Oct

T-Shirt Scammer

admin

Africa, Nigeria, T-Shirt Marketing, con artist, fake orders, liar, spam, t-shirt scam, t-shirt scams, t-shirt spam, warning

If you receive an email written in BOLD CAPITALS from Nigeria without any proper contact details you should most likely throw it in the trash. Take a look at this latest example of the dodgier side of the t-shirt industry. As I’ve mentioned before in this recent post if you’re running an independent t-shirt store and you happen to find your inbox filled with the following kind of urgent requests for stock ignore it, it’s just the latest scam, to be filed in your never to be read again trash, along with all those offers of a percentage of millions of dollars from Nigeria and other regions that need you to place their incredible valuable cheque in your bank account (for a small fee) before their king, president, or oil tycoon is shot by rebel forces.

Of course the cheques bounce, and if you’re really unlucky they can even clear out your bank account. So like I say don’t ever answer emails like this one :

HELLO,MY NAME IS SIR ALEXANDRA COSTA, AM AN ITALIAN BUSINESS MAN. I DEALS WITH IMPORTING AND EXPORTINGS FOREIGN GOODS, SO I WILL LIKE YOU TO PLEASE GET BACK TO ME WITH PRODUCT YOU HAVE IN STOCK AS AT NOW. I WILL ALSO WANT YOU TO GET BACK TO ME WITH YOUR PRICE FOR EACH WITH THE DISCOUNT YOU CAN GIVE ME ON EACH PRODUCT, AND AS REGARDING THE PAYMENT METHODS WILL BE DISCUSS DURING THE TRANSACTION.

I HAVE MANY BRANCHES WORLD WIDE, SO JUST WANT TO ESTABLISH ANOTHER BRANCH IN AFRICA,SO I DECIDED TO USE NIGERIA AS THE HEAD QUATER SO I WANT YOU TO GET BACK TO ME WITH THE SHIPPING COST TO MY BRANCH ADDRESS IN NIGERIA GET BACK TO ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO THAT I CAN KNOW WHAT AM GOING TO DO WITH YOUR TRANSACTION,AND I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I NEED TO GET THIS ORDER AS SOON AS YOU GET THE PAYMENT,HOPE TO READ FROM YOU ASAP. REGARDS ALEXANDRA.

Email him (at his free email address) anonymously for a laugh if you want (and join me on the run from Nigeria’s equivalent of the Mafia) at: sales@avafx.com

He’d actually written his demands in bold for extra headache inducing impact, but at least it wasn’t typed in a bright red which some of these scammers like to do. Nice touch mentioning he’s Italian, perhaps Alexandra does hail from Italy, but apparently he neither has a surname, phone number or business address. What’s even funnier is that Alexandra is actually a woman’s name, but I won’t hold his vague sexuality against him.

Now i don’t run an independent t-shirt store (anymore) but even if I did I can’t understand why Alexandra the transsexual t-shirt mogul of Nigeria would think I’d take him seriously, or at least not without a very very hefty down payment (probably for more than I’d actually charge just as compensation for the frightening email).

The fact is there’s most likely no one in Nigeria selling independent underground label t-shirts, the import duties must be extortionate, let alone all those back handers to corrupt government officials. I’m more likely to send some t-shirts to Oxfam than Alexandra. Ah well there you go. This maybe a light hearted post but take it seriously, a lot of brand new independent t-shirt stores, printers and suppliers have been caught out by these scammers over the years. Let’s hope those venturing into the industry have been duly warned.