Another Scam, from Bali!

[luisortiz]

I checked their website, and they have no email address, but have forms. All the info he asks for is on my site.

..................
Baliforyou <baliforyou@gmail.com>
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am running an authorized travel agents at Denpasar, Bali Island, Indonesia. I have visited your sites and interested to know more about your service.
Soon, I have client from Japan using my agency service, this client interested to do traveling vacation to your country. They are consist of 6 persons ( 3 couple adult ), that's way they asked me to have well preparation for the reservation, accommodation, itineraries etc.
I have already set the plan and need more information about your service. If possible I will reserve my client for around April - May 2008. Please confirm the best price for our guest for 7 - 10 days stay. It is for the rooms, meal and other service. Please inform me your room rates also other available services that are need to be reserved in advance for the tour package. Do you accept major credit card for the reservation payment?
And as travel agent, I need to know about my agency commission fee for this business, usually I get 15% - 20% from the total amount of the reservation. Please advice.
I'm waiting your confirmation and discussing our business
Thank you


--
Best Regards
Wayan Sueta

Baliforyou
TRAVEL AND BUSINESS INFORMATION SERVICE
Jl. Kapten Tantular No. 80, Renon. Denpasar
Bali - Indonesia
80225
Phone : +62-856-4362 4499

[Mountain Goat]

Maybe I'm losing it, but why, at this stage, do you think it's a scam?

MG

[luisortiz]

Because potential renters ask specific information, and on my website, I have everything from an availability calendar, rates, amenities and my name.
I get about 3 inquiries a day, and almost all of them are specific. If they tell me they're coming to Puerto Rico, then I pay attention. But this letter could have been sent to anyone here. It's vague. I get about one every two weeks. I get many more Nigerian scams, winning loto scams, money transfer scams. I wonder how many people are taken by these?
lo

[Margaret]

I can tell you why it is a scam - because we had something very similar a while back - supposedly a Bali travel agent booking on behalf of a Japanese client. We went quite a long way down the line with it but in the end, they wanted us to pay some of the Japanese client's expenses in Bali, for which they would reimburse us. I think I deleted it all because it turned to be a huge waste of time, so I cannot check the details, but this one looks very familiar so I would advise immediate deletion!

[Mountain Goat]

I can see that being non-specific is a clue - but we get dozens who come through to us from a website where every question they ask is answered if they'd bothered to look.

We spent hours dealing with what seemed like a genuine family enquiry from Indonesia, and it went on from days. Finally resulting in booking form and contract being sent and then complete silence. Gentle nudge a week later produced a simple 'oh, we've changed our mind'.

Anyone had firm, uncomplicated and paid bookings from Indonesia?

MG

[luisortiz]

Do you have a profile for visitors to your Chalet? (It's very beautiful).
When I think of a profile for my guests, they are North American, professionals with family or friends. We've never had European visitors, as the Dominican Republic and Cuba are nearby and have less expensive deals.

I use a program called Google Analytics, and it tells me most of my web visitors come from the north east portion of the United States.
On your website, there's a small program called ClusterMaps. I've just opened it up, and at a glance I can see most of your visitors are European, followed by North Americans.
*
Margaret has another clue: A long winded story.
*
luis

[losttheplot]

dEfinitely a scam, very similar to the one I actually fell for last year. They will pay by credit card (stolen) just a week bepfre the holiday and then harass you for the agency fee. In our case we didn't return the fee when they wanted as we were not sure how to sort out a transfer. The Japanese tourists didn't show up as expected and we received an email the next daysaying that one of them had had a terrible car accident and could I refund the full amount by bank transfer. Thankfully I was still nor sure how to transfer money and very busy in my 'day job' so I left it for a few days. Meanwhile I received an email from WorldPay advising me the credit card transaction was fraudulent. I could have lost a fortune but thankfully just lost the transaction fee and a little bit of trust in humanity (the latter has been fully restored!).

If you search the isp you may still find that the email comes from Indonesia but it is still a scam so you might want to do a lttle baiting. personally I can't wait to get another of these so I can exact some sort of revenge for all the running around they made me do. The positive thing is that the episode made me sort out a WorldPay account and this has given me a lot of bookings from overseas guests.

I have taken a booking from a UK travel agent and they paid me direct and sorted out their handling cost with the client.

x losttheplot

[Holiday Ray]

Scam
Poor English or grammar always sets alarm bells ringing for me, but this in itself, of course, is not a prerequisite for a scam.
Its pretty vague.
Their clients should really know when they want to stay - shouldn't they ?
I've not yet had experience of paying agency fees, but if any are to be paid, should they not be paid by the clients direct ?
Just a few thoughts