Another Scam?

This morning I received an e-mail from a fellow in Indonesia who was interested in some prints.

This is the e mail:

Dear Sir or Madam,



I would like to place an order from your store, but before I put My order here, I would like to know about the answers of these questions below :



- Do you ship overseas to Indonesia ?

Which Courier service that you used for overseas order, DHL or FedEx ?

- Can I use My Card for the payment ? Visa, Mastercard or AMEX ?



Once I get those information, then I will send you the order details.



Please respone asap regarding this matter.



Thanks,

Regard,

Brian Simanjuntak.

MULTIVISION, Tbk.

This is my reply:

Dear Brian,
I use Fed Ex, Dhl, or UPS, whichever you prefer.
Use of your card for payment is fine.
I have shipped worldwide and I will continue to do so.

All the best,

Domenico Foschi
My antenna naturally are up, especially since he wanted an immediate reply....
But then the fellow after 5 minutes from my reply actually calls me by phone.
I tried to talk with him just to found out if i could detect ill intentions, but there wasn't much to say since his english wasn't very decifrable.
Has anybody had something like that happening that wasn't real?

Did you read http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=19939 ?

I'll bet it'll turn out to be a scam. But just in case it isn't... good luck!

Domenico, the only way I would take an order like this is by wire transfer or Western Union. Credit cards are easily stolen and you would be held hodlign the bag minus prints and money. This is most certainly a scam!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by domenico Foschi

This morning I received an e-mail from a fellow in Indonesia who was interested in some prints.

This is the e mail:

Dear Sir or Madam,



I would like to place an order from your store, but before I put My order here, I would like to know about the answers of these questions below :



- Do you ship overseas to Indonesia ?

Which Courier service that you used for overseas order, DHL or FedEx ?

- Can I use My Card for the payment ? Visa, Mastercard or AMEX ?



Once I get those information, then I will send you the order details.



Please respone asap regarding this matter.



Thanks,

Regard,

Brian Simanjuntak.

MULTIVISION, Tbk.

This is my reply:

Dear Brian,
I use Fed Ex, Dhl, or UPS, whichever you prefer.
Use of your card for payment is fine.
I have shipped worldwide and I will continue to do so.

All the best,

Domenico Foschi
My antenna naturally are up, especially since he wanted an immediate reply....
But then the fellow after 5 minutes from my reply actually calls me by phone.
I tried to talk with him just to found out if i could detect ill intentions, but there wasn't much to say since his english wasn't very decifrable.
Has anybody had something like that happening that wasn't real?

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He never actually stated that he was interested interested in your prints. It's pretty safe to say that it's a SCAM if they do not use your name and do not state what specific item they want. "order from your store" is the key in this new-ish scam. I think it's also pretty safe to say that anyone emailing from Lagos is probably not at all interested in your photographs ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Gordon

I think it's also pretty safe to say that anyone emailing from Lagos is probably not at all interested in your photographs ;)

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When did Lagos get relocated to Indonesia? ;)

Oh God,

Brian! The e mail in ,your link is exactly the same, literally.
If I will be in the right mood I will play along, otherwise I will try to be as rude as possible.
I can't believe the guy actually called me.

Thanks to everybody, you helped me to save money and frustration.
All the best.

This may come as a surprise to some, but there are actually honest people in Indonesia too. Possibly even in Nigeria.
I can also imagine that these honest people are finding it increasingly difficult to buy anything over the internet...

One common "phishing" scam is the ebay "second offer". I've had three of these offers. One just didn't jive at all, I had bid far, far below what the object was worth. When I received the offer I contacted the seller through ebay - yes, it was a scam. The other two were genuine, and got me some of my nicest photo items.

So that scams often look like this, is no guarantee that this really is a scam!

If you only shipped to the billing address of the credit card, it should be safe, isn't it?

Obviously this is a generic message sent to many addresses on the off-chance that a recipient has something to sell and bites. I doubt that photographic prints made with LF equipment is high on the desired list of scammers. I get these all the time... just ignore and move on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ole Tjugen

This may come as a surprise to some, but there are actually honest people in Indonesia too. Possibly even in Nigeria.
I can also imagine that these honest people are finding it increasingly difficult to buy anything over the internet...!

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Interesting observation... and one to remember to avoid blatant bigotry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ole Tjugen

So that scams often look like this, is no guarantee that this really is a scam!

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True again. It would only be a scam if the next message was a request to buy $200 worth of prints, but accept a credit card charge for $2500 and send the difference in cash to the "buyer". If all the guy wants is a couple of prints and pays the correct amount and has it shipped to a legitimate address, then there isn't a scam. But it will take (at least) one more iteration of correspondence to start discriminating between honest-Indonesian-buyer and dishonest-scammer.