Has anyone had an enquiry from this guy? Sounds odd!

[Gemma]

Hi,

I've had an enquiry this am from a guy called Wilfred Keno (see email below).  It doesn't sound like your typical booking and obviously I know there are a lot of bogus enquiries made.  Has anyone had anything from this one before?

G

MY NAME IS KENO I AM A MODEL AGENT I CAME ABOUT YOUR ADVERT
ON THE
INETERNET SO A FRIEND ADVISE ME  TO CONTACT YOU OVER THE
ACCOMODATION ,

THERE ARE TWO OF MY FEMALE MODELS THAT ARE HAVING A MODELING
PROGRAMED IN YOUR AVENUES FROM SEPT 28 TILL  NOVEMBER 14
SO ALL I WANT NOW
IS THE RENT COST FOR THAT PERIOD, ONCE I GET THE COST
PAYMENT WILL COMMENCE ASAP.
HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON

[Cat]

Hmm, has all the hallmarks of scam.

Of course, you could always reply saying that you have to be very careful, due to the high number of bogus bookings doing the rounds, and that any over-payments cannot be refunded for six months.  Ask for a link to his web-site (and expect never to hear from him again).

 

[Gemma]

Yeah I thought so.  I'm new to this game so thought I would check it out with people.  Will reply like you say and look forward to his non reply!

Thanks!

[Lori]

Have to agree with Cat  ..  We received a couple of these

over the years.  I always found it totally odd when  first

contact is asking me to advise the price and in the same note telling

me payment would be immediately forthcoming.  Who does that? 

None of our REAL bookings did, thats for sure.

[Judith]

My reaction as I saw it was - another scam. My reasons?

Written in capitals, (very) poor English, hardly understandable, and not at all clear what is required.

These days, anything which I am not expecting I delete immediately (though I understand you would not want to loose a booking by doing that) but do you really want to deal with someone who is so uneducated (but can use a computer obviously) that they cannot ask good questions and deal with you in a business like manner.

Today's scams are looking more and more lifelike - the (4) Barclays I've had today at work, (in spite of firewalls) look very professional but I have no online account with then so I know its a scam. The Nigerian ones however, look very home made - but I still don't trust them.

Business like this is best lost for good!

[Quillan]

[quote user="Gemma"]

Hi,

I've had an enquiry this am from a guy called Wilfred Keno (see email below).  It doesn't sound like your typical booking and obviously I know there are a lot of bogus enquiries made.  Has anyone had anything from this one before?

G

MY NAME IS KENO I AM A MODEL AGENT I CAME ABOUT YOUR ADVERT
ON THE
INETERNET SO A FRIEND ADVISE ME  TO CONTACT YOU OVER THE
ACCOMODATION ,

THERE ARE TWO OF MY FEMALE MODELS THAT ARE HAVING A MODELING
PROGRAMED IN YOUR AVENUES FROM SEPT 28 TILL  NOVEMBER 14
SO ALL I WANT NOW
IS THE RENT COST FOR THAT PERIOD, ONCE I GET THE COST
PAYMENT WILL COMMENCE ASAP.
HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON

[/quote]

It's a scam and there are loads around just like this or worse. One I had and posted here last year came from a B&B in London who wanted to forward on some guests and could I pay the car hire company out of the money they wanted to send me. They even had a website for the B&B except the postal address of the B&B was in Scotland and the B&B really did exsist but the email never came form them of course. If it were not for that 'gut feeling' and a bit of investigating you could have almost believed the email.

[Gemma]

Thanks for that!  I replied asking for them to confirm dates etc and the dates that came back were totally different and for a different number of 'models'!

I may just being naive or stupid...or both!  But...what's the point of them doing that?

[Coco]

I used to totally ignore these emails but sometimes now, depending on my mood, I reply asking them if they really think I fell off the last banana boat (if they think I'm being racist I really don't care when they're trying to rip me off!!!) that I wasn't born yesterday, to go and try their scam on someone who doesn't have a brain and that I have forwarded a copy of their email to interpol.

Of course I never get any kind of response but it can be quite satisfying if you're having a bad day to let off steam at them!

[tj]

Hi

It appears the majority realise this is a "scam" but no-one has mentioned what the actual scam is? Do you know?

regards

Tim

 

 

[Quillan]

The scam basically works something like this (although there are slight variations on the theme).

In your case it was models (new one that) and in others it's say a Dr Smith and his wife coming to stay or a Mr Jones who wants you to put up his son for two months.

When you reply they will send you a email explaining that the models, Dr Smith or Mr Jones son will require say a car so could you sort out hiring one. In the mean time they will forward your accomodation costs plus say another 5,000€ to cover the car hire and you can give the change to the people when they arrive. This will be done via an international bankers cheque which you then recieve through the post. The cheque normally comes from some bank that nobody has ever heard of in some obscure country although Nigeria is often the favorite, hence the name of many of these scams is The "Nigerian Scam". (I would like to add before I go any further that it's only a minority of Nigerians that do this and I am sure the rest of the population is very law abiding and hard working.).

So you present the cheque to your bank and a couple of days later you recieve an email saying that they don't need a car now and can you send them the 5,000€ back via Western Union money order, they keep the accomodation booked to make you feel secure. You should be aware that once money has been collected from a Western Union office at the other end you can't ever get it back. So three weeks later you get a phone call from your bank to say that either the bank on which the cheque was drawn does not exist or that the cheque is a forgery. They have 5,000€ and you don't any more.

Sorry to say this but you should stay well clear of anything to do with Western Union or anything simular because they are open to abuse. Once the money has arrived at the other end virtually anyone can collect it as cash (the Nigerians use false Passports or ID cards) and you have no chance of ever getting it back. I use PayPal (owned by Ebay) not the best I am sure and other B&B owners use different people like No Cheques etc and at the end of they day they are all much the same and take credit and ebit cards. The benifit is that they have protection to both you and your client and can get your money back.

There are many varients to this scam, some have involved mobile phones sent by courier in luei of payment and all sorts of stupid things, you just get a feel for them. A tactic I often use is to send them a bill via PayPal for the whole lot but you never get a reply normally and after three months you just cancel the bill and it costs you nothing.

[Miki]

Generally they will send you a cheque for too much, offering an excuse

as to why this happened, they then ask for the over amount to be sent

back.

This can work, as a cheque paid in to a French bank account can aopear

cleared after a few days but in reality, a cheque can take a lot

longer. In the meantime, the person being scammed sees the cheque

amount in her bank and thus sends a cheque for the over amount to the

scammers. The honest cheque clears whilst the scammers cheque

eventually bounces.

It must work now and again an dindeed, I have stopped two people from

believing this scamn, due to them believing the cheque has cleqred but

when told to leave it a little longer, both cheques duly bounced.

Edit:

Same time of posting.

Chris gave another differing account on how this type of scam can work.

[Gemma]

Thanks for clearing that up!  I was toying with the idea of Paypal as I use it for ebay and haven't had any problems with them so far (touch wood).  Maybe this is the best way to go?