So, has anyone ever heard of a "wedding photographer needed" scam?
I had advetised on Craigslist.com(which I have done in the past with no red flags popping up before now) and got a response that went like this:

"I'm Mr James mose,and i live in the Uk I urgently need a professional photographer for my Daughter's wedding day which is on the 23rd of feb 2007. let me know if you will be available,so i'll
know how this works.
waiting to hear from you.
James"



So I responded the the man to let him know I live in the US and that unless he wanted to fly me out to the UK, I could not help and then told him a few places he could check on the internet for help?
Then "James" responded with this follow up email...RED FLAGS were shooting up all over the place, not to mention the poor english that he spelled out:

"GET TO ME ASPA:

Thanks for the reply ,

Well i think you ,
I would like to fly a photographer over for my daughter’s wedding coming up .Her mother as always wished that everything to be used on that great day should be imported so that why I have decided to bring over a photographer.
You needed not to worry; I all take charge of all your flight, hotel and feeding bills. I will want you to tell me how much it would cost per hour .The wedding is by a poolside close to me house.
James"


I had seen other scams and frauds, but this one is new to me, a friend checked and shared this website out which helped give me some insight, maybe it will help others as well:
http://www.joewein.de/sw/fraud-wedding-photographer.htm

Has anyone dealt with this or fallen for it or possibly found it to be true???
Thanks...><>

Nate

totally a scam.

I don't mean to be "mean" or anything... but is it just me or do these scams always just have the worst spelling and grammar?

Smiles,

Kenneth + Elaine

yes Kenneth...thats something that i noticed as well. I get about 3-5 of these PER MONTH!

I have gotten several of these since I went "public" on the web. One clue is that they ask for prices even if you clearly state your prices on your website. Also, why would they contact you (no offense) when they are so far away. No photographers close by? Is your style that unique and your photos so good that they would pay a plane ticket, hotel stay, etc instead of getting local talent?

Beware. My understanding is that they get a quote from you, send you too much in a check and ask for the balance back. Once you send them the balance they cancel their check.

Anyone else know more or have more experience with these scams? Anyone been burned?

I have not personally been burned BUT a coworker was. She sold a piece of furniture online and the guy sent a cashiers check for payment & "shipping" and asked her to forward the balance to the "shipping company" via western union. She even called the bank listed on the check as was told it was VALID!!! She sends the big fat balance to the "company" and three days later gets a call from her bank saying the check was stolen.

because of the complexities of internet transactions without the use of paypal or a credit card, there was no one who could help her do anything about it. It was a really sad situation.

I post an ad on Craigslist and the person emailed and wanted to buy my photo equipment. I was kind of leery about selling to this person because he said he was going to send the money by USPS money order and that he was going to cover the shipping. I checked into the it and it was a total scam. Don't send anything with verifing the account and have them pay through paypal.

Thanks everyone for putting some insight into this "photography scam" stuff...helps me to be more aware that people who want to steal will go to any lengths and any situations to get the better over someone else. It's sad and a reminder that we need to pray for these people, that the Lord will show them out of this and awy from their crimes...but in the mean time we need to be smart about how we handle these encounters!

I reply to some of these (knowing they are scams) just so I can create a collection of bogus cheques and money orders they are pretty fun actually.

I get these as well. the first two I received were so alike that I took a closer look and the names of the people were actually anagrams of each other. coincidence or somebody with way too much time on their hands.


I hope no one has fallen for this. I do alot of eBay selling and I get phishing emails all the time saying that I never shipped the item and the person wants a refund, or a fake eBay email saying that my account is in suspension and I need to log in to set things straight. If you click on the link you will notice that the URL is not even ebay.com, but some slick address to fool the fools into typing in their username and password.

Kind of related,

I just had a client put a $1,000 payment ( Yes, i am so excited ) through google check out.

Google called him, asked a bunch of questions, then approved the sale. Client was happy to talk to a human to verify the payment - Nice to see some credit card security check ups now-a-days..


P

I may be a little late on this but I just found it so I thought I'd respond. I don't get these emails for photography, but for me to cash their checks or some crazy way they've got millions that they want to send from Africa to me to put in my account blah, blah, blah. I found a site that I thought was amazing, hilarious and scary all at the same time. The guys at this website take these emails and chase after them with their own emails. Go to this link email scams then read some of the email trails in the hall of shame and the Trophy Room. These guys are persistant.

SPELLCHECKER
keeping me virus and scam free since 93'