Email scam

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I got the email below and the scammers got my name from here or 1 other site which I will also be posting on.

Quote:

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From: Crystal Crystal
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 11:01 AM
Subject: Childcare/Nanny needed!!!!

Hello,
How are you doing? I'm Crystal and my husband is Dustin Eclestone from Manchester, United Kingdom,we will be coming for a 3 weeks vacation to your area on a Missionary trip from December 1st- December 23rd 2011.We will be coming with our 3 year old baby boy (Peter) and your service will be needed to babysit him on a daily basis from Dec. 1st-Dec. 23rd, between 9am-4pm from Monday through Friday of every week. We have read through your profile and we see you are the perfect match for the kind of baby sitter we want to take care of our baby for us .

Peter is our only child and we will need you to take proper care of him for us because he is all we have got,he is a baby you would always want to be with even after your service as the sitter expires ,because he is friendly and always happy whenever he is among his peer groups.

We will like to know if you will be able to offer this service, If yes kindly get back with your quote for the service ,duration as specified.
Thanks and God bless
Crystal & Dustin Eclestone

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I was pretty excited, I thought it would be a cool opportunity! Well I sent an email back asking for particulars about the child. By the time the third email came with this:

Quote:

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As regards payment, our Christian sponsor will be instructing payment to you in advance via certified Money order/Certified check as stated in my previous email , which is meant to confirm your service charges and also our air ticketing fees,as soon as you receive payment you will deduct your service charge and help us in forwarding the remaining balance to our travel agent via western union money transfer.

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I knew it was a scam. They want you to cash the cheque, which would be secured with your own funds at your bank, and send them money via untraceable Western Union.
I sent them an email telling them I was on to them, then I reported them to the RCMP fraud unit.
Beware my fellow providers :)

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I got the email below and the scammers got my name from here or 1 other site which I will also be posting on.

"Hello,
How are you doing? I'm Crystal and my husband is Dustin Eclestone from Manchester, United Kingdom,we will be coming for a 3 weeks vacation to your area on a Missionary trip from December 1st- December 30th 2011.We will be coming with our 3 year old baby boy (Peter) and your service will be needed to babysit him on a daily basis from Dec. 1st-Dec. 30th, between 9am-4pm from Monday through Friday of every week. We have read through your profile and we see you are the perfect match for the kind of baby sitter we want to take care of our baby for us .

Peter is our only child and we will need you to take proper care of him for us because he is all we have got,he is a baby you would always want to be with even after your service as the sitter expires ,because he is friendly and always happy whenever he is among his peer groups.

We will like to know if you will be able to offer this service, If yes kindly get back with your quote for the service ,duration as specified.
Thanks and God bless
Crystal & Dustin Eclestone"

I too thought it might be an interesting experience so I responded back.

"Good morning Crystal & Dustin,

Before I would be able to give you a quote for child care of your son I would need a few questions answered. My questions are:

1.) What web site did you view my profile and contact information on?

2.) What part of Calgary would you be staying in while visiting? Traffic can get quite bad here at certain times of day and you wouldn't want to be driving across the city for drop off/pick up.

3.) Does your child have any medical conditions/ allergies that would need special attention?

4.) Would you have back up care arranged for unforeseen circumstances where your son becomes ill and is unable to remain in my care for the day? "

I got a response but it only answered one or two of my questions and they started to push the subject of fees before I had a full picture of the care they were needing. I was asking the questions so that I could give them an accurate quote. Their response was:

"Hello,
Thanks for your response,however we found your contact on babysitters web directory on Google. Our hotel as not yet been confirm but if we get to make an agreement with you the hotel will be very close to your location. our son does not have allergies and he is going to be vaccinated before we arrive at Calgary...Our sponsor will like to know you price per day and weekly
Thanks and God bless
Crystal & Dustin Ecleston"

I laughed and knew for sure this was a scam as the only "babysitters web directory" I am on is the one I have listed on my web site along with other providers from my area. It is not listed anywhere on google.

Good for you for reporting them! I wonder if it's too late for me to do the same or if I should even try since we never got as far into conversation as you.

Always worth forwarding to the fraud unit because there will be things they can get from the email such as IP address they were sending from. If they are moving around from computer to computer such as free internet cafes they will then be able to trace their movements. Also the more reports they have of the same offence helps them to prioritize how much time is spent investigating scams. Unfortunately since this originates in a foreign country in theory that could limit what they can do as compared to the providers in Toronto that were having issues with a "prospective" client,.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who was almost taken in, and also VERY happy that you weren't duped MM

Beware of random cheques being sent to your daycares as well....via Toronto BMO