I have to tell you honestly that I very seldom get contacted through my website – so when I got what looked to be an honest short form thru my contact page:
I was kinda excited…but it just seemed off, you know?
But being the good little web creator, I thought that I’d give the benefit of the doubt and answer…a short and sweet reply of
Hi Adam
Yes. What are you looking for?Thanks
Cristeen
cristeen@cristeen.com
His reply came quickly – you know that scammers don’t waste their time when they think they’ve got a hot one:
On Sun, 8 Dec 2024, 05:10 Adam, <adamadkins7inc@gmail.com> wrote:
Sounds good, I got your contact on yelp.com and I just open a new Indian Restaurant which i run now and i need a website for my business to grow, So i need you to go through this example link site: https://himalayantaj.com but i need something more perfect than this if possible, I will like you to get back to me with an estimate and the estimate should include hosting and I want you to understand I want the same page as the example site I gave you to check and I want only English language and i want you to know you will be updating the site for me.
I want the site up and running before ending of February of next year and I don’t want a shopping cart in my reservation page also I don’t have a domain name yet and i will prefer: GOLDENTASTE97RESTAURANT.COM, My budget is $3,000-$15,000 for the web design, I have a private project consultant, he has the text content and the logos for the site with the image artwork, so please go ahead and check the example site and get back to me with an estimate also I will like to know if you are the owner or the manager and do you accept credit card as payment.Thank you
Ah Yelp. You are so helpful. I so regret adding my business to your lists, as all I’ve received from you is scammers. But in order to get rid of you, it’s a tour through hell. But that’s for another blog.
Back to my new friend Adam.
I thought I would just ask him a few more questions and see what he had to say:
On Tue, 10 Dec 2024, 00:20 Cristeen, <cristeen@cristeen.com> wrote:
Hi Adam
How set are you on having the domain name GOLDENTASTE97RESTAURANT.COM? because it is really too long. It would be better for you to have a name that is shorter and easier for people to remember and type. It would also be better to have something that contributes to a local SEO strategy. An example – if your location is in Los Angeles – it would be better to have a domain name like ‘GoldenTaste-LA.com’ or ‘GoldenTasteofLA.com’
Does your restaurant take reservations? are they done through the phone and email? or through an online booking system?
Does your restaurant do catering? and/or have a private party room?
Does your restaurant have daily specials?
Does your restaurant have social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram etc? and a Google account? Do you have someone who will be able to post regularly to social media?
I have reviewed the example site and the site map you provided. I’m sure we can make you a beautiful site that gives your clients the information they are looking for quickly and easily.
Once I have some more information, I will be better able to provide a detailed quote for you.
I would also love to see your current logo, if that is available?
Thanks
Cris
I am using the location of Los Angeles and suggesting domain names based on that as the phone number he gave me was an LA area code. Yes I googled the phone number. And his name. And his email. And his IP address. I wish I was a better hacker, I’d like to find a way to spam his IP.
Re: Your message
| From | Adam <adamadkins7inc@gmail.com> |
| To | Cristeen <cristeen@cristeen.com> |
| Date | Tue 03:00 |
Concerning the domain you can help me out in selecting easier and befitting one tye name of my restaurant is goldentaste Indian restaurant and its located here in Miami, Florida, and I want my restaurant to be taking reservations through an online booking system.
And my restaurant do catering and also a private party room
Yes my restaurant will be having daily specials
And my restaurant does not have social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, and a Google account yet I would like you to set up that for me and also I would like you to be updating my website for me time to time either weekly or monthly.
The private project consultant got the logos, images, content and all other documents files he will have them send to you via email and how soon will you get back to me with the estimate cost?
His answers were basically just a positive regurgitations of my questions. It seemed like he wanted me to hold the admin and almost the ownership of everything and it was coming across as really weird. When I was googling his info, I didn’t find anything. Like nothing. So I decided to try googling based on what I thought the scam was.
And BINGO – there it was on an a Reddit post – “Build me a website scam”
Thanks very much to another web design firm – they had a blog post for this scam alert from 2015. They are keeping a list of the scam emails used and many others have commented with more scam emails. It was a great read. So many of the things in my scammers email that were exactly the same as the others. Such a great resource and I gave them a heartfelt Thank You for their blog.
Thankfully I didn’t spend a lot of time on this. It can be time consuming to work up a quote for a website, especially when it is complicated by add-ins and all the things needed for a start up business.
There is also a tinge of melancholy – it would have been a really cool project.
but anyways – fuck you scammer.
