SCAM or real deal

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Delete

[chrispick]

It ABSOLUTELY is a scam. It's a current variation of the Spanish Prisoner scam (60 Minutes has covered it in one of its other variations; David Manet made a movie about it).

I recommend cutting off all contact immediately if you haven't already. Just walk away.

[lampostudio]

Well it's been a week since I send him the email stating he doesn't need to send a deposit just pay me the day of the session and I haven't heard back from him yet, and I guess I won't. (see my post, last post on page one)
Let people know about this attempt to scam recording studios...ya never know!

Thanks to everyone for the wisdom. Sometimes it's hard to look past the oppertunity to make a few bucks and that's what a scam artist goes for.
Al

Wow, what if this guy shows up at the studio on Sept. 16 and says "Hey Mon, I'm ready to do sum trackin'"...lol

Thanks again everyone.

[toobiesnack]

i think this may have somehing to do witht the value of the US dollar.
ever heard of the FOREX excange market?
people make millions just exchanging money from different curreny markets.

and ther probabaly is no FOREX exchange in south africa...

see he will convert SA cah to us then us to uk and then uk bakc to sa and he will cash in.

i don't see how it could be worth $1000 dollars to him though ..
maybe we should all be doing this .. LOL

anyway scam as it might be .. it is probably all legal but ..
the only thing i would be concerned with is:
is this some kind of terrorist funding operation..
maybe this should be reported to the propper athorities ...
also remember there is civil unrest in this country ....
and this may be a trade imbargo loophole
his us money can spend anywhere buit his SA currency will be scrutinized.
hope this helps
laterr
ts

[draudio2u]

BTW - don't even trust a Certified Bank Check. I received one when selling my car from "Bank of America" and my bank accepted it. They even told me many times "the check is good and the funds are in your account". Ten days later, bank calls back saying it was forged. You don't want to know what happened in between.

You dodged a huge bullet. Good for you.

[lampostudio]

Thanks,
After I told him no deposit was required the guy gave up and moved on to another mark I guess. I haven't heard from him...Thanks to everyone for tha GOOD advice.

[twistedtom]

I have heard this same scam being pulled before, seems like it mostly comes out of Africa.
I had a check forged with my bank numbers on it. The check had some one else's name ( account owner ) not mine on it and the bank still cashed it. They must have made up a random number and printed it on the check. I had to close the account. The account was used for my morgage payment and had all automatic deposits and withdrawls. I took me over a mounth to fix the problem.

[lsdd]

I'm always getting these!!!!
Stay away from these guys!!! I heared of a fellow who went along with one of these scams and was lured to Africa and killed!

[Spikey Horse]

I must have missed this first time round...... I'm not sure what the (recent) post before mine is all about ....???.... but having read the original topic ... yes it's definately a scam......er.....obviously!

For example, a common variation on the one you got is when you advertise something to sell on the internet, say for £100.... someone emails saying they have a cheque for £500 that they can't cash (I forget the reason) so they will assign it to you, send it to your bank, you pay it in and then send them back the £400.... you do all this and the cheque goes through *apparently* but after you've sent back the difference it obviously bounces and you've just lost £400!

Most of these come out of the Ivory Coast / Nigeria but sometimes they use contacts elsewhere.

With many of the scammers you can actually bait them and keep up a chain of correspondance (pretending to be ignorant) just to waste their time (....um....er...and yours too!). Some scam baiters actually succeed in scamming the scammers out of money! However, that is a VERY uncommon occurance and requires some dedication, time, expertise and luck!

The main thing to remember is NEVER EVER give any personal info to any of them and use a made up yahoo email account because its address will soon be passed around to other scammers etc

Better yet, never reply to any scam emails and just trash them - life is too short!

For more info on scammers and the sport of scammer baiting visit:

http://scamorama.com/

[vsomedia]

this is simply a variation of the classic "Nigerian Scam"
see this link
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp

You can't even trust that if the money appears to clear, you're in the clear. Usually your bank will clear this transaction before they receive the actual funds, if they don't you become liable for any money you've spent, like the money you send to the "producers" in the UK.
These days things like certified funds aren't as secure as we'd like to think, too many high tech bandits out there.

[David Polich]

This is TOTALLY A SCAM. It's the same thing as the "Nigerian money scheme" that people fall for. Someone sends you an e-mail saying they are from Nigeria, or South Africa, or some other far-off place, and they have to park millions in your bank account for "awhile" in order to avoid losing an inheritance that will otherwise go to whatever evil government is in charge of their nation at the time. In return, they promise to let you keep a few mil for yourself - and hey, all they need is a bank account number and routing info.

C'mon - there are recording studios and producers wherever this person is.

It's not un-Christian to take a "go f--yourself" attitude towards this type of thing. These are criminals preying on trusting people. They're evil.

[standingwave]

(edit - just realised this is an old thread recently revived with a new reply so I'm just repeating what everyone (including myself) has said already)

It's a well known scam.

You can look it up here (or a variation of it).

scamorama.com

You have two options.

1 - forget about it - life's too short.

2 - play with him (string him along) to see just how ridiculous his ploys to get money out of you become. Just don't give any (real) personal info!!!!


It works like this: the money he sends you will not clear - although it may appear to have done initially (remember he will press you to move quickly on all transactions) you then forward the $4000 from your account to the 'other guy'. By the time you realise his money never made it it's too late. Guess who the 'other guy' is who gets to keep your $4000?!

Any email like this from Africa (especially the Ivory Coast) is likely to be a scam. (no offence to the wonderful non scamming rest of the population in Africa! )

Another popular variation is to use this for buying items you are selling on ebay etc.

P.S. For more info on scams wire me $100 by western union today!

[mhschmieder]

There's an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about a guy who got arrested even though he was the victim of fraud and even though he alerted the bank to his suspicions in advance. It's a scary story because his rights were ignored, etc. It could happen to any of us.

What is the likelihood of any "offer" such as the one described here being for real? I'd say way less than one in a million, and probably less than one in a billion. Those aren't good odds. Stay away from such "deals".

[swampfox]

I always report these to spamcop. I get these things all the time. Occasionally one gets busted!

Wally Smith

[therealbigd]

biggest question is: is it worth the hassle?

99% of clients you work with won't need 2-3 pages of internet forums to help you decide whether you should work with them or not. I'd stick with that 99% personally.

plenty more fish in the sea!