We received the following e-mail and after doing some research it appears to be a scam (the give away is the "To: undisclosed recipient"). If you receive a similar e-mail make sure you do your due diligence...

We are going to play it through and see what happens. Our policy for a booking that close is full payment, no refund. I doubt they will make the booking as this scam usually involves making the refund on a different card, by wire transfer and other methods.

From:Alejandro Christos [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:53 AM
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Boat charter inquiry: 20th - 26th July,2012






Dear sir,

I and my group of 6 persons wish to engage in 1 week Eco-Tour within your sailing location.
The eco-tour activities will also involve fishing and sightseeing with the your sailing location.
I would therefore wish to charter your boat or catamaran for my group for this very purpose already mentioned above.
Note: It should be a boat of about 7 persons capacity with space for the captain/skipper and the booking will be for 1 week within the month of July 2012 as stated below:

Date of booking: 20th - 26th july, 2012.
Number of boat: 1
Number of person: 7 persons + captain
Number of week: 1 week
Type of boat: Either Sailing ship or Motor boat or Catamaran Size of boat: large boat of 7 persons capacity.i.e( 3 or 4 cabins boat)

Get back to me on the charter with the confirmation of total cost of charter for the period.


Regards,
Mr. Alejandro Christos
MOTTEK AVENTURE UK
Tel:+447024055882 - UK
+1 646-963-1861 - USA

Sounds like a version of the hotel booking scam that plagues hotel and resort operators.

Why are 90% of these scam emails from the UK? Plus they all use horrible english.

Yes I got some pretty comical ones this week.

We actually got one once that we followed through with. They were going to send us a "certified check" for around $25K USD. We kept emailing back and forth with them and lo and behold, a few weeks later get a "certified check" in the amount stated. It was written on the Sun Bank in Florida. I immediately called the bank and it was of course, stolen or reproduced. I sent the bank the check and copies of all the emails. I can only hope that whoever sent the stuff is now in jail!

So, 'YOU' are the one who got me in trouble