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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Thoughtful Thursday: A Prospective Client or Scam that is the question....

I'm thinking to myself I should've posted this post before now but at the same time it's better late than never especially in this particular case..

Whenever I get a notification that I have a new email from my website email I get excited at the thought that a Prospective client has contacted me to help plan an event for them besides from companies using that contact form to promote their business nothing aggravates me more than to get an email similar to the one that I received from Eng. William Steele and his Fiancee Susan Doddy on Monday July, 11, 2011 ( See complete email below).

You see I have been getting emails for this Phantom Bride Susan Doddy  for years and it's always the same or quite similar details and it burns me up when one of my peers or former students contact me excited because they have been contacted by them with the belief that they have just landed a client and I have to be the bearer of bad news and tell them it's a SCAM!


Red Flags:
  • They do not send you any  contact information.
  • They have a credit card that you can prepay for everything and keep on file
  • The use of poor English and grammar
  • If you make any contact with them they are very persistent
  • They can't meet with you until the day before the wedding or a few days before give or take
  • They only communicate with you via email
  • They live outside of the country and you can "Plan EVERYTHING about their wedding" (That has to be my favorite line I haven't met a couple yet to agree to that!)
These are a few of the things I've noticed and found to reek of the stench of SCAM  however I'm sure there are plenty more as they are getting more and more craftier by the day !

Below is the actual email that I received :





One of my peers has actually communicated with these scammers and is willing to share her email correspondence with my readers if you would like to see the copies of these emails let me know and I will post them or send directly to you at a later date!

Most importantly do not respond to any of this crap!

Until next time beware of the Phantom Couple!


5 comments:

Chelle {Priority One} said...

Wow, I got the SAME exact email...word for word...about a month ago. At the time I laughed thinking I had a better chance of winning $18,000,000,00 from the Central Bank of Nigeria, than to have a client contact me to plan "everything" for their wedding! :). Thanks for confirming my suspicions and sharing for those who weren't sure.

Richard Markel said...

There are other telltale signs that are best not explained. We have and still do warn the wedding planners of this scammer. We have details and a link from when we scammed the scammer.

Please feel free to check out the link. http://afwpi.com/ScamWarning.html

Regards, Richard

B-mIKA said...

I had similar email just few weeks ago, with a different name, Engr. David Howard.
This was my 2nd scam email, I am sure many more to go and will get more creative and convincing as time goes.

Mika

Katie Hund said...

Ha. Just got this same email from Engr. William Fulhorst. Was skeptical at first but he kept providing more details! Glad I came across this as I was searching for more information for them online before I moved forward!

Anonymous said...

I received the same e-mail 4 days ago. I am so happy I can across this post. I knew it was too good to be true. Thank you for posting!!!