Received a scam email this morning addressed to "undisclosed recipients" from gregwoods10@yahoo.com

"Hello
I am Mr Greg Woods from the UK,i am sponsoring a reality TV show project of mine,the shooting will take place around your area,with regards to this project i will love to check availability for a full shooting package equipment rentals.this project will run for 7 days 10th - 16th OCT 2011,the venue is not confirmed for now,but i could suggest an apartment to be used for this project,you are requested to make suggestion of equipments that would fit my production,including operators of necessary equipments,this is to includes 2 cameras (Sony EX3 or Panasonic AG-HPX500 HD P2 Camera or any other equivalent) ,Video Equipment Rental package,Audio Equipment Rental package,Lighting/Grip Equipment Rental package.I think i have given you an idea of what is required,you are to enclose a comprehensive list of equipments and cost of rentals for 7days,including cost of operators if needed,i have an open budget for now till i get a standard equipment quote from you,Do you accept credit card?(visa,master card)Respond back to me in full details so we make the best productions.
Best Regards"

Rick, where is the scam? Just looks like a poorly written attempt at something.

Very poorly written emails are usually a good indication of scams. These scammers from Nigeria and similar countries are so stupid they think they know English good enough to perpetrate these scams, but their spelling and grammar errors give them away pretty soon.

The truly sad thing is that they are getting enough victims to keep working the angle.

If they got nothing they would move on to a different scam.

The giveaway is usually the "your area." Ask em exactly what area that is if you think theres a chance its legits legit

But WOW, they are learning the equipment so they actually ALMOST sound educated about what's required for an actual shoot...

Guess DVi is upping the knowledge even in Nigeria!


This does have all the typical "scam" signatures - someone going halfway round the world to do "something" (reality shows have even made it to Nigeria?! How bout "Scammy Shore"?), bad grammar, offer to send unlimited "open budget" funds via CC (but I'll bet he'll pay in fake MO... or fraudulent check), just enough "details" to make the scam attempt SEEM plausible...

Be careful out there people, the scammers are always getting "better"...

Next time i get one of these i want to send them a ridiculous quote...like $30000 a day. If they dont balk...scam..

Here's an even more elaborate scam for those who rent out their gear. They would rent the camera from you, return it on time, pay cash. Rent even more equipment, return it on time, pay cash. This went on for 3 months. Trust gained they now rent a 3 camera shoot package, with the long throw lens, grassvalley switcher, ccu cables, etc, etc. and vanish from the face of the earth. Happened to the company I use to work for.

i actually had one of these scamers try to buy a camera from me. I did a little research and found out some of them will send you a picture of them if you ask. do a Google search theres some pretty good stories out there and ways to mess with them

Same thing happened to me. I was selling a Sony HVR-HD1000U on Craigslist to avoid the other scam that is eBay with all their fees. This woman had the typical weird English grammar all these idiots have, and she wanted me to send the camera to Nigeria. Yea, right. She insisted she was going to pay with Paypal. Here's the problem. Even if the money comes in, and you login to your Paypal account and the money is there, then you send the camera away, the scammer can file a complaint with Paypal saying she never received the camera. So Paypal takes away your money and you lost the camera. If it's within the US, UPS tracking or post office delivery confirmation can save you, but I don't think there's a way to get delivery confirmation to Nigeria. Only that it entered the country at best. Needless to say, I told her no and ended up selling it to a nice local guy.

Interesting... I just recieved an identical email except the name and dates have been changed....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Connor <connorj599@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Monday, 29 August 2011 9:40 PM
Subject: shooting equipment inquiry

Hello
I am Mr John Connor from the UK,i am sponsoring a reality TV show project of mine,the shooting will take place around your area,with regards to this project i will love to check availability for a full shooting package equipment rentals.this project will run for 5 days 7th - 11th NOV 2011,the venue is not confirmed for now,but i could suggest an apartment to be used for this project,you are requested to make suggestion of equipments
that would fit my production,including operators of necessary equipments,this is to includes 2 cameras (Sony EX3 or Panasonic AG-HPX500 HD P2 Camera or any other equivalent) ,Video Equipment Rental package,Audio Equipment Rental package,Lighting/Grip Equipment Rental package.I think i have given you an idea of what is required,you are to enclose a comprehensive list of equipments and cost of rentals for 5days,including cost of operators if needed,i have an open budget for now till i get a
standard equipment quote from you,Do you accept credit card?(visa,master card)Respond back to me in full details so we make the best productions.
Best Regards

You don't expect a lowlife scammer to put out that much effort do you? Why invent when you can just steal someone else's work, maybe with a few little changes...

You need to be helpful to this client. Some day he will help to prevent the machines from taking over by destroying SkyNet.

Zero-spaced and extra-spaced commas and periods... yowza. Who falls for this stuff?

Beware of potential new clients who don't know what a paragraph break is?

Andrew

Then there are the screaming idiots... and yeah, punctuation is gives away this one too...

HI I AM THE GEORGIA BRANCH MANAGER AND I AM LOOKING FOR FOUR PEOPLE IN GEORGIA WHO HAVE ACCESS TO TRANSPORTATION AND A 1080P CAMCORDER THE MAIN LOCATION WE ARE TRYING TO HIT ARE DOWNTOWN ATLANTA SOUTHERN GEORGIA AND EAST GEORGIA.

This is a pretty transparent scam: they would send you a check, then two days later: oops, we sent you too much by mistake, please return part of the money. You send them a real check, and one week later your bank, the same one that said you really received that money, says... oops, it was a fake check...

If only it wasn't illegal to send back a fake cheque for them to deposit. You could have two of them receiving each others initial cheques. That would be funny ... and well deserved.

Andrew