From: "Vincent Seddon" <vincentseddon3@gmail.com>
Date: 11 Jul 2020 03:43:58 +0100
Subject: Event Enquiry
Hello,
Do you know any event planner in your city who will help us organize
our 25th wedding anniversary of my wife and I scheduled to hold on the
Saturday 26th of September 2020.
Or can you be able to take charge of the entire event arrangements and
management.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Vincent Seddon
Address: Wandsworth Gardens
Belfast BT4 3NL Northern Ireland
Tel: + 44 7448559881
@: seddonvincent3@gmail.com
Hello, I received the same mail a few days ago, the information that changes it’s just the anniversary date.
I already replied to the first mail, and he replied back answering all the questions that I made… It seems so real !
And, at the moment he didn’t ask me anything except to send him a preliminary budget…
So, can I be sure that this mail is a scam?! I didn’t find anything online except from your post…
Anyway, thank you so much for warning me…I’ve already lost a lot of time for this man !! FYI i’ve attached down below the mail that I received
Hello,
Do you know any event planner in your city who will help us organize our 25th wedding anniversary of my wife and I scheduled to hold on the Saturday 21st of November 2020.
Or can you be able to take charge of the entire event arrangements and management.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Vincent Seddon
Address: Wandsworth Gardens
Belfast BT4 3NL Northern Ireland
Tel: + 44 7448559881
@: seddonvincent3@gmail.com
We cannot comment on your specific case – We do not know the full details of your circumstances. There is a website for victims of scams – https://www.scamwarners.com/ There is an active forum if you want to discuss your Email.
We can point out some of the warning flags in the Email we published and why we believe it to be untrustworthy.
The main clue is that it arrived at our honeypot Email address – an account that has never been used, so no legitimate reason why anyone would send an Email to it. It is a generic Email – It does not mention the recipients name or city – “Hello”, “your city” indicating that it is a mass mailing. In reality, you would expect someone organising their 25th anniversary approaching random people?
To be honest, we are not really sure how this possible scam would play out, but we would certainly bin the Email if we had received it in our private inbox.
Hallo,
ich habe vor 2 Tagen exakt die gleiche Anfrage für eine Silberhochzeit am 19.12.2020 erhalten.
Ich wurde mit der Organisation des gesamten Ablaufs beauftragt.
Beim googlen des Namens und Adresse bin ich auf diesen Artikel gestossen. Zum Glück!
Die englischsprachige Mailanfrage ist sehr detailliert und schien mir (fast) zu schön um wahr zu sein.
Verstehe die Masche die hier dahinter steckt nicht ganz. Sind das Menschen denen langweilig ist?
Habe auch schon eine Menge Zeit in die Recherche gesteckt…
== Google translate from German ===
Hello,
I received exactly the same request for a silver wedding on December 19th, 2020 two days ago.
I was charged with organizing the entire process.
When I google the name and address I came across this article. Luckily!
The English mail request is very detailed and seemed (almost) too good to be true.
I don’t quite understand the scam behind this. Are these people who are bored?
I have already put a lot of time into research …
Guten Tag,
Wir als Reisebüro in Königswinter (Germany) haben am 23.10.2020 auch die gleiche Anfrage bekommen.
Herr Vincent Seddon antwortet sehr detailliert auf meine Nachfragen zu seinen Wünschen. Sein Budget ist 25.000 € für 22 Personen für 4 Nächte. Er möchte per Scheck bezahlen, was für uns nicht in Frage kommt. Ich habe gebeten mit ihm zu telefonieren oder zu skypen. Darauf hat er bisher nicht reagiert.
Ich wollte nachschauen wer dahinter steckt und finde nun diese Kommentaren …
Google translate from German
Good day,
As a travel agency in Königswinter (Germany), we also received the same request on October 23, 2020.
Mr. Vincent Seddon replied in great detail to my inquiries about his wishes. His budget is € 25,000 for 22 people for 4 nights. He wants to pay by check, which is out of the question for us. I asked him to phone or skype. So far he has not reacted to this.
I wanted to see who is behind it and now I find these comments …
We got a similar enquiry. I post the details here:
first email:
Hello,
Do you know any event planner in your city who will help us organize our 25th wedding anniversary of my wife and I scheduled to hold on the Saturday 13th of February 2021.
Or can you be able to take charge of the entire event arrangements and management.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Grant Fletcher
Address: Wandsworth Gardens
Belfast BT4 3NL Northern Ireland
Tel: + 44 7448559881
@: fletcherGrant0@gmail.com
– – – – – – –
second email:
Hello,
Thanks for your mail.
I take the liberty to contact you again regarding the possibility of contracting your services to organise the 25th wedding anniversary of my wife and I scheduled to hold on the Saturday 13th of February 2021. Almost 25 years ago on the 10th of February 1996, my wife and I tied the nuptial knot in holy matrimony to seal our love for each other. Our marriage has since been blessed with two lovely girls who have been a source of joy and happiness to both Susanne and I. My beloved wife is a native of your country, and we have decided to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in Graz and this singular gesture means so much to her and my two beautiful daughters.
We have decided that you will take charge of the entire event arrangements and management, nevertheless we have made list of services that we shall be needing for the event, please carefully study the list below and reply forthwith, stating the services that you can provide in respect to the successful planning and execution of the wedding anniversary event:
(1) Provide the event venue with a capacity of 22 guests for the wedding anniversary party in Graz.
(2) Provide transport services to chauffeur the guests from the airport on the day of arrival and the day of departure.
(3) Provide hotel accommodation for the 22 couple guests arriving on the 11th of February 2021 and departing on the 15th of February 2021 (4-days). An apartment that sleeps 22 people or 11 double rooms is acceptable.
(4) Provide wedding anniversary cake (with the inscription 25th wedding anniversary) and Flower decorations.
(5) Organise one day Sightseeing tour around the city for the guests (Friday 12th February which a day before the anniversary party is preferable).
(6) Arrangement of Dinner nights for the guests (4-Nights Dinner). Please note that the ages of the couple Guests are between 40 years – 70 years and no special dietary is required.
We have budgeted €25,000.00 to cover for the above-listed services and our budget remains very flexible pending the receipt of your price offer which will determine whether we should increase or decrease the mapped out budget. We will like you to work out your price offer within our budget and do not hesitate to make proposals or suggestions that you think will help towards the success of our 25th wedding anniversary.
You should please reply whether you will be able to organise this anniversary and also advise whether our budget of €25,000.00 can cover for the event with the regards to the services that we have listed above. I await your timely response and thanks for your anticipated cooperation.
Warm regards,
Grant Fletcher
Address: Wandsworth Gardens
Belfast BT4 3NL Northern Ireland
Tel: + 44 7448559881
@: fletcherGrant0@gmail.com
Last Email:
Hello,
Greetings of the day.
I expect that this email meets you well.
We have confirmed that the total number of guests attending is 22 persons and we will be arriving together on the same day, same flight and same airport.
Fortunately for my family, we are getting a direct sponsor for our 25th wedding anniversary trip. The sponsor has informed us that he shall make a deposit to you by bank cheque only. The sponsor has added additional money into that cheque to cover for other logistics services required by our group. Therefore you will be receiving a cheque of the total amount 55,000.00€ to cover for your event planning budget cost 34,176.00€ and other logistics services costs. The sponsor approved this payment method to make it easier for him to finance our trip and to avoid the stress of having to settle all the vendors that will be providing logistics services to our group separately, therefore we have decided that since you are the first services to be booked, that you should receive the cheque and deposit it in your account to have the clearance for the money.
Moreover, we have made an arrangement with a logistics agency who will take care of our logistics services (flight tickets, excess luggage and translator) who is demanding their payment via credit card/wire transfer but our sponsor is paying with a certified cheque only, hence the more reasons why you will be receiving and handling the approved cheque payment from our sponsor.
On the receipt of the cheque deposit of the total amount 55,000.00€, you will have to deposit the cheque into your bank account to get the clearance for the cash And once your account is credited, you shall deduct the cost of organising the wedding anniversary of the total amount 34,176.00€ and transfer the balance to the logistics firm. I will provide you with their contact details as soon as we conclude with them.
The logistics firm will give you an invoice for the amount due for them before you can make the transfer to their account.
I hope that you are clear with my email?
If you understand my email perfectly and wish to proceed, please provide the following details for the cheque to be issued in your preferred name and dispatch to your address immediately;
(1). Name to be written on the cheque:
(2). Address for the delivery of the cheque:
(3). Reachable Telephone number:
You should please note that all the bank charges should be deducted from the cheque, and you will bear no financial cost in your bank for cashing this cheque. We will appreciate your prompt reply to enable our sponsor to issue out and dispatch the bank cheque through courier service delivery to your address immediately, whilst we look forward to a memorable trip and the best wedding anniversary experience from your company.
I am readily available to provide answers to any questions that you might have.
Thank you for your assistance and understanding towards this booking.
Warm regards,
Grant Fletcher
Address: Wandsworth Gardens
Belfast BT4 3NL Northern Ireland
Tel: +44 7448559881
@: fletcherGrant0@gmail.com
When phoning the numer it shows that it belongs to a vincent seddon, who is in google also connectetd with this sort of scam. I guess it is just somebodys identity used.
Thanks for posting those. It all helps when the potential victim does a due diligence search.
It is usual for a scammer to use a real identity – It helps to give credence to their story if the victim just does a cursory background check.