Karen Whittlesey

[wallypott]

Scam right?


Enquiry Detail
We are a family of 4; our children are university students, we are both teachers. We are traveling for research in France, as we plan a future education trip for groups of professors in the Bretagne et Normandie area. We are wishing to stay for a week, within the date range of 3 - 15 May. May we know your availability; also as new to this site how we may reserve and confirm.Thank you kindly for your assistance

Name Karen Whittlesey
Dates May 3, 2013 - May 15, 2013
Guests 4 adults, 0 children

[FelicityA]

That's a difficult one to call. If their children are at university, should they not be attending their lectures in May? But maybe they are not in England. I had just assumed that when I read it?

The scammy bit (if it the beginning of a scam) is of course the luring of you into possible future bookings with these professors... but it may be entirely innocent. It is just that professors, vicars, engineers etc. now ring alarm bells with us all! And do you get 'groups of professors' being organised by 'teachers'? I would answer it, but cautiously, and see how it develops. There is someone of that name teaching French in Florida so perhaps the title of this should not actually have her name in it, in case she is legit?

[greenbarn]

Hmmm...... better written than most, but not by someone whose first language is English, or American.

Flexible dates.

Too much irrelevant detail, and bigging up the trustworthiness angle.

My Acme Patent Scam-O-Meter gives a Scam Likelihood Rating of 93.7%.

[Essar]

Greenbarn

I think you need new batteries - mines gone off the scale!

[greenbarn]

Greenbarn

I think you need new batteries - mines gone off the scale!

Mine's the Wallace and Gromit Version 1.0.

[FelicityA]

Ok. So my Scam-O-Meter must be playing up.

I have had it twitch before on enquiries in bad English from people who turned out to be English speakers and went on to book. So I think I must have turned it down too much.

The consensus is that Wallypot should ignore, then?

[greenbarn]

Ok. So my Scam-O-Meter must be playing up.

I have had it twitch before on enquiries in bad English from people who turned out to be English speakers and went on to book. So I think I must have turned it down too much.

The consensus is that Wallypot should ignore, then?

I think your earlier breakdown of the enquiry content is spot on. It could be a "Proceed with Caution", but I'm tending towards "Ignore" - but then I'm too cynical for my own good.

[Essar]

I used to be indecisive so I'm certain that I'm not sure that it is a scam, then again it just could be, maybe....

[oasiscouple]

If one is doubtful whether it is scam or not, surely it is better to reply politely to answer whatever questions are being raised and then pull out if it starts smelling worse.

I had one recently from a Robert Mitchell in poor French (possibly a Google translation) which said the following:

Je vois votre propriété sur le site Web que vous consultez. Je prévois une courte visite en France au début de Juillet et j'aime beaucoup votre appartement. Je travaille comme consultant pour des sociétés multinationales en Europe. Cela rend mon travail très occupé. Je voyage dans et hors de l'Europe, de temps en temps à cause de mon travail. Je veux savoir si vous pouvez me louer votre appartement, quelle est votre dernière offre? Je vois la photo sur le site et je pense que l'appartement est bon pour moi. S'il vous plaît revenir à moi avec le prix immédiatement. Je vais occuper l'appartement à partir de Juillet 6 to 27 Juillet. J'espère que votre prix est correct car ce n'est pas une période de rush, je suppose. Si votre prix est bon, je peux vous envoyer un chèque d'arrhes pour réserver l'appartement pour moi. Faites-moi savoir ce que vous pensez. cordialement

It smelled like a scam to me because of the detail but I replied just answering the question about the price. This was 4 days ago and since then, silence.

http://www.locasun.fr/?a=16058
http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk/en/a ... rty/158469
http://www.locasun.fr/?a=81832
http://www.alphaholidaylettings.com/rental/Aude/15119
http://www.naturistholidays.fr

[Nightowl]

I had one a few months back that I was pretty sure was a scam

It said:

We are a Canadian (Bible distribution) missionary family currently living in Russia and need to make a trip to London for visa renewal. My cousin (an 18-year-old girl) is living with us to help with our three children, 7 yrs, 4 yrs, and almost 1 yr old.

I replied, he replied, we had a few mailis between us, he booked, no dodgy overpayments or anything, they came and stayed, they were lovely and they weren't scammers.

But the initial enquiry had all the hallmarks of a scam!

[greenbarn]

I had one a few months back that I was pretty sure was a scam

It said:

We are a Canadian (Bible distribution) missionary family currently living in Russia and need to make a trip to London for visa renewal. My cousin (an 18-year-old girl) is living with us to help with our three children, 7 yrs, 4 yrs, and almost 1 yr old.

I replied, he replied, we had a few mailis between us, he booked, no dodgy overpayments or anything, they came and stayed, they were lovely and they weren't scammers.

But the initial enquiry had all the hallmarks of a scam!

Well, I just waved my W&G MkIV Scam-O-Meter at that, and it exploded. So not a reliable piece of kit then. Sad that we (well, me anyway) become so cynical as a result of the attempts by the scumbags out there.

[Nightowl]

yeah, it's the Bible Distributing Missionaries - all the hallmarks of a scam!

TBH, I don't even know why I answered it, I must have been feeling a bit generously inclined because I was 99.9% certain it was a scam, the old scam o meter was twitching!

Even when they replied I though, Oh Yea, hit me with that 5,000 cheque and I'll tell you where to put it!

But no... they were genuinely lovely people.. I did think there may be a surfeit of bibles placed around as a parting gift, but no...

v strange.


But genuine.