Nigerian Scam moving to Wedding Photography... WTH?

Yesterday I got contacted about shooting a wedding. The ad sounded a little weird from the start but I have seen weird before and things have turned out ok. So I reply with my usual business response and quote. This is what I get back as a response this morning...

My gut response wants to be... "I am not a bank, go find someone else to scam" but I think I want to be a little more creative with this one... Maybe see how long I can drag it out?

Keep in mind the guy I am emailing is supposed to be a wedding coordinator. The return email address is registered to a business in a neighboring town. Was thinking of calling this business to verify. I could just demand cash only as a check would take 30 days to clear and there isnt that much time. See what his response is?

Thoughts on how I should proceed?

This could be interesting.

Caution, this link is not for the easily offfended. Contains vulgar typed language and possibly vulgar photos.
www.ebolamonkeyman.com

Derek's disclaimer also applies to: http://www.419baiter.c​om/

It may give you some ideas, though. This definitely sounds like a check scam.

It's a scam! It's been going around the wedding photography arena for quite awhile now.

May I suggest tracing the e-mail? It should tell you where the email was sent from, if it doesnt match where you think the person is located, it is a scam.

http://www.ip-adress.com/trace_email​/

This site is very good for tracing. I have used it many thimes when buying things off ebay to check where the seller is. I found one guy who told me he was selling from Auckland, but by tracing the email I found it was a scam from Hong Kong. It is usually quite accurate.

I've grown bored with playing around with these guys, but if you do play around with him, make sure to change your name & the name of your assistants in each email (I prefer to have Elvis make an appearance from time to time).

Or tell him you are branching out into divorce photography to see if he has any clients that are interested. Perhaps they can send you a single alimony check that you can deduct your fees from first.

Ask him if he'll send a bigger check.

Yes, these have been going around for a while..... foreign lottery winners.... oil well fortunes, etc.

Perhaps it was explained in one of the links I missed, but here's how it works. They send you a really fine, gorgeous, official looking check/money order whatever. My local bank manager said some of these checks are superbly done. But of course they are bogus, being backed by nothing.

The unsuspecting victim quickly deposits it in his checking account, and then writes a perfectly good check from his own funds, to the person designated in the original instructions. Now this person is really happy to get your check because there is actually money in your account, unlike his.

Not only do you get hit with a bad check fee for cashing his worthless piece of paper, but you are now out $xxx.xx. - Stu

sapearl wrote in post #7422475
Yes, these have been going around for a while..... foreign lottery winners.... oil well fortunes, etc.

Perhaps it was explained in one of the links I missed, but here's how it works. They send you a really fine, gorgeous, official looking check/money order whatever. My local bank manager said some of these checks are superbly done. But of course they are bogus, being backed by nothing.

The unsuspecting victim quickly deposits it in his checking account, and then writes a perfectly good check from his own funds, to the person designated in the original instructions. Now this person is really happy to get your check because there is actually money in your account, unlike his.

Not only do you get hit with a bad check fee for cashing his worthless piece of paper, but you are now out $xxx.xx. - Stu

I understand the scams have been around for a long time, not the first time one of these has come my way. What surprised me is it was tailored to wedding photography exclusively. The guy actually answered my ad with specifics. I know there is no way this is legit, however they are getting more detailed and they seem to be doing their research...

Got that right Cory - they are quite sharp and flexible in their ability to adapt their scam to whatever they target. Some come off as quite adept con men, while most are fairly inept. A couple of years ago in the wedding forum they would pop up - gave us some good laughs .

cory1848 wrote in post #7422774
I understand the scams have been around for a long time, not the first time one of these has come my way. What surprised me is it was tailored to wedding photography exclusively. The guy actually answered my ad with specifics. I know there is no way this is legit, however they are getting more detailed and they seem to be doing their research...

Copy the message source into the message & FW it to: spam@uce.gov
https://www.ftccomplai​ntassistant.gov/

Pretend that you have no short-term memory.

Keep asking who it is, and what they want.

;}

Its a scam. It is basically money laundering with out your express knowledge. Something similar happened to me years ago when i was selling a boat. This was before everyone knew about these scams.

I was sent a cashier's check for the cost of the boat and I was to forward the rest to the guy handling shipping. Let's say I was naive when this happened. The bank cashed the check fine, I forwarded the money, and a week later the bank tells me the check ended up being fake. They said their teller should not have cashed it in the first place.

So, the bank wrote it off. I made a police report about it and they wanted me to contact the secret service. That was way too involved for me. Needless to say the ordeal left me about $800 ahead. But, it could have gone really wrong.

freo wrote in post #7422013
May I suggest tracing the e-mail? It should tell you where the email was sent from, if it doesnt match where you think the person is located, it is a scam.

http://www.ip-adress.com/trace_email​/

This site is very good for tracing. I have used it many thimes when buying things off ebay to check where the seller is. I found one guy who told me he was selling from Auckland, but by tracing the email I found it was a scam from Hong Kong. It is usually quite accurate.

That site isn't very accurate with any of my e-mail addresses. Says the majority of mine, are located in New Work, then my main one, it says is located in "Winnetka, California" which also isn't VERY accurate, but it was close.

SCAM, pure and simple.