JOhn Mike's leave
-
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
JOhn Mike's leave
Details: from 01/06/2007 for 3 months for 3 months
Party Details: 2 adults, and 1 children
Extra info: Hello,
Good day. I am mailing to make enquiries for a vacation home for 3 months in your property. I am on my annual leave and I would love to spend it with my family. We are from the UK. I will be waiting to hear from you regarding the booking procedure and also I would like to know what payment options you allow though I would preferrably love to pay by Euro cheque as it is the most comfortable for me.
Hope to read from you as soon as possible.
JOHN MIKE
Different to the usual, but still with a familiar ring?
Party Details: 2 adults, and 1 children
Extra info: Hello,
Good day. I am mailing to make enquiries for a vacation home for 3 months in your property. I am on my annual leave and I would love to spend it with my family. We are from the UK. I will be waiting to hear from you regarding the booking procedure and also I would like to know what payment options you allow though I would preferrably love to pay by Euro cheque as it is the most comfortable for me.
Hope to read from you as soon as possible.
JOHN MIKE
Different to the usual, but still with a familiar ring?
This is 100% scam.
Respond in a friendly manner as one may normally, but "accidently" get the total price wrong and quote something like 50% more than published prices.
e.g. your normal price is €700, reply: Yes, we have availability, total price is €1,100.
One can always grovel and apologise to a genuine punter who questions it, but a scammer is unlikely to notice or care.
- From UK and wants to pay Euro.
Uses terms Vacation (US) and cheque (UK) in same email
Many other spelling/grammar errors
Interested in Price above all else
Expecting long vacancy in high summer with short notice
Respond in a friendly manner as one may normally, but "accidently" get the total price wrong and quote something like 50% more than published prices.
e.g. your normal price is €700, reply: Yes, we have availability, total price is €1,100.
One can always grovel and apologise to a genuine punter who questions it, but a scammer is unlikely to notice or care.
-
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:33 pm
- Location: Ayia napa
-
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
Its easy Phil,
The next email from the scammer will make some long winded story about his accountant/colleague/business partner sending funds in excess of what you asked for. It may be cheque/money order or something. He asks nicely for you to refund him the difference so that he can hire a car/pay for his son to join him or similar.
His money arrives, and your bank shows it as "available funds", so you refund him the difference. Some 6 weeks later, his cheque bounces (yes, it does happen this way !) and he vanishes.
The next email from the scammer will make some long winded story about his accountant/colleague/business partner sending funds in excess of what you asked for. It may be cheque/money order or something. He asks nicely for you to refund him the difference so that he can hire a car/pay for his son to join him or similar.
His money arrives, and your bank shows it as "available funds", so you refund him the difference. Some 6 weeks later, his cheque bounces (yes, it does happen this way !) and he vanishes.
-
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:33 pm
- Location: Ayia napa
-
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 142
- Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:14 pm
- Location: Bad Gastein, Salzburgerland, Austria
- Contact:
HelenB, here's the e-mail I received this morning from James Green:
Party Details: 2 adults, and 1 children
Extra info: Hello,
Good day. I am mailing to make enquiries for a vacation home for 3 months in your property. I am on my annual leave and I would love to spend it with my family. We are from the UK. I will be waiting to hear from you regarding the booking procedure and also I would like to know what payment options you allow though I would preferrably love to pay by Euro cheque as it is the most comfortable for me.
Hope to read from you as soon as possible.
James Green
If James is original (which is unlikely) then I apollogise but it does have scam written all over it.
Kersh
Party Details: 2 adults, and 1 children
Extra info: Hello,
Good day. I am mailing to make enquiries for a vacation home for 3 months in your property. I am on my annual leave and I would love to spend it with my family. We are from the UK. I will be waiting to hear from you regarding the booking procedure and also I would like to know what payment options you allow though I would preferrably love to pay by Euro cheque as it is the most comfortable for me.
Hope to read from you as soon as possible.
James Green
If James is original (which is unlikely) then I apollogise but it does have scam written all over it.
Kersh
Helen is right about the Bank. Here is some small print I found in the help pages on my bank website:
I think both James Green and John Mike have read thisWhen cheques go through the clearing cycle, we allow four business days for the cheque to clear. However, this does not necessarily mean the cheque is paid; it means the funds are available to withdraw from the start of business day five.
Currently a bank can still return a cheque unpaid even after the clearing cycle is complete and it is included on your statement as part of the cleared balance. If the cheque is returned unpaid, the value of it will be debited from your account even if you have withdrawn the money in the meantime.
- tree-peony
- Posts: 1308
- Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:40 am
- Location: gozo
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
- Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
I think this is something that everyone should read and inwardly digest. Basically, it is saying that the customer carries the can - not the Bank. We may grouse about it; we may complain about it; we may think it is totally unfair; but we should all be fully aware of it at all times.Currently a bank can still return a cheque unpaid even after the clearing cycle is complete and it is included on your statement as part of the cleared balance. If the cheque is returned unpaid, the value of it will be debited from your account even if you have withdrawn the money in the meantime.
The effects can be really serious, particularly in countries like France where one can not normally arrange an automatic overdraft. In France, a potential overdraft situation has to be rectified by the customer within a fairly short period. Failing that the customer will be reported to the Bank of France and the customer can be banned from having a Bank Account of any sort for a year or two, but still has to rectify the situation.
Cheque transactions between French Banks are dealt with in a matter of days but that is not necessarily the case with international transactions which can take substantially longer.
I accept French and foreign cheques in respect of rental payments and process them through my French Bank. I would not be in an overdraft situation even if one of them did bounce.
I would never accept payment in any form which involved me in receiving an amount over and above the rent and obliging me to forward the balance to anyone else. I wouldn’t even accept it in cash – it wouldn’t be a scam but it would probably be money laundering. It’s such a blatant attempt at a scam that I don’t understand why anyone would fall into the trap – surely it is so obviously a scam, even to a blind man on a dark night.
Fluffy