Shark in the Water

Okay. I got an email yesterday:

Name: James Williams Email: Jameswills2001@hotmail.com Subject: Massage Therapy Message: Hello Sir/Ma Am James Williams i would like to make an appointment for a group treatment for an event. Service needed is Body massages (60 Minute Hot Stone Massage) on the 30th, I will like you to get back to me with the cost of each treatment for 8 people and availability. Also get back to me with the below details....

Contact Name : Full Shop Address : Cell Phone # (So i can text you) : Type of credit Card Accepted :

Kindly get back to me with the requested details so we can proceed and schedule an appointment as soon as possible.

Thanks, James

This message was generated by the “Contact Me” form on Massagetherapy.com's Referral Service, powered by ABMP. Origin: 10.0.3.1

It looked legit, I started the process of figuring out how to put this together. He asked for my cell phone. He was demanding and wanted everything, now, now, now. After the preliminaries were exchanged, price, times to book, etc. I get this email from him:

"I want you to know that the limo driver that is bringing them over will be the one to take them back .  In view of this i want you to add an extra $50 as tip for yourself and for a favor i am asking of you... The favor is that i want you to charge another $950 on my credit card for the driver that is coming to bring them down to you. As soon as you charge my credit and approved you send the $900 to him, Please bear with me the reason i am asking you for the favor is cus the driver company are requesting for an upfront payment cus they are currently unable to accept credit card. Be rest assured you will be charging everything on my credit card including the 3% cc charges. Below is the final break down of the total charges i will be authorizing you to charge on my credit card"

My reply: "I am not comfortable with this. I don't know you or your limo service. You will have to find another intermediary"

That's right, I used intermediary. Look it up, you punk-ass, scamming, scum-sucking sonfoabitch. I thought as I texted him. And add a measley $50 for a tip for eight services and fronting $900 in cash?! I usually get $20 tip per service. It was like tossing me a shiny nickel 'for my troubles'. Fuck you, Capone.

Basically what this douche wanted me to do is charge my fee of $760 for 8-60 min massages, and an additional $950. And in 90 days when the credit card company contacted me about the STOLEN credit card number, and the $1,710 I owed them I'd have no name, a dead phone number, and no recourse but to pay the damned charge. His use of 'cus' and hardballing is what tipped me off. Most people use the whole word 'because' in business correspondence.

This pissed me off to no end. This morning I called ABMP and forwarded all the information to them. They said they will do an email blast to their members to warn them. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to blow their scam as much as possible. I was a little freaked out for a while yesterday. It felt like the flash of a shark in the water. A predator passed awful close and I was definitely shook up. Still, he didn't get a bite. I am the little fishie that got away.