COLLECTION

I've checked the website and the email addresses provided and everything checks out. Can anyone tell me if this is for real or a scam?

"From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 8:36 PM
Subject: COLLECTION

Sir/Madam:
We wish to retain your services to facilitate in the retrieval of delinquent accounts and holdings from our customers in United States. These accounts have been delinquent for a while, due to the current issues posed by the current economic status affecting business owners around the world, and we have been lenient enough to give a credit period of 3 months, which started in the month of November in the year, 2008, before requesting payments. We would like for the accounts to be mediated and closed before the end of the incoming quarter. We believe that all owed funds to our company will be made payable contingent upon acquiring the assistance of your office.
We would like to receive your retainer agreement, rates and all other essential material regarding your firm's compensation policies. These, and all other material,can be communicated true me at [email protected] for secretarial references.

Lin Yang
vice president.

Shanghai Bronco Electric Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Add: No. 855 Yushu Road, Songjiang Hi-Technology Industrial Zone, Shanghai, China
Tel: 0086-21-57733456 0086-21-57734567
Fax: 0086-21-57734688 0086-21-57734777
Http://www.cnbronco.com
E-mail: [email protected]"

I'm glad you had enough awareness to ask about this one. It is a scam, but a little better planned than many are. Looks like we have a fake email domain for killing here.


Note the difference between the email address and the website--email ends in .net, while website ends in .com.

The .net domain was set up in August of this year, and only for a year. There is no website attached to that domain. It is registered under godaddy with no actual registrant details visible.

The website, on the other hand, can be reached via cnbronco.com and chinabronco.com. The company has registered both names--one in 2004, the other in 2005. They are both registered for multiple years. The email addresses for the real company end in @chinabronco.com

Basically your scammer has chosen a real company the victim will not be familiar with, then registered a similar domain name (for only a year, because he knows he will be lucky if he can continue this scam that long plus he probably used a stolen credit card to register it and he will lose the domain when that is figured out).

Then he runs a standard fake check scam pretending to be the real company, hoping the victim doesn't identify the difference between .net and .com.