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Internet Scam Targets Photographers

There’s a yet another set of Internet scams making the rounds. This one is aimed specifically at photographers, but there are variations for many different professions. Here’s an example:

Good Day,

My name is Anthony Lewis. My wife Becky and I are planning to have our wedding on November 20th,2004 at St Vincent De Paul Church,Tallassee,Alabama.I am looking for the best photographer who will come and snapshot on the D-day and when I came across your advert I was impressed.Let me know your charges for your required services if you are to work for at most 6 Hours on that day.We want about 150 copies of different photos in both black and white and in coloured both in the church and reception and of both the bride and the bridegroom,their parents,the officiating ministers and our guests.We will want you to work for at least 6 Hours at the occasion and if you are out of Alabama,we will pay the transportation charges to and from the party venue so indicate in your email if you are out of Alabama and state what it will costs either via Plane or through Car transport to Alabama and what amount you will receive working for 6 hours at the occasion. Also,we will have the photographs snapped at the wedding forwarded to the Publisher of a Magazine Company in U.K so they could feature it in their celebrity journal. However,I will be making the payment by means of a Cashiers Cheque.Let me have your full names,Address, Phone Number,Cellular Number where a Cashiers Cheque will be mailed to for the payment.Moreso, should you be out of state,the Hotel accomodation will be provided for by me. Waiting to read from you soon as regards this.

Best regards,
Anthony Lewis

It’s just plausible enough that you might send back a quote. But there are several earmarks that should make you suspicious.

• The sender clearly has no idea who you are — in the above case, he doesn’t seem to know whether you are in Alabama or not. And he wants you to send him your name, address, etc. (Wouldn’t a real customer already know this?)

• Payment is to be by cashier’s check.

• Looking closely, you may find that your email address is not in the To field of the message. And perhaps the Reply address is on a service that allows instant creation of new mail accounts, such as Yahoo or Hotmail.

• The strange use of capital letters, the occasional misspellings and odd spacing are quite intentional. They are designed to make the email look like it was hand-typed.

But still, you may think, the message is only asking for a quote. Surely there can be no harm in replying, perhaps just to request a couple of further details. And that’s mostly correct — although it might mark you as a prospect for future scams.

The plot thickens. It’s what happens next that makes it interesting. After you name a price, the scammer will send you a cashier’s check for substantially more than that amount. He may say the check was already made out, perhaps for a deal that fell through earlier. Or the check may come from a third party who — so sorry! — has made a clerical error. He will humbly ask you to refund the difference to him.

In some cases, he won’t claim an error, but will ask you to pay some expense on his behalf. For instance, he may want his wedding planner to visit you in order to make detailed arrangements, and the wedding planner needs travel funds.

Almost always, there is some reason why you must send the money at once.

You, of course, are both honest and careful. You say that you will happily make the refund or pay the fee as soon as the check clears your bank. Indeed, a couple of days later, the bank releases the funds to your account.

The sting. The problem is that a bad cashier’s check can bounce around the banking system for two or three weeks before someone determines that it is a forgery. When the dust settles, your bank will reverse the credit to your account. If you have sent the fee or refund in the meantime, your money will be gone without a trace.

For further reading. The Joe Wein website has a collection of emails showing several variations on the theme. Another resource is Snopes.com, which has a section devoted to online scams. The cashier’s-check trick is related to the famous Nigerian General’s Widow scam, the Sierra Leone diamond fraud, the fake lottery prize and many other so-called “419” scams.

What you can do. If you have not yet been burned, read the stories on these web sites to prepare yourself to recognize future scams.

If you have been burned, or think you might be in the middle of a fraud attempt, the 419 Coalition has good advice about whom to contact and, especially, what not to do. The people who produce email scams often have ties to organized crime and you do not ever want to meet them.