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New scam? Most likely!

AndyN

New Member
99.9% sure this is a scam, but I got a text on my business phone at 2am asking if I was still in business and doing laser etching. First thing that caught me after getting up was finding the same wonky formatted text in an email.

Hello,
How're you doing today?
I'm Retired Lieutenant BILL L.
&
Are you available for Laser Engraving work? Are you still in business?

If YES, kindly get back to me as soon as possible.

Respectfully,
LTC BILL L.

I replied vaguely that yes, I am still in business. His reply:

"Thanks for your response,

I have a 50th birthday coming up on Next Month’s and I have Plates & beer mugs to engrave with a

"Happy Birthday COLONEL FRED SR " on it.

Let me know how much it will cost to have

250 plates

150 beer mugs

The size of the text should be 4 inches by 2 inches it will be in landscape format


Thanks

LTC BILL L."


I told him I would need samples to accurately quote the job. This just stinks, they just go after everyone. This is a lot like the banner scam it seems to me. He has a local phone and the email address looks somewhat legit and matches the name. I can't fathom that a "Lt Colonel" would have such atrocious communication skills. Is that Lieutenant or Lt. Colonel LTC?

He then sent pictures...
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Sounds legit to me. He didn't ask about shipping, credit cards or any of the other red flags.
 

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
Scam.

Unless other people actually speak like that...

Hello, im LT Richard Cranium
Are you still in business?

and so on.

If you're not sure, ask for a phone number to further discuss. if they don't give you one, meh scam. if it's not a scam, then they need to learn a better way to make an enquiry.
 

AndyN

New Member
I'm convinced now it's a scam. Since my post this morning, I replied to his reply asking for physical samples. He sent photographs. My reply:

These are not samples, these are photos. If I can't physically see these in person, I am not interested in your project.

From the massive grammatical errors, I can only assume this is a scam attempt and I am not willing to waste my time with it. If you want to drive over samples, then we can discuss. Your 2am text indicates it's from a local number, so it should be no problem to visit my business and show me the items. And thanks for waking me up at 2am.

(signature redacted)

Not a peep since.
 

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
Most scams have grammatical errors so it passes spam filters. And so to feel more "human" and not so much a "robot"
 

KeithMan

New Member
Our print shop gets scams all the time wanting to order hundreds of banners that say something like "Cure Aids" or "God Saves". We contact them by phone and start asking details to get a quote going and after going back and forth a couple times they usually disappear. Not sure what their point is. We always ask for 50% down on something like this and don't start production until we have cash in hand. We make sure they can't reverse the charges.
 

Stacey K

I like making signs
Anytime I hear the word "kindly" it screams scam. I also never tell people I'm a retired payroll clerk looking for business cards. Seems to me this scammer is trying to look important. Let us know what happens! Is he on Facebook...stalk him LOL
 
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