I am posting below a copy of a email request I received this morning... This is the 6th one I have received in the past 2 months...

The names change, but the request is always for about the same thing.... The scam, the bill is always around 3 - 4oo $ [uS] but they then say the family in question has already left for the holiday, and the person writing the email will send this money to you in advance, along with another US$5,000. which they will put on their credit card and put into your account..... the family will contact me once they get to Thailand and I will forward $4500. to them and keep an additional $500. for my trouble

I am of the belief that , if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it aint a skunk...

Has anyone else out there run across anything similar in your business..... As I say its a new one, only becoming aware of by me about 2 months ago, but now Ive gotten the 6th one this morning...

Be interested in hearing if anyone knows what the scam is.......

Gonzo

===================== The Email===========================

Dear sir\ ma,

I will like to enquire if you have available space in your Guest house for my clients who will be staying for some days in your country for Holidays.i will really apreciate it if you can kindly get back to me with an urgent reply.Below is the details of my reservation:

Room Type. 3 Single rooms.

check in : 5 / 08/ 2007

check out: 15 /08/ 2007

Number of guest...3 people.

Days of stay...10 days

Thanks and get back to me with the total cost of the booking so

that i can send you my credit card details.Note that all payment for the reservation shall be charged before the arrival of my clients.thanks

kind regard

Stephen

Possibly the first 500 will be charged on a credit card and the remaining money would be sent by personal cheque. They would then ask you for the money from the cheque before it had cleared, seeming to you like very nice people, therby gaining your trust. After which you may possibly think "these nice people would not rip me off", so you part with the money before the cheque has cleared, and they are away with the money, or they use a stolen credit card and you give them the remainder of the money against a this! Variations on a theme.

Take care and good luck.

Possibly the first 500 will be charged on a credit card and the remaining money would be sent by personal cheque. They would then ask you for the money from the cheque before it had cleared, seeming to you like very nice people, therby gaining your trust. After which you may possibly think "these nice people would not rip me off", so you part with the money before the cheque has cleared, and they are away with the money, or they use a stolen credit card and you give them the remainder of the money against a this! Variations on a theme.

Take care and good luck.

As they were saying , [in reply to the first & original email] they were going to put the entire $5000 + on the card, & it was urgent that I get back to them right away, I got the impression that perhaps it was a ring using stolen credit cards and had to do the transaction right away...... but what happened in the original instance, I indicated that I use PayPal and if they gave me information, I could send them a PayPal invoice which they could pay with their credit card, and that it would be much safer for them,,,,,,,,,, I never heard from them again.....

gonzo

I have had many of these. They are always looking for accommodation, ALWAYS want to book 10 nights (this bit I haven't figured out). I get on average 1 every 3 days (for about the last year or so). Interestingly they are often trying to book accommodation off someone who is not selling accommodation so I am not sure how they are gathering the email addresses.

I would imagine they are trying to use stolen credit card data as they always want to pay total by credit card.

I had another interesting one last year wanting me to purchase a large number of mobile phones, charge them to their credit card and send them.

If I don't delete them I reply with the word SCAM and enjoy filling up their mail box.

Format for these mails is very similar once you have seen a few you can easily spot them.

i agree with cmsally.

i work in a hotel and receive these most days. almost ALWAYS 10 days. but check who is in the list of recipients. its usually not your email address, which means that they are fishing to see who takes the bait.

sometimes i just reply to them to see what their next step is. when they lay down the conditions i just send them back an email saying 'i regret to advise that we will not be partaking in your scam' or something like that and i dont hear from them again.

but there is always another person to take their place.

get used to it i say.

oh, you should also look out for the people booking on behalf of a church group, a 4 or 5 couple honeymoon (yeah right), and anyone who calls you dear or friend.

It's a variation on the bogus bank draft scam - if you were advertising a car or a boat for sale someone (usually from Nigeria surprise, surprise!) would write offering to pay the full amount but say they'd like to pay with a bank draft that would cover the cost and more. They'd then ask you to remit the "overpayment" and, reassured by the fact that the money appeared to be safely in your bank account, you'd cheerfully send them some perfectly good cash by Western Union whereupon a fortnight later the bank would reverse the transaction leaving you high and dry. Needless to say the "shipping instructions" for the item they claimed to want to buy never came through. You can read about these amusing (only if you're not caught by one) scams at http://www.quatloos.com/brad-c/directory01.htm and while you're there check out Brad's efforts to get back at the 419 artists. I made a site like this compulsory reading for my staff when I was running my company because of the number of times we got rubbish like this in mail and emails.

We get these too, I looked on the internet and read that the scam lies in charging it to a credit card, they then cancel and ask you to western union them cash as a refund instead of crediting the card. The card is then denied and you are out cash.

I always find it funny that they are purporting to be from some large corporation but the return email is always hotmail or something.

And yet .. if this weren't a successful scam .. they wouldn't keep doing it.

Edited June 13, 200719 yr by expatwannabe

And yet .. if this weren't a successful scam .. they wouldn't keep doing it.

Send out 100,000 with the push of a button and if you end up with just a couple of victims it's a profitable day's work....

Here's another scam site to browse if anyone's interested in seeing how creative these people can be: http://www.antiscam.net/modules.php?name=N...icle&sid=45