Sunday, December 19, 2010

Scam Email: Cynthia Brent

I will never understand the mentality of scammers. The below email was just forwarded to me. They placed a fake order and sent 3 different credit cards numbers to use. Did they not think that was going to raise some warning flags??? Also, how lame to not even spell your own faked name correctly below. Again, just another thing to make someone stop in their tracks and say, "whaaa?". "Bellow is my shipping" also doesn't help their case. I guess it is to our great fortune that these guys have so few brain cells.
Subject: I am interested in your products
From: Cinthia Brentboutique [cinthiabrentboutique@googlemail.com]

Dear Sales,

I am Mrs Cynthia Brent the owner of Cynthia Sexy Boutique, and I am interested in your products, kindly pls get back to me if you are interested in selling to me in other for me to make the selection of the products that am interested to buy from your company,

and my method of payment is Visa Or Master Credit card Payment method, and kindly pls don’t hesitate to reply back if you accept my method of payment, and you are also free to call my number bellow to discourse better, Tel;0022504269172,

Bellow is my shipping

327 Platue Rue 146 Abidjan
Ivory-Coast, West Africa,
Tel;0022504269172,

Best Regards

Mrs Cynthia Brent

Friday, December 17, 2010

Scam Email: Kenny Moore

Daniel and Dennis Moore has morphed into "Ken Moore" (or Kenny Moore) but its the exact duplicate pitch. Even the scammers are adding a holiday greeting!!!

The funny thing about this scammer (I love when they actually send ME one!), is my art labels on my website are two lines - the name and then on the second line, the size and medium and surface. Guess he wasn't even clued in enough to recognize the name of a piece versus the information about the piece.

He says he is Kenny Moore by name. Right. And scammer by night...
FROM: Ken Moore [kennymoore1@live.com]
SUBJECT: 12h x 12"w, beeswax on wood

Hello,

I am Kenny Moore by name, i go through your Gallery and i have interest in your work, i will like to know more info about it and the price you want to have it go for.

I will be happy to receive your email with the price info, because i really like it a alot and i want to have it.

I wish you Happy Xmas in Advance.

Ken.
After all the scam emails I've seen now, I'm just thinking they want to sound that stupid on purpose. Pushing the envelope, so to speak. See if they can get victims even if they sound this stupid.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Scam Email: Jene Thobela

This name is referenced under other posts - it is likely the same scammer using various fake names at the email service called mybestmail.com. But lots of people have been getting scam emails under this name so I thought I would bring it to it's own post.

Here's an email I just received:

"Thanks Kathleen for posting the art scam information. After I got this email last month, I bit to get more information and see if they were for real. Then I did an internet search for them and found some similar emails but different names used, and all were scams. Thanks for keeping the artist world a bit safer. My best to you, Brian"

From: Jene Thobela [jene.bela00@mybestmail.com]

Hi,

Hope this message finds you well.

I saw these creatives works on your web site and i will like you to
get back with more details if they are  still available for purchase.

[names of art pieces inserted here]

I will appreciate an urgent reply.

Best Regards,
Jene.

This is the example we see all the time of the very brief first email to get you to reply and then they launch into the next phase of the scam (which will be something about they are either located or moving to another country and using a third party shipper) and sometimes they will wait until a third email exchange to get to the core of the scam - they will send you a check overnight and it will have a "little" (ha, ha - not so little) extra money in it and they request you deposit the check and send the "difference" to their shipper.

There is no shipper. It's just them. And their original check (or credit card) is bad.

The scammers keep changing the names and email addresses they use, but really - the content of their emails do not change all that much...