Ha, news of another restaurant scamola doing the rounds has landed in my inbox. It follows in the fraudulent footsteps of this little gem but without the desperately hungry oil rig workers playing the role of the protagonists. No, now it’s Greek Priests. It should be noted that we, nearly, fell for the original scam when we first got hit with it a few years back. Bastards. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I’ll come round your house with a flame thrower and a video camera. Anyhoo, here is the conversation between ‘Andy Halford’ and our own, Dawson Wam… (Spelling mistakes and poor grammar are to be expected – and not just from the con man either heh)

Greetings,

I want to make a reservation in your facility for four (4) newly ordained priests from Greece, they will be visiting your country for a seven (7) day religious program in the month of April 2010.

Please check availability and get back to me with the costs for the duration of their stay in 4 rooms for single occupancy or 2 Twin rooms for Double occupancy, for the seven nights starting from 10th April – 17th April, then I can make deposit to book the rooms.

I look forward to hearing from you shortly

Kind Regards Andy

Smelling something worse than your average feta cheese salad left sitting on a radiator Dawson Wam simply replied with,

Andy,

Unfortunately we are a restaurant and not a hotel.

Regards,

Dawson Wam.

But those skilled in the deadly art of flimflammery and subterfuge such as con men, bounders, cads, scousers, call them what you will, won’t be put off that easy and rather than just fold he instead simply changed tack…

Hello,

We wish to make reservations for lunch (2pm)/ dinner (5pm).

The booking is for four (4) guests from 1oth through 17th April.

Kind regards

Andy.

Wam appeared happy to play along.

Andy,

Your table has been reserved. We will  require a deposit to secure your booking and also a contact telephone number so we can contact you if needs be.

Regards

Mr Dawson Wam.

Boom, said Andy Scamster spying an in,

Hello Mr Dawson Wam,

Thanks for your reply and assistance so far and we will book for the dinner. I will make a payment deposit of £1,500 which will cover their meals and drinks in advance because we are not sure what your guests might like to drink or how much they are likely to consume.

Moreover, we are able to make an arrangement with a pre-paid car hiring agent who will supply the guests with vehicles that will be used by the guests to and from your place. So in order not to share credit card information with a third party, I have decided that only you will have to handle my credit card information.

More so, the prepaid agent and do not have the facility to make a manual charge directly, but am on a business trip and I am unable to authorize a bank transfer in my absence.

So once you are in receipt of my credit card details, you are required to charge the total amount of £5,600 + processing fees on my card, then deduct £1500 as initial payment deposit for the dinner (meals and drinks) and send the balance of £4,100 to the prepaid car / ticketing agent whoses information I will forward to you once this information is confirmed, provided by me with your contact detail. Eg, Name and contact phone.Etc

All checks and balances shall be done with the group leader on the final day of their dinner. Please be advised that we shall pay for all expenses and fees incurred as a result of the entire amount to be charged.

Kind Regards

Andy

By this point Wam was either tired or hungry or his latest hangover was kicking in but either way he had had enough and decided to put an end to the malarkey.

Andy,

Go away and shake yerself fella.

I have forwarded your email to the police.

Bye Bye

Mr Dawson Wam

Heh, so watch out for emails from anyone named Andy Jakes or Andy Halford. It’s probably bogus and you should probably just ignore them or tell them to feck away off. Unless of course you work for Vodaphone, probably best you don’t tell that Andy Halford to feck away off as he is your CFO…

Andy Halford is a scamming bastard, Andy Jakes is a scamming bastard, restaurant scams Manuel the Waiter, Well Done Fillet