Dr Brian

[passiflora]

Can you help please. Has anyone else received this odd e-mail. It is hard to tell if it is genuine. I am always suspicious of people who talk about how they are going to pay you via someone else.

I did reply and suggested he looked at our website for availability and prices but have just got another reply back. The trouble is it came in with other odd Ivory Coast e-mails which I always ditch.

Dear Carole Stoate,

I would like to enquire about the following properties:

Chez Albion
-

Adults: 0 Children: 0

Hello ,I am a doctor based in and holland
I saw your ads on the net and I am interested in renting weekly . I want to know if you still have it for lease the final price and it's condition and when it is available for lease.If possible include pictures,as soon as we have concluded, payment would be made through my associates oweing funds in
France via bank cheque.

Kindest Regards,

Brian Smith

I now have the Dr Brian bit a follow up to this

Hello Carole,
thanks for the email back to me and i will appreciate
it if you email me the dates in which your
accomodation is available for lease as well as the
price.As i am interested in renting it.I will be
coming along with my wife and my only son

Regards,

Dr.Brian

Perhaps I am just becoming paranoid with all the Ivory Coast and Nigerian e-mails I get.

Carole S (16)

[Val_2]

Personally I would walk away from this one for peace of mind. Sounds a bit odd as you say about the payment side of things which is after all, what you are letting property for. Ever since friends of ours had some english people stay for three days at their B&B,who said they had been french residents for years and owned property in Provence and then could not pay with any sort of french cheque or money,only sterling until the gendarmes were called to frighten them into paying in euros,makes you realise that there are con people out there and you could be next.

[Judyc]

LAST EDITED ON 11-Jul-04 AT 09:03 AM (BST)

I have just received this same e-mail this morning, and was immediately suspicious because of the method of payment, the fact he seems to be asking when it is available for rent and also the poor spelling.

Now I know to dump it!

Judy

[Sued]

Hi

Yes I've just had this one over the weekend.

I deleted it straightaway!

I did have another one last week very similar from someone in the far east saying much the same thing, i.e. that the bill would be paid by someone who owes him money in France. I deleted that one as well!

We are obviously being 'picked off' from one of the advertising websites

Sue

[Sued]

Following on from my earlier e-mail, I received the following from the website where I advertise the house for rent:

Dear Owners

As most of you are probably aware an email was sent on Saturday 10th July or Sunday 11th July from a gentleman called Brian Smith either using email address [email protected] or [email protected] telling you he is a doctor from Holland and looking for accommodation. When people have replied to this they have been sent this mail.

I am interested in renting your accommodation for a week starting from the beginning 21st and 28th August.(although dates were changed on others) I will pay 585 euro for my one week stay, also confirming arrival and departure dates to be beginning 21st and 28th August respectively. I will be coming over with my wife and 2 kids who are ages 5 and 9years old.I would like to know if a FRENCH CHEQUE/BANK DRAFT will CASH at your local post office in FRANCE. Talking about PAYMENT I have my associate in the FRANCE who owes me 4000 euro ,and he wants to pay me through a cheque/bank draft,since I am not in FRANCE at the moment ,I will have my ASSOCIATE issue you a cheque for 4000 EURO on my behalf.As soon as you receive the CHEQUE/DRAFT you will have it cashed your local post office ,deduct your rent for my 1 week stay .The balance of the excees funds you will transfer it to my TRAVEL AGENT through WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER so that all travel arrangements can be made on my behalf.As soon as the CHEQUE/BANK DRAFT arrives you will confirm reservation for the specified dates.If this is is OK by you then provide me with a name for the CHEQUE/DRAFT and a postal address where the courier will deliver the payment. Let me hear from you soon so that my associates can proceed with payment. Dr.Brian As you can probably gather from his reply this is highly suspicious and looks like it is part of a laundering scam. I confirm that this gentleman has been barred from emailing on the site in future and we are looking into having this investigated.

I would recommend that you do not respond to him and certainly do not pass any banking details of any kind. Many thanks for your time.

So it is scam after all - hope nobody has fallen for it.

Sue