Prospective Purchase Emails

[caryfh]

Has anyone else been getting emails like these?

Hello Sales Person,

John W Smith is my name and I am sending this email in regards to some

candles I want to special order from your shop.

Can I please have the list of candles and their fragrance you have available in your shop or your Website so that I can chose the right candle and fragrance I will need to purchase from your shop.

I will be more than happy to hear back from you with the prices.

Do you have credit card facility for credit card payment?

Regards

Mr John W Smith

They are frustrating... I would never believe that it was a valid lead for a sale, but it frustrates me because I can't figure out at what point of the deal they would try to run their scam or even what their scam is. This is the second one I've gotten this week, so now I fear that I'm going to just be bombarded by them.

[bells4shells]

I view these as #1, to see if it's a working email and #2, if they get a response they can continue OR sell your email as a valid one. Never respond back. If they're truly interested, they know how to find your website esp if your email has your website in it.

[islandgirl]

I view these as #1, to see if it's a working email and #2, if they get a response they can continue OR sell your email as a valid one. Never respond back. If they're truly interested, they know how to find your website esp if your email has your website in it.

Totally Agree.. If you have a website they can view your prices, scent list and CC accepted there. Throw that in your spam email in your spam account.

[LuminousBoutique]

lol like they couldnt come up with a better name than John Smith. I think the scam in these cases usually is that they either use a stolen credit card to buy ALOT of goods, or they try and steal YOUR financial info in the process of the transaction. I had someone try and do one of the money order scams on me.. yeah, no thanks buddy... momma didnt raise a fool.

[Bernadette]

Geez...I got two of these one day last week from the same guy! Terry Smith...must be John's brother:laugh2::laugh2:....he sent them within hours of each other...must of forgot he had already contacted me.

Here's a good check for you...when you get one of these, go to the source of the email, copy the isp, then go to whois.com, paste the isp in, and it will take you to the exact location of the sender. Mine came from Ghana. No thanks!

[caryfh]

Just tried the ISP address thing, but it only took me to the info for gmail (google). Bummer. Would like to know what scamming 3rd world country it came from. Perhaps they are just another group on a mission trip in Africa. These people really have no soul. Seems kind of funny that they would try to pass off their current occupation of being Christian missionaries, when they are doing a very un-christian thing. And what kind of idiot would think that these offers are valid? From a poor missionary, who wants to buy 1200 candles?? What?? I would have to be sniffing a few too many FO's to fall for their trap.

The last email I received of this sort, it seemed more like they were trying to get their hands on my physical address, which I don't disclose on the website. Almost makes me want to remove my general email address from the website so they have to contact me thru my contact form. I only added it at the suggestion of some people on this message board.

[Trae]

This is one I got yesterday. Anyone else get one from this name?

Hello Sir/Madam

This is Mr James Larry and am interesting in purchasing some of your Candles and will like you to get back to me with the types that u have in stock with the price and also the type of credit cards you do accept for payment so that we can process this purchase.hope to hear from you soon.

Mr James Larry.

Best Regard.

I emailed back explaining that all information is listed on my website and I got this response:

thank you for you reply and getting back to me here,well below is the type and quantities that i need and i want you to get back to me now with the total cost for that plus sales tax without the freight cost so that we can move on from there as i need it serious waiting to hear back from you soon thank you and best regard.

Half Pint Mason Jar

Scent - Apple Butter Caramel

$8.00

Qty:300 Pieces Needed

Mr james larry

I don't plan on responding back. It's pretty apparent that he just chose the first scent on my list. People have way too much time on their hands!

[caryfh]

The one I got before this one was like that. I told him that the cost for what he wanted was $..., and that he could process his transaction thru the website. They also did not want frieght/shipping costs included. The email I got back after that was about wanting an address for them to come collect them. Never heard back from them when I explained that we did not allow pick-ups and that we would be happy to bill the shipping charges to their shipper account.

I spent a little while trying to figure out what they needed the address for so badly. Were they going to try to pass off my company information as their own or something?

I've also had someone try to scam me about a bed set (double mattress and bed fram) that we listed on Craigslist. It was only listed for $150, and they were claiming they would pay to have it shipped. Ugh!!!

[Candybee]

Never respond to these generic requests as you are setting yourself up for more of the same emails and scammers. The dead giveaway is the poor english and asking you things that are already on your website. Please treat them as spam emails and do not respond!!

[SliverOfWax]

Why do you even open those stupid emails?

If somebody wants something, let them order and pay.

The end.

[caryfh]

?? Not sure where the hostility is coming from. The subject of the emails seems legitimate, and not in broken English so why wouldn't I open an email from a prospective client? I actually sell quite a few candles as wedding favors, and most of the details of those sales were discussed via email as opposed to being a blind sale over the internet. Granted, replying to the emails is a different situation all together, but just opening them seems like an appropriate thing to do since you can't tell the difference between a scammer and a real client just from the subject line.

[LynnS]

Trae

I got the James Larry one too.I am glad you posted but still I would trashes it. Wording is a dead give away.It doesn't make sense.

LynnS

[SliverOfWax]

If you're going to fool around with these emails, why don't you put a Captcha on your website?

These emails are all over the place. Why waste time with them? They aren't personal, they aren't geared toward you, there's no need to waste your time with them.

If you figure your time in your profit/loss, trying to read and figure out if those silly emails are real (they aren't) is putting you in the hole, profit-wise.

Delete buttons are very useful things.