Do You Think This Is A Scam?? - UPDATE - It was a scam....

[SharpMomOfTwo]

Hey all, I need some imput.
I'm an event planner, and I got an email from this guy asking me to help him with his wedding. The first one is from him, the second is from me, and the last one is from him again. If you think this is a scam, do you think I should just not reply again, or tell him that I can't take the job?

TIA

Hello,
I am looking for an experienced wedding planner who will handle my wedding and arrange dinner for a group of people who will be attending the wedding ceremony. Seven will arrive few days before the wedding day.

The wedding is expected to hold on the 18th October,2008 and 25 to 40 guests are expected to attend. As i do not know what the guests might choose for their meals and drinks, i will make a prepayment as initial deposit for this
booking via credit card once availability is confirmed by you.All checks and balances will be made with you on the final day of the booking, You are to arrange for a Videography, Music Entertainment, Photography, Officiant/Priest & Church, cake, flowers and hall. If there is any these items that is beyond your capability, you let us know so that another company can handle it.

Get back to me with your response as we don't have much time with us so that we can process our accommodation within the region more convenient for you and us.

Best Regards,
Dr Kerry Martins

Dear Ms. Martins,

Greetings, and congratulations on your upcoming wedding, you must be so excited. I want to thank you for contacting Sharp Party Planning - we have done several weddings this year, and you will be in good hands with us. A few questions for you - I see that you are in England, are you planning on having your ceremony/reception here in the states (New Jersey Shore), and if so, do you have a town or county in mind? I see that you don't have a venue booked yet, but do you have any ideas as to what type of venue you are looking for - i.e. on the beach, or at a country club, etc.
Please contact me as soon as you can to get these things (among many others) ironed out, as the date is quickly approaching.


Looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Sarah Sharp
Sharp Party Planning


Hello,
Its nice of you to respond to my inquiry. It is the wish of my finance
to get married in your country after my dad convinced her. I have to
give in to her wish and due to the fact i do not have any one there,
you will be responsible for all arrangements.

I will be arriving with my Fiance 7 days before the wedding and i need
you to also make arrangement for our accommodation and
transportation.I will need you to book 2 double rooms for us f0r 7
nights and one honey moon suite for the night of the wedding. We
have a budget of about $40,000 USD and i hope this will be enough to
plan a memorable wedding.. Aside us, i am also expecting 30 to 40
other guest from Uk, USA, Asia and Africa. I am working with a
logistic agent that will take care of their arrival and accommodation
arrangements.

I need this wedding to be a memorable one and it does. It is a Civil
wedding. I need you to get back to me with a total estimate that will
cover this arrangement so that i can make a deposit payment to enable
you start arrangements as time is not on our side. I am at an oil
rig in Iraq now and the only means of payment that will be possible
for me from here will be via my Credit card. I hope this will not pose
any problem to you. Get back to me as soon as you have the estimate so
that we can start of all preparation for my wedding.

I await your response .

Dr Kerry Martins


The things that have made me think its a scam is the fact that he can only pay me via credit card, and the fact that hes a Dr. whos working at am oil rig. What do you think?

 

[RMulieri]

I don't know what to think. ithink they do have shipboard drs on the oil rigs though.Not sure

 

[lucigo]

I would probably pass on that one.

 

[ashcs]

(newbie here )

Just wanted to let you know that this does appear to be a scam. To see more info, google the following random phrase from the original email, and click on the blog from bridalopulence.
"rig in Iraq now and the only means of payment that will be possible"

We went through this when we were renting out a home on craigslist. The inquiry seemed too good to be true, so I googled the contact phone number, and saw that the number had been used often in a scam emails.

Sorry it doesn't seem legit, would have been a great wedding, I am sure

 

[bunny213]

I am sure there are many many business people on the board that can and will help you...but I want to relay a circumstance that we had regarding an automobile we had for sale. We finally backed out.
Our first contact was an email (like yours) with spelling errors and such...at first we didn't think too much about it. But as the emails went back and forth (trying to make arrangements for payment and shipment) we noticed that we never got any "for sure" address, phone number or such. We finally backed out...and have not regretted it.
I hope you will be very cautious....I'll be thinking of you and hoping that the decision you make is good for you and your business. Isn't it a shame that we have to be so cautious???
I am surprised that he did not ask you for a bid or something to compare with other planners...isn't that standard procedure?
Please keep us posted....Barb

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

Well everyone, thanks for your responces. I have looked further into this, and my (and everyone elses) suspissions have been confirmed (especially ashcs!).

http://bridalopulence.blogspot.com/2008/07/planner-bewareemail-scam.html

This persons letter is almost exact to the ones I recieved. Oh well, would have been a good payday for me... if it hadn't been a scam. Thanks again everyone!!

 

[WisconsinDisneyGirl]

My neighboor and her sister have an home daycare. They listed some openings they had on craigslist.com. You should have seen the weird emails that they got from overseas! The emails sounded like the writing that was in the emails that you received (weird enough). They also got scam emails. They got one from a man in England that was going to work as a movie producer here in WI and was going to bring his little son. Could he drop him off for a few months, do you take credit card? The wording was strange and almost uncomfortable. They stopped the listing on craigslist and put a paid one in the paper. They only get legit calls now and have a few more kids to take care of. You just never know what you might get over the new- scares me sometimes! Hard to know who and what you can trust.....

 

[bumbershoot]

Glad you figured out it was a scam.


For the future, as a person who can use Dr before my name, if someone signs Dr theirname, please *use* Dr theirname when writing back to them.

And if it had been real, a dr on an oil rig could have been a PhD in Geology or any sort of thing like that. Dr isn't just MD!

 

[allison443]

For the future, as a person who can use Dr before my name, if someone signs Dr theirname, please *use* Dr theirname when writing back to them.

That's good advice but I wouldn't worry about proper etiquette when addressing a scammer