shopper / competitor or do you think this could be a real client?

This is the email I got, what do you think?
I think it's just some other photographer trying to check out my rates and do some sneaky ish.
I mean seriously this is crazy..... DECEMBER 2008 wedding in UTAH?
WTF I never heard of people wait till the last minute to hire a destination wedding photographer??
Holy balls that is insane...

Good day,
Am Rev (edited) getting married to Miss (edited) on the 20th of Dec 2008, in utah, i need a special wedding Photography at the event. I will like to know all what it will cost you to get to my location here and the actual amount to take for 7hour .
I really need to know this so that i can contact my father in-law about this cost he his the one paying for the bills Await your response immedaitely.
Thanks & God bless.

I forgot to add.

The client provided a phone number which I called and it rang about 6 or 7 times then the fax machine answering machine picked up. Guessing it is a phone & fax line.

I looked up the clients IP and ISP information and the person is local to me... So it makes me wonder.. Competitor or local client getting married in Utah.

I've had 2 emails almost exactly like this one.... only one is washington (for a last minute as well) and one in Georgia. I didn't have either dates avilable in question, so I just replied saying that I was not available. I figured it was just bologna, but I responded JUST IN CASE.. I have no idea what the motivation is behind an email like that.... but it's weird that you got one almost exactly like the ones I received... even down to the parents - in - laws paying for the whole thing... very weird

- Yeah I find it odd that he makes it a point to be known that he is a reverend... and that he refers to himself as Rev xxname and his bride is Miss xxname.
Well I mean, some people do take their job title too seriously but wow...

- Odd that his spelling and wording is horrible
(though this is common for immigrants & people from other countries... like NIGERIA!)

- Odd that his emails are soo short in length

Adaptive wrote in post #6698535
- Yeah I find it odd that he makes it a point to be known that he is a reverend... and that he refers to himself as Rev xxname and his bride is Miss xxname.
Well I mean, some people do take their job title too seriously but wow...

- Odd that his spelling and wording is horrible
(though this is common for immigrants & people from other countries... like NIGERIA!)

- Odd that his emails are soo short in length

Yea.... usually if you have to say "odd" or weird" or "peculiar" more than once or twice from an email, it's most likey something fishy, lol.
I'd just brush it off.... sounds like a scam or something to me

Oh dam I should have looked more closely at the IP............


Nigeria Multi-links Telecommunications Limited

By reading it, and the bad grammar, it sounds like one of those photography scams. I'd delete it and not think about it again.

NC_Photo wrote in post #6698559
By reading it, and the bad grammar, it sounds like one of those photography scams. I'd delete it and not think about it again.

+1 ....

Adaptive wrote in post #6698556
Oh dam I should have looked more closely at the IP............

Nigeria Multi-links Telecommunications Limited

lol, just like you said earlier. great call

Just tell them that your pricing is dependent upon what they need. Tell them they can send you a check for $50,000, and depending on what their needs are you will send them a cashiers check for anything they overpaid. I'm sure they will reply quickly.


Yes, it is a scam. They will send you a bogus check far above whatever price you quoted. They will ask you to send some of the extra $$ to a caterer, flower shop, cousin, whatever. Their check will of course bounce, so any money you sent is out of your own pocket.

Yep, a scam. And I just read an article that some woman in Oregon sent scammers $400,000 to help get $26M out of the country. With stupid people like that, we'll all be getting these scam emails for a long time to come.

I got the same email.

They'll be asking for your bank account info next so they can "send" you money.

Report them to the authorities or have a little fun with them al a www.ebolamonkeyman.com (warning this website is NOT for the politically correct)

P.S. Last minute weddings in Utah are a very common thing, I've got one in Dec. And one in Jan. the couples asked just last week, and as far as I can tell, they're not from Nigeria.