Recognition of the Email Scam
Email is now an accepted way of doing business, and in particular, has attracted   suspect activity within the accommodation industry over the last 6-8 months.
I would like to go through some procedures that will allow recognition of the traits and methods that the scammers use, to assist properties identify that the email is being   received is real or fake.
Email Bookings
A survey that we conducted on the web recently, looking at 700 properties, showed that over 68% had their own websites, and others had a web presence, either by a link from an accommodation listing site, or through a tourism body of some sort.
Those properties that had their own website or are linked through a chain or group, in a majority of cases had a booking form which doubles as an enquiry form.
With the advent of specialist booking sites such as Wotif and similar sites, and your own on-line booking systems, the need to accept unsolicited email bookings such as these is totally unwarranted.
Considering the email
When checking your mail and receiving enquiries about booking consider the following:
• Do I have an on-line booking facility on my website?
• Do I have an email link on my website
• How did this person get my email address?
• Do I have any other means that people can use to book their accommodation with us?
• Where are we and why would we attract these particular people for a booking?

The Next Step
We have identified some standard factors in all of the scam emails, and they are listed for your reference.
• Email address origin. All these email originate from a generic email address that cannot be traced. They include: yahoo.com; yahoo.co.fr; yahoo.co.uk; hotmail.com; japan.com; gmail.com; atlas.cz & myramstore.com as examples.

• Spelling. There are always spelling mistakes in the emails. While this is not something that is unusual, it is when placed in context with the emails, having regard to the person who     purports to be the writer. E.G. someone in
business from England or Scotland would be   expected to use correct spelling and grammar.

• Layout of Email. When looking at the email, in most cases it can be seen that the name of the person and their location are usually in CAPITAL letters, indicating that they have just changed those details, probably using a word processing program.
This also occurs in the email where the writer wants a quantity of goods, (normally mobile phones) sent to them before their “arrival”.
These emails are more advanced and have the changed text in colours, normally bold and blue.
Other emails have the brackets of an insert  e.g. {Haryana agency gujarat India} in the body of the text, and so the story goes on. Just check the emails properly.

• The Scenarios. Over the course of the past few years, we have watched as the story’s have developed and evolved as the scammers try new methods to extract money from their targets.

We have had emails from The George Foundation, J Trent Travel Service, Daniel Roscky, Daniel Williams, Cole Alexandre, Abad Martins, Elvis Borrow, James Smith, Vikings Consulting, Tom White, Jones Morgan, Pascal Faro, Henry Jones, Dr.Eirini Brooks, John Kelvin, Ben   Williams, Frank Cole, Harris Cole, Dr.Greg Donalds, Selly Kuncoro, Mark James, Faith Olas, Carol Jones, Lopez Fulgence, George Brown, David Morrows, George Ray Brown, John Adams, Clavaire Leblanc, George Benta, Mark Faberger.

These names have been recorded on many occasions from many properties, only the dates and alleged companies they represent and number of guests change.

The reasons almost always mention a delegation, or a group of businessmen wanting to reserve rooms or a group coming for a program or something similar.

However, some requests have sounded very legitimate, and have gone the full length of the booking, but are cancelled on the very last day, and then a refund is requested.

Allowing for the obligatory cancellation fee, the request is for the balance to be sent to a bank account, which is usually in the name of a person that is totally different to the one who made the booking.

This is the key that should alert the property that it is a dodgy scam!

We have also found that the evolution of these emails has resulted in the establishment of what appears to be legitimate websites. An email has been sent on several occasions under the name of Selly Kuncoro, a ‘travel agent’ from Indonesia, and had a website  attached to her email. Upon examination of this site, the appearance was quite good, however further investigation revealed that the site was registered to a person in the USA and was hosted there, and was linked back to   Indonesia. We were able to get a number of card numbers from her “Japanese’ client, before the web host closed the website.

About the Credit Card numbers.
There are several sources of Credit Card Fraud that may use the numbers that are received in these emails. In the early stages, it was thought that the card numbers were from skimmed / stolen  cards, and this may be the case in some instances of card present transactions, but now we are advised by Visa International, that these numbers are being generated by computer software, specific programs that have been designed to generate valid credit card numbers. Without going into to technical details, these programs give any number of numbers for Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Diners CLub, JCB and more.
Dealing with Card Not Present Transactions.

If you are not sure how to deal with Card Not Present Transactions, please contact your Bank for instructions and their policy on this subject.

All Banks have a ZERO limit on all Card Not Present Transactions.

This means that the transactions where the card cannot be physically swiped through a terminal or manual imprinter must be authorised prior to the transaction.

Failure to gain authorisation increases the risk of charge-back and the associated fees.

PLEASE TAKE CARE WITH ALL CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS.