booking scam..please read if you own a school

[headwound]

I keep getting these booking inquiry's and I know there a bunch of crap, if you tryed to run there CC you would get charged 4% and then when it is realized that this is a scam (in which it is) the bank will charge you 4% for running there CC so that would be a total of 8% which would realy mess you up...so i'm putting this out there for other school owners to be careful, and watch out for theses scams please see bellow the email i got this morning.which I have had probably 10 of the same emails word for word by different people.
cheers aj

Hello,
I will love to make inquiries,for a a private kite Surfing lessons
for a group of 7 adults for 4 weeks or more,depending on the routine
of your classes,this classes will run through the month of Aug through
Sept,in between the dates 2nd/08/2010 to 2nd/09/2010,if my request is
granted,i would be glad to also make plans for training kits if
possible or necessary, confirm as well if supplies can be made for
the group for there training with you,feel free to make references to
us about hotels,guest houses close to your training facility or site
,please advise.What are your payment option ?Do you accept 50% deposit
via credit cards?Get back to me in details with necessary information
we need to know,enclose the total cost of your services plus $7500 for
our medical insurance which will given to our medical doctor for
their medical insurance,or an estimate of the cost of this project,i
await your suggestions and reply towards our request.hope to hear from
you soon.
Regards
Jim Black
United Kingdom
+447011132987

[noel]

Pretty simple really. Take their cc # but tell them you won't run it till they arrive. You're in the Bahamas and the chances of good wind in August are slim as you know. What will you charge 50% of. It may not blow at all. The $7500.00 for insurance would have threw a red flag right away unless you're saying that your school isn't insured. That's more money than most schools pay for the entire year. The school I work with doesn't charge for the lesson until just before the lesson though we do take the cc # in advance. You never know what is gonna happen that time of year. Could have a hurricane. If the card is declined then "NO LESSON". I wonder also how it could be a scam because they are not asking for money back and the only person who could make money is the cc company. Are they the scammers? Or am I missing something?

[headwound]

in previous email (once i worked out it was a scam), I had said i could accept a wire transfer not credit card at the moment I knew that they would dec;line the wire transfer because it can not be undone...they then uped the price that they want to give to me (by credit card), and told me to hold onto the extra money for there accounts manager..
I decided the best thing to do was to do nothing at all, because I didnt want to be accountable for it & i would have to pay it pack and then some...
this isnt a should of would of could of thing ,it's a credit card scam and i just wanted to make the kiteboarding community aware of it..and thats it.
if you can see something different and think you can turn it around go ahead, I'm not going to..
and besides that there is no wind until October...well nothing to rely on .
cheers aj

[windmaker]

Yes, I have been getting those mails repeatedly for the past months. Ignored them completely from the start.

[BrisKites]

Me too. I got the first one months ago and just deleted it.

I figured they would then ask for the $7500 "Insurance" to be passed on to a third party for them.

[Arubakitesurfing]

yes we have received that mail too a couple of times,
i could smell that something was fishy.
we didnt reply any mail to that.
thxs for the advice

[wreknball]

Yep, I received a similar email last winter for some snowkiting lessons. It's a pretty easy one to catch.

[posty]

it ended in my junkmail folder straight away!

[windsuks]

Yup we keep getting these too, though not always from the same name etc but usually for 8-10 people for 1 weeks lessons..

F*ck um

[RickI]

I don't even teach one on one and have gotten a several of these over the last two to three years. Somebody unplug the Net in Nigeria or at least in the cybercafes and a bunch of this will likely vanish.