Scam Emails To Businesses

[Phil Lilley]

These are 2 emails I got today. I responded to the first one, giving him the info he wanted. I knew it was a scam but wanted to play along to see what he'd do. Here they are:

Hi,

I am William Walter from the UK,i would like to book reservation for 4 people that will be coming for vacation in your area on the 13th of January to the 23rd of January 2008.

If you have vacancy for the specified period, give me the total cost for the whole period of 2 single or double rooms for 10 nights for 4 guest. Also, confirm if you will accept major credit card for your payment.

Thank you and looking forward to hearing from soon.

Kind Regards,

Dr. William Walter

St. Andrew's House

Regent road

Edinburgh EH13DG

Scotland

reply-

> Thank you for your inquiry.

>

> We have 2 singles for the nights you've requested.

> The total cost would

> be $1592.64 with a discount, plus sales tax.

>

> We do except all major credit cards. All we would

> need, though, is a

> card number to hold the reservation.

>

> the Lilleys

>

Dear,

Thanks for your quote/total cost for our booking.I am

glad to tell you that we have concluded payment

arrangements. However we are going to send you the

Credit Card Information, that will cover the cost of

our booking and the necessary arrangements for the

guests.

Moreover, we also made an arrangement with a

flight/travel agent who is handling the flight and

traveling logistics, But the flight/travel consultant

has just informed us that they have just applied to

their bank for their online credit card processing

facility, and at the moment their bank is yet to

install their online credit card processing/payment

system,and it may take some time for them to complete

the installation. Consequently, I humbly ask that you

assist us in making the payment for our flight and

other transportation/travelling arrangements to the

flight/transportation agent on our behalf.

So once you are in receipt of the credit card details,

you are required to charge the credit

card, and confirm the amount of ($10,592.64), in your

account then deduct cost of your services ($1592.64)

and send ($8,000) to the travel/Flight agent whose

information will be forwarded to you once this is

confirmed.

So confirm this and provide me with your:

(1) YOUR FULL NAME

(2) ADDRESS

(3) PHONE NUMBERS for office records.

The travel/flight agent will be in charge of the

following services:

1) The processing procurement of flight tickets

2) The handling and processing of the guests luggage.

3) The arrangements and booking of airport

transfer/pickups both on arrival and on departure.

We look forward to having a memorable vacation with

you.

Kind regards,

Dr. William Walter

+447024062538

+447024091908

Fax#: +44-7005-806-775

[Rusty]

What are you waiting on? Give them Tim H's name and be done with it. hahahah

[jdmidwest]

Sounds legit to me, you can always trust the British.... By the way, I have some beach front property for sale.

So wheres the catch? If you charge the card and it authorizes, card holder is responsible and money is transfered to your account. At this point there is still nothing out of your pocket and the 3 items they requested are public info, name, address, phone number, they or anyone else on here already has that . You are not releasing any personal info. See what the next email brings.

Ask a local detective or FBI and follow thru on this to make sure nothing happens to anyone else.

Or, it is a legit transaction.

[LostMyWife]

It reminds me of the foreign lottery scam with a twist.

Once you have charged their card, and paid for the travel, can they challenge the extra $8K and stick you with the bill.

Seems easier to find a better travel agent.

[zander]

working for a credit card company this is very common, especially around the holidays. Everyone wants a nice Christmas but not necessarily with their own money. In this type of scam, Phil would charge a probably stolen or counterfeit credit card number and send the $8000 in cash (yeah right) to another bank acct. This is real money that when the credit card company realizes the gig will be lost. Meanwhile Phil will have his $10000 charge charged-back from his merchant acct and he is the one who will be $8000 short.

[jdmidwest]

It looks like you may be right, but at this point, nothing has happened. Let them give a credit card number and have a go at them. Like I said, contact authorities. 8k seems like an allfully round number. But you really need to let them go to the next level and commit the crime. There is no charge till the card is run.

[Phil Lilley]

This is an old scam. It was in the paper last spring warning Branson merchants. Just like most scams... it works 1 out of 100 and that's enough for the crooks.

I've filed a complaint with the Missouri attorney general- we'll see if it goes anywhere.

[back2roots]

That's too funny! I get a version of the e-mail from that guy asking for audio / concert gear.....he does make the rounds!

bill

[KingFisher007]

It's unbelievable what some will do to make a buck..but in this case its much more then that. Hopefully someone gets taken over the coals for that one. Thats awful.

[jdmidwest]

I always liked the one from Zimbabwee that wanted to turn a $1000 into several thousand, he is just having a hard time converting dollars to whatever they use. I sent the check several times but have never seen a return on my investment. I still think I am going to make a killing on that beach front property, anyone interested?