Hi Everyone.....I know it has been a while since I've posted anything. I just opened a cake shop, and it became so successful so quickly that I am basically living, breathing and sleeping cake (I guess it is not a complaint).
I really need to reach out to the cake world right now. I just received this email....and I don't trust it. I remember someone else a while ago had a similar cake order. What do you think........I sense it is not legit, but wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Please give me your thoughts and experiences......before I bake a cake for 300! Thanks! Here it is:

Hello , thanks for the swift reply to my order request, and you concern as well, i want you to know that am very grateful and am really inspired ever since the first time I tasted your cake in an occasion that is why I will prefer you bake for me..or i rather not bake a cake for my wedding, lol .â¦.I will like you to bake for me a chocolate or strawberry flavor cake , and it should be decorated with roses..as seen in the picture i attached ( in the picture what you see on the side on the cake is a polka dot, dot, and i will like the color of the polka dot to be pink color) . And you should also have the cake covered in fondant or butter cream ( I believe the fondant should make the journey), let inscription be writing on one as âHappy Married Lifeâ and you will packaged in different cake boxes for pick up once its ready for pick up .

And i want you to have it ready for pick up time 11 o clock A.M 26th June 2008..and a shipper will be coming to pick them up...to delivery to my wedding reception in Canada and i dont want you to be worried about the safety delivery of the cake. Regarding the shipping ,I have a shipping agent that will be take good care of pick up and the delivery consignments. The Shipping company will come for the pickup arrangement of the Cake at your place, at the pick up date and time.

And as I have told you donât have anything to be worry about on the shipping of the cake it will be well secure and in a good condition on arriving the location of my wedding
reception in Toronto Canada, the shipper will be coming with there refrigerator Van for the pick up and it will be ship under the fragile shipping insurance scheme, a friend of
mine has use them before for a shipping consignment of this such and they are well secure reliable and dependableâ¦..

So I want you to calculate for me what will be the total cost of the cake order including the decoration plus tax if included, and also I want you to add $700 for the cost of the pick up and the shipping, so once I have your reply for the total I will remit my credit card for you to charge for the total costâ¦so that you can have the order book right away.

And once you have the order in progress, I will provide you the shipper information,and how you will get the shipping fee to the shipper as to confirm the pickup arrangement of
the cake. I will offer you an extra $100 for taking care of my order properly and for any less stress you will go through for completing the transaction for me due to my absence.

So plus do calculate altogether the total cost of the cake + decoration and tax + $700 for shipping charges, including the $100 am offering you.And get back to me with the total
for all, so once i have the total cost i will remit my credit card for you to charge. And you should let me know the type of CC you accept Visa or Master.
I will be waiting to have your reply for the total cost.
Thanks and God bless.

Mike Williams




--- On Tue, 6/3/08, Ellen Harvischak <[email protected]> wrote:

From: Ellen Harvischak <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Cake order for 26th June 2008
To: [email protected]
Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2008, 11:32 AM


Hi Mike,

We would love to do this cake for you, and the date should not be a problem. However, with all wedding and tiered cakes that are so large cake with so many details, we require a signed contract and payment in full before we bake. I definitely will need you to come into the shop. What does your schedule look like on Saturday? Could you give me a call so we can set up a time to meet?

Thanks so much,

Ellen

Clarencedale Cake

330-550-7892



-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Williams [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 5:54 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Cake order for 26th June 2008




Thanks for the relay phone conversation,which i just called your store regarding a cake orderâ¦well I will like you to bake me a chocolate or a strawberry cake of 5 tier that can serve approximately 300 guest or more , and I want the cake to be decorated with pink roses and the cake should be covered in fondant or in butter cream, and let there be an inscription be writing on one as âHAPPY MARRIAGE LIFEâ and i want you to pack them in different boxes after ready for pick up.. And I want you to have the cake ready for pick-up on 26th June 2008, 10 o clock A.M. So let me know if you can fill in the date for me ???? . Reply me back and let me know if you can fill in the date for me....??? then i can forward all the details and the picture sample of what i will like
you to bake for me.
Thanks and God bless.
Mike Williams

Scam..scam..scam...I work at a bank and it sounds like one of the Nigerian scams with a new twist. Who in the world says...happy marriage life??? What will they think of next....

Yes. That absolutely sounds like a scam.

I'm pretty sure that's a scam.

SCAM SCAM SCAM

do not respond to anymore emails. i know there are places where you can send the email addresses. they are listed in previous threads or hopefully someone else can direct you to them

Have you actually spoken to this person on the phone? This screams scam to me.....Run away as fast as you can.

Absolutely a scam; I am a pastry chef at a dessert cafe, and we just got an e-mail like this one. Luckily I had seen the other posts on CC about these types of e-mails, so I knew to ignore it! If you do a search on CC for scams, you will find some threads where members have gotten e-mails similar to yours.

I agree with the others run for the hills!!! I remember that there was another CCer that said about getting an email about doing a cake with Happy Married Life on it, and it was a scam. I would either just ignore it, or tell them that you aren't comfortable with the whole "shipping arrangement" or tell him that you are just too busy, or overwhelmed with doing a cake of that size. I would put it back on you, and just bag it!!

I say it's a scam. Sounds like one of those messages about sending your information so they can put 5 million dollars into your American bank account for the dying mother of someone from Africa...he's clearly ignoring your request to come to your shop to discuss the cake and pay in full before you bake. The other fishy thing is the extra shipping he wants you to charge. This is a scam to get extra cash from possibly a stolen card, etc. The grammatical errors, etc. are also hallmark of these scam e-mails.

Yikes! I'd tell him to get lost and stop corresponding with you now!

Run Forest Run!

The large waving red flag here is the horrible grammar. I'd say it has scam written all over it.

I agree, it sounds like a scam and very similar to what others have posted. Don't take any chances....run away!

Sounds definitely funny to me. No offense to anyone, but for the name Mike Williams, there still seems to be a middle eastern/India type influence in the wording, spelling, etc. of this email. My family is middle eastern and I've read a lot of letters like this in my life. Strange...

He doesn't know if he wants chocolate or strawberry, fondant or bc. To many important price variables left in the air for real pricing. It makes my gut hurt and it is not just because I need more Tums. I don't mean to offend anybody, but this letter is not Kosher. It is vague. Why would he pay you for the couier instead of pay the couier? Why did he not list the occasion he ate your cake? I wouldn't do it.
I think if you right click on his address and then go into properties it will show if he is using the address that shows or another address. I think that is how that is done.
Mary

It's totally a scam! I have gotten a number of variations of the same letter/different date/different name over the past several months. It's totally a scam. Losers! I don't know why people waste our time like this.

Thanks for your input.....I wrote back to him and said that I cannot take a cake order for 300 people over the internet. He has to come into the shop, and sign a contract. I will need to talk to him, etc before any further action is taken.
I had a bad vibe about it.....I thought that with a name like "Mike Williams" he should not have such bad English. I agree!
Thanks everyone.....I'll watch it!
Ellen

scam scam scam
junk it
dont even reply to it and then run an antivirus/ spyware software on ur machine

ok, well, the gentleman called me on the phone...he spoke with such a thick accent I could not understand one word. Not sure what to think now......would he still call if he were a scam? I do have a number on caller ID. It doesn't sit well with me, but if he pays, does it matter?
What do you think?

Yes, he would probably call even if it were a scam. Yes, he would probably pay, even if it were a scam. The only difference between a scammer and a real person is that the check or money order will be bad.

Be very careful here. If you continue to go through with this, make sure that he doesn't pull the whole, "I have a relative in desperate need of money living in the US, so I'll give you a check/money order for xxx over the cost, and you just send the extra to my relative" spiel.

It's definitely a scam. I have read tons of threads on this same "happy married life" cake scam. What they do is use a couple of stolen credit cards and ask you to use some of it to pay the shipper. Don't do it!! Just because he called doesn't make it legit. Ask him to come to the shop and I'm sure he will back off.

I forgot to metion that even if the payment does go through it doesnt mean it is legit. Since it's a stolen credit card(s), the real owner will probably take it up with their credit card company which will cause a whole bunch of problems for everyone in the end.

hiya, i am new to the cake world aswell, if i had of recieved an email like that i think i'd probably question it too, it deffently seems purcular. im from england so my $ to the £ is'nt brill but does'nt $700 seem an awlful lot to pay for shipping, plus the cost of the cake in the 1st place? yes i agree with everyone else IT LOOKS LIKE A SCAM!!!!

If my math is right and the British pound has an exchange rate of .55 cents to the American dollar it would be about 413 pounds to ship. I have bought a few things over seas on eBay.
The way I see it, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, it's a duck.
Mary

He is getting really pushy with me. I checked his phone number, and it was an ohio area code overlay, but the number registered as disconnected when I called it back.
I wrote back and just told him, "You have to come into the shop so that I can check your ID before I can ring up an order for a credit card. If you cannot do that, then I will have to turn down the order."
I now get it with the shipper. If he is using a stolen credit card, this would make sense. There is a police station across the street from my shop. I think I will head over there and inform them of this whole scenario to see what they think.
I have a phone number.......I would love to see this jerk get it!!

We have had scams like that on our emails and on our phone before with lost money overseas, trips that have been won, etc. If you take the full number and search for it on the net you will eventually find that that number leads to many different people reporting various scams that they have encountered. The numbers can always call out, meaning you can get the call, but people can't call back and get a "disconnected" or such message. Probably a self recording done to sound just like the phone company and the caller won't answer no matter what. What did the police station say?

Here is another thread that goes into more detail about this type of thing.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-582620.html

We have had a few scams like this as well at my work, people want to buy over the phone with a credit card so we have said no more and with large purchases in the store (over $500) we ask to see a drivers licence or healthcare card as well. If someone gets upset over it we can tell them we are just looking out for their safety.
I know there are a few department store who ask to see a fax of your drivers licence and the credit card before they will let you purchase over the phone.