What worries me is that I'd always presumed they send out emails almost randomly.

But this came via the contact page on my website and they therefore had to fill it out manually...

I received it this morning:

[b]Your Name:[/b] Amanda Smith

Your Email: [email protected]

Date Required: 29th

Approximate number of portions required: 1 itme

Message:
Good day,

I would like to place an order for my up coming wedding, I would like to bake me 4 tier of cake that i will serve that can serve approximately 250 guest and I want the cake to be decorated with pink roses and the cake should be covered in fondant, handmade floral, do you bake cake with fondant?? well, i want it packed in a box and let the inscription be writing on one as HAPPY MARRIAGE LIFE. And I want you to have the cake ready for pick-up on the 29th of June. Let me know if you can fill in the date.

Best Regards,

Amanda.


Type of enquiry: Wedding cakes

How did you hear about Pat-a-Cake Parties?: Friend


I know it's a scam, but I wondered if someone could explain HOW they get their money? The way I work is to take a deposit and then the balance is payable (usually) 3 weeks before the wedding. For something as close as this, I'd expect full payment before I even turn on the oven. So how do they scam me out of money??

Suzanne x

It's all in the shipping/pick-up. They will say they are paying someone to pick up the cake and pay you extra money with a credit card and have you pay the person picking up the cake. The credit cards they use are stolen, but the money they get back from you for the delivery/pick-up is their profit. Then often times the credit card company will inform you of the credit card fraud and you are usually out that money too.

I don't know if I worded that to make sense, but that's what I've read from people. I never even respond when I get an email like that.

Say you accept the order, and cost their purchase for $250.00 (just for example). They send you a (phoney) money order or (stolen) CC payment for $350.00. They will tell you to give the extra $100.00 in cash to the person who picks up the cake. By the time your bank discovers that the money order is a fake or the CC is stolen and takes the $350.00 back out of your account, they are long gone with the cake and the cash that you gave to the delivery person, and you are out the money plus whatever your bank charges you for such a transaction, the cost of ingredients, the time etc etc etc.

The first time I heard about this type of scam was in relation to an internet sale of original artwork. The artist recieved a money for $1000.00 over the asking price and sent the painting and a money order for the $1000.00. She lost the painting, the $1000.00 and had to pay her bank a fee for the fraudulent transaction.

This is a scam that is being perpetrated onto other businesses too.

I think the scam engine is looking for responses which will then be spammed or otherwise corrupted.

Also, they sometimes will send you a fraudulent checks that are drawn on real account numbers. I received an inquiry several months ago. Red flags went off, but it was not worded quite like the others I have received and ignored. I quoted him some astronomical price and he agreed and sent me a fraudulent check. The company was real, the account number was real, but the company did not send me that check. I contacted the bank and they contacted the company. Come to find out, this company had pdfs come up in google searches that contained their company information AND account numbers!

Ahhh... I see!

Thank you.

I haven't even replied to the enquiry and have just deleted it.

Suzanne x

There's a bunch of threads on here about these types of emails. Some say not to even respond because then they know they have a real person. I've always responded that we are a delivery only company and we do not offer pick up as an option. They always respond that they can not proceed with the order then.

There's one thread on here that has some really funny responses like "my address is Yo Mamma's House."
But, the best thing I've read is from Costumeczar who decided to play with them last month and posted the email for us to read. I highly recommend reading it for a great laugh!

http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2012/05/cake-scams-can-be-fun.html

Thanks, Little1...I love writing to the scammers. I just added a page on my blog dedicated to all of the answers that I send to them, and if they write back I'll put those up.

I actually just had a little exchange with Ms."Amanda Smith," but she eventually said that I was "playing on her intelligent" and stopped writing to me

http://www.acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/p/fun-with-email-scammers.html

Costumeczar, you are hysterical!!! And quite creative! I love it!!!

heh heh heh...

Those are great, I think it would be great if everyone started sending them back the same scam letter in response to theirs....interesting how in one they even say "scheme"....thanks for the laugh