Wednesday, March 24, 2010

"THERE'S SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE KINGDOM OF DENMARK"

Hello my sweets. Hope everything's well with you all. Here's the same madness. I'm running like a crazed woman against time to get the studio ready before this coming Friday, so I can hold the Open House, otherwise I'll have to wait until after Easter, which puts everything on hold for almost a month. I'm trying my very best, I don't know what else to do, other than work me irish arse to death! I'm only one y'a know, my clones haven't arrived yet. Darn it! should've gone with a trusted carrier, instead of trying to save a few buck by choosing a company called "The Delivery Couch Potatoes" ;p

Anyways, the purpose of this entry is not to bore you out of your minds with my whining. I actually need your help with something that sound too good to be true, and you know how it is, when it looks like that, it usually is. Last night I received an e-mail replying to my ad on Craig's List. Here's the exact contents said e-mail:

Hello,

My Name is Margret Smith , I am 38 years old from Carter County Elizabethton, Tennessee. I read your description on Craigslist.org and i am highly impressed and Interested in your lessons. I need a Lessons Teacher for my Daughter (Sandra) and i got your advertisement on Craigslist when am searching via the Internet. My daughter will be coming down for an holiday in your location and i don't want her to be less busy without doing something better, and I have make decision that instead of her being less busy, she should be attending your lessons. Sandra is 18 years old and can easily catch up on anything she learn.


Although, i do believed you are in the state, and she should be attending your lessons then, so she will be coming for 3 hours in day (9am to 12pm) 4 times a weeks or at your leisure period, so I want you to calculate the cost for 4 weeks lessons and i will want us to arrange a Hotel or Motel for her in your area where she will be staying for t he period of the lessons and let me know the total cost, so that i can make a proper arrangement for the payment prior to her arrival since she will be coming down from Elizabethton, Tennessee as soon as I'm able to secure a comfortable Lesson Teacher an Accomodation for her.If you are interested in Tutor my Daughter,... Kindly get back to me with this information below....


Total Charges for 4 weeks..... ?


Location of your tutorial..... ?


Charge for an Hour..... ?


Regards,



Margret


So far, so good, right? I was really excited with the prospect of having a student for four weeks, paid in advance. I had a real bad headache when I read the e-mail and was going to be early, but I didn't want to leave a potential client hanging till the next day. So I sent her a short reply. Here's exactly what I said:


Hi Margret, I'm just quickly checking my e-mails before going unusually early to bed (I have a terrible headache at the moment) but I didn't want to leave you till tomorrow without so much as a quick reply. I'll get all the information you requested and will get back to you asap. And I will be more than happy to have Sandra as my pupil. As far as the accommodations, I believe I need specific dates in order to find out the cost, if you may provide that info, I'd gladly check that for you as well.

Until tomorrow, I wish you good night.

Jade

And now, things start to get strange, because the e-mail above was the "only" one I sent her. As soon as I woke up the next morning and checked my e-mails, mind you, before checking any of the info she asked me or replying to her again, I see another e-mail from her in my inbox. And here it's the contents of her second e-mail:


Hello ,

Thanks for the email, It's really great to hear back from you.. Actually am really happy with the amount you charge per hour with the 4 weeks charges i think it really nice and affordable price. And as a mater of fact. I will be arranging for my daughter's hotel very near to your location where she will be staying for the short period of time that she will be attending your instructional training.

So i think i should let you know in the first place. Moreover i will let you know as soon as i locate a very good place for her comfort. So please Sandra will be arriving for the coaching latest 25th of next month...So now i think this is the right time for me to have the payment for the coaching made to you now since i already know the details and the amount charge. So let me know if the time she will coming will be suit for you, cos before she would be coming i would have locate a very good place in your location where she will be staying. So please let me know if that is okay by you, before i could proceed in getting you the payment. Looking forward to hear back from you soonest.

Margret

Now, is that weird or what? I never sent her another e-mail answering her questions, including the one with the price per hour I'd charge for the classes. What should I do? Does this sound legit to you? Or could it be some sort of scam? If so, what kind? Could she have done something to my computer by my simply replying to her first e-mail? Can she do something if I say go ahead and ask for the payment in advance? Or worst, can her daughter may be a problematic teen she's trying to throw on someone else's yard for a month so she can have a break, no joke, who knows?

Has anyone here ever experienced anything similar to this? I know about the art buyers from other countries that send e-mails promising to pay truckloads of money for your art and it's a scam in the end, but this, to me is terra incognita. Please, help me with your opinions and common sense?

Hugs,
Jade



5 comments:

April said...

This sounds like a scam to me. Very much like the Nigerian scams. This person obviously did not read your email and already is on to the 'your quote sounds great' bit, which you obviously didn't quote them anything.

What will typically happen is they send you a check for TOO much money and ask you to refund them the difference, or some portion of the difference where you get to keep the extra windfall as a thank you gift. Some version of that. Their check is fake of course and their hope is that you will then cash it, and refund the money they asked for. You will then be out their check (which will bounce) and whatever money you sent to them.

There was a site dedicated to this, but it no longer exists. Some of it still remains in the internet archives so look at this link for more info:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070125194627/www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html

It's an archived page so not all the links will still work but hopefully enough will that you can get an idea about these types of scams.

BTW, this one with the garden wolf is my favorite one:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070301021635/www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scam5.html

:) Stay clear of this one Jade, it doesn't ring true at all. Sorry that they got your hopes up. :(

Jade Scarlett said...

Thank you so much for your help April. I can always count on you to get me out of these cyber messess.

Much love,
Jade

Holly Durr Art said...

I hate when this kind of thing happens to artist. It's hard enough trying to make a living at art, but dealing with these pathetic scammers is worse.

Jade Scarlett said...

Thanks for your understanding Holly. It's a really low thing to do, this person really filled my heart with hope for a great start for my new studio only to make me crash head on. I'll be wiser from now on.

Hugs,
Jade

"JeanneG" said...

Sounds like scam to me. You can tell the person doesn't speak English as a first language. That in itself is like the scams that want your help with money. I wouldn't touch it. Block her from your email and don't reply any more. They may get your email to others who will do the same.

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