Does This Look Fishy
 

I received a simple request as shown:

----------- eMail -------------
Hello,

I write to enquire if you are free to handle the job of a videographer on 24th September to 26th September 2009 (4 days). Get back to me if you are free at the requested date and I will feed you with more information about this project, which will take place in your city. Cheers. William dunphy

Tel: 0044 70457 85836
--------- end eMail -----------

The line saying it will take place "...in your city" looks like mass mailing lingo.

This looks perfect for me saying we are available, he asks how much and sends a money order with few hundred dollars too much asking for a refund of the excess. His money order bounces after I have sent the refund.

Sounds like you've got his number. This is a well known scam. Don't fall for it.

Part of me always wants to string these guys along. Making a convincing counterfeit money order can't be cheap or easy.

Something like this happened to a woman I know. She received a cashiers check for $2,800 with the request to forward the excess to someone else. She smelled a scam but claims she tried to cash the check and thought the bank would "let her know if something was wrong." Well, they "let her know" by calling the police. She spent the night in jail and had to pay $3k to a bondsman. I think she was a little naive and a little greedy.

I have 6 checks now that I hang on my "scam wall" from these guys.
I make them pay for a fake check and pay postage to get it to my PO box.
Then I tell them that I have scammed them and will not be sending my item as promised, that I will take the money and run... I would love to see the look on their faces when they read that, even though they know that they are only out a few dollars.

The phone number is from another country. Which isn't in and of itself a problem, but definitely raises questions.
The first line says 'enquire' rather than 'inquire."
A lot of scams lately originate in other countries. Issues with broken or incorrect English, problems with spelling, and capitalization errors are often a red flag.
I'm channeling my high school English teacher right now. God bless her soul.
=)

Could anybody enlighten me how this bond thing works, we hear it a lot on US TV imports - usually as in a bail bondsman. I'm guessing that you get arrested, and have to pay the police to get out of jail - so do the bondsmen pay this on your behalf? and then you pay them back with some kind of fee/commision? We don't have this system over here. Unless you've done something really bad, the police don't want to keep you, and if you have, then you have to find the money yourself.

When you are arrested, a judge often sets bail. This is an amount of money you must deposit with the court as a guarantee you will show up for trial and all other required court appearances. If you show up, you eventually get the money back. If you don't show up, the court gets to keep the money.

In the case I mentioned above, bail was set at $30,000. Since most people don't have $30k in cash, they contact a bondsman. The bail bond company charges 10% ($3k in this case) which is non-refundable and payable up-front. The bond company then either deposits $30,000 with the court, or more commonly, simply guarantees the court they will pay if necessary.

Without bail bonds, people would have to sit in the county jail for months waiting for trial.

Wesley, you seem like a smart guy. You must have known it was a scam from the second you read it. Perhaps you were feeling a bit Stiver-ized at the time. :)

Kell, enquire and inquire are the same.

Jeff

Scam!
 

You receive a check from our buddy "Warren" written from an international bank, he asks you to pay for some portion of the production with those proceeds. His goal being, that the check is bad and will never clear, but before you and your bank figure it out, you've written a check that goes back to him...


Begin forwarded message:

From: Warren Dunphy <wdunph@gmail.com>
Date: June 10, 2009 2:51:31 PM PDT
To: Chris Bunney <chris.bunney@capitolamedia.com>
Subject: Details.
Reply-To: wdunphy@live.com

Hello Chris,

Nice hearing from you. We need you to film this Christian gathering to make sure that this event is a successful one because we want all invents to be captured during the crusade.

Concise details of this project are below.

Starting Date: 24th September
Ending Date: 26th September

Starting time: 4:00 PM Daily
Closing time: 7:00 PM Daily
Duration of Hours: 3 hours every day

All videos must be in DVD.
Video Format: PAL or NTSC

Estimated Number of People: 60-100

What to shoot: You need to cover the people and the events during the fellowship like sermons, choir, praises and worships etc.

Venue: It will be in one place only {Church Premises} and it will be indoor activity.
Shooting Locations: It will be in one place only {Church Premises}

3 copies of DVD are needed after 1 week of the shooting.

One or two cameramen are needed. One will be moving around and the other will be shooting as well depending on how you handle your shooting.

Each day will have a separate DVD and will be named as DAY1, DAY2, and DAY3 respectively. This means that you have to hand over to us 3 different DVD cassettes after the shooting and editing.

DVD hours: You have to make it 2hours per each DVD after editing.

You can edit at your convenience before handing over to us.

Right now, the ministry has not concluded on the exact venue where the crusade will take place but we have concluded that it must be in your city.

The church will take care of your feeding, lodging and transportation expenses.

Kindly get back to me if you have further questions regarding to this project and also prepare your price quote of handling this project so we can arrange for your payment. My numbers are in my mail signature.

Cheers.





On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 12:38 AM, Chris Bunney <chris.bunney@capitolamedia.com> wrote:
Hi, William --

Yes, we are available those dates. Please send us the details.

Thanks.
Chris

__________________________
Chris Bunney
President
Capitola Media
San Francisco, CA
o. 415.381.0595
m. 415.713.6452
chris.bunney@capitolamedia.com
Video Flash Event Production Corporate Advertising Agency San Francisco Bay Area :: Capitola Media



On Jun 9, 2009, at 4:30 PM, Warren Dunphy wrote:


Hello,

I write to enquire if you are free to handle the job of a videographer on 24th September to 26th September 2009 (4 days). Get back to me if you are free at the requested date and I will feed you with more information about this project, which will take place in your city. Cheers. William dunphy
Tel: 0044 70457 85836



__

I stand corrected!
I"ve never seen enquire used (other than as enquiry), so I assumed it was a misspelling.


From askoxford.com:
What is the distinction between enquire and inquire?

The traditional distinction between enquire and inquire is that enquire is to be used for
general senses of 'ask', while inquire is reserved for uses meaning 'make a formal
investigation'. In practice, however, enquire (and enquiry) is more common in British
English while inquire (and inquiry) is more common in US English, but otherwise
there is little discernible distinction in the way the words are used.


It says enquire is more common in British English and that may be why I'm not familiar with it.
You never know when you will learn something new!
Off-topic perhaps, but worth mentioning.
=)

They are used pretty much interchangeably over here. I always thought enquire was the verb, and inquiry was the noun, but I've never seen them used consistently.

Yes, it's a scam. Received the same email from the same guy last year for a different shoot and figured out after his first reply that it was a scam. Don't do it.

Look Out... Scam...
 

Not that this adds much to the conversation, but I too received this email about 7 months ago. Word for word. Watch out!

Thanks!

Jeff

I just received a very similar email last night - but they were requesting accommodations (2 double rooms!)

The Artful Dodger
 

I also received the same email "enquiring" about my availability to shoot in September 24-26. Thanks to you guys for the "heads up". I did reply this morning. Will be interesting to see how this one "plays out"!