The scammer meets the excited kids in the lobby of the hotel and takes them on a brief walk around the common areas, showcasing the hotel as if he owned it himself, spruiking up the artwork, natural light, long driveway for limousines and so on. Then he takes them to the function room, where either one of two things is happening. Either it’s empty and available, and he simply walks them straight into the room (most hotel event spaces are open all day) or, if there’s an event in progress, he whispers to them that they can just pop their head inside the door and have a quick look, which they do. Either way, they’re completely convinced that he represents that hotel and they have no reason to doubt that he can establish their formal booking. Remember, this hotel has never heard of these people and may not even host formals.
The scammer takes them back to the lobby where they can sit and talk over the details. He promises them DJ’s, a-la-carte dinners, decorations and all of the features that they seek in a complete package. He quotes them a per-head price that suits their budget. This seems to be a perfect fit for them. The sale is made.
He asks them how many people they expect to attend the formal, then hands them a pile of empty printed envelopes around that number.
The envelopes are printed with a simple, blank form. He tells them that they are to hand out these envelopes to everyone in their year group. Each person who wants a ticket to the formal must fill in the details on the form and place the ticket price, in cash, inside the envelope, then seal it and hand it back to the committee.
The form on each envelope collects their personal details such as name, age, email, mobile, school name and social media profile details. This is for a different scam perpetrated later but for the moment, it’s mainly for the collection of cash.
The envelopes have written in fine print a series of terms and conditions, including something vague about selling enough tickets to cover the venue minimums but of course no excited teenager will read or understand that and they get to work stuffing cash and personal details into these envelopes, which are then collected by the committee members.
or understand that and they get to work stuffing cash and personal details into these envelopes, which are then collected by the committee members.
Once all the cash and detail filled envelopes are ready, the committee calls the scammer, who comes around to the school personally and picks up all of the envelopes. He says that he’ll be in touch and off he goes carrying away the cash, the personal details of all of members of the year group and of course all record of terms and conditions or any kind of paper trail. At this point, there are no contracts, no quotes, no forms or letters, nothing whatsoever that connects this person, to the company to the year group or the cash. Yet, the teens believe that their formal is all set.
Step 5/ Getting a second
bite of the cherry
Around 4 weeks prior to the (false) formal date, the scammer contacts the committee and tells them that the venue has raised its minimum and they would need to sell more formal tickets right away or the event would be cancelled. He tells them that they should just have people stuff cash into plain envelopes and write their name, mobile and email on the outside. The committee panics and appeals to their year to call friends and entice them to join the guest list as fast as possible to save the formal, which they do.
The committee collects another pile of cash-filled envelopes and calls the scammer who once again drops by to pick them up. He assures them that everything should be fine now.
Step 6/ To gig or not to gig?
This is where the scammer makes a choice. Whether he is going to actually run this event, or not. Either way, whatever he does next will also be illegal. Let’s look at both scenarios…
(This is where things get interesting)
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Formal Scammers
...Continued from page 6
A/ Don’t do the formal.
On the day of the (supposed) formal, an SMS goes out to all the members of the year group (remember that they provided their mobile numbers on the envelopes). This is what they call a “one-way branded SMS”, which means that it’s sent using software that makes the message untraceable. The message states that the venue has pulled out of the formal, and that the event is thereby cancelled. It further states that according to the terms and conditions, that this is beyond the control of the company, so there will be no refunds.
In a panicked state, the committee members call the venue to find out what went wrong, and are shocked to hear that no such booking ever existed, and that they’ve never heard of the company or the scammer.
By the time it becomes apparent that a scam has occurred, all of the cash (in some cases up to $60,000.00 per event), and all of the paperwork, are as absent as the scammers. The phone numbers and email addresses are disconnected and students are left high and dry without a formal, or any money to have one.
"By the time it becomes apparent that a scam has occurred, all of the cash and all of the paperwork, are as absent as the scammers"
In each individual case, formal-goers are stung for only up to a couple of hundred dollars each, making any kind of civil claim untenable, and even if they were to manage to mount a joint action, there’s no direct contact between the scammers and each victim, so no evidence and no means to carry on a legal claim.
B/ Do the formal but keep the cash.
The venue is called by the scammers using one of the alternate dodgy company names. He books the event, but instead of calling it a formal, he calls it a corporate party, and also books entertainers, decorators and a host of third-party suppliers, some of whom will invoice the hotel and the rest will invoice the dodgy company directly.