Scam targeting gyms - Stolen Credit Cards

I have been advised this is a scam seeking to skim money off stolen credit cards. I run a 24hr gym. The initial email:

Hi,

Am hearing impaired that is why am using via e-mail to contact you now...I want to make an appointment for personal training,fitness and exercise service for my family.I want you to get back to me with the total estimate for 2 times in week training 5(Female) people for 6 weeks,also want you to know that they will be coming with a private transportation driver to for the service.

I will be expecting your reply back with the total cost then your full name,address with directly phone number for the private transportation to locate your place when they are coming for the service.....Thanks i will be expecting your response back asap.

After giving a quote and organising various training requirements, I received this one:

Okay fine,the favor is that i want you to help me to charge extra $1700 on my credit card and you can help me to send it to the charter bus. So that the driver is going to drive the ladies to your studio for their training for 6 Weeks because i have not pay for the charter bus that will be bringing the Ladies to your studio and i don't have cash now with me and they also don't have credit card facility they only accept upfront cash payment for their service,so that you can help me to bill my credit card for your service with the charter bus then send it through via western union money transfer. You can locate a western union money transfer outlet nearest your place, am asking for this favor due to my disability and am at the hospital will undergo surgery in 1 week time that why am asking for the favor....I will be expecting your reply back with your full name, address with directly phone numbers to locate your studio when they are coming for the training,thanks.

Stopped communicating after this. The bad English was a strong alert. Any further details required let me know.

Yes, it is a scam.

What email address did they use?

Hi again. Email address used was [email protected].

Cheers

[email protected]

Originating IP: 41.206.12.31
Originating ISP: Vgc Communication
City: Lagos
Country of Origin: Nigeria

The spa I work at also got e-mails from Laura ([email protected])

"Hi,
Am hearing impaired that is why am using via e-mail to contact you now...I want to book an appointment for the below service
Facial treatment
Pedicure
Manicure
Massage
Eyelash tint
and
i want you to get back to me with the total estimate for 5(Female) people for 22nd of January,also want you to know that they will be
coming with a private transportation driver to for the service.I will be expecting your reply back with the total cost then your full name,address with directly phone number for the private transportation to locate your place when they are coming for the service.....So that i can give you my credit card for the payment asap."

The last email was "Okay fine,the favor is that i want you to help me to charge extra $1300 on my credit card and you can help me to send it to the charter bus. So that the driver is going to drive the ladies to you salon for the treatment because i have not pay for the charter bus that will be bringing the people to your location and and i don't have cash now with me and they also don't have credit card facility they only accept upfront cash payment for their service,so that you can help me to bill my credit card for your service with the charter bus then send it through via western union money transfer. you can locate a western union money transfer outlet nearest your place am asking for this favor due to my disability and am at the hospital will undergo surgery in 1 week time that why am asking for the favor....I will be expecting your reply back with your full name, address with directly phone numbers to locate your place when they are coming for the treatment,thanks."

We stopped replying after that one.

Welcome mystical1011. Well spotted. The key to the scam is the "overpayment' to be sent on to a supposed third party. The credit card info is stolen, so this is how the scammer gets cash from the card.
There is an overview of the scam here: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=23020

Thanks for taking the time to post, both Mystical and Rancid. Let us know if you have any questions!

I'm in the building Industry and received these emails as well it came from

[email protected]

1./

Hi, I will
like to know if you are available for
roofing service? because i want to do
the roofing service of the house.
Also do you accept credit card payment, then what area do you serve too,i will be expecting your reply back asap. Laura.

I asked details of the job and received this
2./

Thanks for your reply back....I just purchase the house for my mum while i want all the house roofing done because have be looking for a good roofer that can you go into the house and write me an estimate quote for it. Let me know so that i tell the former house owner to have the house keys available for you,also need a little favor from you because haven't balance up their remaining fees for the house which is sum of $3000 to balance up and do you accept credit card for deposit payment,i will be expecting your reply back asap. Thanks.

when I questioned about the address I got this doozy back
3./

Please,i need a favor from you while am going to give you my card to charge the sum of $4000 while you will deduct the sum of $1000 as job service deposit and send the remaining $3000 to the former house owner bank account for their balance up for the house.....i want you to know that they will send the key to you and you can go there for the quote estimate service then can you give me your FULL NAME, OFFICE ADDRESS, MOBILE PHONE NUMBER for the house owner to send the house keys to your office immediately they receive their balance.They will make the house key available for you to write the estimate inspection service and once you have the quote service done you can e-mail the report because i want to know the work to be done in the house before my family move inside the house,am asking for this favor due to my disability and am at the hospital to undergo surgery in 1 week time that why am asking for the favor.

beware guys this is a money laundering / credit card laundering con

Just like the others, it is African and it is a scam.

My friend who runs a fitness center recently received an email from a "Larry Cole" requesting yoga services for 5 female family members. It sounded almost exactly like the email posted at the top of this thread. She thought it seemed fishy and I agreed. He stated he was hearing impaired so he could only email. I did IP traces of the correspondences and "Larry" began emailing from San Jose CA and is now in Nigeria. The # he gave for texting him is (562) 395-0466 & the email he's using is [email protected].
Note: Facebook is a useful resource in tracking information. I did a search for the phone and email address the scammer used and brought up profiles for 2 different women, 1 of which is obviously fictional.

I received two of these emails at my martial arts studio over the past 3 days. Both say very similar (if not exact) things.:

Hello Owner,

I am hearing impaired This is Austin Mary, do you do Marital Art Training Service also accepting all major credit card and i want to make an appointment in your place and let me know and if you can handle my service and i can give you more details about the work asap.

Best Regard

Mary

The previous email I got was from a Marvin Smith, and they had 5 kids instead of 5 males, both emails claiming to have private transporation and both claiming to have disability or recovering from lung cancer. The first one asked for my personal cell phone so they could text me....so out of curiosity I gave him a dummy phone number through a phone app, and no soon did I give the dummy text number he texted me to tell me of the details....After I made up some song and dance about our requirement to speak directly with the parent of the kids on the phone or we can't do anything for the kids, I never heard back from them. Then this 2nd email wanted to do only email because of a hearing disability. These scams are ridiculous.

Had 2 emails to our martial arts school:

Good day,This is erica berry, how is work today, am hearing impaired, i will like to know if you are available for martial art training and exercise services and do you accept credit card for payment kindly get back to me as soon as possible.

Best Regards,
Berry

------------

Thanks for the prompt response, Am not around at the moment, Am out of the city for business purpose but i have a driver that will bring them in after i have sorted out the bills and all other necessary things with you, I want to make an appointment for Martial art training exercise service for my family.I want you to get back to me with the total estimate for 2 month private training for 5 people 3(Female) aged (15, 17 and 21)and 2(Male) aged (16 and 20) for 2 months 2hr daily 3 times a week, like i said earlier that they will be coming with a private transportation driver for the service. I will be expecting your reply with the total cost and your full name,address and direction for the private transport to locate your place when they are coming for the service..Happy to read back from you soonest...

Thanks,
Berry

Hi,

Sorry for bumping this thread, I know it's a bit old, but I just recently received a similar set of emails. The replies I was receiving seemed almost canned and made little sense in regards to my replies. I laughed fairly hard as the guy said he was sending his family via charter bus this coming Wednesday (5 days out) but he doesn't have any cash on him and the driver doesn't accept credit cards (if it's 5 days out... go to an ATM).

Anyway, the emails are coming from [email protected] , I was hoping someone could check out where the origin of the emails are from as someone else did above.

Thanks!

Sorry this is long - it sucked me down a rabbit hole for 3 hours:

Someone calling himself Craft Brown sent me a text message starting with, "Hello, how are you doing?" He asked if I was available for group fitness training, so I asked for more information. Over a course of 3 hours, we texted back and forth and the story was basically the same as above. He wrote, "I want to set up an appointment for my 4 kids 2boys and 2girls age 20, 18, 19, and 22 for 3 weeks training 3 times in a week 1hr daily and the kids will be coming down for the training with a private driver each time they have training okay"

I responded that I require a one hour consultation with the "kids" so I can hear their goals and ask for medical history. Never got their names. I thought it would be easier to finish the conversation with a phone call, so I called and spoke to "Craft". I immediately recognized an African accent, male voice - he sounded drunk or drugged. Certainly, not lucid at all. He said he'd text me his credit card details. (Who DOES that??) We confirmed a start date - 7 days out, and a time for the training sessions. I asked, as I always do, "how did you find me?" and he replied, "I saw your website."

Texting started again: "I'm looking for them to come up by 10am in the morning the there's a charter bus driver that will be bringing them for the training each time they have training and i think that's fine by you....also can i know if you are the owner and do you accept credit card as your mode of payment?...do text me your full name and the location address were the kids will be train i can have that forward to the driver that will be bringing the kids okay"

I gave no further information than what is available on my website.

It goes on - he wanted to pay me for the training upfront, plus an additional $1857.66 for the driver, and for my trouble he'd add 15% for my cc processing fee, plus a $120 tip. He wrote, "I want you to know that the driver that will be bringing the kids for the payment I've not make the payment for his service to him due to he doesn't have facility to credit card and there no way for me to make the payment with hi with me card that's why I want you to kindly help me out..."

In all fairness, I asked for his full name and the full name of the driver. "Craft Brown. The driver name is Secundine Po okay...Here's my email for you to send me the invoice as my [email protected]." He also texted me a credit card number complete with cvv code, zip code and expiration date. Asked me to break the manual cc transaction into two payments, the first would be $2000 and the second for the remainder. "Once the money has hit your account you will pull out the driver fund and send it to him in the bank and am going to give you his details that's when the fund has cleared that's what they called cash deposit okay"

I called a friend and she found this website. 24 hours after the first text message arrived, "Craft Brown" is still texting me, "Hello, are you there?"

Craft Brown's phone number is from S. Carolina. 803-692-1298

The same thing just happened to my husband and I. We own a personal training facility.

Here are the emails:

"Hi,My is David Warnock,i would like to know if you are available for Fitness Training and do you accept credit card,i await your response back asap."

I replied back and then received another email (which I deleted by mistake) the e-mail was actually very well written, but very demanding. He/she "expected" to find out the cost for personal training for 4 family members, 18-22 for 1 month. It was also stated that a professional/private transportation company would be dropping them off.....

The demanding nature if the email, started to nip at my curiosity. I still replied, professionally and made it clear that we would first have to meet with the family for assessments/consultation appts.

I received this email back:
"Hello

Thank you very much for your respond, the price sound good and okay to me below are the goals of the kids:

The 4 kids do swimming and basketball
None of them has no injury
The kids need Gain strength, Mobility, Flexibility

I want you to know that I've arrange for a private charter bus driver that will be bringing the 4 kids for the whole training, I was looking by next week for the this to start up the training by 10AM Monday-Wednesday-Friday till your convenient time, can i make the full payment with my credit card so you can send me an invoice as my record am forwarding your studio address to the driver right now also am paying for the 15% credit card charges and i will be needing you for a little favor regarding the private driver that will be driving the 4 kids down to your location for the training do get back to me ASAP,

Hope to read from you"

The poor grammar, language and "little favor" request made it glaringly clear to me that this was a scam.

I replied saying I would only move forward after speaking with him. I asked for a phone number. Instead I received a call at 8:30 at night from a South Carolina #. I did not pick up. I then quickly received an email stating, "Hey, I just called you, but no pickup."

My husband and I google searched the number and found the listing on many scam sites.

Ridiculous!

The name used was David Warnock. The phone number was
(803) 692-1298
SC, USA.

The email used was [email protected]