A 'French' Scam ?!

[J]

Received our first ever 'scam' this week (the cheek of it!) and did not bother to get into a correspondence. Just deleted the e-mail, but first took a text copy though so that I could post it in case it helps others.

Bonjour Mr , Mme ,
Je suis Mr Alain Leblan , j'aimerai faire une reservation dans votre local pour les dates suivantes :
15/03/2008 au 15/05/2008.
J'aimerai vous reglez en avance par virement bancaire.
Je tiens a vous dire que nous avons eu votre adresse par nos recherches sur le net , aussi nous venons dans votre local pour notre lune de miel.
Alors si possible veuillez nous faire parvenir par email en pj votre RIB complet ainsi que un contrat de locations y compris la facture globale.
Dès réception de ces documents nous allons faire le necessaires.
Nous sommes en attente d'une reponse favorable.
Mr et Mme LEBLAN .
11 BP 974 ABJ 11
455 PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE
ABIDJAN COTE D'IVOIRE

Mind you, if you all think it is genuine, I will feel silly! But am not too bothered since we already have bookings for most of the period mentioned!

A bit of background - we live in the South of France and bought an apartment last October to rent out. Our first (10 month) season started 6 February this year - it is a specialist market, quite different to the Tourist one ('curistes' are sent to Lamalou Les Bains from all over France and indeed Europe, for 21 day medical treatments).

We only advertise through the local Tourist Office (they publish their own brochure) and am developing our own Internet site - so it would be curious to know through which route they 'scammed' us.

Things I noted about the e-mail that made me suspicious:
1. It was not adressed specifically to us even though our advertising refers to us by name.
2. The e-mail adress it was 'sent' to was infact the same as the one for who it came from (if you see what I mean) which shows it was a 'generated' message.
3. It did not refer to the accommodation as it is described in our adverts - just as votre local.
4. It straight away asked for our bank details (oh yeh, right, we would send these off just like that...!).
5. It did not ask for any details of what the accommodation includes (eg number of beds, kitchen equipmente, etc) - the Tourist Office brochure does not include any such details!

One plus point, the French is actually very good whereas normally these scams are in 'bad' language (English or French, etc).

Anyway, I just thought it might be of interest to you all!

Jacqui U

[Holiday Ray]

Jacqui
A question !
As anyone with a french bank account would normally give out their RIB details (to anyone else reading this, an RIB basically details ALL of your bank details) in the normal course of business, I assume that merely giving such details would not allow a scammer, or other fraudster to access your account and deduct money. Obviously the email you received is a scam and you would never provide your details in response, but providing your details would not in itself be enough to give them any 'unjust' reward, would it ?
Thanks
Ray

[Margaret]

Surely the point is that it is not a 'French' scam as such but one in French - from the Ivory Coast which is a major source of all types of 'Nigerian' scams. We get them all the time so you have been lucky to escape so far.

[Adam Apple]

So, even the scams in French start with 'My name is...' or 'I am...[insert name]'. And again they show absolutely no interest in your property.

[Adam Apple]

So, even the scams in French start with 'My name is...' or 'I am...(insert name)'. And again they show absolutely no interest in your property.