Edward Hunt @engineer.com

[letiolet]

Hello

Really unsure about this one as it doesn't have the main alarm bell ringers - main reasons for concern are:
- 2 week family holiday when weather won't be that great (we're very rural)
- Time it was written (4am)
- can't pin down email domain
- no sign off other than merci
- Anglo sounding name written in French - doubt they've read my website
- use of a Blackberry is unusual so poss a positive, but it is clouding the IP location search

I wonder if I'm becoming paranoid! Has anyone else had this one? Any thoughts welcome - thanks. Yvette

Here's what the email says:
Subject: Propriete
Je veux réserver votre propriété pour moi et ma famille à partir du 5 Mars 2015 au 19 Mars 2015. Veuillez me faire
nous savons la disponibilité.
Merci

[oasiscouple]

I was just about to post a message about the same person.

Surprisingly after months with no scam enquiries, I received two in two days, this being one of them with exactly the same message except a slightly different email address edwardhunt111 at engineer.com.

It was obviously a cut and paste message as no reference is given about the property or where the advert had been seen. It was also in very poor French (mind you mine is not perfect). Also, the property in question is a beach apartment in a naturist village, highly unlikely to be of interest to anyone in February.

Three different IP addresses were given, one comes up in Philadelphia, one in Switzerland and the third 10.223.111.69 sends me back to my own IP address.

In order to play him along a bit, I just sent a one line reply saying that we have two properties, which one is he interested in?

I received the following rambling reply in even worse French, ignoring my question, but showing the first signs of the classic over payment scam.

Bonjour,
Merci pour confirmer les dates disponibles. Nous
avons décidé d'aller de l'avant et de réserver la date
immédiatement. Veuillez réserver la date pour ma famille et
nous envoyer le contrat de réservation par courriel. Je viens
avec ma femme et mes enfants. Je travaille actuellement
aux Etats-Unis, mais je serai à la maison à Manchester
bientôt.
Ce est notre fête annuelle, notre famille entière réservation
et les dépenses de vacances seront payés par mon
département financier Société; la société paiera pour notre
réservation de réservation à votre propriété prix de la
réservation est location parfaite et nous avons besoin pour
confirmer ma réservation immédiatement.
Se il vous plaît confirmer notre réservation et revenir à moi
avec le contrat de réservation et la société peut faire le
dépôt de paiement. Réservation et contrat réservations:
Nom: Mr & Mrs Edward Hunt
Adresse: 85, route Hathersage,
Manchester
M13 0EW
Royaume-Uni
Enfants: Sarah 9 ans et Brian 11.
Merci pour votre coopération.
Cordialement,


So I again replied pointing out that I need to know which property he is interested in. Again my request was ignored and I received the following reply with the standard of French deteriorating even more.

Bonjour,
vous pouvez l'envoyer par courriel à me connaître se il vous
plaît
Merci

At this point, I have dropped the dialogue as there is no point in wasting more time.

[Casscat]

83-85 Hathersage Rd is a block of flats. You would not post your address without noting which flat number was yours.

[letiolet]

Thank you oasiscouple for your reply - helps me feel that perhaps my antenna is still working without being completely paranoid!

The email address you have given with the edwardhunt111 is exactly the same as I received - sorry I over-simplified my representation in the subject heading by only putting the name and email domain.

Here's hoping your spate of scam enquiries now turns to a spate of genuine ones

Also, very good spot Detective Casscat

Regards, Yvette