In French!

[garlic]

Hello Lello I got this today, nicely written in French but oh so fishy:

Bonjour Mr/Mme
Je suis Mr GERARD POULARD ,dans le cadre de notre visite de votre pays, je voudrais reserver dans votre hotel.
C'est a dire du 01 /12 /2006 au 06 / 12 /2006.

Il s'agit d'une reservation pour 3 Chambres simples, etant donné que je viens avec mes associés .
Je voudrais effectuer un paiement en avance ( pré-paiement ) via ma carte bleue.Est-ce possible ?

Je suis en attente de la facture pro forma afin de vous communiquer mon N° de carte de credit pour le prepaiement .

Je vous demande aussi un service :
je souhaite par la même occasion que vous reglez l'agence de voyage qui s'occupe de nos billets .

C'est a dire vous preleverez sur mon N° de carte bleue la note de reservation et la somme de 3500 euros pour nos billets et les faire parvenir par Western Union à l'agence INTERWEST-SOLANO-TRAVEL sis En Côte d'Ivoire dont je vous communiquerai les coordonées. En fait , nous avons une reduction avec cette agence et avons prevu y regler nos billets.

De Plus,nous sommes actuellement au Maroc pour un séminaire d'une semaine ou plus, de là nous repartirons directement dans votre pays.
Donc vous nous faite un devis des chambres y compris les 3500 euros pour l'agence.

Nous vous demandons en outre de nous rendre ce service , car l'agence de voyage ne possède pas de terminal de prélevement à distance , sinon, nous leur aurons fait parvenir nos N° de cartes de crédit. Aussi, nous ne sommes pas dans notre pays.

Je vous rappelle que sachant que ceci n'est pas de votre activité , nous vous offrons une commission de 850 € pour ce service .


Dans l'attente de la facture globale ( note de reservation + 3500€ des billets d'avions + votre commission )

Très Cordialement ,
Mr GERARD POULARD

[Rocket Rab]

mmm, straight in the bin, I think

[Paul Carmel]

Ok onto the next level -avoid anything which mentions Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Senegale etc etc.

[Normandy Cow]

What's frightening is that their French is infinitely better than their English normally is!

I hope that there is an equivalent french LMH forum so that french rental home owners are forewarned and not taken in....

[Rocket Rab]

The Mr is a bit of a clue to watch out for....

Monsieur is not normally abbreviated to Mr, but M. (see below, but only if you're interested...!)
**********************************************

Les erreurs les plus fréquentes
Mr ou M. ?

Comment doit-on abréger “monsieur� ? Mr ou M. ?

Il s’agit sans aucun doute de l’erreur la plus souvent commise.
En effet, la seule abréviation admise est “M.�
Alors pourquoi rencontre-t-on si souvent ce fameux “Mr� ?
Tout simplement parce que les abréviations se font
de plusieurs façons et notamment par retranchement
de la plupart des lettres et en ne laissant que les lettres initiale
et finale. Exemples : bd pour boulevard ; fg pour faubourg.

Il en découle que lorsque l’on ne connaît pas forcément
les règles typographiques — voire orthographiques —
des abréviations courantes, la tentation est grande et logique
d’abréger “monsieur� par “Mr� et non “M.� !

Or “Mr� est strictement réservée à l’abréviation de “Mister�
qui désigne un sujet britannique dans un ouvrage — que celui-ci
soit écrit en langue française, anglaise, allemande ou encore...
russe ! Exemple : Mister Bond.

Remarque : dès lors, il n’est pas rare de rencontrer l’autre erreur classique d’abréger “Messieurs� par “Mrs� ! Cette abréviation désignant
plutôt un sujet britannique féminin : Miss ou Mistress (Madame).

[Paul Carmel]

[quote="CatherineS"]What's frightening is that their French is infinitely better than their English normally is!

Ivory Coast and Senegal are ex french protectorates so French is their first language.

[Rocket Rab]

ok guys, I can't resist: have another look, I bet you'll find a few (a lot) of mistakes on a second inspection...

[garlic]

I think what is interesting for me is that my French is good enough to understand what he's saying but not good enough to understand in the way I would English so I wouldn't pick up on the mistakes. So my feeling is that I would be easier to scam like this because the warning signals might not be so obvious.

This was obviously scam because of the pattern, and as I don't have three chambres I always know that they really don't know who they are talking to and of course all the other dead give aways. But if he'd been more subtle I may have fallen for it at least in the short term. Something to be aware of I think when we are not dealing with enquiries in our own language.

The flip side of the coin is that I'm dealing with a booking from a Danish family and whilst their English is good of course it's not perfect and I've had emails saying things like 'formalities of payment' I did get a bit paranoid but they have talked about the size of their family, their route to here and most importantly haven't asked for any strange payment methods. They also use a Danish email address.

It's sad but true that these scams make us so much more wary of genuine guests who are trying to communicate in a language that isn't their own. When the scam is obvious it's easy but I do wonder about increasing subtlety.

[Rocket Rab]

It's sad but true that these scams make us so much more wary of genuine guests who are trying to communicate in a language that isn't their own. When the scam is obvious it's easy but I do wonder about increasing subtlety.

You're right, Garlic, that was a very obvious one, and for the more subtle scams (isn't that a contradiction in terms? ) or maybe even genuine enquiries we're not sure about, it's a good job the other LMH-ers are at hand...

[vrooje]

Exemple : Mister Bond.

Oh dear, is that how the French think of us English-speakers?

That's funny, though -- M/Mme/Mlle was one of the first things we learned in grade school French. I would never have guessed it was a common mistake.

I guess it's a good thing that I'm listed on an en francais listing site, so I have some idea of what French inquiries are supposed to be like. I've never gotten one as long as this, and I've never seen the C'est a dire... before the dates. Am I wrong for thinking that's a little out of place?

But either way, no matter how subtle the scams get, there are only so many ways to pay with a bad check, right? And they still have to eventually offer to overpay you, as this one does right away.

[Big Sis..]

Hi All,

Its true that most of these scams seem obvious but only because weve seen them so often.
But if we were starting out & excited to get a booking and not lucky enough to belong to a GREAT forum like LMH...Im sure we could have been duped.
As weve all said its when youve had lots of Enq you get to know what questions are asked and alarm bells go off if theyre not.
If someone is interested enough in your property to want to book they wont mind a few exchanges of emails or phone calls Im sure, as they would want to know what sort of person you are as well[as they will be entrusting you with there money after all] Its when they dont want to know anything[and dont want you to know anything] that will make us suspicious......

[Rocket Rab]

I've never gotten one as long as this

Too true! French is the language of diplomacy, they say, but the French enquiries I receive are usually brutally to the point...a one-liner about availability and price!

[la vache!]

I had the scam e mail from Poulard too - it was deleted immediately! Jenny is right, the usual French e mails are very short and sweet!