Lay My Hat

Message from Kathy Sams
Hello Owner, how are you doing today? I want to know if your place will be available from 16th of Dec to 20th of Dec.Kindly get back to me as soon as possible.
Kathy

Looks like a scam to me with that greeting and that ending but need your help to be sure! Thank you!

Really no way of telling for certain yet, although the 'how are doing' thing is what the India based scammy telephone calls usually have as an opener. I would just proceed with caution for the moment. All will soon become clear but of course if through a listing site they may be just phishing for your email address for their next venture .

I’d go 99.16% scam.

The name suggests someone with a first language of English, but the message is clearly not written by someone whose first language is English.

Scam markers:
It starts with “Hello” (following that with “Owner” puts the scam-o-meter into the red sector immediately).
“how are you doing today?” A typical non English speaking person’s notion of what an English speaking person would use as a general greeting.
“I want to know if..." another attempt to sound like a native English speaker, but no native speaker would use the phrase.
“...if your place will be available” Two things - “your place” saves having to tailor the scam message to the actual property, and a native English speaker would be far more likely to say “is available”.
“Kindly get back to me as soon as possible” Says it all really.

I’m not sure why my scam-o-meter came up with only 99.16% certainty; I must get it checked out!

Good analysis greenbarn. I was being too generous in giving the benefit of the doubt. Basically, step away from the computer, louiseddie!

Thanks guys, and here's our answer!

I just read your message and i want you to know that I am presently in Japan for our company's Project. I'll like to complete the reservation before i get home. I'll make an arrangement with our Accountant to make and mail a Check for the full amount through Regular Mail so we can be assured of our reservation. I don't have access to a bank transfer nor have a paypal account.. I can only instruct my Accountant to issue you a check and send to you for easy cashing at your bank so i hope you can understand. So provide me with the information she need below:

She will need the above information...
Your Full Name,
Billing Address {Not P.O.Box}
City
State,
Zip code
Phone number / Cell phone
Get back to me as soon as possible.....

So now we know a 0.84% tolerance on a scamometer still provides complete accuracy in its results!

Aha. Worth it for the entertainment value and the satisfaction that you spotted it from the off and are officially scam-proof.

So a standard overpayment scam, cheque drawn on a foreign bank etc etc.
Not very imaginative....

Me too - I just read your message and i want you to know that I am presently in Japan for our company's Project. I'll like to complete the reservation before i get home. I'll make an arrangement with our Accountant to make and mail a Check for the full amount through Regular Mail so we can be assured of our reservation. I don't have access to a bank transfer nor have a paypal account.. I can only instruct my Accountant to issue you a check and send to you for easy cashing at your bank so i hope you can understand. So provide me with the information she need below:

She will need the above information...
Your Full Name,
Billing Address {Not P.O.Box}
City
State,
Zip code
Phone number / Cell phone
Get back to me as soon as possible.....
Have a wonderful New Month
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2016 at 2:08 AM

Just thinking about the reply I would like to send!

I'd probably reply saying: "Yes, a check/cheque will be perfect! I realise a lot of successful, international businesspeople have no access to modern day payment methods. Could I trouble you to make it out for a much larger sum than I have requested so that I can send the 'overpayment' back to you? Is that okay? It's just that I gain a perverse pleasure from being treated like an utter f*ckwit and you would be doing me an immense favour. Thank you *smilie face*"

Casscat wrote:I'd probably reply saying: "Yes, a check/cheque will be perfect! I realise a lot of successful, international businesspeople have no access to modern day payment methods. Could I trouble you to make it out for a much larger sum than I have requested so that I can send the 'overpayment' back to you? Is that okay? It's just that I gain a perverse pleasure from being treated like an utter f*ckwit and you would be doing me an immense favour. Thank you *smilie face*"

however, I suspect the 'subtleties' in the message would be missed and the cheque would arrive all the same.

Still, one less cheque from a stolen cheque book going straight into the bin, rather than to an unsuspecting innocent party is no bad thing...

I said I was unable to accept a cheque from her or her ACCOUNTANT but perhaps one of the thousands that she had attempted to book with might be able to. I also thanked her for wasting my time...........

In hindsight, perhaps too subtle..........

The acid test for me is that if they haven't looked at the realtime (SuperControl) booking diary in the cottage site and the enquiry e-mail looks like a "fill the gaps" pro forma, it is a scam. Similarly an insistence to pay by anything other than CC, BACS or PayPal sets of the bells.

I knew it was a scam straightway; scamommymeter not needed,
it was the phrase "how are you doing today?" - English learnt from watching old "Friends" episodes, ticularlee the character Joey!