*** Nearly scammed!

P

petemc

Suspended / Banned
Messages
9,504
Name
Pete
Edit My Images
No
For the past week or so I've been exchanging emails with a "client".

My name is Sunpapa Morgan,i work with Bowmer & Kirkland Uk Construction Company and i am from Uk, in the company that i work we have a big contract in NEW ZEALAND to build a petroleum refinary for the country, there i meet my fiancee named Lisa Johnson and we are planning to come back to the united kingdom to have our monumental or chestration mean wedding on the 24th of March 2007. So your service will be needed at the receiption after the church service which will start from 12:00pm to 2:00pm, i will like you to state all your charges within this period of time and get back to me. Finally i will like you to get back to me with your contact details as stated below;

Your full name:

Your full contact address:

Home/cell contact telephone number:

I will be really glad to meet you, have a nice day and stay blessed.

My heartfelt regards,

SUNPAPA MORGAN
Click to expand...

I replied asking if it was just 2 hours he needed me for. He replied with...

How are you hope you are felling fine, see the address you requested for below..

Woodview Hills Lane
Northwood Middlesex HA6 2QL

I will like you to get back to me today okay...
Click to expand...

I said to him that it was very strange that he wanted me to do the shoot as I was 4 hours away by train. He said...

Dont worry about that all the expensice will be handle by me okay please tell me the total amount for 2hours okay and you transport fee and mail me back today...
Click to expand...

I then said "It would be £600. Can I ask how you found me?" and he replied with...

Email me back with you full name adress and phone number
Click to expand...

*Spidey sense tingles* Why does he need that?

So I said; "I'm a bit curious as to why you need my full address. I am 4 hours away by train and I'm sure there's a local photographer you could hire?"

I was honest there as I felt things weren't quite right and I was hoping to get some more info. He said;

the resing why i ask for you full address is that i want to pay you by BANK DRAFT
Click to expand...

He's sent that message twice. Bank draft? Why not a cheque? This was it really. So I googled. If you scroll down a bit on this site you'll find exactly the same opening message but from another person. If anyone else gets this message or a variation, run away! Now, how should I proceed? Should I say I made a mistake and say it would be £3000 for the wedding?
 
Tell him he'd be better off spending his £600 on English lessons. That way at least he could pass for English instead of Nigerian.
 
You've not given him any significant information - just drop email correspondence, walk away and forget about it.
 
i would have been suspicious to start with, but this bit would have nailed it for me:

have a nice day and stay blessed.
Click to expand...

the amount of junk ive had telling me that ive
1) been selected for an investment
2)been selected to help move $£$£$£0000000000000000000000000 out of somewhere foreign
3)wont the Dutch lottery

most end with Stay Blessed/Be Blessed/Your blessed

reply saying your passing the details to the authorities...then move
 
It's the 419 scam come to Britain. Or... maybe he wants to know where you live so he can come and burgle you while you are away doing his 'wedding' either way stay away!
 
I was suspicious to start with. He asked for my contact info and thats on my site. It was very much a copy/paste email. The bad English also tipped me off. However, PC and multi-cultural Britain made me think that maybe he was for real. He screwed up by constantly asking for details though.
 
you did the right thing Pete, a lot of people get fooled by stuff like this, so if posting this stops it from happening to someone else, then all fine
 
Yeah I get this a lot when I put eBay auctions on.

Basically they pay you x amount of money (x=£1000 in this little equation) by bank draft, then ask you to give them y amount of money change (y=£400). So you make £600, and you return £400 change to them.

But... the bank draft never clears. So you send them £400 and the bank draft "bounces" like a cheque and you've just given someone that you absolutely can't trace £400 for nothing. There's a difference between bankers drafts and cheques though - I'm not sure what it is, but something like the banker's draft appears as credit in your account even before it has cleared. Don't quote me on that though.

I would never, ever deal with someone from Nigeria. That isn't racism - in any form - but with over 500 eBay and autotrader listings, I have not once found a valid non-EU buyer.
 
I would never, ever deal with someone from Nigeria.
Click to expand...
I would say the same about Russia. I've worked in the software industry for nigh on ten years and the majority of the industry's piracy problems stem from Russia.
 
Tell you what - that Lisa Johnson gets about a bit too doesn't she?! ;)

Well caught Pete!
 
I remember you mentioning this to me Pete, and even I was a little more than skeptical at the possibility of someone 300 miles away asking you to do their wedding.
Like Steep said - tis the 419 scam all over again.
A couple weeks ago I was just reading about these scammers - don't even meet them in a public place - some are dangerous... Tbh I don't know why the authorities aren't cracking down on these idiots as and where they can (tho I do agree going to Nigeria to arrest them is pretty tough! :D )
Anyway I think you did the right thing by blanking him ... next time if I was you, try give them the wrong details and a cheque in payment by I.P. Hisher or something like that! ;)
 
Time to add him to your blocked senders list and ignore him pete.
 
I'd be careful even accepting a cheque if you think anythign is dodgy. Cheque scamming is another growing industry in the Nigerian book of business. Basically they send you a cheque for the amount which is forged, the cheque clears fine, but a coupel of months later, the actual owners of the cheque put ina forgery claim and the bank take the money back out of your account.

This mighn't be so commen in the service industry as the scammer doesnt get any money (unless they use the "send larger cheque and you send them the difference back"), but anyone sellign any equipment should be aware of it.
 
It's not worth trying to "scam them back" by accepting a cheque, end of the day, if it was real they wouldnt give you one.

Kirkland are a main contractor we work/have worked with, no Mr Morgan is on our lists :p
 
Same happend to me when selling my car on autotrader last year.

One guy from sweden emailed me claiming to be a second hand car dealer importing performance cars from the UK. He didn't haggle over the price, in fact be wanted to add an extra £100 if i cleaned it before his uk "agent" collected the car. That got the old spidey sense going.

He wanted my full address and contact details and was willing to put a bankers draft in the post.

I emailed him back asking if he was serious about buying a car he hadn't even seen.

His reply was that he was willing to post the draft today to me for £3000 more than the asking price and I should forward the balance to someone else.

I replied back saying I wouldn't be willing to release the car until the draft could be drawn against. (This is different to something "clearing" as a "cleared" cheque or bank draft can still be rejected by the bank !! The status of being drawn against is further down the clearing process after everything had been accepted.) I also said i wasn't willing to forward any money to his agent and I would want a draft for just the asking price.

Funnily enough I never heard from him again :thinking:

Usefull to know about the difference between "cleared" and "drawn against" though.

Tony
 
I hate scammers. :(
 
Thanx for the HU on this one Pete ... :thumbs: ... had Nigerian stuff before myself ... :suspect:

Good advice above ... drop all contact, add to Junk/Spam mail list and delete everything ... for good ... ;)






:p
 
That trophy room is great I almost felt sorry for them!
 
I would watch out for patterns such as "My heartfelt regards," and "God Bless" etc. Ironically such people sound more holy in a unholy sort of way.

Thanks for the warning.
 
Was he also offering Viagra !!!? :D
 
dear oh dear oh dear...whilst I can see why - being quite multi cultural now a days - you might have thought it was a teensy bit legit, I'd have hurled it at the junk bin before I'd reached the bottom of the starter email. asking for a specific time like that and contact details just seems wierd - my thinking was they could get your address and get you out of the house, then being empty go in and help themselves...at least thats what came to mind straight away. oh and its a long flight from nigeria to carry it off too ;)
still, love the stories at 419...classics
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top