so…. last week I got an odd email from a girl named Natasha Williams. It went something like this:
Hello,
My name is Natasha Williams, I live and work in Aberdeen. I met my husband who is a south African last year and we would like to seal it this April.
My parents insisted that we must have a traditional wedding their and later pick a country of our choice for the church wedding and so we have decided to do it in the US because he has relatives in the STATE and it has always been my dreams to wed in the UNITED STATES. So we have chosen somewhere in indianapolis, INDIANA in USA.
In the light of this, we would need a professional photographer to help us cover the events in there in the state, because we believe it will not be cost wise to include a photographer to the list of people that will be coming for our wedding in the UNITED STATES. As regards, the size of the wedding and the size or dimension of the photographs to be taken at the event, my planner will be coming over to your office for he will be in the best position to give my requirement and other necessary details.
1.)So I want to know if you will be available to provide service at the event which will come up on the 26th of April this year,
2.)You shall be arriving 1 day before the ceremony to avoid disappointment (It depends).,
3.)I want to know how much you charge for the service excluding transportation and accommodation for it will be taken care.,
4.)I want to know your deposit so as to get assured of the date without any form of disappointment.
Due to the nature of my job, we intend paying with a certified cashiers drawn in the US bank and made payable in full to you or your company. If you don’t have problem with that let me have the Full NAME and ADDRESS want the payment mailed to.
Regards,
Natasha.
I got a few emails from other wedding photographers both in Indianapolis and other parts of the country telling me that they had received it, too… so I know there are a LOT of us getting it. One photographer told me that she was having to deal with some lady who needed them to send a cashiers check to get the ball rolling. I asked if her name was Natasha Williams. She said, “how’d you know!?” My response… “because it’s a scam” She was shocked. And while I thought the email was CLEARLY a scam… some may not recognize it as quickly. So, I guess I just thought that maybe I should tell you all in case you didn’t notice it was a NOT a good deal…
You know you’ve made it to the big time when you start getting email scams 🙂
So, Natasha… good luck finding that perfect wedding photographer!
And because no one pays attention to posts without photos… here’s a visual representation of my feelings for you Miss “Natasha Williams” Okay… I’m OFFICIALLY a dork. 😀
~ ❗ +
PS. that photo was taken towards the end of a 15 hour day… I promise you that I don’t start my day looking like that hot mess. HA!
LOL Yep, we got it too…crazy!!
Erin
i got the same one too…but to shoot in Oklahoma!
She is evil and she cannot have my day anyway big jerk lady!
Ha ha! Spam emails can be so funny sometimes! As long as you know they are spam… 😉 That one was tricky!
Thanks Bobbi! Love it when the bad guys get it:)
There is also one from “Sharon May” circulating. They are now using the online vendor listings as well. We received our first one from Eventplanners-directory.com the other day. It seemed pretty legit until I got the reply back. Everyone please beware!
some people suck 🙁
You crack me up.
Love you,
Momba
Hahahahaa girl you’re so silly!! I’ve heard about this going around. People are also sending out emails about helping them with education, and jobs, wanting to send YOU a check (“deposit”)to cash then send THEM a check to cash and what will happen is it will bounce in your account and you’ll be out thousands of dollars. Be wary of anything like that, especially when they TypE wiTh bAd TYpe and broKen egnwish!
I keep getting e-mails telling me that I need a larger penis, what does it mean!
ShaolintTiger… that might be in my top ten favorite blog comments… EVER! HAHAHAHA!!!!
~ ❗ +
Hey Bobbi! That sucks that all you guys are getting those emails. I have to tell you that Brandon (my husband) and I had sold a Xbox on ebay, well everything was ok, they “paid” through a specific company (not paypal), i got the confirmation email and all. My thing is that I do NOT ship the item unless I have the money in my bank account. The lady wanted me to hurry and ship it out cause it was for her step sons birthday and wanted to get it to him becore his birthday. Well they wanted all the information from the receipt confirming that it was shipped and when it will arrive….I still hadn’t received the money. So basically we lost an xbox and the $3oo that we spend originally buying it, and the money we were supposed to get from selling it.
I fought and fought with ebay asking if I could get my money back or if they could track this person down somehow. Turns out it was a HUGE scam, the company they used was a copy of another comany that they altered. Since I shipped the item overseas…..to South Africa, I couldnt get my money back.
It was a bad deal and I still get mad about it but what can ya do, it was like 3 years ago. Next thing I know, I heard it all over the news not to send money or buy things that came from a specific place in Africa!!!
Just glad you didn’t fall into the scam! 🙂
Hey, we’re free that day, send her over to us!
Yeah we heard about this one too. Good work detective.
-imadork
…let’s put it this way – be thankful that the scam came via EMAIL because mine came via the phone and it even involved some collect phone calls…
Also originated in Africa (Nigeria, to be exact) and they needed picture frames to frame their certificates to commemorate the 40th year anniversary of their church’s school and they claimed to have gotten my contact info online since I do work with a local church there so they thought they could “trust” me – yeah, I fell for it hook-line-AND-sinker…until my father-in-law-to-be swooped in to rescue me JUST before I did anything stupid…at least HE knew it was a scam!
I tell you what – it’s awesome you caught it when you did and it’s even MORE awesome that you’re posting about it because I GUARANTEE that you just saved another poor soul somewhere from getting suckered!
Good goin’ Bobbi!
(and to all of you scammers…SHAME ON YOU!)
I’m finding a new home for my puppy, and listed him on petfinder.com…I get several scam emails a day now of that sort, telling me that they read my “advert” and will send me a check for $1,000, telling me to deposit it, keep my asking price for the dog (um, he’s free, w/ a $40 adoption fee!), and give the rest via money order to his “emmissary” for payment of other animals, airfare and travel for the dog, and “other debts owed.” RIGHT.
mine went like this……
“Have your deposit deducted from the $6,700.12 and send the rest to my Florist i hired in Europe .Get back to me when you receive it in-order to provide you with my Florist informations to send it via western union .Looking forward meeting you
Regards
Thomas”
UGH- i can not believe these people.
idiots.
these are crazy. i’m glad all of you are smart enough not to fall into it! My parents also got scammed on ebay/paypal for a ring, i think they eventually got their $2000 back, but still. Crazy SCAMMING freaking world we live in huh? Imagine what our kids are going to have to go through when they’re adults. It’s just SAD!
you are so freakin funny. Thanks for sharing this info with everyone…some people suck!!
So random!!! We got it too! You would think people would have better things to do. Hope you are both doing well!