This reeks of scam, but how?

wez130

wez130

wez130

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So, as you know, i own a restaurant. On Thursday, we got an email from someone requesting a copy of the menus...

Hello,How are you doing? I will like to book my Son birthday Lunch/Dinner party in your place for my family and can you send Lunch & Dinner menu list. Also do you accept credit card payment too. I will be expecting your reply back asap,thanks
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So, I thought the wording was strange from the off, hey ho, i replied with a copy of our menus...

I then received a reply back...
Thanks for your swift response. I am hearing impaired and am scheduled for surgery soon, i would like us to communicate via email. I am booking your place for my Son birthday party on the 20th September by 1pm for 10 Guests.

Son Name: Mark John
Age: 22yrs Old
Budget: $1,000
10 Guests
Date: 20th September
Time: 1pm

I will like to make the full payment now for the meals & beverages for all the guests and they can decide all they want from your menu lists on the day. Please can you give me your Name,address and phone number for the Charter bus to locate your place on the day.

Thanks.
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Again, a little unusual, but i'll go with it. I replied...

Hi, we can confirm that Friday 20th September is available for you so we can book you in for 1pm as requested. Could you clarify, you wish to make full payment of $1000 and your guests can spend up to that amount? We can arrange that, you can make a deposit in to our bank account if you wish?

Our details are as follows...

ANZ ************

Our address is as follows...

The Red House

182 State Highway 1

Warkworth

Auckland

0981

Our telephone number is 09 973 3573

We look forward to seeing you.

TRH.
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His response was...

That's fine and please can you give me your mobile phone number to easily text you my credit card to charge the payment to secure down the date for my Son birthday in your place because am booking that as a surprise for the family members. Also i want you to do me a favor too.
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By now, i'm getting more cautious, however, we have a lot of Islanders over here, and it could be a language barrier being the cause of the wording. So, i'll remain polite...

Hi, my mobile number is a personal one so I only give that out to my personal friends and family. However, you are welcome to send your credit card details to our secure email, or even have somebody call and pay over the phone.
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So we've just had a reply today, This is where it gets weird, and i feel my suspicions are justified...

Hello,

I am alright with the cost. However, I am having a little challenge concerning the Driver fee that will be handling my Family Transportation to your Place. I am still at the hospital and I need you to do me a favor. The Private Driver does not accept credit cards and requires payment upfront via direct deposit into his account.

I will like you to add an additional $2,500 to the total cost which you will charge on my credit card as payment for the Driver fee to pickup my other family from different location to place and when payment clears into your account you will help me transfer the Driver fund to their bank account as his charges for balance of his service fee and handling the pickup and drop off too.

I would have preferred to sort his payment by myself but I am presently in the hospital scheduled for surgery for my hearing impaired condition.I am willing to pay you a tip of $100 for your time if you could assist with this favor. Kindly get back with the grand total cost if this is okay by you.
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Still, being polite, i have replied...

Hi, you are fine to pay on the day, you do not need to pay anything up front. The only way we will take a credit card payment is in person or over the telephone. I’m afraid you will have to deal with your driver yourself, we are not in a position to get involved with this in any way, especially financially.
If you would still like to book a table then we’ll see you on the day. Please let us know. TRH
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So as you can see, It's screaming SCAM at me, but how?
 
You pay their "driver" $2500 then they reverse any payment to you, usually claiming their card was used fraudulently (or by using stolen CC to pay you), leaving you out of pocket. (In some cases they chance it with a bunch of people/businesses with a pending transfer that never completes hoping one of them thinks it is a cleared transfer - sometimes hoping someone is gullible enough to believe doctored images as proof).

Alternatively they aren't trying to scam you but use you to facilitate money laundering.

A common variant of this is to claim they overpaid you, forwarding a fake transaction document/email of some kind asking you to refund the difference.
 
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Its English syntax suggests it could be a scam bot most likely originated from India. However, the long-con structure smells more like something from / or designed by a Russian or middle-eastern scammer.
 
It screams scam but to be fair my girlfriends son has a school friend who's mum is hearing impaired and she text/emails worse than that, they write like they talk basically.

e.g - Hello, Kym come home food Max's house after school.

Anyway, scam.
 
Don't be surprised if another website pops up falsely claiming to sell something and quoting only part of your ANZ account details as credibility.

Most attacks depend on your good input, without which it fails. The back and forth is simply ceremony. So just focus on the value of the objective id facts you gave - just those facts you wouldn't want blowing down the street on a piece of paper.
 
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Most of the time they don't even get to the stolen credit card stage, instead they just send fake PayPal emails (or insert choice of bank) claiming a deposit has been made to the account.

But I love stringing them along too :D
 
Rroff said:
You pay their "driver" $2500 then they reverse any payment to you, usually claiming their card was used fraudulently (or by using stolen CC to pay you), leaving you out of pocket. (In some cases they chance it with a bunch of people/businesses with a pending transfer that never completes hoping one of them thinks it is a cleared transfer - sometimes hoping someone is gullible enough to believe doctored images as proof).

Alternatively they aren't trying to scam you but use you to facilitate money laundering.

A common variant of this is to claim they overpaid you, forwarding a fake transaction document/email of some kind asking you to refund the difference.
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This - it's a well known scam on Autotrader, they offer to pay full price for the car, but have 'problems' with the company picking up the car (they obviously cannot pick up because they Overseas, on an oil rig, in hospital etc). They overpay by mistake, you refund and they keep the refund and you are out of pocket. Or they just simply don't turn up and you have given the 'driver' the payment from your account and the scammers payment gets reversed or never clears.

Looks like the scam has been swapped to use against restaurants.

You also got further than i would in conversing with this scum.
 
ivrytwr3 said:
This - it's a well known scam on Autotrader, they offer to pay full price for the car, but have 'problems' with the company picking up the car (they obviously cannot pick up because they Overseas, on an oil rig, in hospital etc). They overpay by mistake, you refund and they keep the refund and you are out of pocket. Or they just simply don't turn up and you have given the 'driver' the payment from your account and the scammers payment gets reversed or never clears.

Looks like the scam has been swapped to use against restaurants.

You also got further than i would in conversing with this scum.
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Yes but with these, like I say above, they send fake PayPal emails claiming of a pending incoming payment. You don't actually physically receive dodgy/stolen funds in your account.

No driver ever turns up.
 
I would now simply either ignore them or reply saying "I'm sorry, we have had another booking so can no longer accept this".
 
Reeks of a scam to me, just be “imaginative” in your responses and keep us entertained please. :D
 
LeeUK said:
Yes but with these, like I say above, they send fake PayPal emails claiming of a pending incoming payment. You don't actually physically receive dodgy/stolen funds in your account.

No driver ever turns up.
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Yes, as per Autotrader scam, the next stage would be photoshoppped Paypal receipts showing payment to you, "i made a mistake, if you could refund the amount i overpaid..............."
 
wez130 said:
So, as you know, i own a restaurant. On Thursday, we got an email from someone requesting a copy of the menus...



So, I thought the wording was strange from the off, hey ho, i replied with a copy of our menus...

I then received a reply back...

Again, a little unusual, but i'll go with it. I replied...



His response was...



By now, i'm getting more cautious, however, we have a lot of Islanders over here, and it could be a language barrier being the cause of the wording. So, i'll remain polite...



So we've just had a reply today, This is where it gets weird, and i feel my suspicions are justified...



Still, being polite, i have replied...



So as you can see, It's screaming SCAM at me, but how?
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https://www.marga.org/foodblog/2009/08/online-scam-against-restaurant-owners/

https://www.mickmel.com/the-hearing-impaired-scam/

"I also learned how the scam works. The scammer will make a big reservation/purchase from you. He will then tell you that he also needs to pay someone else (limo drivers, transportation company, etc.) but for some reason he can’t do it directly, so he says he will pay you what he owes you plus what he owes the other company, and ask you to pay the other company for him. He will then give you either a stolen credit card number or a fake check. When your bank figures out that the credit card was stolen or the check was not good, it will require that you pay the falsely credit amount. By then you will have paid the shipping company that is in cahoots with the scammer, and you’ll be losing a big chunk of money."
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All i did was google the original email text.
 
might be worth notifying your bank anyways, just in case anything's attempted.

i'd flat-out ignore/block this, but if you wanted to play them a bit to find out if it's the least bit genuine, mail them and say you have a new contact for a shuttle bus firm and ask for their addresses so you can get a quote for them - say the company will also accept their credit cards.
 
As Rroff points out, sounds exactly like a money laundering scam.

Surely from a business finance/taxable point of view, you wouldn't be allowed to take "extra" payment from the card to then pass onto the driver.

I would just stick with what you've said, you can take deposit/full payment for the meals, but they will need to deal with the transportation. I'm sure if this was all legit they'd be able to phone a taxi/minibus company and arrange payment with them directly rather than going through you.
 
the_r_sole said:
It's not often a taxi costs 2.5x the cost of a dinner for 10?
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I respectfully refer you to the starry eyed fantasists on the taxi fare v Uber fare thread, but
be prepared to discover that the plural of taxi, (taxis), is often taxi’s in that thread.
 
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