A wedding cake shop in Washington fell victim to a weird internet scam. Basically, someone ordered a wedding cake via email, and gave the bakery a credit card number for the $2500 charge. The scammers asked the bakery to wire $980 through Western Union for the shipping charges, and then the cake was never picked up. It is assumed that the credit card used to pay the $2500 was a stolen card.
Not that I don't feel bad for them, but COME ON! Don't wire money through Western Union to someone you don't know or trust. It's not difficult! If someone wants you to wire money, they are a scammer. Period. Full stop. Etc.
In the above video, they show the email. The email was written in Comic Sans and I saw "God Bless You". Maybe it's just me, but whenever I read a somewhat legitimate looking email that is repeatedly blessing me, I KNOW it's a scammer. Come on, bakery, use your spidey sense! And if anyone ever sends me an email in Comic Sans they are forever banished to my junk box.
This is a hell of a weird scam. I would never think to target bakeries. The nice part of this story is that the unclaimed wedding cake was donated to a rescue mission - some hungry people got to eat some really good cake.
-KB
Showing posts with label wedding scam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding scam. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Thousands of women fall for bridal show scam
Have you ever been to a bridal show? I went to one many years ago when I didn't even have a boyfriend. As a teenager, I had a friend who had a life-long obsession with being a pretty princess bride, and she really wanted to go, so I went with her. It was a terrifying experience; bitchy women and their miserable, even bitchier mothers were grilling sleazy vendors about prices while some poor guy (presumably the groom) trailed along behind. I was pressured into trying things on (rings, headpieces), putting things against my skin (hm, do I like candle white, or ivory?), and taking unwanted fliers (WIN A FREE HONEYMOON) despite my insistence that I wasn't getting married, but merely helping my friend.
So I'm definitely not laughing at these women, because I'm sure a fraction of them are kind, reasonable people. I'm laughing at the grabby, scary, type-A women (hope you get your money back!)
Photo by Daniel Day
Boston police and the FBI say at least 6,000 brides-to-be and wedding vendors have been duped by a "non-existent convention" called The Boston 411 Home and Bridal Show 2010. Advertised on Facebook and weddingwire.com as "New England’s biggest and most extravagant bridal show," the convention claimed to be booked at the Hynes Convention Center March 5-7. In fact, the Hynes is hosting the annual assembly of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine on those dates.
Pre-paid admission passes were sold for $10 and $15, and attendees were promised “a welcome bag of goodies” and “a chance to win fabulous gifts and prizes” on the show’s bogus Web site. The show’s contact number goes to a voice mail.
Authorities said the scam artists were also selling advertising space in the show program for up to $450. Investigators are holding a press conference this afternoon to provide updates on the case and offer help to scam victims
Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. I can't imagine paying $15 to get into a convention and expecting a welcome bag. It's not the Oscars! And I am not condoning any of this malicious scam, but I think targeting brides and home decorators was clever. Everything in those categories attracts ravenous, cash-flush people. But I really do hope that these people get their money back, and that the genius masterminds behind this are punished.
-Kay Banks
So I'm definitely not laughing at these women, because I'm sure a fraction of them are kind, reasonable people. I'm laughing at the grabby, scary, type-A women (hope you get your money back!)
Photo by Daniel Day
Boston police and the FBI say at least 6,000 brides-to-be and wedding vendors have been duped by a "non-existent convention" called The Boston 411 Home and Bridal Show 2010. Advertised on Facebook and weddingwire.com as "New England’s biggest and most extravagant bridal show," the convention claimed to be booked at the Hynes Convention Center March 5-7. In fact, the Hynes is hosting the annual assembly of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine on those dates.
Pre-paid admission passes were sold for $10 and $15, and attendees were promised “a welcome bag of goodies” and “a chance to win fabulous gifts and prizes” on the show’s bogus Web site. The show’s contact number goes to a voice mail.
Authorities said the scam artists were also selling advertising space in the show program for up to $450. Investigators are holding a press conference this afternoon to provide updates on the case and offer help to scam victims
Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. I can't imagine paying $15 to get into a convention and expecting a welcome bag. It's not the Oscars! And I am not condoning any of this malicious scam, but I think targeting brides and home decorators was clever. Everything in those categories attracts ravenous, cash-flush people. But I really do hope that these people get their money back, and that the genius masterminds behind this are punished.
-Kay Banks
Friday, January 22, 2010
The creepiest Nigerian scam
GREETINGS. II AM YOUR LONG-LOST UNCLE FROM NIGERIA AND I HAVE MONEY FOR YOU IF YOU ATTEND MY SHAM WEDDING TO MY DAUGHTER.
A Nigerian Home Office worker 'married' his own daughter to get her a British visa, the Daily Mail can reveal. The extraordinary scam was apparently executed by Jelili Adesanya while ministers turned a blind eye. Mr Adesanya, 54, has lived here for more than 30 years and holds a British passport, but wanted his daughter, her husband and their four sons to join him from Nigeria.
He faked a wedding ceremony complete with a photograph of the happy 'couple' which helped fool immigration officials that his daughter, Karimotu Adenike, was really his wife. Miss Adenike, who is in her mid-30s, was duly granted permission to live in the UK. The pair are waiting for her to be granted a permanent right to remain before they undergo a quiet divorce and attempt to bring the rest of her family here.
It is expected she would try to remarry her real husband to get them all visas.
Mr Adesanya, who came to Britain in 1976, flew back to Nigeria on May 29, 2007, and held the bogus wedding ceremony a few days later at a register office in Ikorodu, Lagos. A source said: 'They paid people to attend the wedding so that the British High Commission in Lagos would believe it was genuine. The commission then gave Karimotu Adenike a two-year settlement visa in October 2007. 'On her settlement visa application form, of course, she did not mention that she already had a husband and four children. The date of birth on her Nigerian passport is not her real date of birth.'
Miss Adenike is believed to have aged herself by ten years on her wedding certificate to disguise the age gap with her father. Although her settlement visa expired, she is hoping to be given the right to remain.
Mr Adesanya, who lives with his daughter in Dagenham, Essex, vehemently denied the plot and said he had never been questioned about the allegations. He said: 'Married my own daughter? I have never heard anything like this in my life. I deny it. She is my wife, not my daughter.' However, asked to confirm his 'wife's' date of birth, he said he did not know without checking her passport, and refused to allow her to speak for herself.
Unbeknown to him, his daughter had confirmed the arrangement when she told a friend she would shortly apply for her own British passport and 'divorce daddy'.
Gross! Go into the weekend happy in the knowledge that you are not married to your own kin.
-Kay
A Nigerian Home Office worker 'married' his own daughter to get her a British visa, the Daily Mail can reveal. The extraordinary scam was apparently executed by Jelili Adesanya while ministers turned a blind eye. Mr Adesanya, 54, has lived here for more than 30 years and holds a British passport, but wanted his daughter, her husband and their four sons to join him from Nigeria.
He faked a wedding ceremony complete with a photograph of the happy 'couple' which helped fool immigration officials that his daughter, Karimotu Adenike, was really his wife. Miss Adenike, who is in her mid-30s, was duly granted permission to live in the UK. The pair are waiting for her to be granted a permanent right to remain before they undergo a quiet divorce and attempt to bring the rest of her family here.
It is expected she would try to remarry her real husband to get them all visas.
Mr Adesanya, who came to Britain in 1976, flew back to Nigeria on May 29, 2007, and held the bogus wedding ceremony a few days later at a register office in Ikorodu, Lagos. A source said: 'They paid people to attend the wedding so that the British High Commission in Lagos would believe it was genuine. The commission then gave Karimotu Adenike a two-year settlement visa in October 2007. 'On her settlement visa application form, of course, she did not mention that she already had a husband and four children. The date of birth on her Nigerian passport is not her real date of birth.'
Miss Adenike is believed to have aged herself by ten years on her wedding certificate to disguise the age gap with her father. Although her settlement visa expired, she is hoping to be given the right to remain.
Mr Adesanya, who lives with his daughter in Dagenham, Essex, vehemently denied the plot and said he had never been questioned about the allegations. He said: 'Married my own daughter? I have never heard anything like this in my life. I deny it. She is my wife, not my daughter.' However, asked to confirm his 'wife's' date of birth, he said he did not know without checking her passport, and refused to allow her to speak for herself.
Unbeknown to him, his daughter had confirmed the arrangement when she told a friend she would shortly apply for her own British passport and 'divorce daddy'.
Gross! Go into the weekend happy in the knowledge that you are not married to your own kin.
-Kay
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