Wedding Pros Scam Alert

Hello

My name is dalton white,i work with Construction Company and i am a from of united kingdom,the company that i work we have a big contract in FINLAND to build a petroleum refinary for the country,there i meet my finance named Susan george and we are planning to have our monumental or chestration wedding on the 28st april 2007,so we are looking for the best wedding planner that will plan the great day and i think i have get the right one,and i want to let you know that we want a mini-wedding of about 40-50 invities in your location,so you will help to get a beffiting wedding in you area ,a photographer,wedding cake,videographer,mekaup and hair bride,DJ and Reception Dinner that is all,the total budget for the wedding is £10,000 including your chargers to make up £12,000 for the whole wedding and i want to let you that my company will be responsible for the payment of the wedding as thay have promise to send the payment to you by instalment to make things easy for us,the details of the wedding is not much as am finland to discuss in details and the have agree to send the first payment of £4,000 to start the plannig and we are coming to the state 27th of FEBRUARY 2007 by then the contract will have ben finished.So i want you to give me the information where you want my company to send the cheque to.The name that will be on the cheque and full contact address.....,state.....,postcode.....,cell phone.....,home phone.So i will be very greatful to read to your response very soon. Regards I have seen and heard of several others that were attempted by companies in and out of Lagos Nigeria. Here is the warning:

I received an e-mail from a man in "Germany" who wanted to set up a wedding for his son here in Colorado. He gave me sketchy details of what

he wanted. It sounded real. After a couple of e-mails, he said that he'd hired his vendors from the UK (being the photographer and videographer) and when I received the check I was to deposit it and send each of them $3000. (red flags going up!)

The cashier's check was sent by a client here in the US. After about 4 weeks, many e-mails and several phone conversations with his "son", I received the check. I had the bank check it and they said they agreed with me that it was bogus. The next day I phoned the "issuing" bank and they confirmed it to be counterfit.

I e-mailed this man that I had received the check but it would take at least 15 days to clear. They actually called me and asked that I write these two checks on my account so they could get the vendors here for the "wedding". I informed them this wasn't going to happen.

Long story short- Be VERY CAREFUL if you receive anything from out of the country. This is originating in Nigeria. Don't get caught because if the check is deposited and you write any checks against it, you are responsible for them.

Sincerely,

Tanya W. Porter

Tanya is with WEDDINGS, ETC. LLC and can be reached at

tporterweddsetc@hotmail.com

I wanted to add a small bit of information regarding the Nigeria fraud. Please also be very careful of Internet Relay Calls. 
They were originally designed for the hearing impaired.  However, these scam artists are using them to get in touch with people in the bridal business.

They also are not only from Nigeria they are working out of the Netherlands, and Holland, with more countries to come I am sure I have had this happen three times this
past summer alone. They want to order large quantities of wedding merchandise.  When you refuse to work with them, they can become very belligerent.

This info came courtesy of cyndi@ladyslippergardens.com
Thank you Cyndi.

I was involved in the scam you described as a wedding photographer in Rhode Island.  Everything on there end  was done very quickly and professionally.  My bank was told that  there  was doubt on my part that the check might be fradulent--yet they did not put a hold on the check.

Everyone needs to be aware that the banks--which should be flagging these checks, are often completely negligent in their responsibilities.   Because the bank told me the check was good, I forwarded the money to a third party.  It was only a couple days later that the check came back as bogus.
        
BEWARE--the banks are not taking much inititive to check on these bogus checks so you have to be extra vigilant. After initiating a law suit, I received my money back from the bank--but they fought it for months. dennymoers@cox.net