Hoax emails?

[Viv]

Yep I get several of those through the troupe site a week. Luckily for me I teach out of city parks and recreation so I have no say over class fees and only handle in class registrations.
I do have a form letter I send back to the scammers. Basically it says we don't offer private lessons, only the classes through the city that are listed on the website and all money is handled by the parks and rec department. The form letter mentions the city office several times as well as the fact that all monies are handled through them, they only accept cash at the office or major credit card over the phone and they are located in the same building as the city government so its easy to find when they get to town. Rarely do I get a second reply to the form letter. If I do, I have a second letter that is a little more agressive in references to the city and city offices handling all the money end. The one particularly stubborn scammer I just blocked out of the email program.
Most of the time its very obvious that the inquiries are from scammers. But the form reply is not a bad idea to have on hand. Something with your basic class info, I just take the exact same info from off the website. That way if you are getting an honest inquiry they get the info they need, if it is a scam they usually will quit when you don't bite so to speak.

[Recnadocir]

For a brief while I was saving their emails up, then forwarding them to each other. It gave me a little satisfaction, but became too much work. Then I started replying with the foulest language I could think of (pretty foul) but that, too, became tiresome.

Now, I just tell them I'll be happy to teach their twin boys Jeffrey and William, or whatever, and fulfill their circuitous payment routine, but first, could they please send me a recent photo, a lock of their hair and some nail clippings? A small request, I say, for some figurines I'm making...
Now, where are those hatpins?

[Amulya]

Here they explain how it works:

Another hoax? - The Biz of Belly Dance - tribe.net

[wiggleit76]

Thanks for the link Amulya, so that's how the scam works!

Good to know my gut was right about this!

[mikex1337]

I think the scammer pays you by some form of bank transfer which is reversible, then they say they've overpaid you and ask you to send them a cheque for the overpayment or else they ask you to send a cheque to someone else, by which time they've reversed the original payment to your account.

That is pretty slick. Have you ever had this happen to you?

[Mariyam]

I'm a translator and our profession (along with interpretation) is often targetted by these scammers. I regularly get e-mails enquiring about possible translation work, for which I would be paid more than what I charge, I would then need to return the extra money by transferring it via WesternUnion, bla bla bla. Typical 419-scam. I've heard many stories about e-mails from some prominent persons, like bishops, diplomats, kings and sultans, who require the services of an interpreter for their next holiday. They send a cheque that exceeds the amount negociated, and the rest is history!

Just ignore these e-mails! Although you can always report them to the proper authorities, they usually use free e-mail addresses and just change address whenever they are caught...

To have a laugh, read up some stories on Welcome to the 419 Eater!

[Safran]

To have a laugh, read up some stories on Welcome to the 419 Eater!

That is so much more efficient than reporting those incidents. One of the stories I read on that page - they actually did manage to make the "Nigerian Business Partners" to make a real hotel reservation at the Hilton for him. Of course he didn't show up, so they actualy suffered some financial loss.

Bless the geniouses who can even fight with something that seems a hopeless cause