No, I’m not talking about Wedding Planners that are scammers, I’m talking about the crazies that try to scam Wedding Planners! I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Nigerian email scams that have long been circulating. You know, those emails you get from that Prince who desperately needs your help and will wire you millions of dollars if you just provide them with your bank information. Riiiiight.

Anyways, I get scam emails on a weekly basis. I used to be incredulous that people have the gall and the time of day for this type of ridiculousness. By now I’ve stopped caring, but thought I’d share the fun with y’all. Here is the latest email that I received yesterday. This is a direct cut & paste except I X’d out the last name they used, mainly because there are multiple people out there with the same name.

“Hello Planner..!

How are you? I am Kimberly XXXXXX but you can call me KIM. I am born in  Meadow Park Cir, Bedford Texas and presently in San Juan with my gran ma.. I am planning of relocating back to Chicago soon and i’ll be getting married shortly after my arrival to my fiance John Cook. He’s a business contractor and currently on a trip to Europe to accomplish a business contract. We will need a wedding consultant that can render a full service for us as we’d love to start making the arrangement prior to our arrival. We need someone who can make our event a glorious day because we require the best memories later in the future. We have made a good estimated budget and we’d love to know what your schedules are for the month of November… Friday, 12th Of Nov. The estimated budget is $30,500 while the number range of our guests should be around 55 – 60. In our conclusion, we  prefer the ceremony and reception event to take place in a location because most of our families outside the states will be present for this wonderful occasion. We take responsibility for your expenses regarding our plans. Furthermore, we might not be able to meet you soon as planned, due to our unavailability in the states but we are willing to retain the date and make all the necessary arrangement with you to be sure we are really interested in your service.
We hope this helps for now!  Kindly let us know if you’ll be able to take care of things for us.
Enjoy all the pleasantries that comes with this day!

Kim & John… ”

Hrmm, how exactly do I know that this is a scam? Well first off, check out their horrendous grammar and overall poor English. Not that I’m a total grammar snob, but clearly this person was not born in Bedford, Texas as they claim (and who tells you their BIRTHPLACE in an inquiry email?!). Also, I’ve gotten multiple inquiries referencing the name “John Cook” with ties to Europe. It just screams, SCAMMER! Sometimes you just gotta trust your judgment.

I’ve not totally clear on how these scams work, but from what I’ve read online, Planners will go under contract with these “clients”. Then the “client” will send the Planner a cashier’s check in a sum greater than their deposit and ask that the Planner cash the check and write a check (using their own checking account) to a specified band or vendor(s) that this “client” wants to book. And apparently this “vendor” is in cahoots with the “client” and in a few weeks the Planner finds out from her bank that the cashier’s check was fraudulent. And by that time she’s already written checks to other fake vendors. At least I think this is how the scam works, although I’m sure these coniving people are constantly trying to figure out new methods and getting smarter.

Crazy, huh? Do your various industries have scammers like this?