Dear Birders, I appear to have had a very lucky escape when paying for a birding trip in East Africa. I had a recommendation to a local birding company in the country concerned and communicated with them a number of times regarding a private trip I was organising. This communication was all done by e-mail with them using a single e-mail address. After a number of exchanges I received an e-mail (apparently) from the same e-mail address asking me to send the money to them via Western Union. I did this and received an e-mail from the (apparently) same e-mail acknowledging the receipt of the money. I also received advice from Western Union that the money had been picked up..
A few days later I received an e-mail (again from the same e-mail address) asking if I was still interested in the trip! I responded referring them to their acknowledgement of the money. That night I had a phone call from the company advising that they knew nothing of the money or the acknowledgement. I sent them copies of all the exchanges. I have now received advice that someone at their end has been arrested and that the birding company will recognise the payment and my trip is on.
In researching the situation I have come to understand 2 key things
1) NEVER SEND MONEY TO A BUSINESS THROUGH WESTERN UNION. It might be fine for sending instant cash to a friend or family member through WU but should not be used for business transactions. This is because the security is pretty small. If you receive a request from a bird guide to send money through WU I suggest you phone the guide and say you need bank details. money sent through a bank is more traceable.
2) NEVER RESPOND TO AN E-MAIL FROM AN “UNKNOWN” PARTY BY HITTING THE REPLY KEY. My tech savvy brother has made me aware that it is quite easy for someone setting out to do a scam to send an e-mail appearing to come from e-mail address A but for the reply to actually go to a different e-mail address B. If you have the genuine e-mail address in your address book and use that to address the e-mail rather than hit the reply button you know what address the e-mail has actually gone to.
I stress that the birding company and Western Union appear to have behaved honourably at all times. I also appreciate that it is only through their efforts the perpetrator of the attempted fraud appears to have been caught. I will, however, be more careful in the future and thought it worth sharing this experience with other birders who might be thinking of chasing birds in distant parts of the globe. regards Peter Marsh ===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Last year, I went to book a hotel room in Hanoi via an online agent. Just before I hit the “pay” button, I happened to check the invoice and noticed that there had been a AUD 45.00 addition to the total, labeled “A1 Grand Prix Surfers Paradise surcharge”. For those who are not familiar with the workings of Australian motor sport, the A1GP did not happen, with A1GP pulling out of the series in 2009. Here was a booking agency trying to hit up their clients for an AUD 45 surcharge for an event that did not happen three years earlier, for a booking in a hotel in Vietnam. I contacted the agency to try and clarify the matter and got nowhere, being referred backwards and forwards between the agent and their Australian partner. I soon gave up and booked with the hotel directly. The hotel (Prince ii) and had a great stay. And had an extra $45.00 to spend.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Hm, doesn’t all this indicate that it is unwise to pay anyone overseas in advance – unless you know them personally. I’m heading off to UK in April and have been advised not to pay anyone in advance ( except the airline and car rental). By all means book, but only pay accommodation and guides etc either during or once you have received the service, not before. I’ve even been told not to book accommodation in UK until the morning before you are certain where you are going to be that night because there is so much accomm available it’s easy to find somewhere a day in advance. This last bit also covers the possibility of a pre-booked and paid trip not going exactly to plan and losing one’s deposit.
BTW, this is not a birding trip, I’m not even taking my bins. I might have a look at a few birds but I’m not much interested in ticking overseas birds, only Aussie ones.
Tony
This sounds like an inside job. Even if you had used a credit card to pay them, would the bank refund the money? I think they would if you had paid the right people and an insider had passed the card details on to someone else. But would they be interested if you had paid the wrong person?
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
I would also add that there have been many scams where a friend of yours gets their email hacked and then you get requests from them to send them money as they are stranded overseas – usually via Western Union. So even the “only use it to send to friends” bit needs a LOT of care to make sure that it is really your friend!
The advice of your brother is good – technially email can have a “reply to” header that may be set to send responses to someone other than the person you think has sent the mail – so the could say it was from “a@b.com” but the reply to is to “c@d.com” and “a@b.com” may know nothing about the email. It is usually possible to look at these headers if there is any hint of doubt (and when sending money I would always be suspicious) – there are so many email systems out there that it is not possible to give general advice on how to do this, but I guess if you google “reply to” and the name of your email software you may find out.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================