probably scam... what to do?

[forkball]

Hi folks...

I've been contacted by someone who claims to be a singer/musician wanting to hire me for a day to photograph a concert event.

This person is claiming to be from Canada, but is currently in Nigeria performing and is doing a concert in my state(New Hampshire) in April. She wants me for 6 hours. Not even seasoned pros perform for more than 3 hours so this already sounds fishy to me... but we'll play along. In following emails she requested my rates so I told her what my hourly rate was and the cost of a CD with the amount of files she specified (250 images). She then said she wanted the photos in 5x7 print format as well... $$$$$ Yeah, right. Ok still playing along, I quote her my time, the CD, and 250 5x7 prints. I'm thinking that if this is real....CHHHHAAAA CHINNGGGG! I know better though. The whole while, she contacted me from a small AD I placed on Craigslist.org for NH and has NEVER once asked to see samples of my work. Her last email, she asks how to forward the funds and in which form I would like to be paid.

It's really too bad there are dishonest people in the world.

[MJPhotos24]

This is where you get the check for 2,000 over what you quoted and they ask for you to send that money back right :) ha

[pos]

Just think how many people fall for this scam if thyey are still doing it. pos

[Jaime]

:) :) :) NIGERIA
:) :) :)

Enough said.

[MJPhotos24]

dont want to alarm anyone, but I just got an email from a high level government agent in Nigeria, and it seems I may be coming into a lot of money soon!! All I have to do is give him all my bank info so he can wire the money to me.

Yup, they'll keep pullin these scams until it don't work anymore...obviously people are getting taken and falling for this crap or they wouldnt do it.

[gjl711]

dont want to alarm anyone, but I just got an email from a high level government agent in Nigeria, ...
Hmmm.. Mine was an exiled Nigerian prince.

[MJPhotos24]

Hmmm.. Mine was an exiled Nigerian prince.

oh, thats his nephew - it's a large family of rich folk trying to get to the US ya know, but they cant use just one person to bring the money in....dont want to set off any bells & whistles at the government offices.:)

[cskn0125]

dont want to alarm anyone, but I just got an email from a high level government agent in Nigeria, and it seems I may be coming into a lot of money soon!! All I have to do is give him all my bank info so he can wire the money to me.

Yup, they'll keep pullin these scams until it don't work anymore...obviously people are getting taken and falling for this crap or they wouldnt do it.



I actually got that too. I'm supposed to "keep it on the downlow as this is top secret information" .....HAH! Alright then.

[Fade2]

:) :) :) NIGERIA


:) :) :)

Enough said.


The Canon forum Scam keyword!

[R_Metzel]

This scam is so old. I have had numerous emails over the years with the same type of crap. Just forward the email to the FBI. That is what I always do.

[R_Metzel]

Hi folks...

I've been contacted by someone who claims to be a singer/musician wanting to hire me for a day to photograph a concert event.

This person is claiming to be from Canada, but is currently in Nigeria performing and is doing a concert in my state(New Hampshire) in April. She wants me for 6 hours. Not even seasoned pros perform for more than 3 hours so this already sounds fishy to me... but we'll play along. In following emails she requested my rates so I told her what my hourly rate was and the cost of a CD with the amount of files she specified (250 images). She then said she wanted the photos in 5x7 print format as well... $$$$$ Yeah, right. Ok still playing along, I quote her my time, the CD, and 250 5x7 prints. I'm thinking that if this is real....CHHHHAAAA CHINNGGGG! I know better though. The whole while, she contacted me from a small AD I placed on Craigslist.org for NH and has NEVER once asked to see samples of my work. Her last email, she asks how to forward the funds and in which form I would like to be paid.

It's really too bad there are dishonest people in the world.
Tell her to send you a check or money order or something of that nature. This gives the authorites physical evidence that they can use.

[Silverwool]

It is very cheap to send out a few million emails. All they need is for one or two greedy idiots to take the bait and they are in the money. For a bit of fun have a look at http://www.419eater.com/ This is a site on baiting scammers (there are others)

[newbie_photog]

I recently had a similar experience but they were a little more clever about it for me, until they sent me blatently forged travelers checks. Here is my post from it. http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=280227

[Jim G]

Honestly, you'd think they'd start using other countries... must they be so uncreative as to use Nigeria all the time? :p

[forkball]

Funny stuff... Well here is the final email from this scammer... I do not want to give this person my real address to send a check, let alone any phone numbers or what not. But I have to admit the scam baiting seems like fun. But I'm trying to run a business and don't want to take any chances with this sort of thing. I'm thinking I will just email back and let the person know that I'm not a moron, and will not be falling for this lame attempt to seperate me from my money. And that I'll be forwarding all corespondences to the FBI, Interpol, and "Team America - World Police" along with message headers which have been stripped from the email messages themselves.

----- Original Message ----
From: Juliana Smart <julianay2k1_ca@yahoo.com>
To: forkball <forkball@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 2:50:18 PM
Subject: Re: Needed urgently


John

The Venue where i will be performing is Colebrook Country Club,

You can send me some sample of your work also,but about the payment,

This what i am going to do about the payment, as you know that i am not in the states, and you know that i am doing some concert here In Nigeria right now.
About the payment i will be paying with check but it will be overpayment that will worth about 4.500$ I will be paying you with the salary of my last contract with my boss I will want you to deduct your money I mean the charges of the covering me and also all other expenses that should have been paid off when you get the money cashed and then you will have to send the remaining excess money to my Flight agent in Nigeria because the money is meant for my flight ticket to the United states and also for my Motel bills there and for my Allowances ok so that i can have my flight to the United states booked ok.

1. Full name.....
2. Phone number...
3. Full Address....
I will call my Boss as soon as you agree to help me this and forward all details to him.

Juliana Smart

[breal101]

Have them send it to the fraud division of your local police.

[Captain Mantastic]

these just make me laugh..

but it is sad when you hear about government officials, clergy men.. things like that, and the ends that some of these good people go to to "help" these criminals..

all you need to know is 4......1...........9......... SCAM.

i have gotten many many of these emails when selling cars and what not... sad that they want to take advantage of honest people

[gjl711]

Have them send it to the fraud division of your local police. I like this idea, though personally I never respond to any of there. I figure that the more the correspondence, the more the opertunity to mine some info.

[Captain Mantastic]

i have thought about sending them there, or forwarding the emails to them, but i figured it wouldn't make a difference, so i never bothered. the cops have better things to do

[breal101]

i have thought about sending them there, or forwarding the emails to them, but i figured it wouldn't make a difference, so i never bothered. the cops have better things to do

Isn't it a shame too, someone stealing thousands by fraud has much less chance of being caught and prosecuted than a homeless guy who steals a loaf of bread from a convenience store.

[Captain Mantastic]

i completely agree. but the time and trouble it would take to prosecute them, especially with them overseas isn't really worth it to them. there was a minister, i think in ohio, that i read an article about that gave them everything he had, even sold his house, but he is no in trouble because he has to pay back the check that bounced at the bank. (he accepted multiple checks) he has lost everything, and is now in trouble for embezzlement because he was stealing to cover this and help them out.

[tarasmith]

I was contacted last week from 'juliana smart' who wanted photos of her concert here in toronto. same e-mail. we corresponded a few times and when i got the 'i'll send money and you send it back to me' crap i didn't respond.
so wonderful to target freelance photographers.

[imagecreation]

John,
I too am here in NH and playing along with her game; for someone from Canada, her English is horrid.
So, anyway, the date she needs me here in Manchester is April 14th, how about yours?
She finally gave me the name of the Venue and it's "The Theater at St. Peter's, but there is no such place here, I believe that to be in NY City.
Now, get this, today I get an email from here and it has a FedEx tracking number: 792944021572.
Seems not to have shown up today, guess they lost it! Also, check the dates on the tracking info, very interesting!
A scam, I am sure, assumed that on the first email. So, maybe we can shoot this together! LOL
Tim

[imagecreation]

So, today, via FedEx Saturday delivery, I received a cashier's check for $4,000 and it's a forged check with a bank name that was bought out over a year ago.

[DaveL]

sweet, nice to see the scammers incur some fedex charges...

One day, Nigerian scammers will smarten up and say they're
from Boise ;)

[rhys]

If everybody made the scammers put out money then they'd soon move on. Having said that, it's work to make scammers put out money and work for no return isn't really that interesting.

[cosworth]

Juliana contacted me as well:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=290080&highlight=juliana+smart

[poloman]

Juliana needs to change her last name to Dumbtransparent:)
It is hard for me to believe that people fall for this. It doen't say much about our average intellect.

[JWright]

There's a reason why e-mail applications have a "Delete" button...