Scam Alert

[scentsationaldelites]

I wanted to inform all of you of a recent inquiry I have received so you don’t fall into the trap of wasting time and energy even responding to this inquiry if you should receive one.

I received an e-mail to my home e-mail address which is listed as a contact on the IGCA website. First message received on October 30 from e-mail address Gosh_Consult@yahoo.com with a subject Candles enquiry:

Hello Sir/Madam

Accept my apology if this should be a wrong contact, i am

therefore enquiring if i could purchase Candles from your company.

Kindly advise available types and pricing respectively.

Best regards

Gosh consult

Tel: 9154404099

I responded to the message with an electronic copy (pdf) of my brochure since I had my website down for maintenance. The following day, I received this response:

Ann,

Thanks for the prompt response however,we require assortment of below Candles and our budget is $4000.00.

Kindly advise availability ASAP.

Regards

Greg.

(I removed the different products and pricings from the reply above to reduce the length of this message.)

Please note that the person who responded was Greg, and Gosh was the one who made the initial inquiry. I responded with the following:

I have an assortment of popular candle scents per your message below that would be available for shipment next week. Please advise where the candles are being shipped to. Thanks.

Three days later, I received this response:

Ann,

The candles will be shipped to 3100 hawthorne str, sarasota FL 34239.

Advise how to proceed ASAP.

Regards

Greg.

I did a reverse address search on the above address and found it to be in a mobile home park. I responded with an inquiry of whether the shipping address was a residential or commercial property, attached my shipping and returns policy and informed him that my website was back up again. I did not hear from him for another 10 days. Below is the response:

Ann,

Am very sorry for the late response i have been out of town for an external business trip.We however want to proceed with the order and want to know if you have finally got the whole order ready for delivery, so i could proceed with 100% advance payment and have a delivery company of my choice pick the Candles from your company.Also reconfirm total cost after tax.

Regards

Greg

I responded that he would need to place an order on my website so I could secure his credit card information in order to proceed with processing his order.

His response:

Ann,

Yes i do not want the Holiday scents exclud them from my order and let me have the rest the Candles,budget once again is $4000.00 excluding shipping. Kindly reconfirm ETA if we make 100% advance payment by tomorrow.

Regards

Greg.

On November 17 I received this message, subject Delivery:

After talking to my colleagues we have decided to have the Candles sent to it original destination in Nairobi Kenya as we are donating them to a Charity Organization.

Am however working with the delivery company and will have them contact you to get approximate weight and pick up details for quotes,so we proceed with payment from there..

Regards

Greg

I responded with the following message:

Greg,

I understand you don't want the Holiday scents. They will not be included in your order. I have half of the order ready to be boxed up to prepare for shipping and would have the complete order ready for shipment on Wednesday, November 26. If you accept this date, please proceed with payment. Thanks.

Kindly,

Ann Bick

ScentSational DeLites

I received this message from realtyshipping@realtyagent.com

My name is Larry from realty shipping i have been advise to contact you in regards to pickup

of Candles to Tamwee Charity Ctr,23 Haile Sel. Rd , Nairobi 00100 Kenya.Please advise pickup address ,

approximate weight,dimension,and total value for quotes.

Operation Manager

Realty Shipping Int'l.

Tel: 9107785444

I responded and copied Greg with the following message:

Hello Larry,

I was wondering if you have size or weight requirements for the boxes of candles to be shipped? Once I have received payment from Greg for the candles, I will be able to release the information you requested below. I will not release candles until payment in full has been received.

Regards,

Ann Bick

ScentSational DeLites

Greg responded with this message:

We wanted to know how much shipping to Nairobi Kenya will cost us so we know how much we gonna spend on the order plus delivery.

Please supply Realty shipping approximate weight for the order to enable me get shipping quotes.

Regards

Greg

I responded to Greg with this message:

Greg,

I hope you have done some homework on the shipper you have selected. If not, you should be made aware that the website address and e-mail he uses has been identified on this website http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-273-scam-business-emails as a common domain name used by fake businesses online. I wouldn’t want you to be taken advantage of for your charitable organization’s efforts. By the way, I can’t find any information on Tamwee Charity Ctr either, fyi.

Regards,

Ann

I have not heard back from Greg, Gosh, or Larry the shipper since I sent this message on Tuesday November 18.

Please do your homework when you receive inquiries that seem odd. Check out this page for known scam business e-mails http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-273-scam-business-emails

If they don’t include last names, telephone numbers other than a cell phone or a viable address, it’s likely a scam.

[Freezin]

Wow! Good job on being on your toes. Too bad they wasted all your time. Thanks for sharing the information.

[MissMary]

This is a pretty common scam and there are tons of threads here relating the same issues, only the names change. I specifically do not do international orders because of these types of scams.

[doris]

Almost any email that addresses me as Sir/Madam gets the boot. The next 3 lines would have sealed its fate definitely. I get emails like that all the time, and I don't even sell online.

[doglover]

This is a pretty common scam and there are tons of threads here relating the same issues, only the names change. I specifically do not do international orders because of these types of scams.

DITTO....and another red flag...someone sending an email to a candle website, asking if you sell candles?

This time of year you will undoubtedly receive a bunch of these type of emails. I receive 1-3 per week. I use the "delete" button.

[SherriLynn]

I too get scads of these emails,,,, they usually hit the delete pile in very short order.

The flag with this email is the 915 area code on the phone number , asking to have the candles shipped to FL..... Hmmmm.. 915 area code,, is Texas.. Big heads up right there, it was probably not a legit email....

[TheQueen]

I truly hope you were pulling his leg when you said you had half the candle ready for shipping.

[Ring of Fire]

I truly hope you were pulling his leg when you said you had half the candle ready for shipping.

That's what I am thinking. Did you make $2000.00 worth of candles already? That would not be good.

Amazing all the talk we have about scams people still do not realize one from the get go.

[CareBear]

If so, hopefully they would just be candles she has in stock?

[Candybee]

I'm a little stumped why you weren't aware this was a scam from the get go. I get these emails a lot and just dump them. Well at least you are wiser for it.

[RNSandSCENTS]

LOL...I think she was pulling his leg the whole time! Good for you! I can spot these emails a mile away. It is really a shame that these people make a living scamming folks instead of working hard like everyone else to get what they want in life. These people make me want to lose my religion, ugh!

[scentsationaldelites]

Thanks for all the comments. Believe me I did my homework from the beginning. I did a reverse phone number search and learned that the number was a cell phone, did an area code look up and found out the number was from Texas, asked where the product was going to be shipped to early on because I was not going to send something over seas, his initial response was an address in Florida. I did a reverse address search and learned that the shipping address was a mobile home park. Wrote to him requesting if the shipping address was a residential or commercial property, etc.

No, I did not have the product boxed up and ready to ship (I was trying to get him to either come forward with the money), but I do have that much in inventory presently.

The whole premise of me posting this on the forum was to let other candle makers be aware in case he tries to contact someone else. I'm fully aware of all the scams that are going on and what to look for. I intentionally left his spelling and grammatical errors in the message so others can learn from this. I also wanted to share the website address in my first post so you can look up e-mail addresses of known scam websites associated with them.

Additionally, I posted this same message on the IGCA website and learned within an hour that he has unfortunately contacted another candle maker in Columbus Ohio.

Fortunately, the only thing taken from me was my wasted time in even responding to him.

[Ring of Fire]

With all the internet fraud and identity theft going on I would not want to play around with emails back and forth with a scammer. Not good judgment if you already knew this was a scam, IMO. Most of us know these emails because we get them almost on a daily basis. I am sure this same guy and many like him have contacted hundreds of candle makers. Not hard to find on the internet. In fact, you don't even have to have a website to get them. Wonder how they get your email?

Anyone who falls for them deserves it, IMO.

[Che65]

Glad you were on your toes scentsationaldelites. I haven't started selling my Candles yet. But, know with almost everything these days, there's a Scam involved. Which is bad for the honest person. I get these types of e-mails everyday. Sometimes, I don't even open them. Depending on what mood I'm in, I email back , and tell them to get a Honest Life. That GOD don't like ugly. Is, there any fear in their heart (NO) but, I tell them anyway. Hope I don't get kicked off the board for this. If, I could meet up with someone that nasty, I would try to beat the dust off of them. and I'm a sweet person:grin2: But, hate for good , hard , honest people to be taken avantage of, especially our Older generation (which use to be by Phone). Now it's everyone by Internet. Everyone just be careful.

[TheQueen]

You can pretty much rest assured that if someone wants to purchase candles on that scale without first trying your products, it's a scam. Would you spend that kind of money on something unseen? Didn't think so.

[VerticallyEnhanced]

with a subject Candles enquiry:

Dead giveaway to me. If they cannot compose an email using correct spelling/grammar, it hits the delete folder.

[funkymonkey66]

I get them almost daily and just delete them right away. I never fell for the scams or emailed anyone back, but I wonder if because some of us get so many if we should be more worried about potential viruses and trojans than them scamming us out of anything. A few of these do slip through my spam folder and a couple times after running my anti virus software it detects spyware. I have no way of telling where the spyware came from so it may be coincidence. That's kind of what stinks about Outlook, it partially opens the email so if something is in it then it could be too late. I just deleted Outlook off my computer for that very reason.

[TheQueen]

Dead giveaway to me. If they cannot compose an email using correct spelling/grammar, it hits the delete folder.

'Enquiry' is actually not a misspelling, just the British version. I see this a lot.`

[jennifer]

The most recent scam e-mail I recieved was typed entirely in caps except of course the signature lines which are pre-added to all their e-mails.

[MissMary]

'Enquiry' is actually not a misspelling, just the British version. I see this a lot.`

Yep, it's also default on several carts, OSCommerce for sure. I had to go in and change the coding for our spelling.