jo2beans

I have had this enquiry about the apartment, which again does not "sit right", they have emailed saying they want to pay by euro cheques, as this is the way their sponsor pays.

I could be wrong, but again this does not fit the "normal" type of enquiry.

>Our name: rev larry williams
>Our email: revlarrywilliams03@XXXXXXXXXXX
>Our telephone: +2348053XXXXXX
>Our group size: Adults: 4 Children:
>Requesting availability arriving on 08 Apr 2006 and leaving on 15 Apr 2006
>
>good day to you and how do you do.happy new year to you.i am
>interested in renting your villa for a week.please do mail me the necessary
>information and all i need to know regarding the renting of your villa.so
>please do get back to me a.s.a.p.thank you and do have a lovely day.remain
>blessed.
>Regards,
>Rev larry williams

lewismark

There are a few indications that it is a scam
1. REV, used so as to install trust
2. Blessed, Used again to portray honesty

If the mail was received via a hotmail account or yahoo mail account there is a good chance its a scam, i get about 3 a week, so i either go along with them, let them think they have another sucker and bail out at the last minute, or just forward it to "ABUSE @HOTMAIL.COM with the email headers, where they will then take appropriate action on the account.
Requesting they telephone you to confirm authenticity of the enquiry and then asking for cleared funds obviously before they get here may surrender the enquirer to defeat if its a scam. Most of the telephone numbers ive received have been mobiles,

kaytee

Just a thought....
For someone with the name "Rev. Larry Williams", their use of the English Language is very much like a foreigner....
Am sure a Rev. would be more inclined to use proper grammar!

margaret

Just a thought, find out the dates that they are interested in and a bit more information on them, then say that period is booked. If you are really that worried report them as suggested by lewismark.

Tricky

This bears all the hallmarks of a scam that is currently being attempted with other registered childminder collegaues of mine. A Rev (something, can't remember what) from Ghana is emailing childminders asking to book childcare for his children while he is in the UK for a 9 week holiday. He wants to pay in advance. Some childminders are aware of it via colleagues in America, and it is a recognised scam.
Basically they are crooks who want to money launder profits from crimes and drug dealing. They will ask for your bank details and pay you in advance for a service, whether that be childcare or renting your villa. They will pay you a lot more than you require and then ask you to refund the extra to their bank account, with all knds of explanations i.e. they have to pay just one cheque to you from their account. What then happens is that after you've refunded them the difference (which usually amounts to a few thousand pounds) your bank will inform you their original cheque was invalid or fraudulant and take the money out of your account. You are then out of pocket by the amount you refunded to Rev whoever. I know it sounds far fetched, but these people are very convincing and their explanations often seem very plausible. Many people get caught out like this.
I thought it would be useful to post this here as it has just occurred to me that many members will own property and could be in a position to be targetted by these criminals.
Hope this is of some use to someone.

Freda

Yes there's a lot of it going on....in real estate offices to.....a friend of mine got an email from one James Taylor in Liberia claiming to be the son of Charles Taylor (the President and currently charged with heinous war crimes). Anyway he claims to have found paperwork in his house informing him he had 45million USD!!! But its in a bank in another country and he cannot access it himself....please could he have my friends private telephone number!!!! I think not........

tonytg

Two points here, 1) No real person send you more money than they have to and 2) If it seems too good to be true its because it IS!!!!!

RIK

Hi Everybody.This is a scam, there are no problems on that score.The early one's originated from Nigeria but now are appearing from many different country's.When I was working I used to get about 3 or 4 every week and used to forward them to the local chamber of commerce who then dealt with them as appropiate.What I can't believe is that I am now receiving them on my own PC.here in Turkey.Don't be tempted ! One of my old UK customers did reply and within 4 days his private bank account had virtually been cleared out.The Bank will not reinbourse you either as you freely gave your account details. Be very careful and of course, if it sounds to good to be true then it--------------------

Ian

Terry&Sue

Yes we get the director of some Nigerian Bank emailing us every month wanting help to get umpteen million dollars etc out of the country.
We just send the info to Fraudwatch who have a site a member of this forum gave us some months ago!