Spam booking enquiry
So when is a booking enquiry not a booking enquiry ?
When it's a spam booking !
Logged onto my email yesterday and was excited to see a 'giteinbrittany.com booking enquiry' email. When I designed the website I was quite keen to ensure that I didn't get any more spam than I do already so I deliberately didn't put my email address on the website. Instead I wrote a contact us to enquire about Gite availability page which would behind the scenes email the enquiry details to me but without having to display my email address anywhere on the site.
On the whole this has worked reasonably well. I still get a few emails addressed to admin@websitename but I think it's far less than I would get if I had the email address in plain text just sitting there to be harvested by all the spam engines of the world ! Only downside is that prospective guests have to fill in a form to contact us but this doesn't seem to have been a problem to anyone as far as I know.
Anyway, the "booking enquiry" email I received looked like this:
I've obscured the email address and removed all the blank lines (the original email was all double spaced) but the extensive use of capitals, interesting spellings ('inEternet'), grammar ('a modeling programed in your avenues' - wonder if he means modelling session in my street ??), inconsistency of email address (Robert....) and name ('Ben') and everything else is just as I received it.
To me this just looks so obviously like an attempt by someone who's not a native English speaker to do some kind of dodgy deal. My guess is that if I replied I'd have some kind of "processing fee" to pay or the cheque would bounce. I just don't have time for things like this so I've ignored it.
Oh and Robert, if you were genuinely looking to book, we've already got a booking for the first two weeks of June so we can't accommodate your female models (and 22 small children) at that time anyway, sorry.
When it's a spam booking !
Logged onto my email yesterday and was excited to see a 'giteinbrittany.com booking enquiry' email. When I designed the website I was quite keen to ensure that I didn't get any more spam than I do already so I deliberately didn't put my email address on the website. Instead I wrote a contact us to enquire about Gite availability page which would behind the scenes email the enquiry details to me but without having to display my email address anywhere on the site.
On the whole this has worked reasonably well. I still get a few emails addressed to admin@websitename but I think it's far less than I would get if I had the email address in plain text just sitting there to be harvested by all the spam engines of the world ! Only downside is that prospective guests have to fill in a form to contact us but this doesn't seem to have been a problem to anyone as far as I know.
Anyway, the "booking enquiry" email I received looked like this:
Booking enquiry submitted by Richard (richardXXXXXX20006@msn.com)
Address: 3445 minchester steet usa
Telephone: 448717205190
Adults: 2
SmallChildren: 22
Query:
MY NAME IS BEN I AM A MODEL AGENT I CAME ABOUT YOUR
ADVERT ON
THE INETERNET SO A FRIEND ADVISE ME TO CONTACT YOU
OVER THE
ACCOMODATION, THERE ARE TWO OF MY FEMALE MODELS THAT
ARE HAVING
A MODELING PROGRAMED IN YOUR AVENUES FROM MAY 30TH
TILL JUNE 30th 2006 FOR 4 WEEKS SO ALL I WANT NOW IS JUST
THE RENT COST FOR
THAT PERIOD ALSO I WILL LIKE TO KNOW IF CHEQUE
PAYMENT COULD BE
ACCEPTED BY U, ONCE I GET THE COST.
PAYMENT WILL COMMENCE IMMEDIATELY.
HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOONEST.
I've obscured the email address and removed all the blank lines (the original email was all double spaced) but the extensive use of capitals, interesting spellings ('inEternet'), grammar ('a modeling programed in your avenues' - wonder if he means modelling session in my street ??), inconsistency of email address (Robert....) and name ('Ben') and everything else is just as I received it.
To me this just looks so obviously like an attempt by someone who's not a native English speaker to do some kind of dodgy deal. My guess is that if I replied I'd have some kind of "processing fee" to pay or the cheque would bounce. I just don't have time for things like this so I've ignored it.
Oh and Robert, if you were genuinely looking to book, we've already got a booking for the first two weeks of June so we can't accommodate your female models (and 22 small children) at that time anyway, sorry.
Labels: RentalEnquiry, Scam
posted by Geoffrey at 7:57 pm Permalink
2 Comments:
"grammer"!!!
By
Anonymous, at March 22, 2006
OK, I can't spell either. I've now corrected the typo on the original post, thanks.
Just goes to prove that perhaps I could get a job in the spam writing department...
By
Geoffrey, at March 22, 2006
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