I'm thoroughly bewildered by some emails I've been getting and I'm curious
if anyone else here has seen something similar.
I am not a wedding photographer, have never shot a wedding, and do not
advertise myself as a wedding photographer. Nonetheless, I occasionally get
an email from someone who addresses me in a very familiar manner, either
telling me that I've shot a wedding for their son/daughter/sister/brother or
whatever and they'd like me to shoot theirs, or they say that they're happy
that I've agreed to shoot their wedding upcoming on such and such a date.
Keep in mind I've not recognized any of the names of any of these people
who've contacted me and I've certainly never booked or agreed to shoot a
wedding.
I'm utterly stumped as to what this could be about and my curiosity is
driving me crazy. I just got another one today.
My cynical side tells me it's got to be someone trying to scam me somehow,
but I can't conceive of how.
Has anyone had a similar experience, and if so, do you know what is going on
here? I'm at a complete loss but would love to know what's behind it.
Todd Adams
Stacey - 23 Jun 2004 01:00 GMT
> My cynical side tells me it's got to be someone trying to scam me somehow,
> but I can't conceive of how.
How weird. Maybe they are trying to get you to come to a ceratin address
with a bunch of camera gear so they can rob you? Who knows this does sound
very strange.

Signature
Stacey
Lassi =?iso-8859-1?Q?Hippel=E4inen?= - 23 Jun 2004 11:31 GMT
> > My cynical side tells me it's got to be someone trying to scam me somehow,
> > but I can't conceive of how.
>
> How weird. Maybe they are trying to get you to come to a ceratin address
> with a bunch of camera gear so they can rob you? Who knows this does sound
> very strange.
Maybe someone is harvesting e-mail addresses for spam purposes?
-- Lassi
Gordon Hudson - 23 Jun 2004 15:19 GMT
> I'm thoroughly bewildered by some emails I've been getting and I'm curious
> if anyone else here has seen something similar.
Yes, in my line of business we regularly get people claiming to be customer
who are not.
The two reasons they do this are:
1. To try and access data/information we have belonging to a real customer
whose identity they don;t know.
2. They wish to try and embroil us in a contractual dispute or obtain a
refund.
Its usually #2
How it works is they create hell claiming they bought something from us when
they did not, in the hope that we will either give them it fre eor send them
some money (we might do this if we thought maybe we had made an error and
they might actually have ordered - giving the benefit of the doubt).
If they approach enough businesses they might actually make some cash at
this.
There is a #3 (modified #2)where someone does order something but its not
what they claim to have ordered and they try to get a refund on the larger
value item, or they set a lawyer on you for an out of court settlement.
Also a #4 (another modified #2) where they screen scrape our ordering system
to order something we don't supply. We refund them, but they claim we have a
contract with us and the lawyers move in.
In your case its probably a straightforward #2
Gordon