Opinions please - borderline??

[Kersh]

Ok it’s a long story so I’ll make it brief.

We receive a request for New Year from someone in Romania. I responded saying the apartment was available but didn’t send the payment details etc. I got a second e-mail asking for my IBAN number so she could pay for the apartment. I sent her an e-mail asking for her address to put on the invoice. When she replied she sent me her address and a copy of her Romanian ID card. I thought it was strange but carried on.

I sent her the invoice containing the payment details. Today I received an e-mail saying she couldn’t pay using the IBAN and could she pay using Western Union. I checked them out and seamed fine. She already had all the information she needed to make the transfer on the invoice (basically my name and address)

It’s beginning to sound bad right?

Anyway, my girlfriend started looking at the e-mails we’d received. It was a yahoo e-mail. My girlfriend then put the address into the web and it doesn’t seam to exist. It’s Al. Obregia Street, Bucharest if anyone wants to check it out too.

Now I’m worried. Should I be?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

[Kersh]

Looks like the street exisits at least - i've just found it on Romanian Google. It's actually Bld. Alexandru Obregia, Bucurest.

[The Olive Grove]

Pay by Western Union - not me, I wouldn't take it.

[Kersh]

Pay by Western Union - not me, I wouldn't take it.

Could you give a bit more info OG. It seams fine to me?

[The Olive Grove]

Western Union is used by most scammers. Not sure how it works myself, but I am sure if you do a search on "Western Union" you will find lots of warnings about it. Need to research it a bit more myself, but ebay and paypal also warn against Western Union.

[Kersh]

OG, thanks for the info.

I spoke to Western Union yesterday to find out how it works. The guests pay to Western Union and give your name and address to Western Union in the process. When they pay the money in they are given a reference code that they send to you so you can withdraw the money. Like I say, it seamed ok to me. That said I did a search on the forums and it does seam to be a scammers favourite.

Any more thoughts as to whether this is a scam or not? If it is a scam, I could be in trouble here as they have quite a few of me details.

Thanks
Kersh

[The Olive Grove]

I've not really been in this business long enough to make a judgement, and just for that reason if no other my judgement would be no. I am sure some much more experienced members will be along shortly to give their opinions.

One very wise suggestion which has been made in the past, and which I will follow if I ever get any bookings, is to keep a separate bank account to receive payments into, then clean it out as soon as the cash arrives.

Sorry can't be of much more help, I know others have had success with Western Union, but me - no thanks.

Be very wary of people asking too much personal information, if they have that they can steal your identity.

[ttp]

That said I did a search on the forums and it does seam to be a scammers favourite.

Scammers use Western Union because one they have the money, they have the money & they are untraceable.

I can see no reason whatsoever for not accepting a payment by Western Union, although making one is an entirely different matter

[paolo]

I use a Yahoo address, and I get real enquiries from Yahoo addresses. I think Paul Carmel was praising Western Union a while back. By themselves these two factors do not indicate a scam. In fact I think with Western Union you pick up cash at your end, so that is pretty scam-proof. It's when someone overpays and asks you to return the balance with Western Union that you should say no.

[The Olive Grove]

That was the answer I was looking for - perfectly sensible really when you think about it.

[Kersh]

Thanks for the responses.

Paulo, that's exactly what I thought. It's cash and I have to go and collect it so there's no probs.

We'll see how it goes with this booking and i'll let you know.

Thanks very much to you all.

Kersh

[Alan Knighting]

Paolo,

I agree with you. Western Union, PayPal and Yahoo are genuine and reputable organisations but they are all so popular that they are bound to be adopted by scammers for their attempted frauds.

If one is awake to the methodology of the scammers their attempts at frauds are totally obvious. As with other attempted frauds I think the answer is to take care. If one doesn’t take care then one carries the blame. They must indemnify themselves, there’s no reason why anyone else should.

Alan

[Paul Carmel]

The main reason Weston Union and Moneygram are so popular with scamers is because it is instant cash, If I send Paolo 200 Euros via W/U he can have it in his hand within the hour and it is very easy for him to disappear without a trace after the transaction has taken place.

[paolo]

Paul, can we test that, just to check?

[Paul Carmel]

Why not!! But you must go to the Glasgow office of W/U as I have a friend who works there and he will make sure the transaction goes through smoothly.........