Scam Alert

SCAM ALERT- SCAM ALERT- SCAM ALERT-SCAM ALERT

Yesterday, I received the following unsolicited email from a Capt. Johnson Smith with a job offer. This scammer is trolling the crew websites, like The Triton (as indicated below), and trying to lure unsuspecting crewmembers with fake job offers. The following are the emails associated with this scam:

Dear Sir,

My name is Capt. Johnson Smith, 40 Years Old from United Kingdom. I
work with Kay's Yacht Club in United Kingdom. I came across your
profile on and decided to mail to ask if you'll be interested in the
job.
Its a private own yacht, and the destination is always from Essex
London to Ireland and Norway.
The monthly salary will be 3, 200 sterling pound every three weeks,
accommodation will be provided by the company.

Hope to hear from you soonest

Best Regards
Capt. Johnson

In the email header I found that IP address 10.140.161.19 is listed as a “private” IP address; kind of like an unlisted phone number. I gave “Capt. Johnson” a rather vague reply, suspecting a scam, and this was his response:

Dear Sir,
Are you interested or not. I found your profile at Triton website.
Best Regards
Capt Johnson Smith

Still suspicious, because of the IP address, I requested information on the vessel, manufacturer, size, name, doc number et al, and a photo of the yacht included with the next email provided was in tropical waters, not UK waters:

Dear Sir,

Thank you once more for your mail and your interest in working with
us .I have attached photo of the yacht we are operating on. The home
port is at London and the destination is always from Essex London to
Ireland Belgium and Norway. And lastly accommodation will be provided
to you both on board and when you are not on board.
If you are not in United Kingdom you will require a valid UK visa
including a working permit to enable you work with us.
You can contact the traveling agency to help you with the process of
the UK visa and working permit.
Here is the link to the traveling agent
(agencypassportconsultant@consultant.com). Contact them and let them
know that you've been offer a job with Kay's Yacht located at Essex
London United to come and work.

Should in case you need any other thing please do not hesitate to ask

Hope to hear from you again

Best Regards
Capt Johnson Smith

Wanting to further my investigation, I forwarded Capt. Johnson’s email to the “passport agency” and received the following:

Dear Sir,
We wish to thank you for your mail, you information are acknowledge and recorded. To have your complete document including your work permit and tax clearance and all other requirement to travel to United Kingdom.
Its indicated in your email that you have been offer a job with kays yacht club who ask you to contact us. We shall have its processed and send it to you via Courier Delivery Service to the UK embassy in your country.
They will contact you immediately for a brief interview.

We need some more details from you for us to process your visa,work permit and tax clearance. The details needed are as follows:

1. Full Name:

2. Full Address:

3. Valid Passport with at least sex (6) months validity

4. Two (2) recent passport photo , size 2x2

5. Country of Birth:

6. Telephone number:


Thanks for your anticipated patronage and co-operation.
P.R. O PASSPORT AGENCY & CO OFFICE
Plumstead England Se18 1ad

E-mail: agencypassportconsultant@consultant.com

The IP address for the passport agency is 41.219.192.58 which is registered to a “dial-pool” in Lagos Nigeria. I also ran the email address thru the www.fraudwatchers.org website which further confirmed my suspicions.

I asked the passport agency for a physical address to send the requested information and their reply was:


Dear Sir,
We are in receipt of your mail dated Friday, 14 Nov 2008. We want to inform you that sending of your passport and other information by courier service involve risk, and please note that the company is not responsible for any lost documents.
We advise you scan your passport data page, passport photo and send it by e-mail attachment.
Once we recieved your document and the total amount of £ 850.00 for the process of your Uk visa and working permit. This money involve the processing of your document including the flight ticket and all other related document as well.
You will have to apply for a single entry UK visa, since this is your first time of traveling to United Kingdom.

All Documents will be processed and arranged here in our Office after which will be forwarded to the British Embassy along with your Flight Ticket. Also, some Copies of this Document(s) will be sent to you...

You can make payment to us by western union money transfer or international money gram so as to speed up the process of delivery . Contact the nearest western union location and make payment to the information below:

Name of Receiver: Harrison David
Adress of Receiver: 68 Lombard Street London, EC3V 9LJ United Kingdom,

Total Payment........................ .................... £ 850.00 Pounds

Upon receipt of the above,modalities to process your traveling document will commence immediately.We want you to note that processing of your traveling document will only take three(3) working days and the delivery of it will take just one day(Express Delivery).

Once again,congratulations and please do comply in due time to enable us expedite action.

Thanking you for your anticipated co-operation as we hope to hear from you soonest.

Yours Faithfully



How can you determine if a job offer is legitimate?

1. First, look for misspellings and bad grammar in the body of their email.
2. If a passport agency or recruitment agency has a yahoo, googlemail, consultant.com (in this instance) and not a dedicated mail server, it is most likely a scam.
3. In the header of the email, look for Replied From for the IP address. You can go to http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx. Cut and paste the IP address into the search window and the location of the IP address will be exposed. Note: this is the FREE service.
4. Do not scan and email your passport, personal data or passport photos. Demand a physical address with offer of FedEx the requested information. Most likely, they will request you to scam and email your data. And if a physical address is proffered, match it to the IP location to insure it is a match.
5. Never EVER send money to an agency. If a company asks for “processing fees, document fees;” it is a scam. These scam artists like to use Western Union, which is a tip-off.

Captain – Fort Lauderdale

Didn't fall for it

Just alerting the masses to this scam. We all know that yacht captains are not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Kidding!!

This clown is a yacht captain...

... who has bilked a couple of my former clients.

Cemetery embezzler sentenced
Deffenbaugh gets 15 years, suspended
Friday, Sept. 26, 2008
By CAROL HARVAT

Staff writer

The former Southern Memorial Gardens owner, who swindled 551 people out of goods and services they paid for, was sentenced Wednesday, and a $1 million promissory note was signed over to a trust fund to see that the victims will receive what they paid for from the cemetery's new owner.

In the Calvert County Circuit Court, 57-year-old Larry Deffenbaugh was sentenced to 15 years, but all were suspended, and he was given five years of supervised probation by visiting Judge William Missouri, chief circuit court judge from Upper Marlboro.

Missouri explained to the packed courtroom of victims that he was bound by a commitment made by visiting Judge E. Allen Sheppard, now deceased, who said he would follow the lower end of sentencing guidelines which suspends all jail time if all the victims received what they had been originally promised prior to sentencing. Since Deffenbaugh signed over money earned from the sale of the cemetery, this fulfilled his obligation, Missouri said.

The original $1 million mortgage promissory note for the sale of the cemetery was signed over to a cemetery trust fund prior to sentencing. An earlier court injunction ordered the new owner Danny Martin to make $6,000 a month in payments to the court instead of Deffenbaugh, which accumulated to more than $158,000.

On June 11, Deffenbaugh entered an Alford plea to a count of theft over $500 for two indictments that included numerous theft charges, embezzlement and conspiracy. In an Alford plea the defendant agrees the state can prove charges, but does not admit guilt.

Missouri said his philosophy is different than Sheppard's.

"I would have maxed you out," he said of Deffenbaugh's sentence. "I have been a judge for 24 years, and this is the first time I have seen this many victims in a case."

While Deffenbaugh owned the cemetery, he was supposed to purchase or place money given by people for services and merchandise, such as memorial statues, headstones, bronze plates and prepaid cremation costs in a trust fund. No money was placed in a trust fund in 2004 and 2005, according to court records. He also sent memos asking that trust accounts be released to the business's general funds, claiming people had died when they had not, and defrauded customers when they paid for lined waterproof vaults, which were instead painted to look like they were lined, court records state.

What disturbed Missouri about the case was Deffenbaugh refusing to acknowledge that he had done anything wrong, he said.

Deffenbaugh's attorney, Robert Harvey Jr. of Prince Frederick, told the court that Deffenbaugh fulfilled his obligations to the court by paying restitution as required and he has no prior criminal record. He asked for unsupervised probation so he could reside in Virginia.

Assistant State's Attorney Kathryn Marsh said that Deffenbaugh never gave the court the address of his residence while he was in Florida or Virginia, so she asked for supervised probation and a sentence of 15 years with all but five suspended.

Missouri agreed that Deffenbaugh needs to reside in Maryland for his supervised probation until an interstate compact is done, which puts him on supervised probation in his state of residency.

Harvey asked if Deffenbaugh could leave the state for work, and Missouri responded, "He can't leave Maryland, period." He will be placed under arrest if he leaves the state, he added.

Deffenbaugh called it an accounting problem or a paper case, Marsh said.

"This crime is a violation of a belief system of these individuals," Marsh said.

Deffenbaugh's daughter, Stacey Campbell, who was the treasurer and vice president of the cemetery for just over a year, was scheduled to be sentenced for her plea of conspiracy, but Missouri suspended sentencing her, giving her 24 months of unsupervised probation. Missouri said that he thought she was caught up in the ordeal because of who she was and where she worked.

"It's been the worst experience of my life," Campbell said. Campbell provided the state with evidence in the case.