Do you think this is a con?

[Spangles]

Good day,
I am John Lauren . I saw your contact on www.childmindersdirectory.com. Anyway, I am an English speaking man from Cotonou . I will be coming over to the UK, Waterbeach area precisely, from 16th of February to 29th of March with my wife and out 2 year old Son.

While we will be in the UK, we will be busy as we will be attending clasess for the duration of our stay( mondays through fridays), so we will require the services of a childminder who can take care of Adam while we are studying, Lecture times for us are 9am - 3pm. I will want to know if you can provide your services between these dates.

In your response, please let me have a little bio-data on yourself and how you run your childminding service, I will also appreciate if I can get a price quotation as we want to make advance payments before our visit so we can be rest assured as this is his first visit to the UK. An early response will be appreciated. Hope to hear from you soon.
John

Received it today by e-mail and I'm very wary. What do you think? I don't know if I should reply or not!

[miffy]

Yes I do - it reads very similar to an email Sarahnev had recently

Don't reply

Miffy xx

[katickles]

Hi - I wouldn't trust this, not with all the weird ones going round at the moment. My friend had one just the other day, very, very similar to this & its was a con. Also just the other night, there was a thread on her with again something similar.

I thinks its scary, why do they want to know if it is a con?:panic:

[berkschick]

I had one similar too only he was going to pay me £1000 for a weeks work then I had to forward the differance to him. Yeah right :rolleyes:

[Pipsqueak]

Yep - I think it sounds like a con and you obviously have doubts too or you wouldn't have asked!! Follow your gut instinct.

I have read about other people receiving emails like this. It was originally targeted at nannies and it now seems to be spreading to other childcare sector workers.

Report if possible (let all your friends know - the more of us who can be aware of this sort of thing the better) and ignore/delete.

[Spangles]

Thanks everyone that's what I figured. I will just delete it!

[chubbymummy]

Hi - I wouldn't trust this, not with all the weird ones going round at the moment. My friend had one just the other day, very, very similar to this & its was a con. Also just the other night, there was a thread on her with again something similar.

I thinks its scary, why do they want to know if it is a con?:panic:



thats just what i was thinking what are they getting out of it?

[LittleMissSparkles]

my gut instinct is its a con xxx

[Spangles]

I think it's probably a financial con.

When my hubby was trying to sell a car a while back he got similar-ish e-mails.

They wanted to send him a cheque for a couple of thousand more than the sale price and then he had to pay them back the difference immediately but their payment wouldn't clear or would clear temporarily and then be rejected so in fact you've just given them money for nothing if you see what I mean?

[Rubybubbles]

They seem to be on the rounnds again

Maybe worth reporting to NCMA I seem to remember they put a bit about it in who minds that last time this was happening, just to let people know

[bestmum2have]

This is part of the Nigerian scam. keep well away. I had the same thing wanting childcare, sent me a cheque over £4000. cheque bounced. Then wanted me to pay for his airline ticket.
Look it up on the net NIGERIAN SCAM
Toni

[Mickey Mouse Clubhouse]

Hi

I had the exact same email this afternoon word for word just the area changed. I just deleted as I have had these's through before.

Lorraine xx

[allykidz]

I had a similar one last summer. Most defo a scam and got sent a nice cheque for £2500 just after care was supposed to have started. Still have the cheque here and still deciding whether to bank it or not!! lol
x

[Spangles]

Hi Allison

I would forward it to the police, that's what we did with the one hubby received and they were really grateful.

The one we got didn't even look anything like a genuine cheque! It was actually very comical!

[Pipsqueak]

This is what I have just received from my Development Officer - please make all your childminder friends aware:





At least one childminder in our area has been contacted by an individual by email about arranging childcare for his son. He claimed to be an Italian American who had recently been divorced but was moving to County Durham for a period of 36 months and required childcare for his son. At this stage some emailing between the two took place and at this stage a photograph of a young boy was attached to a reply which he claimed was his son. There was some talk of costs and about him paying a deposit.

Our childminder became suspicious, for a number of reasons, and we did some investigating on her behalf. The following extract is part of an email sent to our service that seems to suggest that this individual may be part of a wide scam that is targetting childminders in the UK.

We have advised our childminder to reply to her contact directing this person to use the CIS as an agent to arrange the care. Not surprisingly we have not yet received any contact.

The Police and Trading Standards are aware of this in our region and we are going to contact all of our childminders in County Durham in order to warn them of what appears to be happening.

Hopefully by circulating this message further fraud will be prevented.

Thanks,

[Spangles]

Good idea - I've just e-mailed it to my dev offcr for her to do with as she sees fit!

Hopefully she will use it to contact her e-mail list and warn the other minders.