African Printing Scam
Wow, months after the African Puppy Scam I get another one over the weekend.
Started off with a simple email requesting a quote in print price…
Hello Sir/Madam,
My name is Rev James Hopper and i want to make an order of SOME FLYERS .I will like you to get back to me as soon as you with the pick up price of the following models and sizes;
1. measures 8.5' x 11'
2. 80# Gloss Text or
3. 0.25 - White boarder
4. One sided
Please provide a quote on 98,500 copies
l want you to write of the flyer (Love One Another).I want you to go ahead and quote me the total pick up prices plus tax without shipping and will also like you to get back to me with information on the major credit card you accept for payment and how soon can you get that ready for pick up as i have a shipping company that will come for the pick up as soon as they are ready. also get back to me with your contact phone number and full name so we can proceed.
James Hopper.
So, I responded with a few questions and here is the response…
i will like to inform you that this will be black only and will like you to get back to me with the total cost and will also like to know if you accept credit card for payment and how soon can you get that ready for pick up.
so I gave a quote for the job and this is the hook response I got.
Thanks for the quote..
But it is unfortunate to inform you that I have a family emergency,(my wife just had an accident)and I will be on the next available flight to Germany but I won't be back till further notice.Meanwhile this order is to be delivered to a church in Ghana,West-Africa.
So I would like you to contact the Freight Company with the approximate weight of the order and your address and get me the freight charges for delivering the order to the address below:
Rev. Matthew Banson
( World Miracle Church )
352 Lemon St.
Accra, Ghana,00233
West-Africa.
Freight Company Contact Details:
COMPANY NAME:Melcome Shipping Company.
EMAIL ADDRESS:Bulkshippers@hotmail.com
i will like you to go ahead and contact them and get back to me as soon as you can so i can provide you with my credit card information for you to go ahead and run that for the Grand total of the order plus shipping so we can proceed.. also let me know as soon.
May God Bless You
JAMES HOPPER
How great, using religious titles like Rev. makes scamming people all that much better.
Now, a couple of things really got me interested, first the quick swerve on the emergency, can’t pick the job up, have to ship it to Ghana, West Africa.
Then I did a lookup on where the email originated from, after all its a yahoo.com email address right? Email came from an internet cafe in West Africa… Interesting, considering the person is supposedly able to pick up the printing.
I still don’t know what the angle was here? Credit card fraud? Free printing? A staged scam to get the printer to pay to clear customs on the promise the client would pay us back?
Anyway, don’t know, but a simple reply saying we don’t ship internationally seemed to qwell the scammer.
Net of it all is beware online, do your homework and don’t get scammed. Also, use google, and you will find links like this http://bizcardpro.com/PrintingScam.htm
Hopefully no body gets dupped by this scam.
Filed under: News
Actually, what happens is that they provide bogus credit card numbers, you run them, but it takes a few days for the cards to process. But, in the meantime, you need to wire the money via Western Union to the freight company. By the time you have wired the money, the credit cards have been declined and you’re out whatever money you wired to them.
Actually we got this same email.
They even gave us 2 credit cards to run.
This is crazy.
Hello,
Thank you for your article. I am actually in the midst of trying to be scammed by this guy. Just a coincidence, my husband works for PIA/GATF. I am hoping to work through them to get the word out.
Fortunately; I took time his afternoon to research his guy before any money transactions have occurred. The owner of my company wants to nail this guy.
He contacted us via email wanting a price for printing 98,500 fliers on 80# coated stock
And, oh of course ,at the beginning of this it all became urgent because he had to leave the country because his wife was in an accident in Germany.
…… virtually the same story and same exact email that you received. I became suspicious when I received a low resolution jpeg for artwork to base my quote on. Its a poorly designed picture of a Nativity scene with knockout type advertising a “Eshter Crusade with many Quest speakers”. A reverand that can’t spell Easter or Guest correctly deeply disturbed me & raised my suspicions. It also doesn’t give dates etc….
Starts out they will pick up from our location, wants to know the weight for shipping. Then I had to contact the Gold Coast Shipping Co. for the cost of shipping to Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Of course they want the payment via Western Union Wire Transfer …… Once I gave them the grand total of printing & shipping they were supposed to give me their credit card # for us to make arrangements for shipping & payment. I indicated that he needed ot pay us in advance as well. He then asked me to tack on an additional $300.00 to the grand total to cover the costs of the wire transfers.
He has contacted me via a 3rd party service for deaf people 2 X’s today.
Before I left work today, I decided to contact this Gold Coast Shipping Company. Looks legitimate on the web but then when I called to confirm the price quote I found that it is not legitimate. The call sounds as if it is a private residence. A gentleman who answered the phone was caught totally off guard. He just answered Hello not “Gold Coast Shipping Co.” I asked for the man who sent me the bid on shipping & was told “He must work for another Gold Coast Shippping Company”. I asked what his Co. does. he stated that they ship /export overseas. Sounds very much like they do the kind of shipping that was being requested. Interesting. I think this guy is in on it. He sounded shady.
Unbelievable!!!!
This stinks and I would love to help to put an end to it. I’ll keep you informed on how this unfolds.
I am very grateful to not have fallen for this.Thanks for posting your experience.
Truly yours,
Alexis
Mine is a Rev John Carter, 100,000 business cards that say Bama Top Tech, and email and phone number, he paid via credit card,and it was approved, but nothin was passing the smell test, so I called my merchant services and got he issuing bank info and found that he was not the authorized signer, I told him it was declined and since he has given me 7 more card numbers and each time I call the issuing banks and alert them to his fraud.
I’ve been in contact with a Mark Adams who seems to fit the same bill. He needed 300 trophies that say save the children for an orphanage. I gave him his quote, then he suddenly had to got see his uncle in Germany, his wife was also not doing well. They had me contact BW Shipping company via e-mail only (@gmail.com).
The letter:
Hello _____ ,
Thanks for the quote.Am Satisfied with the price…Sorry for the delay responce
But it is unfortunate to inform you that I have a family emergency,(my Uncle just had an accident)and I will be on the next available flight to Germany but I won’t be back till further notice.Mean while this order is to be delivered to a church in Ghana,West-Africa.
So I would like you to contact the Freight Company with the approximate weight of the order and your address and get me the freight charges for delivering the order to the address below:
Rev. Matthew Banson
(World Miracle Church)
352 Lemon St.
Accra,Ghana,00233
West-Africa.
Freight Company Contact Details:
COMPANY NAME:B W shipping
EMAIL ADDRESS:bwshippinginc@gmail.com
i will like you to go ahead and contact them and get back to me as soon as you can so i can provide you with my credit card information for you to go ahead and run that for the Grand total of the order plus shipping so we can proceed.. also let me know as soon.
Respectfull Submitted,
Mr.Mark
***
Afterdiscovering the similarities in the writing patterns of the shipping manager and my client (they contacted me on the same day 7 minutes apart) I knew it was the same guy. Unfortunately they never answered any questions about where they are contacting me from and never left any contact infomation other than an e-mail address.
Luckily it hasn’t cots me too much in materials I prepared. I just hope they’re exposed and punished. Being a minority business owner of African discent, I am particularly frustrated at this.
We received the same request above and now this new one new one…
Hello Owner
I am Mr Paul Brown i will like to order some labels from you and I will need you print the following along with the sizes on it.
Name to Print: GOD TIME IS BEST.
1 3/8″ x 4 1/4″ sized labels. For 300,00 total labels in rolls of 2,500 in white gloss with one color print Please I want you to email me with the total price include tax and excluding shipping and also what types of credit card do you accept as payment? I will be waiting to read from you soon.
Regards…….
Mr Paul Brown
Ours is a Williamm Baker, the 2nd email he sent he was Baker William. Also called via deaf relay operator. The only difference in the flyers was the qty. He wanted 100,000 from us. I replied sayin sorry we couldn’t do that larger of qty. that there were several online color printing companies that accepted credit cards. He emailed me back saying order as many as we could produce at one time and he would reorder. I am not responding back. I wondered how he would profit from this until I read about the wire transfer.
[...] once I saw Germany and Ghana alarm bells went off and I googled this page confirming it was a typical African internet [...]
I am so tired of recieving these scam mails.I have probably recvd at least 12 of these in the last few months.Went along witha few to try and figure out the scam,and figured out it was the shipping.Frankly I don’t understand how anyone could fall for this .The grammar is so pathetic,and the print request is so bizzare and making no sense at all, that it would raise the suspicion of any recipient.These are probably the same Nigerians who were running the last big scam,The help me get money out of the country,and I will give you a million dollars scam.I don’t know how this dopes can be stopped!
Patrick,
My husband’s business was approached by a Mark Wilson for an order of 600 plaques (no engraving) to be sent to Ghana for an orphanage. Thank God I googled Rev. Matthew Banson and found your website. While we wouldn’t of done any ordering without credit card clearance it appears from others experience that they’ve found away around that as well. Mark Wilson just emailed my husband 4 separate credit card accounts to charge the bill. Who can we forward this information to. We are a small company, raising 4 children, fortuantely we will not be scammed. We’d like to prevent others from being so and see these people punished. Any further direction would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ann
We’ve recently been contact by Baker William, or William Baker via a phone relay service for deaf people. After he made phone contact, we provided our email and he’s been emailing us constantly.
His initial email went as follows:
Thank you for your time and petiens with me on the phone and and am sending you this email to order the flyers and regard is how the need the custome of the flyers should be as follows:
1. measures 8.5′ x 11′
2. 80# Gloss Text or
3. 0.25 - White boarder
4. One sided
5. Flat flyers
And Please provide a quote on 100,000 copies and please can you send me an email reply back with the price of that plus tax without shipping so that i will go ahead and issue you with mine Master Card for you to run for the Total Charges And i will be Looking forward to hear back from you so that we can proceed with the Order / Payment / Pick Up And delivery Details….
Thank You
William
______
Alarms immediately went off - When I inquired where he was located, I got the following email:
Dear __________
Thank you for your email reply back to me and i am located in vt and yes the flyers will be picked up your location as soon as its ready for pick up thank you and will be waiting for your email
_______________
Vermont, huh? Things still weren’t making sense, and he continued to give us more information, read below:
Dear ____________
Thank you for your email and Well I would like you to contact this shipping company to find out the shipping quote. However I understand the total cost $5,618.00 and i really appricate that and i am okey with the price and I would like to proceed with payment, but I also want to know the shipping cost before I can go ahead and make the payment for the Order, and I want these Products to be shipped to Ghana oversea to my new warehouse. and i have a Shipping Compay that has been handling my shipment for me and i want you to contact them with the total weight size and quantity of the flyers and also the pick up and delivery address to be shipped and get me the Freight charges and contact me back so that i can also email you back with my payment information details for the payment charges on Shipping charges and the Shipping address and also the contact details for the Shipping Company as follows:
The Shipping Address
Ms .Shantel Bert .
Shantel & Flyers
Ring Road Central
Accra-Ghana-00233
The Shipping Company Contact Details
The Name is The Westend Trading And Shipping Co Ltd
The Contact Name Is Mr Mena Willams
Their Contact Email Address is westendshippingcoltd@yahoo.com
Their Website westendshippingcoltd.com
Yes and i want you to email them with the pick up location address and the total weight of the Flyers or the Sizes and the Quantity of the Flyers instead of the weight and also the Ship to address and get me the Freight charges and contact me back for the payment.
Nb the Shipping Company will also handle the packaging and crating and pick up and shipment from your location .Waiting to hear from you with the charges.
Thank you,
Baker.
Company Owner.
_____________
We have not quoted the shipping charges, infact, we’re trying to get him to contact us in an effort to extract more info from him - and see if we can catch this guy, or at least take some of the wind out of his sails.
Be aware! Thanks to this site we’ve got some ammunition.
My guy (actually, 2 requests 2 days in a row from ‘Pastor Chris’ and ‘Samuel Harrison’) looking for printed ‘Banners’. Both with ‘God’ theme. Light on details and very eager to purchase WITHOUT Shipping costs. Provided a payment form for first guy to collect all his details. Faxed back and emailed scanned copy of 1 set of card info, then asked to put half on 2nd card info scribbled on bottom of form. Info from Atlanta GA area. Smelled real funny, so did some research online and found address of card is from an Electric Contractor company in Atlanta. Phone number provided went to ‘un-setup message’ default.
Thanks for this post area.
Busy huh, I just got this on Friday 8/22
Good day,
My name is Rev.James Hopper and l want to order some flyer’s and i will need the Qty 100,000 with the size of 8.5”x11” in full copies Black Ink on Yellow Paper l want you to write of the flyer’s ( Save The Child Of Africa ). and also i need this flyer’s to be printed double sided and also I want you to go ahead and quote me the total pick up prices plus tax without shipping and also Advise me the method of of payment you accept so that we can proceed with this order,hope to hear from you as soon as possible.
Thank You.
Rev.James Hopper
I sent him the quote and also decided to google the church
Thanks for the quote..
But it is unfortunate to inform you that I have a family emergency,(my wife just had an accident)and I will be on the next available flight to Germany but I won’t be back till further notice.Meanwhile this order is to be delivered to a church in Ghana,West-Africa.
So I would like you to contact the Freight Company with the approximate weight of the order and your address and get me the freight charges for delivering the order to the address below:
Rev. Matthew Banson
( World Miracle Church )
352 Lemon St.
Accra, Ghana,00233
West-Africa.
Freight Company Contact Details:
COMPANY NAME:Gold coast Shipping Company.
EMAIL ADDRESS:Goldcoastshippingyard@gmail.com
i will like you to go ahead and contact them and get back to me as soon as you can so i can provide you with my credit card information for you to go ahead and run that for the Grand total of the order plus shipping so we can proceed.. also let me know as soon.
May God Bless You
Rev james
Rev Mac Willson has contacted me about printing 60,000 yellow flyers.
EXPRESS SHIPPERS AND AIR FREIGHT COURIERS is the name of the shipping company we are supposed to use. In the same broken English, I received an e-mail from them. It’s not hard to tell it’s the same guy.
I have to admit, when the charges for the shipping were e-mailed, the English was a little more convincing.
We stopped all progress on this with no expense incurred.
Sites like this one are very helpful.
This happened to me too. The guy (aka Rev. James Hopper) actually called me today and when I told him I knew he was a fraud he hung up on me!
Thanks for posting all this because this is how I found out he was a fraud so I didnt even take is credit card number.
Guess he’s ready for dessert now. The contact came off our website form, but looked odd so I Googled and found the page here.
“”
GOOD DAY MY NAME IS REV JAMES AND WILL LIKE TO ORDER FOR SOME CHOCOLAT. I WILL LIKE YOU TO GET BACK TO ME WITH THE PRICE FOR AN ASSORTED MILK CHOCOLATE AND WILL ALSO LIKE YOU TO GET BACK TO ME WITH THE TYPES AND PRICES OF CHOCOLATE THAT YOU HAVE FOR SELL IF YOU DONT HAVE THE ASSORTED TYPE. ALSO GET BACK TO ME WITH INFORMATION ON THE MAJOR CREDIT CARD YOU ACCEPT FOR PAYMENT AND I WILL ALSO LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT IAM SENDING THEM AS A DONATION TO A CHUCRH AND I HAVE A SHIPPING COMPANY THAT WILL COME FOR THE PICK UP AS SOON AS THEY ARE READY. GET BACK TO ME WITH ALL INFORMATION SO WE CAN PROCEED.MAY GOD BLESS YOU REV JAMES HOPPER
“”
JAMES SIZEMORE is the name used on the version of this scam email I received. Same story, wanted a quote and asked if we accepted credit cards. We took it seriously until we rec’d the second email in reply to our quote. The first flag was he immediately accepted a rather high quote, and then asked for the weights and asked me to contact their shipping company to send it to a church in Acra Ghana (even bigger flags). A quick Google search turned up this scam, confirming my suspicions.
For a little fun, I replied asking him for more info on the company, as well as their credit card number (including the security code on the back of the card) which I would need to proceed. That should scare him off, but I’m hoping he gives me something worthwhile to pass along to law enforcement.
This guy requested a quote from me too. Rev. Mark Jones (revmarkjones1@yahoo.com) Wanted me to ship 70,000 copies of a flyer that read “Help Save the Children” What kind of an idiot do you take me for?
He was very eager to get them printed.
Used a prepaid cell phone.
BEWARE!
this i an email i recevied today 10/17/08
Hello ,
Thanks for your respond again.I would like the ( 150 Toro Wired Rain sensors ) and I’m okay with the Total Cost ( $3660.00 ) and I would like to proceed with payment, but I also want to know the shipping cost before I can go ahead and make the payment for the Order, and I want these Products to be shipped to Johannesburg, S.A oversea to my new warehouse. and i have a Shipping Company that has been handling my shipment for me and i want you to contact them with an
1. Estimated total weight or information about the order to be shipped…..
2. The Shipping Address :
Name : Ms .Shantel Bert .
Address : Cas Maatens & Gerrie Vd Walt
Sonlandpark, Vereeniging, Johannesburg..
3. Your pick-up location address (where order would be picked up from)..
Above is the information required by the freight company so kindly send them this information’s and I would as soon as possible proceed by paying for the order once I get to know the shipping cost.
The contact details for the Shipping Company as follows:
The Shipping Company Contact Details
The Name is EXPRESS WORLD SHIPPING Co Ltd.
The Contact Name Is Mr Brian Cram
Their Contact Email Address is : expressworldshipping@lycos.com
NB: The shipping company are responsible for the crafting and packaging of the order.
Once you get the freight quote get back to me so that I can proceed with payment of the cost of order by today.
Urgently waiting to hear from you soon.
Thank you.
Terry Baker
Same story but different name, used Chris Twarowski. We exchanged several emails as I wondered how he had my name and why such a simple job was to be printed so far from delivery. Any shop could do this work. My son just returned from Ghana where he met many wonderful people. This puts such a bad mark on people who have no idea there are crooks like this giving them a bad name.
Ok guys, I think we should take this guy down. A Mr. Rev Mark Jones tried this same thing, 80,000 flyers shipping to ghana. The address that this guy tries to get this shipped doesnt change, so if everyone has saved these emails i think the proof would be overwhellming. Has anyone tried to go after this guy yet?
HI everyone,
Well, I must be the latest case. yesterday REV Shawn Morgan contacted me for 200 - 300 canvas images for a “save the children” image. …
After I contacted him with the quote and he wrote back with the whole West Africa thing I felt it spelled SCAM …
Here is what he wrote back to me…today
“Hello
I will like to order the 200 canvas’ which cost $7914. And i will recommend a freight company for the pick up of the canvas to orphanage home in (West Africa) . Now i want to you to contact them with the total weight of the 200 canvas and find out the freight quote to Africa for me . The delivery address is below :S.O.S HOME
505 Orphanage Street
Kumasi, 00233
Ghana(West Africa)Freight company email address : urbansfreightgh@kittymail.com
And including the pick-up location and they will surely get you a freight quote .As soon as you her from them let me know so that i can proceed with the transaction . ”
Best Regard
REV (Owner)
How do we go after someone like this? I have had several scam experiences before and luckily never took anything more than my time and excitment (thinking it was for real).
Kristen Westlake