I recently received a request from someone claiming he was coming from overseas & wanted to see me for a whole week.  

He was willing to pay a deposit by certified check.  The $ was enticing, but is this a scam? I've heard of ebay scams involving fake "certified checks" where the check is identified as fraudulent a week after it was deposited.  By then the merchandise is gone.

Besides, is it a good idea for an overnighter or long weekend with someone from another country that you've never met?  

Anyone else receive a similar proposition, & did it materialize?






-- Modified on 7/22/2007 5:07:09 PM

it is seldom a good idea to spend so much time together with someone you have not met.

It is one thing to spend an hour or two with someone, at least you can count the minutes till it's over in case there is no connection; but to spend days on end, even an overnight with someone you don't feel good about would be torture.

I think fisher is right, especially since you won't know anything about the person's hygiene habits before you meet.

I would also have to say MrFisher is right.  Spending a whole week with someone you have never met has the potential to be disasterous.  Just my $0.02.

This has got scam written all over it. After you receive the 'certified check', he will then find a reason for having overpaid you and ask for a cash refund. Then a week later you find out from the bank that the check was a fraud. By then he is long gone with your cash in his pocket. It is an old scam.

and in those cases it was a scam.
I had them give me the headers from the email, and though the guy claimed to be in say England the email resolved to a college in Michigan.
I doubt the guy was a college student or worked at the college, but was instead using their servers so he couldn't be traced.

Another weird thing would be that though the guy claimed to be from a country where English is spoken or claim to originally be from the US just living abroad, the English seemed stilted and verb tense, to be verbs, subject / verb match, etc was off as if the person did not speak English well at all or it at least was not their first language.

As for spending an overnight or week with someone you never met...not really. Someone from another country I would say even less of a good idea, as if they leave the country you have little or no recourse for anything they may have done.

Also, was this certified check a supposed "overdraft" payment that he would be sending whereby you were supposed to Western Union him the difference between your fee and what the check was for?  If so...huge scam.

1) Instead of a certified check, insist that the deposit be made via bank wire.

2) Have him send the deposit via Western Union

Just tell him you don't book for a whole week without meeting the gentleman first for one hour of regular time. Say you will be happy to accomodatenhis request AFTER you get to know him during the hour you will spend together when he arrives in the US.

You'll see...he will come up with a bunch of excuses to make you accept his "certified check" scam.

I've met many businessmen travelling to the US and they just book like any other regular client, even if they are still in their homeland.

If looks too good to be true probably is a scam!





-- Modified on 7/22/2007 11:32:32 PM

This is a con artist.  They play on escorts.  The purpose is to get you to provide a bank account number for them to send a "deposit."  Instead they will empty the account.

Another version is the guy or group who claim to be a casino host in Vegas with a "high roller" who want's to see "you" at some outrageous amount, usually at the MGM or Ceasers.  I can tell you hosts don't procure escorts for anybody these days.

And as someone who occasionally dates "high rollers" I can tell you they all make direct arrangements these days.  Like as a CEO or celebrit you are going to ask your executive assistant to get you a hooker?  I think not - not unless you want it all over the WSJ or Enquirer the next day.

I used to have fun playing with these guys - but  you can't con a con and I could never talk any of them into actually sending me money in hopes of getting more out of me.  But it was fun reading the bad english from supposedly educated people who were probably posting from a grass hut in the Sudan...

Giggle,
TS Jamie

To get a bank wire you have to divulge your bank info ... they'll drain your account.  

Or they'll agree to a wire but instead deposit a "certified" check into your account & it will register as a deposit & you'll think you got the wire ... but a week later the bank will discover the fraud & debit your account.

Never try to one-up a con-artist ... a con is a con ... you'll get screwed in the end ... best to walk away.