[Recipients of these messages originating from gmail.com addresses can report these abuses to abuse@google.com or mail-support@google.com which may result in the termination of their account]
As I’ve mentioned before, we have a small retail business where we sell hobby-related products through a website. It’s not a big money-maker, but it does offer some nice additional income.
Having a small business presence on the internet opens you up as a potential victim for various types of scam artists who pretend to want to do business with you. These scams will usually be in the form of e-mail messages that indicate that the sender wants to purchase something from your company.
We’ve never received any telephone calls from scam artists even though our telephone number is available on our web site, but I suppose it is possible that some other small businesses have been contacted over the phone by scammers.
The latest scam e-mail we received recently was from someone claiming that his name was ‘Paul Stuggart’ who claimed that he wanted to place an order on our site. Here is the e-mail that was received:
From: Paul Stuggart [paulstuggart@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 11:05 AM
Subject: Order Enquiry
Hello, I want to place an order in your store,Let me know if you ship to Australia method of payment will be credit card,I will be very glad if you can assist me with the order, I will await your prompt response as soon as you received this mail. I will be happy if you treat this email with good concern Warmest Regards PAUL STUGGART
The first tip off is that this scam artist is using a G-Mail account for his e-mail. G-Mail is a free e-mail service similar to those offered by Yahoo! and Hotmail, and you will not usually see legitimate business people using these types of free services for their business-related e-mail.
Secondly, there is no reason for him to be e-mailing us to tell us he wants to order something from our site. We do indicate on our site that we ship to Australia, and he could have simply placed his order online if he wanted to.
Thirdly, you may notice that the wording of the message is a bit peculiar. Phrases like ‘I will be very glad if you can assist me’ and ‘I will await your prompt response’ are the types of phrases that are often used by these scam artists, particularly the notorious Nigerian ‘419’ scam artists.
The line at the end where he writes ‘I will be happy if you treat this email with good concern’ really seals the deal, and marks the sender as a scam artist with almost absolute certainty. This is very typical of the language these guys use all the time.
I decided to play along and respond to his message, and let him know that we do indeed ship to Australia and asked him how I could help him. This was his response:
From:Â Â Â paul stuggart [paulstuggart@gmail.com]
Sent:Â Â Â Saturday, October 18, 2008 2:16 PM
Subject:Â Â Â Re: Order Enquiry
Hello,
 Thank for your fast response and i want you to know that i came
across your store information via a friend and here is what i will
like to order for,
[Name of product removed]
qty:100
I will like you to get back to me with the total cost and the
shipping cost as the qty is much.and here is address for you to the
shipping cost via ups or fed ex.and please kindly get back to me if
this items is in stock because i do not want any delay on this.
XXX XXXXXXX Street
XXX XXXXXXX
AUSTRALIA
Phone:Â XX XXX XXXX
Do this on time so that i can be able to give you my credit card
information and complete my order for me Best Regards Paul Stuggart
Again, this is typical of these scam artists. They will tell you they want to place orders that are much larger than the typical order, and want to discuss shipping options with you.
Also note the urgency he tries to inject into the transaction by saying he does not want any delay on this. The less time potential victims spend thinking about things like this, the more likely they are to become victims.
I have removed the address and telephone information that this scam artist used since it was the address of an actual business in Australia who I was able to track down through the internet and contact via e-mail.
The owner of the legitimate business that is at that address has been having problems with scam artists using their address.
There was some indication that the scammers may make their money on the shipping costs, although I did not get the full details of how they operate.
There are many types of scam artists out there, but there are usually numerous clues in their messages that reveal their true intent. Be alert for these signs and you will likely avoid becoming a victim of these criminals.
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