After emailing at least half a dozen b&bs and getting weird, surreal or rude replies off all of them just coz I am travelling alaone I got an email this morning that just about takes the biscuit. This is from a b&b owner I previously made enquiries to:
Hope you get this on time, I made a trip to Madrid, Spain and had my bag stolen from me with my passport, cash and credit cards in it. Unfortunately for me, I've made contact with my bank but they are not providing a fast solution. I need you to lend me some money to sort my self out of this predicament, I will pay back as soon as I return.
Western Union transfer is the best option to send money to me. Let me know if you need my details(Full names/location) to make the transfer.
Alan
It was mass emailed the looks of things not addressed to me personally I mean!! what the heck do you guys make of that?!!!!! if he really as in a pickle you'd think he'd make a personal phonecall to close friends and family not mass email everyone on his contact list including customers or potential customers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean take note he asks 'Let me know if you need details (full names/location) to make transfer'. In other words he expects people he doesn't know to help him out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't get over it, no shame at all!
It's self catering from now on all the way.
That particular email is the result of someone hacking into the B & B's address book and spamming everyone in it. Several of my friends have had the exact same email sent out over their names as a result of hacking. The best thing to do is call him (if you have his number) and alert him. Don't respond or you will be hacked as well.
Take care,
Genko
I agree with genko_b. Someone hacked into their computer and got the email addresses of everone who had sent them an email. Someones looking for easy money. I made the mistake of answerring an email years ago and finally had to have my credit frozen to get them to leave me alone.
There are so many scams out there. This is one that has been going around for years. "I need money! I'll pay you back but you have to send it Western Union..." I love the ones that say some foreign rich guy left YOU, whom he's never met before, many millions of dollars. Just give him your bank account number and he'll deposit (more like withdraw) a ton of money! Had one once that said if I sent him a check for $2,000, he'd send me one in a month for $100,000. Ummm....yeah...that doesn't sound shady or anything ::).
Once I had someone contact me about painting a wall mural for him. The problem was, he was in Africa. So he says he wants me to paint the mural on canvas and ship it to him. I was really excited as I had just started to seriously build my mural painting business and he offered me $5,000 plus shipping expenses for an 8x13 wall mural with high detail. The price was slightly higher than what a regular wall mural of that size would be (I'd charge about $3,000 for a high detail of that size), but I took into consideration it was to be on a custom sized canvas, so didn't think anything of it. Told him I needed half upfront before I even started to secure supplies. He said he would send me the money soon, but never did. Then asked me if I could send him 2 playstations (gaming system) for his nephews' birthdays and baseball gloves/balls for his sons since "we don't have things such as this in Africa". I was like...they don't have baseballs but they have electricity for a tv game system??? Thank goodness I never bought any supplies for the mural. I researched him and reported him to the authorities. Here, he's been taking people for a ride in the US and Canada for a long time. He pretends to be interested in your services, tries to befriend you and then without ever spending a penny, gets you to send him all sorts of stuff that he resells. Or he tells you there is a problem getting the money to you and he needs your bank account number to get the money to you quickly. What a scammer.
I agree with the others Wild Thing...another scam! I would also alert the B&B owner by phone (not email) if you can to insure that he is aware of this mess.
Yes, wild thing,
this is a scam.
Ignore it.
report it to the B&B.
Good luck
elaine
TBH don't feel like speaking to the dude coz according to Trip Advisor he's a creep but nevertheless I have reported it to hotmail as I hate to think of anyone being scammed. Makes me mad when people try to do this.
I have heard of these scams on personals ads. All of the scams seem to come from Africa and Nigeria from what I've heard. I've not had an encounter. I don't do personals because I'm married almost 50 years. Ya think?
Yeah, have gotten one of those...the others are right, it's a scam.
Patze