Scam letter targeting bands
 

Hi everyone, A person I know brought this to my attention figured I would share it with the group. Mod, hope this is in the correct placement if not, please move it thanks RTS

Received an email scam targeted at bands which I've never seen before. Started off in the initial email sounding like a typical wedding inquiry, and then I received the next email which made it obvious that it was a scam. Just thought I'd share.




Thanks for getting back to me so swiftly...I want your service
for my Wedding Ceremony which will Hold on {December 22nd}..which will
Consists of 70 Guests which consists of Brides,Parent,Groom,s
parent,Staff members of Groom and Bride company,Bride and Groom
siblings,Bride and Groom Friends and well wishers.I want you to be
very sincere and honest with me so that i will not be disappointed on
that day.

1. The Ceremony will Commence by 12pm and End by 4pm.
2.It will last for 4 hours.
3.The Ceremony and the Reception will take place at the same
venue.
4.The wedding date is December 22nd 2012
5.Number of Guests is 70 people

So therefore My Mode of Payment will be by us Certified payment
which will be issued and send out to you through my financial
associate for your down payment of your services,it will be delivered
to you via USPS,you will also be assisting me in paying my wedding
planner the balance of the check you received as soon as you deducted
your down pay cos am not presently available to pay them directly due
some necessary arrangement for the wedding i have to attend to and i
hope i can trust you with this obligation for us to be on the same
page..I require your mailing address information to mail the check to
you asap and total hours charges.

Full Name:
Street Address: ( Not PO . BOX )
City:
State and Zip Code:
Phone Number:
Age, Sex and marital status:
Available days & time:
Best Time To Call:
Your Price or charges for the 4hours:

Thanks and I will be waiting to read from you soon and don't hesitate
to get back to me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Mr. Williams.

If it sounds to good to be true, it is. If we only remembered that we'd never get scammed ... but they'll keep trying!

Anybody who falls for that is too stupid to play music in the first place. The writing is so bad that I would debate whether or not it's actually in English. The scam is so transparent, only a moron would fall for it.

Having said all that, I have no doubt more than a few suckers will fall for the scam.

Regards,
MarkM

P.S. No offence to the OP; such scams should be made public, however stupid they may be.

Even more telling is the fact the scammer has no idea how such things work. In the real world, the band will tell YOU how we'll be paid; how much, when, and by what means. And my band doesn't act as escrow service. And my band fee is somewhat dependent on location. And why the hell do you need my name, age, and marital status?

I'd be tempted to get a PO box and have the scammer mail the check anyway ... :hmm:

LOL! Yeah this is pretty obvious...anybody dumb enough to go "Yeah I guess he needs me to help pay into those wedding costs, I'll totally help him out!" deserves to be scammed IMO. This is like asking the Chef at a restaurant to help you pay for the opera tickets you need for you and your date after dinner, with the promise of a good tip up front and that you'll pay him back later lol.

note it was two emails and I posted second part which did not come in until weeks later so the two good to be true first email could have already gotten anyone of us connected and working the deal

The letter-writer neglected to mention that the wedding would be for his son, the Nigerian prince who needs to know your bank account number ASAP!

Thank you. Math is hard for us musicians.
:rollno:

70 guests. Um yeah, going to be a rowdy crowd.

I work in a bank in Canada. We see variations of this same scam constantly. Most banks replace bank drafts free of charge, so why would someone make a draft for more than the amount you are asking and then ask you to send extra back?

Oh yeah; because they're hoping you send the money back before the draft bounces. Usually, when a customer brings a fraudulent draft into my branch; we can spot it is a fake in about 3 seconds. Sizes, colours, and fonts are often wrong or different from what is normal. You would think the fraudsters would put the effort in to at least match an original.

Yet ANOTHER variation of the bad check scam. Wow - how do they come up with this stuff?? What's next?

Nigerian (or Russian) Fraud Ring Scam. They want your age, sex, maritial status so they can open a fraudulent credit card or other type of account in your name.

Either that or they want to line the guys in the band up with one of the bridesmaids, :p. LOL

Somebody suggested to me that the broken English is part of the scam, a filter to keep smart people from responding and wasting their time.

Hmmm... perhaps. And maybe it's also a way of hooking equally unscrupulous victims, whose desire to make a quick score from some clueless immigrant overrides their instinct for self-protection.

Either way, I'd been wondering whether there is there some kind of unwritten "code" among spammers/scammers that prohibits them ever using proper grammar, capitalization and punctuation. Now I see a possible explanation. :hmm:

MM

This is also what is called a 419 Scam or a Nigerian Scam. The idea is that they send you a counterfeit check for more than your deposit. You forward the additional monies via wire to their accomplice. Then the counterfeit check bounces and you owe the bank the full amount plus you're out whatever you wired. Nice!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_scam
This was making the rounds with music lessons several years back. The bad English, grammar and syntax is a giveaway.
Now, please to provide me an hour a day of private music lesson for my daughter who is 13. We desire to insist to pay you 18 months in advance. Kindly advise us of your fee for one hour a day for 18 month tuition......;)

It's also interesting that they frequently appeal to your good character and religion.

Poor grammar is an immediate turn-off for me, even if it's a legitimate product. Even a dumb-ass can use MS Word, which has both spell and grammar check.

I agree, if you're dumb enough to fall for this crap in 2012, you deserve to get scammed.

I don't understand how people even understand what they are wanted to do in order to get scammed. reading that makes my brain hurt.