I received an email though my bands bookings email address from a guy looking to book a band for 2 shows, his wedding and a birthday party. He stated in his email that he knew about the band though a friend of his but didnt mention his friends name. The show was to be in scranton, pa which is about 4 hours from where we are. He gave me an address but no phone number for the venue or name. Not thinking about the lack of info he gave me I sent him a price quote and asked him about the venue name, phone number, his friends name, etc... I gave him my mailing address and phone number in the first email. He also told me he would like a comedian booked for the shows and asked me if I could take care of that for him and let me know what the comedians fees would be and he would include them in the payment. Which I did.
He responded back the next day saying that the price I quoted him for the 2 shows was fine and to go ahead and book the dates. He said he would send me a money order with the payment from Spain. Seeing the word Spain sent up a red flag but I still didnt think too much of it. I figured I would just book the dates, wait for the payment and go from there. At first I was worried about driving the whole way to Scranton to play a show and it be bogus or not get paid but being that he said he was sending me the money first that made it seem more legit to me. He failed to answer any of the questions I had asked him in my email though and hadnt given me his phone number either.
The next day I came home from work to get a phone message from the guy. He had a very strong Indian accent that I couldnt even understand for the most part. From what I could make out he said that he had mailed the money order and we were good for both shows. I checked my caller Id hoping to get his phone number but it came up as unknown caller.
Once again the next day there was a message on my answering machine from him saying that the payment should be to me in a few days and that he wanted to make phone contact with me which honestly I wasnt really looking forward to doing since i couldnt understand him at all. I emailed him back saying that the best thing to do would be to contact me by email because i work crazy hours. At this point I started to worry that this is a bs deal with the guy and didnt expect to receive any payment.
Within a few days i got the mail and in it is an envelope that was post marked from spain and had the guys name and address on it. His home address was listed in Georgia. So now i'm like wtf. He's from georgia, he's in Spain right now, he has a strong indian accent, and hes getting married in Scranton, PA in the middle of winter in a few weeks. I opened up the envelope to discover 3 money orders each for double the amount that i quoted him for one show. So in total he had sent me 6 times as much money as what my quote was even including the comedians fees. On my answering machine is another message from the guy. He says that i should have received the payment today and that he had sent me more money then i quoted him because he was going to book us for another show but he didnt give a date. He instructed me to deposit the money in my account and that he would get back in contact with me with more info.
Now i'm a little confused but i figure i got the money i'll deposit it and let it sit for a few days and if the money orders clear then its gotta be legit. So i waited a couple days then put the money in the bank. They took the money orders no problem and i'm walking out of the bank with a big smile because theres a nice chunk of change in my bank account that wasnt there prior
That was last friday 1/16. I checked my bank account online the next day and it stated that the deposit was in my account. A few days prior because i was getting tired of being the middle man between the comedian and the guy i gave them each others contact info. anyways, out of the blue yesterday the comedian contacts me and says hes not doing either show but he didnt say why. The same day i get another call from the guy saying that he is having financial trouble and that he was canceling all the gigs except the wedding on the 31st. He would like me to send him back the money except for what the cost would be for one show and that he would be back in touch with me with more information about it. I emailed him back and said that i was sorry to hear that and that i would gladly send him the money back. I was bummed about losing the shows but kinda relieved that i didnt have to go though this hassle for all of the shows. I figured that i would just send him a money order to his home in georgia or give him a check at the wedding show.
A few hours later i get an email from him saying that he would like me to send him the money back via western union asap to a totally different guys name in a county called Latvia. He went on to say that he was having medical problems and that i was sending the money directly to his doctor and that the war in the country caused the banks to be closed and he would not be able to get the money him self. Over and over again he stated he needed it done asap. I wasnt real happy about having to do this and worried that this was a scam. I have never dealt with western union before so i figured i would get on there website to see what it would cost to wire the money to that country and how you do it. So i'm on there reading and over and over again on the site there are warnings about not sending money to people you dont know. So finally i clicked on the help tab and there was a section on receiving a payment for goods or services that is more then the amount that was quoted. I was gonna post what the site said but its a stupid pdf so i cant copy and paste it. It basically stated that there is a common scam where people will pay for goods/services with a huge overpayment with a money order or cashiers check and tell you to cash or deposit the payment. Then demand that the overpayment was a mistake and then request the extra money be wired back quickly. It went on to say that the money order or cashiers check will come back as a fraud and the money will be removed from your account even if you have spent it. So if you take cash out to pay them or use a credit card to wire the money your screwed. There was a number on there site that it said to call if you thought you were being scammed. So i wrote that down and didnt do anything else.
This all went down tonight while i was watching the football games. Then at 1am this morning the phone rang but i just let the answering machine get it. It was another guy with a deeper indian accent but he said he was the guy that i had been talking to all along but it definitely wasnt him. He reiterated all the info that was stated in the email about western union and to please hurry because he was in big financial trouble.
So now i'm sitting here at 2am on monday morning with work in a few hours worrying about what the hell to do. I still have all the money in my bank account and am scheduled to do a gig for the guy in 2 weeks. I think i am just gonna let the money sit in my account for at least a few more days and use some bs excuse to him to buy me a few days until i see if the money comes back as being fraudulent before i send him any of it. I posted this as a warning and also as a comment/suggestion topic so any thoughts you have would help. I am going to call western union tomorrow and explain the situation to them and see what they tell me to do. I hope they are open since its a holiday. I will keep you posted on whats going down. Sorry if there is some bad grammar or spelling.
He must have improved his story later because he then asked me if he can purchase tshirts or cds, and was very insistent about it. I imagine he'd be sending me an overpayment on that too if I let him.
