading more on the website here, i realized that i threw away exactly the same kind of mail, beginning of january. booking for 6 people for 2 weeks, a christian convention somewhere close. i can cater for 4 people.

i will certainly not respond to the booking request i received - all my info is at hand for the one who tried it. i am glad that i just a week ago, decided to remove my mobile phone number, as a certain 'company' kept phoning me for a reservation, but never disclosed their name. after several contacts they stopped phoning me.

it makes me think - a lot. should i advertise, or not. should i open my own website, or not. am fairly new in this business.

90 percent of my bookings come via e-mail. most people are to be trusted. some people have bad habits - like phoning for a reservation within 90 minutes, and then simply cancelling, while on their way, less than half an hour later...

Evil or Very Mad

great, this website. Very Happy

had a lot of fun reading posts. good work!

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 7:41 pm

@streetwalker

Welcome to 419Eater. Glad you have done your research and found us. I'd be very interested if you could post the lads email together with the headers.If you need help with the headers ask here for help.

This does sound like a classic fake cheque scam. I noted the following quote

Quote:

the phenomena is i think relatively new in my country.

I don't know of any country that doesn't have a problem with advance fee fraud but you might surprise me!

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 7:58 pm

Also possibly a stolen credit card scam, one of the hotels I run sceurity for recently had a prepayment for a booking of $4800 they did recieve the money, it was prepaid 4 months in advance. The night before the booking they called to say they couldnt make it, they wanted the money back. sent via WU. needless to say alarm bells went off.

They simply informed the "guest" of the no refund on prepayments policy, then called the police. funny part was, 4 months and the CC owner hadnt reported it stolen, so more likely it was skimmed. The scammer just had its details. This is why we should all read our bank statements carefully, apparantly its easy for $4800 to not be noticed missing.

The other thing is, they had of known it was a scam booking, and never took the booking and got the details and the payment, the card owner probably still wouldnt know money was going missing.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 20

forgive me if i give wrong answers - i am totally new to forums and the like. so i have to catch up a lot with doing this.

i know you expect me to send sth that you can use, but i am a bit of a slow user of internet. being over 60... hahaha

i do not even know how to copy that particular mail... pffff

the question came from the UK, a man who calls himself 'sam loco' to book a week with me for his wife, 'misses sam loco' and a teenage daugther called 'katrin loco'. the opening was in capitals, to confirm his booking. that annoyed me. for the rest, bad english and that was it.

what bothers me most - he sent his request via this website

www.vakantieverblijf-nederland.nl

that means he had access to probably all other advertisers on that site. i tried to find out how to warn that site - alas, only a telephone number available, no possibility to mail. weekend... so will try to phone tuesday (as ik have work to do on monday - no possibility to phone)

approaching people this way, gives an 'idea' that the request might be okay. dutch people do know about scams, but not if a request like this, literally comes into your mailbox, directly from that site. which you trust!!

B&B's are always small family business with very much, dutch customers and hardly foreign customers.

my information on that particular site, is ONLY in dutch.

made me wonder straight away - did the man mailing me, understand dutch...?

i feel rather vulnerable, as you will understand. but am very grateful for all the good info here.

Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 8:44 pm

Well googling sam loco obviously comes up with the actor, but googling sam loco scam shows a good deal of his night job.

The lads think its funny to use funny names and celebreties we dont know, and we do the same in return. As far as advice goes, I would say just don't touch it. Don't reply, don't let it bother you further. I doubt warning the site will make any difference, the scammers are many and the email addresses are disposable.

Its a good thing it got you thinking enough to come here first. they are incredibly common, and the internet being the way it is, they are common everywhere.

You mentioned dutch people not knowing about scams and such, and without being rude at all, I must wonder if that is maybe a generation thing. Not so much as a regional thing. perhaps if you just left the scammers email address if you do not understand getting headers, maybe one of the crew here could get a reply from them and get the headers.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 20

thanks. dutch people are really aware about some of these scams, the lotteries, and such. NOT that you could receive a personal mail, as a small business - like me.

my provider is good and the protection likewise.

i do not leave my personal info all over the place. no bank account number or whatever - just my personal address where i live - the clients should be able to figure out the region.

close to amsterdam and very close to schiphol airport - it's what my clients need.

but running a B&B is not the same as 'being a hotel'. i accomodate people in my OWN house. i have to be careful. some foreigners do not really understand - they think they rent a (hotel)room.

so i always explain.

having to deal with scammers - thanks to this website, i know now. i really cannot afford to be a victim.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 20

@huntingdon

precisely. in the netherlands, we know a bit. most of this kind of mail gets me not directly - so i do not read, and get rid of it.

but i run a private business. how to protect yourself. indeed - most people of my generation do not even speak/read english.

they will not even bother to answer.

most dutch B&B's only cater for dutch guests. as said before, on that particular site, my info is only available in dutch. so a bit strange, to receive a request in english, totally ignoring my information in dutch.

though i DO receive guest from abroad - but i am always able to check names and adresses - as they book with personal names.

i wonder really, if the B&B business in the netherlnds is aware of this. at least - NO warnings whatsoever, in the dutch language, honestly.

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 7:07 am

@streetwalker

Amsterdam is a well known centre for Nigerian scammers. Some of those are going to be second generation who have gone to school in Holland and who therefore speak Dutch fluently.

As Huntingdon has said, the website will not be able to do too much about this misuse of their service. Maybe one of our experienced Dutch/Flemish members can take a look to see if there is anything that can be done.

Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 11:09 am

Streetwalker: here's some information about this type of scam. Clicky

I don't think there's much that can be done about it. Maybe you could ask them to make their customers aware.
I did find an email address, I'll PM it to you.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 20

@dutch thanks for the info. had a job to do today but have found the mailaddress of the company myself. being a real newb, i still haven't figured out to open PM - sth i just have no experience in. my eldest son thinks i am utterly stupid, so i won;t ask him of course - again.

coming home tonight, i found a mail from my good old friend 'garry loopy' - though i stopped reading his mail after the first one.

i am not sending you the whole email but my attention was attracted to garry adding a sentence that i never saw before... the citation is not exact - nevertheless.

'that i should be aware that fraudstars are using the internet.'

nice of mr garry to warn me - eh? makes him of course, to be totally trustworthy.

the missspelling is a good example - i think.
i'm not into baiting - but do love all the stories here.

checking the text again - there is sth odd about it - after his fake mail address, there is an address of a person i do not know, @zeeland.net.

and checking other stuff which was still in the bin - i see 2 other dutch mail addresses, also people i do not know.

is there a simple explanation, somewhere to find...?

i am getting curious.

Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 7:37 pm

^^^^
"fraudstar" is one of our favourite laddisms! Very Happy

That on its own is sufficient to mark Garry as a scammer!

The other email addresses may be other people Garry is emailing with the same scam or they may be associates that he is giving a "headsup" to with regard to you. Its nothing to worry about

Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 7:40 pm

At the top of the page you find 'Messages (new)' Just click that.
The email adds you found can be sent to a moderator, or to me and I will pass them on to a mod for you.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 08 May 2010 Posts: 20

@musicman
education here helps a lot. have noticed as well via other scamsites, that amsterdam is a real turf for the lads. hard maybe to understand for people not living in holland, how i recognize addresses and phone numbers. totally innocent law-abiding citizens have their address information stolen, maybe. read really sad stories happening a few years ago about a 'dutch based company' that gave "FREE' access to a sort of company data base, for companies in the EU and most victims weren't even in EU-countries.

had to wipe my laptop from unwanted coughs and the like, but foreign victims in china had no clue.

i do not worry about anything, in this connection for myself.

i enjoy seeing the really absolutely incredible language mistakes being made. and am still puzzling about the photos with 'signs' that the lads send. this must be a form of self inflicting damage - or total illiteracy.

does anyone here have any knowledge about this happening in albania...? oh my god, over there they will EAT it. remember the golden age in 1997 when that country had a civil war about ponzi schemes... luckily for 90 procent of albanians spending 50 dollars a month for having internet, is not feasible. internet cafes charge too much and honestly, electricity over there is a hard problem...