I got a text from someone calling himself Reverend Franklen Jard, and the first thing he wants to know is if I accept credit cards...
We go back and forth with several texts; he wants me to survey a vacation property, on a river, 3 hours away. I tell him a price and email him a contract. He sends me back the contract, signed, but no billing address, and now he wants me to take an additional $4,600 off his card and give it to his Architect...
At this point, he hasn't given me any money, and I tell him I won't be able to help him.?ÿ
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Then I get an email from someone else, says his name is Michael Williams, and he wants me to do a survey on a .25 acre lot, 4 hours away! He says he's in ICU with lung cancer and wants it done before he gets out of the hospital, and oh, by the way, do you accept credit cards...
I told him I wasn't going to be able to help him either.
Neither of these guys had a good grasp of the English language; I spoke with the first guy on the phone and couldn't understand a word he said.
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Anybody else dealing with this type of scam? I've talked to several people and everyone says it smells like a scam. A contractor friend said he lost $5,000 in a similar deal.
Should I contact the FBI?
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Be careful out there!
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Dougie
Contact FBI, yes and give them all the information you have.
I send questionable emails to here:
spam@uce.gov
Start with the state agency that deals with fraud. They can point you to the proper jurisdiction. The FBI is unlikely to help if there is no obvious interstate component?ÿ
It was reported earlier on this site (or maybe the California surveyor's site) that the scammers were getting their email information through a search here.
I got the first request quite awhile ago, and like Radar says, their command of English was poor.?ÿ That always gives me a clue.
I'll bet they go on other websites (architects, contractors, electricians, etc.) and do the same thing.
I get those sorts of emails constantly. The new trick is to create a fake email account with the name of someone you should trust and then make a somewhat reasonable, yet unreasonable request. They are also finding names and email addresses off of the professional society websites. The broken English and bizarre email address are usually the tip offs. I have also received emails from texts disguised as 'trusted' names.
If you are into that sort of thing, it's pretty easy to send an email with whatever "From" address you want. But most of them are of the form "friendsname" <1234@badguy.com?ÿ and are easy to spot if your email client displays the full address like it should.
A similar scheme has targeted Justices of the Peace (JP). Someone stranger wants to arrange a wedding; no detailed knowledge of the area, and no local contact information. No one I know fell for it, but I understand that if someone agreed, they would receive a payment that was considerably too large, and be asked to pay the excess to a "videographer" (another stranger). The victim would send a valid, irreversible payment to the "videographer" but the payment to the JP would turn out to be worthless.
