Scams
We mentioned wedding planner scams back at the beginning of the month. Below are some that have come to our attention in the last few weeks:
“I am David Roy, from London England. I am writing to get more information on wedding/ reception venues and also so in need of the services of a wedding planner.
Daisy and I are planning to have a wedding in July 2009 (any date in July will be fine) and will require more information on this as we plan also to have the wedding in your region We are looking for venue and a planner to help us plan our wedding/reception.
So far, we have not made any arrangement. 30 to 40 guests are expected to attend. We are considering a budget of $45, 000 USD but will allow a few extra if necessary. I will make a prepayment as initial deposit for this booking via credit card once you confirm availability. Please note that you (wedding planner) are to arrange for a Videography, Music Entertainment, Photography, Officiant, cake and flowers.
Please do confirm this date and get back to me.
Thanks for your anticipated response
Best regards,
David.”
“My Name is Dr. TOM GREEN,
I am looking for an experienced wedding planner who will handle my wedding and arrange the reception dinner for a group of people who will be attending the wedding ceremony. The wedding is expected to hold on the 30th of May. 2009 and 25 to 40 guests are expected to attend.
As I do not know what the guests might choose for their meals and drinks, i will make a prepayment as initial deposit for this booking via credit card once availability is confirmed by you. You are to arrange for a venue for the wedding (its a civil wedding), a place for the reception ,Videography, Music Entertainment,Photography,cake and flowers.
If there is any these items that is beyond your capability,you let us know so that another company can handle it. Get back to me with your response as we don’t have much time with us so that we can process our accommodation within the region more convenient for you and us.
Best Regards,
Dr. TOM GREEN”
“Hello,
My name is Mr .Booby, I am an Medical consultant by profession. Presently i
am in WoolWich.I am contacting with respect to the my daughters wedding
scheduled to hold on the 3rd June,2009.
I want you to handle the wedding arrangements on their behalf as my would-be
son in law is a citizen of your country and as a result, i need the blessing
ceremony,reception and wedding party to be in his country. Please get back
to me with any of the services which you can provide as regards the wedding
arrangement of my daughter.
– Vehicles /hotel transfers for the guests – ( coaches transportation)
– Limousine hire for the couples
– location for the wedding and reception.
– lodging for the guests for an estimate of sixty people(2nd – 6th
June)2009
– Wedding cakes and decorations
– Sight seeing tours for the guest
– Yacht charters for the couples
The wedding Budget is at the range of EUR 65,000 for now and it remains very
flexible pending our final conclusion.Please do let me have the details of
all i should know so we can make about the services you can provide as
regards the arrangment. Estimates and calculations should be based on the
quoted budget.
Do get back to me asap through my yahoo email:boobyg22@yahoo.com
Mr Booby.”
“Hello,
I am contacting your property so that you can help in organising my daughter’s wedding in your location which will be coming up in July,2009 and i have decided to solely sponsor the event as a gift to the couple.Kindly see below the wedding details;
Wedding Arrangement: Dates will be July 23rd to July 27th 2009.But we will appreciate if there will be availabilty on the 25th July,2009.
Total Number of Guests: 60-70 Adults.
The reception will be a total of 60 to 70 Adults And food arrangement will be Buffet Style.
Please be informed that you will take care of the whole event including reception venue,catering, accommodation…ect excluding the transportation & civil matters that will been taken care of.
We have already made arrangements as regards our Flight and automobile needs for the event the with a transportation Logistics Agent. I hope to have informed you enough to get started,Kindly get back to me with a proposal for the entire arrangements so that i can advise payment details.. Be advised that i shall be making payment via my Credit Card.
Regards,
Dr. Collin Small.
40 Lothian Road
EH3 9BY,
Edinburgh,
SCOTLAND
+447035966378
+447024076538”
If you recieve any scam emails, please help to stamp out this practise by contacting us.
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I got the same scam and got to talk to “Tom” and his supposed sponsor said to be in Hammond, LA. He was very adament about sending money to his sponsor and getting large sums of money to my credit card machine that I don’t even have.
I booked things for him and of course I received a phone call from the catering director at a hotel downtown Dallas, Tx and she said another planner got a different email from a Tom & Alecia Green, ,stating their wedding would be in June 27. His deal with me was of course on May 30.
Don’t fall for this, scam city.
We have had the david roy scam recently, we are a catering business, luckily it had hit our photographers inbox before ours and he let us know it was a scam.
look out for this idiot he has the charm of a snake and what a sneak. This is my second scam since november!!!!
Hi,
I received this scam yesterday
My Name is Dr Eric Lichtenheld, I am looking for an experienced wedding planner who will handle my wedding and arrange dinner for a group of people who will be attending the wedding ceremony.Seven will arrive few days before the wedding day.The wedding is expected to hold on the 20th November,2009 and 35 to 60 guests are expected to attend. As i do not know what the guests might choose for their meals and drinks, i will make a prepayment as initial deposit for this booking via credit card once availability is confirmed by you.
All checks and balances will be made with you on 20th November which is the final day of the booking, You are to arrange for a Videography ,Music Entertainment,Photography,Officiant/Priest & Church,cake,flowers and hall.If there is any these items that is beyond your capability,you let us know so that another company can handle it. Get back to me with your response as we don’t have much time with us so that we can process our accommodation within the region more convenient for you and
us.
Best Regards,
Dr Eric Lichtenheld.
Hi Elaine,
I received the same email on the 9th of August from Dr Eric Lichtenheld , i replied him saying we do not plan our client’s wedding without having atleast an intial consultation with them in person.
He replied me this morning with the email below.
Hello,
Good to read from you, this shows that you really know wedding planning too well.I am glad to tell you that we have concluded all payment arrangements for the wedding and will need you to kindly note the following information before we proceed with the wedding arrangement.
I will send to you my credit card details that will cover the cost of our booking,and the necessary arrangement for me and my guests.Moreover, i also made an arrangement with a logistics agent who will take care of all our traveling logistics to include.
1) Flights
2) International Airport transfer
3)Transportation logistics during our stay
However,because of security reasons and confidentiality reposed on you and because they do not have credit card facility,we have decided that only YOU will have to handle the credit card information.So,once you receive my visa card information,you are required to charge the total amount of {10,000.00Pounds} then deduct your deposit which is {2,500.00 pounds} and send the balance of {7,500.00 pounds) to the logistics whose information will be forwarded to you once this is confirmed So confirm this and provide me with your
1. YOUR FULL NAME
2. ADDRESS
3. PHONE NUMBERS for records and card payment
You are also to deduct the card fees and taxes involved in processing this amount.
PLEASE CONFIRM IF THIS ARRANGEMENT IS OK AND REPLY PROMPTLY TO ENABLE US PROCEED.
NOTE:THAT I WILL SENDING YOU THE OTHER INFORMATION THAT YOU MAY REQUIRE.THEY WILL BE SENT AS SOON AS I GET YOUR REPLY TO THE PAYMENT/WEDDING ARRANGEMENT
Regards,
Eric & Donna
Received the same today as above obviously trying hard in the States and UK
Dr Eric Lictenheld has contact our hotel too on 28 Sep. Same requriements as above comments. Spoke to my colleagues this morning who all agreed the payment prior to visiting the property of confirming any arrangements was odd. My colleague googled the name Dr Eric Lichtenheld and found this site confirming it was a scam!
I got this scam to our wedding planning in Colombia. We also realized that the credit cards they use are obviously stolen and that they are targeting cards of old people that don’t know their identity is compromise. They are active. I got to talk to one of them, they are from Africa or Haiti, based on their accent.
Hello All
Just wanted to report that i too have had the same scam but in the name of Smith Walcott, too many alarm bells rang for me, just wanted to warn others
had 3 of these scams in a week….. its true what they say if its too good to be tru it probably is !!!
Dr melvin hughes
David Mark
Kenneth Smith
all 3 are scams beware
I really liked your writing style, keep putting out more content like this!
Hi receive an email on 6/8/10 with the same information as the first just with the name chnage to Jimmy Miller, 44703597533 cell number and wanting for me to plan wedding for 9/11/10 for 50 guest with a budget of $50,000. He,s email and information seem very odd. I played along and the more information I reuested the longer he would take to answer email and almost never answering my question. All he care was to supposely pay me via credit card. When I told him that I had set pay pal account, he said he could not pay with pay pal since he had problem with it and that if I was not going to get the credit card machine to let him know. So today I send him an email to jimmymillerm@gmail.com letting him know i would not get machine and for him to find another wedding kpanner. I hope he knows that i know he was trying to pull a scam on me and to stop wasting my time. So wedding planners and vendors beware!!
Well, I’ve been e-mailing this guy name Engr Joel Stanford. I’ve been iffy about the whole e-mail because:
1. what bride will let their groom plan everything?
2. he said there will be 45-50 guests from the USA, UK, Asia, and Africa (hello, scam countries!)
3. He kept saying his fiance loved my area, so I asked him what is the area, and all he said was she visited here once with her dad.
4. i asked him for his fiance’s name and e-mail which he gave
5. he keeps saying all he can pay with is CC, so yeah.
Ditto ,here in Southern California. I thought it was a scam too. He said he was drilling (like an oil rig) like the bride couldn’t contact me since she was on dry land? Honestly. Almost same wording for the gentleman only his name is changed to Engr. David Howards. what the heck does Engr. mean? I asked nicely with every other question. No answer to even one question. I told him I don’t pay vendors directly and to pay my fee with paypal which I set up just for him. Not a peep since. He got my tail moving to set up my business quicker though! Thanks dumb scam artist. I can’t wait for him to get caught. I have already warned my bank about it and my website says Non-Refundable fee. If he is dumb enough to click on that I will do every thing I can to make sure he is caught and the poor people whose credit cards are stolen will find out.
I am brand new to this business officially. I have done wedding planning, wedding cakes, design and sew wedding gowns, design and arrange floral, etc for years for free but I was not born yesterday. Now I have a woman or maybe it;s him as a she? Aiceson Smith who first said her fiance is Matthew Barry and now it’s Barry Denis. We shall see……..Same kind of crap but worded differently. They are coming to town(what town?) and other stupid things. And one email I received twice only it had another planners information on bottom.
I kept on searching, I knew there had to be other planners receiving these same messages. Thanks for this site, we need to stick together.