Is this a scam e-mail post

I have holiday rentals in internet, and i recived this e-mail this morning and Ithink that is a scam.

Please you are sokind if you aid me.

Regards

Santiago



Name: Mark
Email: [email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Booking Enquiry...
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Dear Property Owner,

I am Mr Mark from Florida U.S. I want to know if this property is available to rent for the period below:

Checking in Date March-07-2010
Checking out Date March-31-2010.

Kindly get back to me if the property is available for the requested date and also i will like to have the total rental price for the period.

Kind Regards
Mark Anderson
Sent from my BlackBerry®

Mr Mark is a common fault of scammers, using first names instead of surnames in conjunction with a title. There are a couple of grammar slips too, but nothing to obviously indicate fraud. It looks like a pretty average request to me, but of course you get more of them than I do.

I think if you keep communicating, and keep us updated, we can tell if it is going to develop into an overpayment scam.

The e-mail address didn't come up in any searches relating to scams.

Welcome here santiago.

Could you post the full headers here so we can try to locate mr Mark. If you don't know how to get the headers then just ask

Than you very much for your warm welcome.

I told Mr Mark tha the aprtment is not available and then he answer this.

Dear Santiago,

Good to have your mail, well let me have the time and date that your property will be free to rent for 3 weeks rental and also i will like to have the total rental price for the available period.

Kind regards
Mark.
Sent from my BlackBerry®

Usually another scamers use this form. Dont need a concret period for stay. They only need a price for long terms 3 or 4 weeks or 1 or 2 months. This is my suspicion.

I´ll answer mr Mark. but I.m not sure to send my bank account or paypal dates.

I post his answer

Best Regards

It does smell like a scam, it would be wise not to give any bank or paypal details yet. If he's really interested to rent he will give more information like a date of arrival and departure and the number of people that will come along. People usually plan their holidays.

Hi Santiago

Like the others I have my suspicions about this one and you are right to be careful in any online transaction.

As suggested Mr Mark looks extremely scammy but it does not constitute proof of a scam.

Please keep us updated and do not provide any of your personal information until you are 100% sure.

The headers may provide us with the answers you seek, if you dont know how to view the header please let us know which email provider you use and we can give you specific instructions

Hello,

I ask Mr Mark 2 days ago, concret dates, number of persons, his postal adress and telephone number to contact directly.

They no answer yet. So I think his interest on booking my property is declined.

The people who rent always is very kind and warm and always response this questions.

I think the e-mail [email protected] is scam.

I advice you if I have changes

B.R
Santiago

Thank you for posting, Santiago.

I will say that even without your first follow-up email, the original email contains some mistakes (in addition to the name) that scream "scam" and I have no doubt that it is one. I won't point them out here as I do not want to offer free advice to scammers, but certain parts of the text place the writer outside of the US and are definitely consistent with Africa. The follow up emails do confirm the standard route of a scam--he is clearly looking for any opportunity to "pay" you.

With that said, he is writing from a yahoo address, so unless he is hiding behind a proxy, his location should be traceable from his IP address. Could you please post the headers (delete your email address) from one of his emails? These will help to provide evidence for those who are less experienced in identificaiton of scams.

Excuse me. My english is too bad, but i´m not a scamer ehhhh jejeje.
I think the header is this....

de Mark Anderson <[email protected]>
para XXXXXXXXX - Your name is not required - Michelle
fecha 11/01/2010 17:17
asunto Booking Enquiry...
enviado por yahoo.com

I have abother one suspicious, at first sight looks a inocent but I revised today and i think that is another scam, . I hope we can unmask this fraudulent people


Name: teresa rico
Address: Apple Valley, MN, United States
Email: [email protected]
Telephone:

From Date: 21/Mar/2010
To Date : 25//

People: 3

BR
Santiago

Its Ok Santiago, we know you are not a scammer

Headers will look something like this one that happens to be the header from a scammer's email;

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from murder ([unix socket]) by spool-host5.tpgi.com.au (Cyrus v2.2.12) with LMTPA; Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:14:26 +1100
X-TPG-Junk-Checked: Yes
X-TPG-Junk-Status: score=-3.9 tests=RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED,RDNS_NONE
X-TPG-Antivirus: Passed
X-TPG-DNSBL: Passed
X-TPG-Abuse: host=slow3-v.mail.gandi.net; ip=217.70.178.89; date=Thu, 7 Jan 2010 21:14:24 +1100
Received: from slow3-v.mail.gandi.net (slow3-v.mail.gandi.net [217.70.178.89]) by mx2.tpgi.com.au (envelope-from [email protected]) (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o07AEDpo005788 for Thu, 7 Jan 2010 21:14:24 +1100
Received: from relay1-d.mail.gandi.net (relay1-d.mail.gandi.net [217.70.183.193]) by slow3-v.mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94040130BE4 for Thu, 7 Jan 2010 10:36:23 +0100 (CET)
Received: from localhost (front1-v.mgt.gandi.net [10.0.10.71]) by relay1-d.mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95F922552F8 for ; Thu, 7 Jan 2010 10:35:17 +0100 (CET)
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Webmail
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: "X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6002.18005
Reply-To: "Knightsbridge Place London" <[email protected]>
X-TM-AS-Engine-Type: TMASE
X-TM-AS-Product-Ver: TMAS_OE-5.5.0.1434-6.0.1038-17116005
x-has-been-detected_normal: 1
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="utf-8"
x-has-been-checked: 1
X-TrendMicro-AntispamAddin-Checked: 1
X-TM-AS-User-Approved-Sender: Yes-Matched White List
X-Origin: 94.196.227.68
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 10:40:19 +0100
Subject: Re: Self Catering Apartment in London / Booking Reference: KNIGHS-17201109
From: "Knightsbridge Place London" <[email protected]>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-TPG-Junk-Result: determined as NOT junk email, not even with a medium detection setting

The instructions for finding these headers will vary depending on which email provider you use (hotmail/gmail/yahoo/ect) if you could tell us who your email account is with we can give you specific instructions.

If I recall, it was Yahoo, if you do use yahoo, follow these instructions;

Open the email that you want the header for
Scroll to the bottom of it and click on "Full headers".
the header will pop up in a new box,
if you could copy and paste it into a post or email/ PM to me or another support team member then we can most likely prove it is a scammer.

Please be sure if you do post the header to remove any of your own personal details such as your name and email address

If you write to [email protected] he will reply from IP address 41.219.218.151 (Lagos Nigeria) - not Florida U.S - with an e-mail very similar to this one :-

from Mark Anderson <[email protected]>
to XXXXXXXXXXXXX
date 14 January 2010
subject Holiday Confirmation and Further Details Needed...
mailed-by yahoo.com


Dear XXXXXXXX,

Am sorry i didn't not get in touch with you on the mail when the mail you sent me arrived, i just checked my mail and i saw the mail you sent me,anyway every thing is OK by me and i must confess to you that am really pleased staying in your property. I have decided that i will be sending the payment before i arrived so that you can confirm our booking. We wont want to face any problem, i want to know and i will need to know more about the weekly bills of the phone and the other house utilities such as gas cooking, electronic bills and etc..

I don't quite understand more about the air port i will like to know how far is the nearest air port to the property, i think i need to know this so that i will be able to know how long its will take us when we will be arriving into the city that the property is located. I will be in need of a car when we arrive. Our booking will be from the date below.

March 1st 2010 Checking in:
March 31st 2010 Checking out:

I understand that the rental will cost us £2500. In the previous mail, indicated that i will be in need of 2 laptops when we arrived and at the present time i have booked for it so that my family and I will not lack any thing when we arrive and as well enjoy our stay. I will be issuing the payment for the laptops along with rental cost which is £2500 with the delivery. The total cheque you will be receiving will be £5000 for confirmation of the rental. This becomes important because am currently on a business trip to Denmark and am indispose to handle the purchase directly. I will appreciate your kind assistance in this regard.

And also on how i will received a rental contract, you can build the rental contract in my family name so that we can come along with the rental contract signed either before we arrives or when we arrive and when you are sending us the rental contract you can indicate all the rules and the regulation so that everyone will be able to read the rules and the regulations. I think this will help us a lot. Use the details below for the contract:

RENTAL CONTRACT
RENTAL CONTRACT DETAILS BELOW.
Mr Mark Anderson : Father 49 Age...
Mrs Barbara Anderson : Wife 38....
Stacy Anderson Daunghter 14...
Rick Anderson Son 8...
Address: 36342 South Barrington Ave.
Los Angeles, California,90066
U.S.A..

For me to be able to send the payment to you, i will need to know the Name that i will issue the payment (Cheque) to and also the address that i will be sending the payment (Cheque) to and also i will need your home land phone and also your mobile so that i can call you.

For the contract and the payment, the payment will be issue out in French Cheque and it will be OK in your bank in 2 to 3 days, You can send the contract by email attachment and scan it by email i will fill the form and send the contract back to you OK.

Yours sincerely
Anderson's Family.

Let me have have the details below.

Name that will be on the Cheque
Address that the check will be sent to.
Phone number.
Fax Number for the contract.

This is a scam. One of my members has received an identical email with the same dates (only the amounts were different).

The scam is normally - you will receive a cheque for (£5000/£4000) and pay it into your bank. After a few days it will appear to "clear" and the money available in your account. You would then be asked to forward the difference between the cost of your accommodation and the amount on the cheque, by wire transfer to "an agent". The cheque would eventually "bounce" and you would have lost the money sent by wire transfer.

This one is, I believe, similar to one which nearly caught one of my members a few years ago - it started as normal, cheque arrived and was paid into the bank where it apparently cleared. Shortly afterwards two laptops arrived at the member's house along with the invoice. He then emailed the client (in this case Mr Mark Anderson) that the laptops had arrived OK. By return he received an email stating that due to unforseen circumstances they had to cancel the booking, could they please pay the invoice from the cheque money, keep £250 as a "cancellation fee" plus an extra £100 as postage costs, and send the laptops to an address, and wire transfer the balance of the money.
Luckily the scam was spotted, I advised my member not to send on the laptops or any money, and after a few weeks he heard from his bank that the cheque was fraudulent. He then contacted the supplier of the laptops and explained what had happened, they were very understanding and arranged for them to be collected.

This could have been very expensive - the cost of two laptops plus any money sent on by wire transfer.

Sorry it's been a long story but I thought I'd better give a full explanation of how the scam works so hopefully you'll recognise it if it appears again.

Removed name for your safety- Ralph

Hi Sappas,

Thank you for posting this information, it will go a long way to helping to prevent others from being scammed