Life's too short...

Post scam emails to warn other rental owners, or if you are not sure if an enquiry is genuine, put it up here and see what others think.
sheesh
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:34 pm
Location: Gironde France

Life's too short...

Post by sheesh »

I had this one on Saturday from HR (generated by abritel.fr):

Name: Sterly Leighton
E-mail: sterlyleighton@yahoo.com
Tel:
Arrival date: 20 Oct 2012
Departure date: 27 Oct 2012
Total no in party: 3 (including children)
No of children: 1
Further info:
Hello, I am intrested in renting your property for a
week, my entire family like your property very much.
We prefer the week in October starting from 20th to
27th for 7nights. What is the rent price for 1 week?
My family is flexible with our vacation holiday dates
incase if you are already booked for this week and
let me know if the week is available or not so i can
confirm my Family booking in your property
immediately. I wait your urgent reply back to my
email today. Sterly Leighton


- I just said we were closed until next year. Life's too short...

Sheesh
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

? Am I missing something?
I thought I was quite good at spotting scams but I can't see it this time! :?
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joddle
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Post by joddle »

Normandy Cow wrote:? Am I missing something?
I thought I was quite good at spotting scams but I can't see it this time! :?
I would say it feels a bit scammy - bad English, use of words, word order, inappropriate capitalisation, agressive tone but the thing that make me think it is a scam is the name "Sterly Leighton" combined with the English guffs. somehow it does not ring true - but then again perhaps it is OK as there is none of the usual things like "checks", "Greek Priests" or "Welsh Engineers"!!! If mine I would answer and wait and see what comes next - I think by then you will know for sure.
I don't profess to own anything here apart from my own opinion.
sheesh
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:34 pm
Location: Gironde France

Post by sheesh »

joddle wrote:
Normandy Cow wrote:? Am I missing something?
I thought I was quite good at spotting scams but I can't see it this time! :?
I would say it feels a bit scammy - bad English, use of words, word order, inappropriate capitalisation, agressive tone but the thing that make me think it is a scam is the name "Sterly Leighton" combined with the English guffs. somehow it does not ring true - but then again perhaps it is OK as there is none of the usual things like "checks", "Greek Priests" or "Welsh Engineers"!!! If mine I would answer and wait and see what comes next - I think by then you will know for sure.
My workings:

- odd name
- English sounding name but using non-English word (vacation)
- non-English sentence construction
- too much flattery
- too much 'flexibility'
- price and availability are clearly shown on the booking site
- yahoo email address & no other web presence

Individually, these are all explainable, but taken all together it felt wrong.

Did I pass? :wink:
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

I don't like the sound of it either sheesh and agree, you can make excuses for one or two signals, but putting them all together ....

Also the inappropriate capitalisation in "Family", just to add to the mix.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
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Wonkeye
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Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:40 am

Post by Wonkeye »

Why would a phrase taken out of the text, eg I tried: "My family is flexible with our vacation holiday dates incase if you are already booked for this week" - appear on someone else's facebook page? (I put the words inside double quotation marks to keep the phrase together.) I even looked into the cached version, and it indicated that the text I'd typed in had been highlighted. However, nowhere down the timeline was it visible. Maybe the bloke had since removed it. Maybe he'd been warning about scams.

For those not familiar with cached versions, it's quite nice to try. Google "My family is flexible with our vacation holiday dates
incase if you are already booked for this week" and you'll get:
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient= ... 24&bih=519
Then you can try hovering on the right until a double arrow appears and within the resulting text on the right there is the word 'cache'.
sheesh
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:34 pm
Location: Gironde France

Post by sheesh »

Wonkeye wrote:Why would a phrase taken out of the text, eg I tried: "My family is flexible with our vacation holiday dates incase if you are already booked for this week" - appear on someone else's facebook page? (I put the words inside double quotation marks to keep the phrase together.) I even looked into the cached version, and it indicated that the text I'd typed in had been highlighted. However, nowhere down the timeline was it visible. Maybe the bloke had since removed it. Maybe he'd been warning about scams.

For those not familiar with cached versions, it's quite nice to try. Google "My family is flexible with our vacation holiday dates
incase if you are already booked for this week" and you'll get:
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient= ... 24&bih=519
Then you can try hovering on the right until a double arrow appears and within the resulting text on the right there is the word 'cache'.
He's a popular bloke, that Javier - he's got 166K likes (nearly as many as Grant Shapps :lol:)

I don't think I can fit him and all his friends in my gite...

Sheesh
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Wonkeye
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Post by Wonkeye »

Turns out he's a Spanish actor!!
B&B netherlands
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Post by B&B netherlands »

sheesh, that is not the official FB-wall of this spanish actor/film director; i am not even sure he's got one, though a fan (obviously) copied a complete wikipedia-text on a FB-page with javier's name.

intriguing, if you inspect the link given by wonkeye and wait for google's answer and open it. what the heck is a turkish guy who pretends to run for an election of some sort, doing on that page, also offering it as advertisement space...? i'm lost!
B&B netherlands
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Post by B&B netherlands »

wonkeye, you are a fast typing person!
B&B netherlands
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Post by B&B netherlands »

and sending it, half of my message got lost! javier, stop fiddling around with me!!!

i meant: that FB-page is from a con artist, i believe. there is a turkish guy there, offering the FB-page to advertise. huh?
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Wonkeye
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Post by Wonkeye »

B&B netherlands wrote:wonkeye, you are a fast typing person!
Absolutely hilarious!!!! I've just laughed myself silly. Just imagine ..... before the days of copy and paste!!
B&B netherlands
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Post by B&B netherlands »

absolutely! though at my office in the 80s, we had a young guy who was really good in pasting pieces of paper together and photocopy them without any traces of doing so. i still remember retyping 8 or more pages of stuff for a patent application in the 90s, as no more typing mistakes per page than THREE (or corrected with typex...) were allowed... and that was AFTER the original application was sent, reviewed, officially acknowledged and accepted and only the to be registered brandname had to be added and registered...

pure bliss, my 'job' now...
sheesh
Posts: 188
Joined: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:34 pm
Location: Gironde France

Post by sheesh »

Seconds away - round 2

Despite the fact that I told this scammer we were closed until next year (he wants October this year) I got this today:

Hello,

How are you doing over there? I really appreciate your quick reply back, after much discussion with my wife regarding our booking renting in your property. We likes your property very much and make sure you reserve those dates for us. I am coming with my Wife and 1kid only; currently living and working Aboard for American Express Detective Agency in New Zealand here. I will be coming home to my house in Madrid City few days before our vacation dates.

Acknowledge my details for booking and Contract reservations:
NAMES: Sterly Leighton, Isaballa Leighton and Torres Leighton.
ADDRESS: Calle de Miguel Ángel, 101
28046 Madrid,
Spain
PHONE NUMBER: +34-91-829-4123
Email: sterlyleighton@yahoo.com

Every year, our entire family vacation renting and expenses is paid by my Company Financial department; they will be paying for my family vacation expenses at your property being a detective for the organization. I am okay for the price of your renting and needs to confirm my booking renting immediately. My Financial in your country to send cash inform of Cheque to your address to cover our renting expenses due to my present location. About my renting, you will receive Euro Certified Bank Draft/Cheque issue for easy cash at any French Bank, such cheque payment clear within 24 to 48hours in the bank and all service charge will be minus from my money. Our vacation cheque is more than your renting amount which means we are using the money for both our renting and remaining for our flights expenses to your property from Madrid. Our Travel agent will be taken care of the flight tickets arrangement to your property. You will confirm CHEQUE cash and cleared in the bank in few days, then deduct your renting money and help us to transfer the remaining balance to our Travel agent via transfer or Western union who will be arranging our flight tickets to your property. You will first confirm payment cash in the bank and your account will be credited, after then book my renting dates for my family vacation stay.

Give me your Name to be written on the Cheque Payment, Direct Postal Address and Phone Number to send the cheque payment to your address.

The funds will be issue through our Company Financial department in your country to your address via register mail delivery in few days. Please get back to me on time with your Name and Address for quick Cheque payment delivery as i need to confirm my vacation fixed up before is too late today.

Many Thanks,

Sterly Leighton.


The IP address traces back to Pretoria, RSA. Remind me; is that in Madrid City or New Zealand ? :roll:
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

These attempted scams get more elaborate by the day! Is it because we get more sophisticated in detecting the decidedly dodgy?
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
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