BEWARE OF THIS SCAM.
BE CAREFUL MY AUTHOR FRIENDS.A few weeks ago, I received a request from a man in Fiji who wanted to order 40 copies of my memoir: Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of gutsy Living on a Tropical Island.I was so excited, but part of me thought, “Is this a scam?”At first I told him that shipping to Fiji would be very expensive, and he said, not to worry as he had a logistics guy to pick it up from my work address.I sent him an invoice, and even offered him a discount, and was waiting for payment before I had the books available for pick-up.Here is the first e-mail he sent me:Dear Sales,I write to inform you that we are interested in your books, and we
would like to inquire about the following:Do you ship to Fiji Island?
Do you do Mail Order?
Do you accept credit card as for Payment (My US Master and Visa card
to be precise)? NOT PAYPALThanks,
Wesley
My response to him:
Hi Wesley,Thanks for your interest in ordering.
I can ship to Fiji, however I need to check on shipping rates.
How many books and which ones?
I’ve included the book link to my page, and you can let me know if it’s:
Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of gutsy Living on a Tropical Island
My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World
Thanks
His response to me:
Hi Sonia,
Apologies for my delays in getting back to you.Below are the title needed:Freeways to Flip-FlopsQty – 40Meanwhile, I want you to calculate the total cost of my order only and don’t worry about the shipping because I just got a response from my personal logistic agent that they will come for the pick up of the goods at your address and it will only take 1-2 days express shipping to my shipping address and I have inform them about these but they told me the best way to come for the pick up at your store is for you to email me with your store address and the time the order will be ready for pick up with your convenience time and date.Please kindly get back to me if these title are in stock.Shipping Address:5 Nadi Back Road,Main Town, Nadi.P.O. Box: 1070, Nadi, Fiji.Waiting to read from you soon.Warmly RegardsWesley
My response to him:
Hi Wesley,Thanks for your order of 40 copies of Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of gutsy Living on a Tropical Island.It just won the GOLD medal for Memoir at the Readers’ Favorite Awards.I am curious if this is for a library or a book club?I visited Fiji in 2007, and love your beautiful country and culture. I have asked to join the Peace Corps and would love to be stationed in Fiji.I have attached an invoice with a 15% discount and as soon as I receive payment with a credit card, I shall let you know when the boxes will be available for pick-up.Thank you for your order, and please keep in touch.Sonia
His response to me:Hi Sonia,Thank you for making these order possible for me and I really appreciate the discount.The total cost of my order is quite correct and OK by me but I just got a response from my logistic agent that he cannot receive payment via credit or debit card from me at the moment. So I want you to help me charge another $998 to my logistic agent who is going to pick up my order from you.The $998 that will be sent to my logistic agent is for the shipping of my order in your store plus some other goods I have ordered from other stores around your locality which will be deduct from my credit card. Also, I’m compensating you with the sum of $100 for the transfer fee and for your efforts. Please note that I should have given the shipping agency my credit card for him to deduct the shipping fees but he told me that he doesn’t have the facilities to charge or debit credit card at the moment, so that’s why I bring my vote of confidence in you. So I want you to transfer the shipping fees to my logistics agent after you have make the charges on my credit card and the money is in your account. You can transfer the funds to my logistic agent via bank transfer or western union. So the charges you will make on my credit card will be:Order fee: ($508.30)Agent fee with shipping fare: ($998)Transfer fee plus your compensation: ($100)Total: ($1,606.30)Note that my credit card will be charged for the amounts above. Please do get back to me if you are in the office right now so that I can forward my credit card details to you, then you can charge full amount and transfer the agent funds to them via bank transfer or western union but make sure you email me after charging my card details so that I can give you my agent details to send the money to.Waiting to read from you soon.RegardsWesley
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Hi Sonia,
I found the exchange confusing. I don’t understand how you figured out it was a scam, unless it’s because he had extra requests. If he was legit he would have asked how much for the books, given you his credit card info and shipping address…end of story. Am I correct? I don’t see him trying to get personal info from you like bank account numbers… did I miss that?
First of all, it seemed highly suspicious that Fiji would order 40 copies of my book? When I asked if it was for a school, library or something else, there was no answer, Inge.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Staying in the “Red Light” District of Amsterdam
Hi Sonia,
Thanks for posting this, as it helped one of my clients avoid this scam. I thought Fiji was a bit odd, so I googled that rather odd line “Do you ship to Fiji Island?” and your site came up along with 15 others. Immediate alarm bells!
To Ingebird: the way the scam works is that the credit card is either fake or stolen, but you only discover this after you have sent real money to the scammer via Western Union.
Glad this helped you Roger. I had no idea this was still going on.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Who Has Time to Read Long Blog Posts These Days?
Hi Sonia,
Thanks for sharing your experience with this suspicious Fiji order.
The scammers never sleep, so we must be ever vigilant also.
When I was in the gift industry I’d get occasional orders that wanted to bypass my ordering system and get products directly from me, or even pick them up at my studio. I was sure these were scams and declined to go along with their suggested procedures. The more they can engage the seller, the more likely they will get you to bite. I’m glad you didn’t.
Just as Roger suggested, we can Google the phrases they use and quickly discover if they are perpetrating this scheme on others.
It’s exhausting to keep up with these scams, but if we snooze we lose.
Flora Morris Brown recently posted..5 Ways to Keep Your Publishing Dream From Turning into a Nightmare
Hi all
I just got the same. It comes from a gmail account, asks for 40 copies of two titles I have (which is a huge number for one of them which is usually bought for libraries in 1s or 2s).
The exact same words re shipping, and the same address.
Just a different name : now it’s Matt Horst.
If an order sounds too good to be true it probably is !
Yup, same thing as Pippy here — just happened today from Matt Horst, same odd wording, same request for 40 copies of two of my titles. The first scamming clue for me was that rarely does someone request 40 qty. of any books we offer, since they’re very region specific (northern Minnesota) guidebooks, and this guy is in Fiji. I mean, why would someone in Fiji want hiking/camping guidebooks to Minnesota? Thanks for initially posting this as a scam. It was all the confirmation I needed to ignore the second email from Matt.
Wow! I just received the SAME EXACT email today from a Matt Horst and it sounded legit in the initial email, but as the emails continue, they become extremely suspicious. I typed his name in Facebook with nothing, but typed it in Google and I found this! This is crazy!!! Thank you for posting! And this has been going on for several years.
I am in the process of being scammed by a Roger Cannon in Fiji who is pretending to order some of my pottery to the value of well over $5000. This is the content of his last email:
“Thanks for the total quote of my order. The total cost of my order is okay by me and am ready to pay the bills I shall inform my freight forwarder who will be coming to pick up the order to hold on and come immediately you inform me that the items are ready for pick up then I can give you a call on that day to get the items packed for pick up and they will call you on their arrival at your address. Also I want you to help me Charge another $3975 from my card for the freight forwarder who will be coming to pick up my ordered items from you.
The $3975 that will be sent to the freight forwarder is for the shipping of my order and other items I ordered from different part of the country which is to be picked up by them and should be deducted from my credit card. Also, I’m compensating you with the sum of ($150) for the transfer fee and for your efforts. Please note that I should have given the shipping agency my credit card for them to deduct the freight charges but i was told that he doesn’t have the facilities to charge or debit or credit card , so that’s why i bring my vote of confidence in you and I want you to assist me in this measure, so i want you to transfer the funds to him after you have make the charges and the money charged from my credit card is in your account, then you can now make the transfer to the agent via bank transfer. I would have love to do this my self but there are no banks here around me because I out of town to monitor my estate construction at a remote village, So the charges you’ll make on my credit card will be:
Order Fee : $5,328.00
Shipping Fee: $3975.00
Compensation and bank fee $180
Note that my credit card will be charged for the amounts above. Please do get back to me if you are in the office right now so that I can forward my credit card details to you, then you can charge the funds.”
His intent is to send me his CC details along with a request to pay the freighters. If I pay the freighters the amount before his payment is processed or within the cancellation period, he will then cancel his credit card payment and collect the money sent by DD to the freighters whose bank details will be his.
I will attempt to scam the scammer by not proceeding with the payment to the freighters until I have the money in my account after a 48 hour period and after I have prepared his order for pickup which could take at least 10 days. I’m sure he has a contingency plan to cover this event so I’m interested in what he does. Note the compensation amount in the body of his email is different to the final amount at the end of his email.
A quick check of his company, Coppa Cabana Inc, shows it doesn’t exist and the address is bogus. If it existed, it would be smack bang in the middle of the runway at Fiji’s Nadi International Airport. Maybe he’s got a sense of humour.
Thanks so much Sonia, have had the same scammer contact me this week to order 150 books. Didn’t sit quite right so googling I came across your blog post which has saved me wasting any more time with emailing this guy. Thanks! Louise
Hi all
Our scammer is back – he’s obviously been going through old emails and trying again.
I’m trying to waste his time now – without wasting mine.
cheers
Amazing! I received an identical email for three of my books. Since he ordered many copies of the second book of a series without any copies of the first book, I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out how he was going to make money. Now I know. 🙂
Thanks for posting this.
Dixiane Hallaj recently posted..Guess Who’s Writing Books?
I was just curious to see if there was anything online and I found this post !!!!
LOL…. seems he had a name change to Scott Hinkel. I’m from Fiji and having my brother go check out the address…. will update what happens but here’s the email that was received. Some of it is identical to what everyone else received.
Concerning the shipping , the likes of UPS, DHL and others always don’t take care of the charges down here. Charges like handling,customs and duties etc. We have experienced such situation before and i don’t want to experience such thing again,you do not need to worry about the stress involve and all documentations because i have a shipping company that have delivered to me in the past,i really like their services so i will like you contact them about the shipping. I will be glad if you contact this shipper below (Quick Cargos Courier) for the shipping quote:
They will take care of everything including handling, customs and duties,Tax, insurance etc,also you will be responsible for payment to Quick Cargos Courier then all costs as far as shipping, taxes, duties, and insurance in addition to the costs of the product should be sent to me in a proforma invoice to be paid in advance of shipment, Always send me the copy of email you send to them and Kindly email them with details below:
Your Company Name and Pick Address:
Time the package will be ready for pick up with your convenience time and date:
Contact Person for the pick up arrangement:
Telephone Number:
Weight of the package and how many boxes are they:
All additional cost for transfer fee of the payment to NTL FREIGHT SERVICE and cost of items will send to me on the proforma invoice So i can send you my credit card details for you to charge the total cost from it and get the shipping Fees settled,then my order can be shipped out Asap.
Looking forward to your quick response.
Regards,
Scott Hinkel.
July of 2023 and we just got approached by the exact same thing. We offer wild harvested ingredients primarily to breweries and distilleries and we found it very odd that they wanted so many pounds of our products going to Fiji. Smelled fishy. Looked into it and found this site – almost identical verbiage and tactics. Thanks for posting this!