Wedding Videography Solicitations Scams

[Jason Robinson]

I have recently had two solicitations for wedding video services. Both solicitations immediately perked my interest because they just struck me as phishing attempts at worst, or at best just poorly typed emails. Below is the entire text of one of those solicitations. I am not going to change anything (spacing, punctuation, etc) so you see it how I saw it.

Hello,
I am Rod and i am organizing my Bose Wedding wish is taking place next month.So i am looking for people to make the event happen.Looking for a professional in the Following Fields.....Musician,photographer,makeup artist to do makeup for the Groom and bride, her mother and maid-of-honor in her home in South Jersey (about 20 minutes from Center City)OR ANTYHING YOU CAN DO TO MAKE AN EVENTS.
Please be experienced, and provide references and photos. Also looking for a professional hairstylist to do hair for the same women. Please also be experienced, and provide references and photos. The hair will be contemporary, simple and unfussy. Please reply with your rates. The wedding is on Sunday, June 17th at 2PM. Please, no phone calls about this job! Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial.

My concerns are the following:

• I am in Boise not Bose
• I never advertised in South Jersey or that I will travel to South Jersey
• The guy is asking for basically everything, nothing specific. If legit, then he just SPAMed a bunch of venders at once.... no big deal.
• the Please do not contact smells like it was copy/pasted from a Craigs List ad, either his or otherwise.
• See Below

So that is the story. I replied that i was booked that weekend (I am) but could produce a Photo Memory Movie. I provided links to the above demo and he responded back from a different account:

On 5/22/07, Susan M. Dean <rodandsusan@yahoo.com> wrote:

ok,
what is your Price.

I provide said price and break downs. Then I get the following:

good,
let me know if you accept cashiers check as your mode of payment to send the payment to you.
Thanks

Am I super paranoid about someone with bad grammar trying to pay with a cashiers check requesting all services for an out of state gig?

[Greg Boston]

Jason, see the thread a few down from yours in this forum that was re-directed to Taking Care of Business by Chris Davis. The initial contact email is almost verbatim, with a few changes. Chris indicated that he did not respond to this obvious scam attempt.

So that's two different wedding videographers within a day. Sounds like the latest scam making the rounds.

-gb-

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Greg Boston

Jason, see the thread a few down from yours in this forum that was re-directed to Taking Care of Business by Chris Davis. The initial contact email is almost verbatim, with a few changes. Chris indicated that he did not respond to this obvious scam attempt.

So that's two different wedding videographers within a day. Sounds like the latest scam making the rounds.

-gb-

The initial contact was a week ago or so. I should also post the second one. That one wanted a New York wedding.