It's an all too common problem these days: many of us received unwanted emails from people we've never heard of, whether it's a dodgy pharmecutical message or a plea for money from an unfortunate individual from half way round the world.
We're growing ever wise to such scams and thankfully, most of our email boxes are armed with junk mail filters and spam boxes. Indeed, if something does slip through to the inbox most of us will simply hit 'delete' and forget about it. However sometimes the crooks need to be pretty clever to avoid arousing our suspicions - see this one from Wendy Breeds at Old Mill House B&B, Maltby le Marsh.
Good Morning folks in Lincoln,
Just wanted to chat about the increasing number of scam reservation emails we are picking up. We have had odd curious emails all the while we have been in business, just over two years now. We tend to ignore them but were not certain of their purpose until today. We picked up one this morning and I gave it more thought than usual. I gave it more consideration because a couple of months back, our son advertised his motor bike at on-line auction and he became involved in a scam whereby, the purchaser, from abroad of course, sent more money than was necessary, paid by bank draft on an Eire bank in Euros. Of course before the draft could be cleared, the purchaser was requesting the excess to be returned. Quite farcical but we observed the whole process with common sense and no money changed hands. We heard no more from the potential purchaser.
This affair has naturally sat in the back of my mind and when an email turned up this morning, the penny actually dropped. The request is usually for three or more double rooms, for seven or more nights...which could be a substantial amount. (The email is pasted to the bottom of this.) I can imagine that the procedure would be that upon the request for a deposit, they would pay up front, then before the payment clears, request a refund. The payment would then bounce and I would be out of pocket.
The reservation request often has a nice little story wrapped up in it, such as they are a bible study group from Central America, or they will be travelling with a linguist etc.
It didn’t take two minutes to find the following website www.tourismnortheast.co.uk/.../watch-out-for-this-email-scam-says-ne-accommodation-provider-a721
And my suspicions were confirmed!
Sadly for tourism, I am reluctant to take bookings by email from abroad, and always decline a deposit when I do. As yet, I have taken no bogus bookings. I would also feel sad for any small business that falls for a scam, easy to do now that it is the low season and businesses would appreciate the income.
I have not heard of or been warned by any source of this fraud activity and thought it might be wise to circulate some sort of info in the email circular you distribute on a regular basis.
Hope you can give this matter your attention and bring it to the attention of other businesses,
Regards
Wendy Breeds
Old Mill House
So, if you receive anything like this that you think other tourism businesses should be aware of, let us know. CL
