Reply I just sent to an attempted scammer

[infinitemonkies]

Thank you for your interest Doctor,
But at this time we will decline to take part in your blatantly obvious attempted fraud.

Please feel free to contact us again, from a different free anonymous email account, if you should ever manage to come up with an original or at least marginally believable scam.

Also, you should be aware, we recently had as a guest in this hotel your long lost great uncle, the King of Myanmar. He has left behind a sizable amount of money for you. To claim these millions, please send me all of your personal & financial information, including photo ID and birth certificate, originals only, no copies please, along with $35, 000 in small unmarked bills in a plain manila envelope.

Sincerly and personally, go get fucked to death by a pack of rabid grizzly bears.

Reservations

[bainsidhe]

This response is useless without knowing how he tried to scam you Though your response is one many of us have wanted to say...

[infinitemonkies]

It's a really common scam for hotels.

It starts out like a normal reservation inquery, asking rates, availability, local attractions, etc.

After 3 or 4 seemingly innocent emails asking routine questions, they hit you with a situation where they overpay with a [stolen] credit card, and ask you to send back the difference, usually by western union.

A more common variation is the scammer pays in advance with a post-dated cheque, then cancels the reservation and asks you to send a refund, putting a stop payment order on the cheque before it clears.

Here's the email I got tonight, skipping the earlier innocuous ones; NO changes have been made:

Dear,

Thanks for your reply and assistance so far ..I am glad to tell you that we have concluded payment.

However we are going to send you my Visa Credit card details that will cover the cost of our trip,and the necessary arrangement.


Moreover, we also made an arrangement with a logistic traveling/ticketing agent. we have decided that only one person will have to handle the credit card information.

So once you are in receipt of it,you are required to charge the credit card,confirm the amount of ( $ 6,000 ) in your account then deduct the cost of your services ( $1,000 deposit ) and send ( $ 5,000 ) via western union, to the Logistic traveling/ticketing agent whose information will be forwarded to you once this is confirmed in your account.Use the rest for the expenses.



So confirm this as i said and and provide me with your full information.

1) YOUR FULL NAME....

2) ADDRESS....

(3) PHONE NUMBERS for office records....

Please remember that the integrity of our agency is involved, so this business requires prompt response. I also hope the stay of the couples will be made comfortable.


Kind Regards,
Dr.Woods Fabian

[It shouldn't]

I get those, too.

Except they usually want to buy safes and then over pay with a stolen CC. We are supposed to Western Union the overpayment to a (fake) shipping Co for shipping the safe(s) to Nigeria.

[sirwired]

I could imagine some poor naieve eBay schmuck falling for this one, but I can't imagine a hotel wanting to be bothered with the whole mess. I mean, what hotel is going to head to the local gas station or grocery store to wire money? Are hotel managers truly that gullible that this is a productive sort of spam? Especially for an arrangement that makes absolutely no sense? (Why send $6k just to get $5k back? That's even less plausible than the "I owe my cousin money" or "Deduct shipping and send the rest back.")

SirWired

[Shpepper]

We get them all the time too. Although, I haven't had one recently. I played the last one along for awhile and then dumped the whole thing. But it was fun while it lasted.

[jjllbb]

this scam is all new to me. nice response to it though. i'd never have the guts to send something like that. with my luck Dr. Fabian would materialize in my office and get me fired on the spot.

[Hyena Dandy]

Practically all the ones I get are women trying to seduce me.

[Ree]

The only problem with replying is that they know it's a legitimate address.

[calulu]

But lots and lots of interesting fun can be had with these scammers. When work is slow sometimes I scambait them. All you need is a fertile imagination, basic photoshop skillz and an anonymous email box that cannot be easily traced, like gmail.com.

Funniest scam baiter saga I've seen in a long time and one of the best trophy baits I've seen - Busted!

[Blade_Raver]

Yep.. this is the typical Nigerian 419 scam and it's variants..

Feel free to wikipedia search "419 scam" for more details.

[Shpepper]

The only problem with replying is that they know it's a legitimate address.

Ours is a legitimate address and since it's the info address for where I work, it's no big deal to answer those from there. There's only a couple of us that answer the email there so the other girl leave it for me to handle.

HAs anyone else seen the one that is trying to set up a wedding and wants to do the same thing? Have the hotel hire everyone for them and send them the balance? I got one of those the other day.

[protege]

Funniest scam baiter saga I've seen in a long time and one of the best trophy baits I've seen - Busted!

Here's another one!

I always enjoy a good tale of a scammer getting what they deserve

[crashhelmet]

Here's another one!

I always enjoy a good tale of a scammer getting what they deserve

LOL. I was just going to say that someone needs to offer them a P-P-P-P-P-P-P-Powerbook

CH

[mattm04]

Here's another one!

I always enjoy a good tale of a scammer getting what they deserve

That is awesome.