Got this email at my photography email address this morning:
"Hello good Day
Happy New year and how are you doing and family Am happy to contact your service for booking and i will to know your availability day in January, 2013 just 5 hours service, and also i will need a portrait work done after the photography work is done and after the event .. i will like you to get to me with your availability day in February 2013 and its a my uncle wedding day party and due to am hearing impaired persona and i would like to you to proceed with me via email or send me a text xxx-xxx-xxxx so we can proceed better and i understand like you to understand due to my disability am making my full payment with my credit card and i would like you to go ahead and get back to me with your working place address so we can proceed better
Regard
Debra"
Email address is a Yahoo account. So's my personal one, so that's not suspicious in and of itself. But ... the phone number is a landline in Muncie, IN (thank heaven for reverse lookups). I live in Virginia. Being hearing-impaired doesn't explain the bizarre grammar, etc., and why would a client's disability mean they had to pay in advance?
Happy to refer them to anyone who has time to play with a potential scam artist. Pretty sure geographic location won't matter :-)
Oh, and since when is portrait work not photography?!
It's a scam for sure. She'll "pay" you more than the agreed amount and ask you to send a check back for the difference, or something like that. The "payment" will fall through, and she'll have the check.
Robert is right, it's a popular scam now. I posted a desk for sale on craigslist (still for sale by the way lol) and got a reply from someone who wanted to buy it sight-unseen and give me $50 more than I was asking to hold it for them and they're assistant would pick it up. I Googled his email and saw many threads complaining about the exact scam Bear is describing. I emailed him back and told him I didn't trust him and never heard back.
...I posted a desk for sale on craigslist (still for sale by the way lol) and got a reply from someone who wanted to buy it sight-unseen and give me $50 more than I was asking to hold it for them and they're assistant would pick it up...
Same experience; I have two couches for sale on CL, and got a very similar offer. Needless to say I did not reply!
