Peterson Cole, possible scam, help...?

Hi,

I advertised myself as a guitar tutor on Gumtree and received interest from someone called Peterson Cole (email address [email protected])

Hello
Good day, my son micheal will be coming to your country for vacation on jun, 30th 2010 and he will be leaving july ,12th 2010 i will want you to pls take him some lesson for the period that he will spending over there and i will want you to pls calculate the amount for the time he will be using per day.i think i will want him to spend 11am to 12pm with you every day. pls get back to me the price for the hours in just two weeks and i will get to you with payment.and i will want you to to pls let me know of you can take him.or other important things i need to know. sir i will be glad if you can help me out and i will also be sincere with you and pay as soon as possible.thanks very much....Regards

peterson

I replied with

Hi Peterson,

Thank you very much for your interest!

So, just to confirm, that's lessons from the 30th June - 12th July, 13 lessons, or do you want me to start the day after he arrives and the day before he leaves? So that would be 11 lessons (from 1st July - 11th July)

The things that I need to know would be:

What does Micheal want to learn? (if there is anything in particular, so I write lessons to suite, for instance any particular styles or songs)
Is he bringing his guitar and is that an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar?
Whereabouts is Micheal staying, is it in ********?

Usually for an hours lesson I charge £** but as this is a intensive course of lessons I'm happy to charge £**. For 13 lessons that would be £*** or £*** for 11 lessons.

Please let me know what he wants to learn as soon as possible so I can start to tailor lessons for him.


Regards,

****

He replied with

hello
Thanks very much for the mail.That is ok with me.So for the sessions ,it will be £***,my son is 15yrs old He will come along with all his necessary accessories,i am from the United state.I hope i will be able to trust you with my money,since this requires honesty and transparency.I have an associate of mine owing me the sum of £2000 i will instruct him to write out the cheque to you,so when you receive it you will £*** the cost for the sessions and send the remaining funds to person who will be taking care of my son during his staying in the United Kingdom......
The remaining funds sent to him,will be for his feeding and other commissions.So if this is understandable i will want you to get back to me with the following informations of where the cheque will be sent to.
Name in full
Address in full
City state
Zip code
Contact phone number

By this point I was feeling a little hesistant and replied with

Peterson,

I need to clarify, whereabouts in the United Kingdom is your son staying?

Could I suggest maybe having your associate send two cheques, one to me for £*** and the other cheque for £**** to the person who will be taking care of your son during his stay?

****

'Peterson' replied

hello
my client could only right the check to you,try to help me with that ,get back to me with the info needed

I've googled the name and address and came across this post

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2486

The reason why I enlist your help is because he writes that he is from USA but the grammar and general way emails are written are not like a native english speaker but maybe I'm looking into things too much.
He won't answer questions regarding where he son is staying (even though I need to know to possibly add travel expenses) and the biggest reason of all is the fact that the 'Peterson Cole' in the post linked above and the 'Peterson Cole' I'm dealing with share the same writing style and have almost identical email addresses.

I don't want to get involved in this if it could be linked to money laundering or anything similar, although I don't know how this all works and whether someone could do it in this way. I know not to give out account information etc etc but I just have a strange feeling that this could be the same person.

Any advice/help would be great, thanks!

Ok, just for some additional information, I've checked out the addresses and it seems that the first reply was sent using [email protected] but there was another sent using [email protected] I'd not included it because I was asking to change a specific day and he had just replied with

am okay with that,i will want you to get back to me with your price

the header for [email protected] is

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From:
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ReReply to your adGuitar Tuition by an experienced, approachable, gigging musician
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Hope this helps

Welcome to Scamwarners kelevra.

This is a very definite scam. Please ignore any further communications with this scammer.

The gmail header will mask IP location, but the Yahoo header is IP = 41.211.229.210 = Nigeria.

Any cheques will be fakes or counterfeit.

Thank you for posting this information - it will alert and save others from being scammed. Well Done

If you have any questions or concerns please post - we will help you all we can.

Hello there kelevra

The mail has been sent from 41.211.229.210 (Nigeria*),
it's a definate scam . Good job on spotting it and thanks for posting it here, it may prevent others from being scammed!

Edit - The enchantress types faster than me

Hi

Thanks Enchantress and Michael, I knew this was a load of crap

Thanks for your help!

Just out of curiosity though, what would he have actually tried to do with the details he was asking for?

Thanks

K

Hi again,

Basically - the address to post you the fake cheque - phone to telephone you.

All the rest of the information/details are lies - or to make you "believe" it is somehow legitimate.

If you were a advertising bagpipe or didgeridoo tuition - the scammer would reply - his only interest is sending you a duff cheque - and the victim sending "real" back money to him by anonymous wire transfer.

The Scammer would have told you to cash the check and send him the "extra money" by Western Union .

The check or money order will be fake, even if your bank cashes the check or tells you that it "cleared".

The bank would have found out in a few days - or weeks - that the check is counterfeit, and would have demand repayment of the money; even the money sent to the scammer. The bank might even have had you arrested for cashing a bad check or money laundering.

Hello.

Ah I see... well thanks for the help! Saved me a lot of hassle.

I'm soooo tempted to unleash some hell in a reply to him....

K

Out of curiosity, am I gonna have to change my email or anything like that cos some tool in Lagos now has it or shouldn't I worry?

Thanks

K

There isn't much you have to worry about The worst thing that could happen is that you receive a bit more spam mails now or in the future. Be careful with any emails you get from people you don't know and you should be fine. The only thing he has is your email adress, there is nothing more he could do with it.

Brilliant,

Thanks all!!

Enjoy your day

K

I would not worry because anyone who has an email out on the web gets contacted by scammers and spammers The only thing one needs to learn/to know is how to spot them. If you never reply this particular one any more, he will quickly give up and look elsewhere.

Hi everyone
This subject can also be seen here.
http://www.dotsilver.com/dating-scam/20 ... 11737.html

Welcome Kelevra,

I'm glad you were able to get the answer you were looking for here.

Just to add a couple of points...This is the key evidence that shows what kind of scam this is.

send the remaining funds to person who will be taking care of my son during his staying in the United Kingdom......
The remaining funds sent to him,will be for his feeding and other commissions.

This person is actually the scammer himself under another name.

If you have ads posted, chances are you will receive more scam attempts, though they may vary slightly. The important thing to know is that any time you receive a request that involves forwarding or returning money from a check, certified check, money order, or even paypal payment--you can safely assume that there is a scammer behind it.

Also, as Jolly Roger has pointed out, the name or email address has also been linked to romance scams. It is not uncommon for scammers to run multiple types of scams using the same fake identity--if you search and find the email address associated with any type of scam, even if is a different type of scam, the safest thing to do is to drop the person immediately.

Dotti,

I thought as much (the other person involved actually being the same person using a different name) and when I discovered the dating scam info on the linked post I was instantly extremely suspicious.

Thanks again for everyone's help and advice, hope this helps out other people too. The I.P thing is very useful too, I shall definitely be searching to see if they are from where they say there are next time.

Cheers!!!

K