Beware of Scams for Videographers/Editors on Craigslist!

JoeJITSU

JoeJITSU

Veteran
Don't know if this has been said already but there are allot of scams starting to hit craigslist for videographers and editors. I will list some of the examples of what had been emailed to me below:

"Please let me know your total estimate for both video and editing ....
will be expecting to read back from you bye ."

I respond"WIll be roughly about $800-$1000. Please let me know. Thanks"

"Please let me know asap, how much exactly are you charging me for my
birthday party will be expecting to hear back from you asap thanks so
much ."

I respond" Ok, For the shooting and the editing it will be $900. You will have a 3 minute music video for vimeo or youtube with your choice of song with all the highlights. Then you will have a separate video with anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of all the important portions on DVD. Let me know. The video editing process will take about 3-5 days after. We will also need at least 1/2 down payment before this process. Thank you"

"Thanks so much for the quick response I really appreciate this,so am
very happy and well okay with the fees you are charging for your
service at my birthday party the date for my party is 13th of Feb
2011, in respect to your payment my boss who is the chairman and the
managing director of the company I work for
will be the one responsible in making the payment for you service at
my birthday just to compensate me for my good and hard work I have
done for the company, so I just spoke with my boss some min ago and he
told me that your payment will be issued out to you through a
certified bank cashier check and he just ask me to ask for your full
name and address with zip code that the check will be sent to so that
your payment can be draft and sent to you to cash this week, once
again thanks so much will be expecting to read back from you with your
information that the payment will be sent to thanks so much."


SCAM!
 
The amount will be for more than the services charged and they'll ask you to send them the difference. That's how it ends.
 
combatentropy said:
I'm still not following. So send them the difference.
Click to expand...

It's a fake cashier's check. There are all sorts of scams out there of a wide variety that involve fake cashier's checks. You go to your bank, deposit it, and send them the difference... then three days later your bank reverses the transaction because they found out it's a fake cashier's check. And you're out the difference.
 
Barry_Green said:
It's a fake cashier's check. There are all sorts of scams out there of a wide variety that involve fake cashier's checks. You go to your bank, deposit it, and send them the difference... then three days later your bank reverses the transaction because they found out it's a fake cashier's check. And you're out the difference.
Click to expand...

Ah. I guess I assumed in this situation that I would wait for the cashier's check to clear.
 
A friend of mine fell for a scam like that. She was a tutor and this guy said his bosses son was coming to America and needed a private tutor.
So, he said we are sending you $3000. The extra $1000 will be for the son. Please deposit the $3000 and then we will have a courier
pick up the $1000 from you so the son can open a bank account in America........
 
This was not on Craigslist but an email sent directly to me... When I checked the UK based company I found that person didn't actually work for them.

------------------------------------------------

Hello,


My name is Andrea Purdon from M&G Investment International UK. I want to know if there is any availability for production/film services for our company regional annual meeting. They are coming for meeting in your country and city. We expect 30 Investors at the meeting. If there is availability as we want you to organize the event for us. kindly let me know about the dates and the quotes.


The guests will Arrive on 15th of January and the meeting starts on check out- 17th January and ends on 19th January ,2011. The ONLY mode Of Payment is :Visa , Master or Amex Card.


Write me immediately the list of all the services you can offer.


Mr Andrea Purdon.

Phone: +447045768990

-------------------------------------------

After coming up with a quote, part two of the correspondence looks like this

-------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the response.We will now be making deposit of $10,000.00
USD for the services in advance.I am happy to inform you that we have
concluded with the arrangement.I made an arrangement with an Insurance
Company who will provide the guests with travel, security and life
Insurance package during their stay.


Once you get the credit card information, you are required to charge
the total of $19,600.00 USD + 13% extra tax charges and then take
$10,000.00 USD as deposit and transfer $9,600.00 USD to our Insurance
Company Agent whose information will be forward to you once this is
confirmed.The Insurance company will issue you an invoice for the
transfer.Confirm this and provide me with the information needed below
for office records and payment.

-----------------------------------------------

Of course the cheques would be bad and they would be away with $9,600.00 USD

-----------------------------------------------

I contacted the Fraud division of the RCMP , but mostly they just take the information and ask you not to communicate with the people. They said online fraud is huge and most non tech/interent type people don't really pick up on the signs that. There are tons of variations of the scheme.

Anytime a client seems too eager to send you money even before you ask for it... your spidey senses should be going off.
 
combatentropy said:
Ah. I guess I assumed in this situation that I would wait for the cashier's check to clear.
Click to expand...

A cashier's check may still come back fraudulent even after the hold is released from your account. Normally, I will contact the issuing bank to verify the cashier's check. However, that is not 100% full proof either but this is the world we live in.
 
So, with a cheque, once it's cleared, isn't that confirmation that the transaction has been made at both creditor and debtor ends of the deal?

Surely "cleared" explicitly implies that the transaction is verified, or is this just another example of the banks not doing their job properly?
 
Call it whatever you want, but google it -- just because it's a certified check, doesn't mean it's going to actually clear.

If anyone, at any time, under any circumstances, offers any sort of transaction where they intentionally overpay you with the idea that you're supposed to refund them the difference -- run. That tactic is just plain scammy.
 
Dont you people see that its automatic response ? He doesnt even mentioning what you wrote because its all automated and whatever you'll write to him he will send the same message that you have to give him details etc.You could even wrote that you want 125 million $ for this and you would get message from him that he is happy and ok with your charges.
Its very easy to see the difference between real messages and automated scams like this.
The same is when youre sellings something online,if you got message"is your item still for sale" then you know its 100% scam,he doesnt even describes what you are selling because its automatic message which is sent to many adverts.
 
Lucas Adamson said:
So, with a cheque, once it's cleared, isn't that confirmation that the transaction has been made at both creditor and debtor ends of the deal?

Surely "cleared" explicitly implies that the transaction is verified, or is this just another example of the banks not doing their job properly?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, a check that clears does not automatically make it legitimate. In a former life, part of my job was dealing with these types of fraud and in most cases where the fraud was not identified prior to the clearing window, it was due to the account holder not recognizing the fraud quickly enough. This usually happens when the account holder is either out of town or simply did not notice the funds missing until they got their statement.
 
Thank you for the responses as well. I just find it "low" that since they can't pull off the scam to car buyers...now they are hitting people trying to make a living. LOW!
 
at his point the check is not fake anymore: ITS STOLEN! so it will clear for the time until the owner discovers/declares the theft . Its a Nigerian speciality which has been copied by gangs of other nationalities especially Romanians.
New to this type of scam is that they dont even send a check anymore and only want your personal and bank data. This will be used for identity theft operations which can be much more damaging than the loss of money! Forget craigslist.
 
You don't have to forget Craigslist entirely. I've gotten plenty of great work off of it. Just keep your brain on whilst replying to e-mails.
 
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