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Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Old Aug 25th 2009, 6:30 am
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Question Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Have any of you who have holiday rentals encountered people who do the following?

- send incredibly wordy, almost incomprehensible emails?
- want assurance that you are a trustworthy person?
- be more than happy to pay 30% more than the rate you gave them?
- THEN want to send between 500 - 2,000 euros EXTRA to your account for you to cash and give to them on arrival?
- and then ask you for all your bank details, home address etc when ALL the information they need is on an attachment they have called Transfer Details?

I have yet to contact the person who sent me the delightful email this morning but if my personal experience is correct the person is NOT from where they say they are from (the usually make a big deal by saying they are from Scotland, USA etc and that they work for a well respected company - blah blah blah)

Back over to you!
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Old Aug 25th 2009, 8:12 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Originally Posted by beigey
Have any of you who have holiday rentals encountered people who do the following?

- send incredibly wordy, almost incomprehensible emails?
- want assurance that you are a trustworthy person?
- be more than happy to pay 30% more than the rate you gave them?
- THEN want to send between 500 - 2,000 euros EXTRA to your account for you to cash and give to them on arrival?
- and then ask you for all your bank details, home address etc when ALL the information they need is on an attachment they have called Transfer Details?

I have yet to contact the person who sent me the delightful email this morning but if my personal experience is correct the person is NOT from where they say they are from (the usually make a big deal by saying they are from Scotland, USA etc and that they work for a well respected company - blah blah blah)

Back over to you!
If it's not too late, DON'T open the attachment! DON'T reply to the mail! It's obviously some spam/pirate/virus propagator who found your address (on a website?)
Put it straight into the "indésirables" and/or the Liste Rouge.
And NEVER give your bank details and address to any one on the internet!
Other than suggesting that you have separate addresses for personal and professional, I can't advise! Maybe an expert can tell you how to protect yourself better from such mails...
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Old Aug 25th 2009, 10:22 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

urgh ... what can they do with bank details?
freaking today because I got an enquiry from Nigeria ?!?
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Old Aug 25th 2009, 10:46 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Nigerian scammers target anybody and everybody. A couple of months ago they started sending thousands of emails saying they were offering people a job, and listed one of my websites as a front to their scam. I was replying to a couple of dozen emails a day telling people it had nothing to do with me, and I had no jobs on offer! If you get a Nigerian enquiry, disregard it - not worth the hassle.
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Old Aug 25th 2009, 10:49 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Originally Posted by beigey
urgh ... what can they do with bank details?
freaking today because I got an enquiry from Nigeria ?!?
Ummmmmm, they can probably transfer everything to another account.
I was going to ask whether your mail came from Nigeria, as we had a weird mail some time ago, asking us to receive some money into our account, for later transfer to another account, and we would be handsomely recompensed for the service!
BEWARE, the pirates and hackers are always looking for new victims....
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Old Aug 25th 2009, 11:51 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

the email look legit initially until the reply when he said he was from Nigeria blah blah blah ... its not the same thing as i have got in my spam folders where someone wants to transfer millions to me and i get a reward. These emails appear to be genuine enquiries at the start and then get weird when they start saying they are going to transfer more money than is asked for and to give it to them when they arrive!!

Last edited by beigey; Aug 25th 2009 at 11:58 am.
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Old Aug 25th 2009, 12:21 pm
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Hi just popped in from Italy, I replied to something similar a few years ago. The chap wanted to rent an apartment for his daughter for 6 months, I gave him a price for the period (no extra monies involved). Seemed genuine to start with but after a few emails I became a little doubtful, anyway eventually told him I could not do it, received quite a few nasty emaiils back............keep well clear
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Old Aug 28th 2009, 3:51 pm
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

This looks like a variation of the classic 'Paying over the odds' scam most often used with Western Union money transfers.

Don't fall for it.



Never . . . let me say that again . . NEVER accept online payment by Western Union transfer.
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Old Aug 28th 2009, 6:56 pm
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

We got a booking of 30 chinese doctors for a house for 6
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Old Sep 2nd 2009, 10:36 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Hi,

Definitely NEVER respond to these emails. We are a company advertising hundreds of holiday properties on behalf of the owners throughout Europe, particularly France, and we get a copy of all of the enquiries that come in. I see these almost daily, people purporting to be from all kinds of organisations, and always "professionals", i.e. doctors, etc. They invariably ask for your bank details at the outset, saying that they want to transfer funds immediately, and are usually from Nigeria. I'm not sure how they then use these, as I have no knowledge of criminal activities, but personally I would alert your bank if you have given them details of how to transfer money; they may wish to transfer it the WRONG way!
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Old Sep 2nd 2009, 4:36 pm
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

I have decided that anyone who sends me an enquiry starting "Good day" and then continues to add "I am a respected doctor/lawyer/engineer" will just get sent to spam!!!
Glad I am not the only one!!
Thanks for all your replies!
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Old Sep 10th 2009, 8:55 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Hi guys

If you receive emails that are suspicious and you want to discover the source it is possible to find it.
A few days ago I received an email that appeared to be from my internet provider. It asked me to update my email account details and confirm my password. I tracked the source to Kuala Lumpa Malaysia.

Obviously the email was filed under "B" or "T" for our North American friends.

Let me know if I can help.
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Old Sep 12th 2009, 1:56 pm
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

Originally Posted by beigey
urgh ... what can they do with bank details?
freaking today because I got an enquiry from Nigeria ?!?
NEVER believe anything from Nigeria!!!!
If it's not the most corrupt place in the world then it must be very near the top!

Believe me I've been there several times on longish business trips and seen things that would blow the mind of your average "innocent" European (including UK of course!)

On the question of bank details - it's not so much a problem giving anyone your RIB and/or IBAN (otherwise how can they transfer money to you?) - though never ever by emails - only by certified "trusted and secured" websites - but rather NEVER any other details including card numbers and most emphatically never, never any passwords or PIN numbers by any channels!!

Last edited by Roger O; Sep 12th 2009 at 2:01 pm.
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Old Sep 13th 2009, 10:39 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

I got an email notification of a tax refund recently. Links were to the tax office. Then there was an attached form to complete and submit. It asked for my credit card details so that they could refund the money to me

Its normally not allowed to post emails on here, but I will do so on this occasion as it is a scam, and you shouldnt fall for it however real it seems. I blanked out the officers name, just in case they used a real one.

TAX RETURN FOR THE YEAR 2009
RECALCULATION OF YOUR TAX REFUND
HMRC 2008-2009
LOCAL OFFICE No. 3819
TAX CREDIT OFFICER: **** ********

TAX REFUND ID NUMBER: 381716209
REFUND AMOUNT: 344.79


Dear Applicant,

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential and as applicable, copyright in these is reserved to HM Revenue & Customs.
Unless expressly authorised by us, any further dissemination or distribution of this email or its attachments is prohibited.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please reply to inform us that you have received this email in error and then delete it without retaining any copy.

I am sending this email to announce: After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 344.79

You have attached the tax return form with the TAX REFUND NUMBER ID: 381716209, complete the tax return form attached to this message.

After completing the form, please submit the form by clicking the SUBMIT button on form and allow us 5-9 business days in order to process it.

Our head office address can be found on our web site at http://www.hmrc.co.uk/

Sincerely,
***** *********

HMRC Tax Credit Officer

Preston
PR1 0SB
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Old Sep 13th 2009, 11:00 am
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Default Re: Weird enquiries - help needed from fellow holiday renters!

I get several of these a week, and many of them have attachments. It's very concerning, because a lot of people would believe it
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