Poop Shute

SCAM ALERT

I had an unusual scam email today, and I realized that some of you might not have come across this type, so I thought I would share and warn.

We've probably all seen the ones from Nigeria that claim they want to wire you CRAPLOADS of money from some obscure diplomat who has just died, and all that. This one today was new to me. I have heard of it, but never seen til now.

This one was particularly sinister because they responded to my Craig's List ad and acted in their initial email like they were a prospective client looking for info about my services and prices. I say sinister, because I'm used to being approached in that way, and my guard was not up for a scam at first.

They claimed they were coming in town from outside the country with some fashion models, and wanted me to work with the girls for the two weeks they were here for some big photo shoot. And by the way, there is a professional headshot of me on my ad, and they commented about that and asked if I knew any local make-up artists that they could also hire while they were here.

It obviously seemed strange to me that if they are international print models they didn't have their own trainer and make-up artist on staff, but what the hell. Who knows, there was a small chance this could be on the level, but my guard began to go up a little. I answered with the usual sorts of things. I told them I'd be happy to help, I would just need to know the time commitment involved before I could name a price.

Then they wrote back and said three hours per day would be required, and that after I named a price they would cut me a check for the full amount of their trip expenses, because the check cannot be cashed where they are. They ask that I deposit the check and wire the amount that is above and beyond my fee to them so they can purchase their plane tickets.

NEVER EVER EVER DO THIS

You may be wondering how, if THEY send YOU a check that you can get in trouble. Here it is:

1) You deposit a check from them and the bank seems to let it clear and everything is okay.

2) Let's say its $3000. Once everything looks fine after a day or two you wire $1000 of it to this other party.

3) Within a couple weeks the bank finds out that the check was a fraud, and now you not only do not have the money for your fee, but you are now responsible for the $1000 you wired, and you will never see or hear from that person again.

Just for funzies, here is the address this specific scammer used: mia.jones11@yahoo.com

If you are like many of us and are smart enough to have a "throw away" email address (meaning an address that you don't ever use for personal use, just for online registrations and other highly spam-likely things) please feel free to drop this moron a note.

When I got that last email about a check I closed the conversation with this:

...oh for sh*t sake. I actually thought maybe you were serious in that first
email. Does this scam ever really work? Fvck you, get a real job.

You people make me sick.
J