Solicitation Scam???

A buddy of mine got this email this week...anyone ever seen something like this before?

Hi Mr. ----

My fiancee, ----, and I will be getting married this July. We've struggled to find a photographer that would fit our needs. Nobody seemed to be worth their weight. That is, until we found your site. I've been told by people that have seen your work in --- that your photography is outstanding, and this site proves it!

My fiancee was so excited that she said she would like to schedule our wedding date around your Calendar. She prefers to have it in early July but we are flexible. We know there is a lot to do, between engagement, wedding rehearsal and dinner, and wedding pictures. We are open to the possibility of honeymoon photos as well, which would mean whoever we choose would need to be available for 10 days following the wedding. We are going to Fiji!

We will cover the expense, obviously. If that isn't an option, we could probably find someone else to take care of that portion of the photography.
My wife's father is on the board of directors for a very large distribution center in Bentonville, and he will be covering the cost for the photography. He believes that you get what you pay for, so he says it's important that your fee reflect your professionalism. If it isn't priced adequately, not enough will be expected of you. He wants to see that you take your business seriously and demand from yourself a level of professionalism unsurpassable by competition.

That said, what would your fee be for a wedding like ours and all encompassing duties?
Please contact me and let me know when you'll be available, and the structured, itemized fee for such an event. Can't wait to hear back!
---

Bentonville? Is this Bentonville AR? Like Walmart HQ? There are some really rich folks up there....

Sounds a little spammy...maybe more than a little

However:
1) Is your friend pretty good.... I mean is he just starting out or does he run a professional company that might be worthy of such a request? I ask only b/c that might determine whether its more likely spam or a legit request.
2) if it is spam, what would he be hoping to get out of you?

Search the guys email on FB, google, etc and see what pops up.

lol, they want you to give them a BAD deal and charge them more...

Never seen that before!

CatchingUp wrote in post #15772684
A buddy of mine got this email this week...anyone ever seen something like this before?

Hi Mr. ----

My fiancee, ----, and I will be getting married this July. We've struggled to find a photographer that would fit our needs. Nobody seemed to be worth their weight. That is, until we found your site. I've been told by people that have seen your work in --- that your photography is outstanding, and this site proves it!

My fiancee was so excited that she said she would like to schedule our wedding date around your Calendar. She prefers to have it in early July but we are flexible. We know there is a lot to do, between engagement, wedding rehearsal and dinner, and wedding pictures. We are open to the possibility of honeymoon photos as well, which would mean whoever we choose would need to be available for 10 days following the wedding. We are going to Fiji!

We will cover the expense, obviously. If that isn't an option, we could probably find someone else to take care of that portion of the photography.
My wife's father is on the board of directors for a very large distribution center in Bentonville, and he will be covering the cost for the photography. He believes that you get what you pay for, so he says it's important that your fee reflect your professionalism. If it isn't priced adequately, not enough will be expected of you. He wants to see that you take your business seriously and demand from yourself a level of professionalism unsurpassable by competition.

That said, what would your fee be for a wedding like ours and all encompassing duties?
Please contact me and let me know when you'll be available, and the structured, itemized fee for such an event. Can't wait to hear back!
---

I've bolded the area's that would make me question this.

The email implies they have unlimited funds, yet they can't find a good photographer (I'm pretty sure the likes of Garner, Bell, Yverant, Woods, Pfister, etc. are pretty good). The one photographer they find on the web, they love, and are immediately willing to schedule the wedding around HIS schedule???? Without ever talking to him? Yeah right.

Is your friend an outstanding photographer, especially for weddings? How would they have found him? Does his skill set seem to be something that would make a bride/groom set up the entire wedding and honemoon around his schedule?

CatchingUp wrote in post #15772684
My fiancee was so excited that she said she would like to schedule our wedding date around your Calendar. She prefers to have it in early July but we are flexible.

Yes, because women are always willing to put their wedding on hold to suit the photographer.

And with only 3 months before her preferred wedding time...and their BIG BUDGET event...I would think that the church, hall, caterer, band, even invitations...and other such items would already be deposited or paid for.

I would be inclined to believe this is a scam of some sort.

scam. if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

I don't think either my friend or myself thought this was legit....I was just more curious of anyone else around here had ever heard or seen of such a thing.

I just want to know: If they are scamming you, what would they be wanting and how is the scam gonna run? Are they gonna ask you to paypal them some money to hold their spot or what? lol

Does sound like a complete scam (usual overpayment/asking you to pay others malarkey) although its better written than most that I have seen.

I get at least one or two a week and most of them are very obvious to spot
- Yahoo email address TICK (Still the favourite of the Nigerian scammers)
- First and last names both very popular first names TICK
- Inquiry comes from an index site TICK
- Non specific date or location or location outside of your normal area TICK
- Old fashioned formal and bad English TICK
- Willingness to pay whatever it takes TICK

You do have to be careful not to dismiss a real one though, I have had a few that looked very much like scams to start with that turned out to be real. Most memorable one was from a yahoo email address, they said they lived in Hong Kong but were coming to the UK to get married, very formally written but not that well and the header info in the email didn't come from Hong Kong it came from somewhere else. Sent them a standard form reply regards availability and deposit and got a bank transfer a few days later with the deposit to secure their date.

Turned out they were teachers in Hong Kong but originally from the UK so were coming back here to get married, they had been on holiday when they sent me a very hurriedly written email after realising photographers were getting booked up early for their chosen wedding date.

I have also had a few clients that have booked me before setting their wedding date and then booked their venue around my availability so that's not completely unheard of, if you get a couple of people that really like your work and photography is very important to them then that can happen.

Having said all that, this one does sound very much like a scam.

This is typical of the ones I get.....

This is a user enquiry for your business via city-listings.co.uk
To:
From: john steve
Email: john_steve37@yahoo.com
Phone:
Message: Hello am John steve by name and am getting married to Helen Christy on the 22nd of March 2013 at: 45,Finglas Road Glasnevin Dublin D9 Ireland and i will like to book you as my wedding photographer for 7 hours so kindly get back to me with the price for the 7hours and the expenses to get you to my location for the photograph of my wedding so that i can get back to my father in-law and inform him as soon as possible. Hope to hear back from you soon. Regards. John steve.

That said, what would your fee be for a wedding like ours and all encompassing duties?

Scam...

Im pretty sure if your friends gives them a price for example $3000, they will say we will send you $5000, please send the remaining amount back to John Doe via Western Union. 3 Days later the bank will call and tell you that it was stolen funds or something similar and you will be liable for paying for the entire 5k and there will be no way to ever get the money sent through Western Union back.

So my friend just got a follow up email from this person. The email said:

Hi Mr. ====
I sent an email to you recently, but never heard back. Just wanted to make sure you received it.
Please let me hear back so we can make other plans if necessary.
Thanks so much for your time. We look forward to hearing back from you.
=== and ====

My friend decided to send a simple inquiry back...but this is getting interesting.

I occasionally get text messages for out of state weddings on extremely short notice. A few emails. Most of them are ridiculous, but sometimes I play along asking questions until they mess up an answer, then I confirm they really don't know what they're talking about.

No harm in follow up, just be cautious. And don't waste too much time on it.

It looks very scam like to me.

sophies-mom wrote in post #15778850
=sophie's-mom;15778850]Yes, because women are always willing to put their wedding on hold to suit the photographer.

However don't dismiss someone being willing to postpone shift their wedding date for the photographer. I've had it happen quite a few times now.

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #15791527
However don't dismiss someone being willing to postpone shift their wedding date for the photographer. I've had it happen quite a few times now.

within 3 months?