My First Wine Fraud Email
July 30, 2010
Hooray! Fishing comes to the world of wine and spirits.
I got this email the other day. It's obvious fishing/wire fund/money order spam to me, but might not be if you happen to sell wine in Texas. Be on the lookout, and God Bless America
Gerrard Silver <[email protected]>
reply-to [email protected]
date Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 9:06 PM
subject Thailand Wine Inquiry !!!!
hide details 9:06 PM (13 hours ago)
Hello,
My name is Gerrard Silver , an American .I live and work here in Thailand . Actually when I was home last time in Texas, I got a bottle of one of your wines from a friend as a birthday gift and I love the taste Since then , I have been planning on getting your wines for my wedding coming up soon, here in Thailand ,I got your contact through your website and I want to know if you will be able to supply me some cases of those wines.I will be making my payment via my American issued Visa & Master card .
I am registered with a shipping agency in USA, which has other representatives in USA .So you are not to get the wines shipped but the wines will be picked up at your location by this licensed shipping agency. The shipping agency have all the appropriate exportation documents and permits papers, Therefore concerning the shipping of the wines , I will refer you to this shipping company that will come for the pick up of the wines in your location once I have made my payment .They have got items shipped to me here twice without any delay .
You can also forward me the list of Wine Vintages you have available.
Kindly get back to me so that I can make my orders.
Warm and Best Regards
God Bless America
Gerrard Silver
send some of your finest vintages, camper.
Posted by: rachael | July 30, 2010 at 10:40 AM
He ends his email with God Bless America? Wow.
Posted by: tallnoe | July 30, 2010 at 10:50 AM
You know, I thought the letter sounded suspicious until he wrote God Bless America. How could anyone who loves God AND America ever commit fraud?
Posted by: Jesse A Davis | August 08, 2010 at 01:19 PM
I received the same from Gerrard Silver and from James Bird. Next....
Posted by: St Emilion | August 10, 2010 at 08:49 AM
Unfortunately, there are many, many of these going around - I get two or three a week, despite my attempts to have my spam filter stop them. I hope people out there in the wine business aren't falling for them. Some of them are better written than this one, but often they just have different names.
Posted by: Sonja Kassebaum | August 16, 2010 at 11:07 AM
Ooh I got another!
Theo Sipmson ([email protected])
Sales,
My name is Theo Simpson , an American .I live and work here in Trinidad and Tobago. Actually when I was home last time in California, I got a bottle of one of your wines from a friend as a birthday gift and I love the taste Since then , I have been planning on getting your wines for my upcoming wedding, here in Trinidad and Tobago ,I got your contact through your website and I want to know if you will be able to supply me some cases of those wines.I will be making my payment via my American issued Visa & Master card .
I am registered with a shipping agency in USA, which has other representatives in USA .So you are not to get the wines shipped but the wines will be picked up at your location by this licensed shipping agency. The shipping agency have all the appropriate exportation documents and permits papers, Therefore concerning the shipping of the wines , I will refer you to this shipping company that will come for the pick up of the wines in your location once I have made my payment .They have got items shipped to me here twice without any delay .
You can also forward me the list of Wine Vintages you have available.
Kindly get back to me so that I can make my orders.
Shipping Address:
34 Burneett Street
Scarborough
Trinidad and Tobago
Warm and Best Regards
Theo Simpson.
Posted by: Camper English | August 17, 2010 at 03:17 PM
Well it just got better, I got call from att as Relay call [Relay calls are phone call services available to those who cannot hear. They are traditionally free to those have difficulty hearing. These are services provided by telephone companies in order to best serve the hearing impaired. A user sits at his computer and types what he wants to say to the party he's talking to, the interpreter reads what he typed to the person on the other end of the phone, then types the response back to the hearing-impaired person.]
They wanted to buy about $1000 worth wines from me and then wanted me to put $700 more on top of the total on their credit card and then wire transfer that $700 to their shipper, who will come and pick up everything on "sept.-11" ?
Posted by: niko | August 25, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Nice!
Posted by: Camper English | August 25, 2010 at 12:29 PM
I just got another one!
Freddy Siemens
date Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 1:37 PM
subject Wine Inquiry Going To Thailand
hide details 1:37 PM (0 minutes ago)
Sales Department,
My name is Freddy Siemens ,on my last visiting to my great state in California i got a bottle of your wine from my uncle as a birthday gift while i do really enjoy the taste of the wine.For months now have been planning to contact your company for dedicating your wines for my upcoming wedding ceremony which will be taking place in Thailand where i live and work as Oil Refinery Chairman.I got your contact through your website while i will like to know if you will be capable to supply me some cases of your wines and spirit liquor.My payment will be effecting with my American issued Visa & MasterCard
I am registered with one of the best shipping company in USA which their services are satisfiable to me on my last consignment with them.You are not to get the wines shipped but the wines will be picked up at your location by this licensed shipping company. The shipping agency have all the appropriate exportation documents and permits papers, Therefore concerning the shipping of the wines , I will refer you to this shipping company that will come for the pick up of the wines in your location once I have made my payment.They have got items shipped to me here twice without any delay .
You can also forward me the list of Wine Vintages you have available.
Revert back soonest
Thanks and Regards
Freddy Siemens.
Posted by: Camper English | September 07, 2010 at 01:32 PM
I guess I don't get it. If he gives me a credit card and has someone pick up wine, which I wouldn't release until after the card clears, what is the scam?
Is that a way of getting other information they can use to scam us?
Posted by: MIke B | September 09, 2010 at 11:41 AM
No clue how it would work. Typically it's a wire transfer that's the issue. But since, you know, I don't sell wine and I received this email a few times from different addresses that's a pretty good clue that it's not going to go down as stated.
Posted by: Camper English | September 10, 2010 at 06:49 PM
We got one from Phillipe Langner, which happens to be the name of a winemaker in Rutherford, but strangely, he too is in Thailand preparing to get married, and he tasted our wine in NYC.
Posted by: Ted Bucklin | September 22, 2010 at 08:36 PM