Quite convincing first contact, but then...

[mon269]

This is the first time I have replied to a suspicious enquiry and my gut feeling proved to be right. The enquiry came via Homelidays and using a yahoo.com address.

This was the first contact from the scammer:

Dear Sir/Ma,
i will like to know the availabiltiy, prize of you rooms for rent....Myself and my family will be coming over to France very soon on a business trip from the United Kingdom (07/04/2008) and i will like to lodge in your room for this specified dates. Kindly email me back if it is available for rent.
Regards,
Dr. Raymond S.

No big bells ringing yet. Some minor language errors and the fact that we don´t have an appartment in France but a house in the South of Spain. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and responded with my usual informative message. This morning I got the following response to my email:

Hello Juan,
Thanks for the quick response. i am so much interested in renting the apartment, i am on Leave from the England with my family. I would like to make the First & Last month payment ahead before my arrival and the subsequent month will be effected there after .So i will want you to estimate the total cost for the apartment. So i will contact my company and instruct them to issue you a Cheque of the payment for your Apartment .which i will like you to deduct the fee for my Apartment and keep the room for me. I will need this informations so the cheque can be issue out immediately.

Contact Name........
Full Address.......
Mobile Number.......

You can contact me incase you wanted o contact me for any further enquiry +447031930915.
P.S:- i will like to see some pictures of the apartment
I will be waiting for you response soon.

Regards
Dr. Raymond.

At this point the bells couldn´t be louder. It´s got all the signs and some new ones, like making payments for a number of months when the original enquiry was only for 3 weeks.

Following PC´s advice here viewtopic.php?t=6165 I traced the IP address to be from Nigeria.

As you can expect, Dr. Raymond will not be getting my personal details.

I hope this helps somebody.

[Marks]

Sorry, I could hear very loud clanging in the first line

[paolo]

The construction "I will like to..." seems to be a common one at the moment. Also reference to room or rooms.

[Mountain Goat]

Dear Sir/Ma

I agree about the first line - 100% African style that (incorrect?) use of 'Ma'; known to all Alexander McCall fans at least.....

MG