Submitted by studio33 on Sat, 12/12/2009 - 21:59

Just thought I would give yall my situation so it doesnt happen to you. I didnt get screwed by this but only cause my wife worked at a bank and knows this kind of stuff. Watch out for these guys.

I was contacted by email from a guy named Jason Yaun. He said he was in a group called Century Western Gospel Singers in Malaysia. He said they wanted to record some vocals over music beds, Said he would like to book 2 days worth of time with me. I said sure just send a deposit of $50 to secure your slots and were good to go. He emailed back and said that the check is on its way from his sponsor in Brooklyn NY and to let him know when I get it just to make sure everything went smooth. Got a cashiers check in the mail but it was for $2975.00{I asked for $50}. My wife has worked with a bank for 6 years. We looked at the check and 2 things were funky. It was from Chase Bank in Columbia OH{There is no Chase bank in Columbia Ohio} also under the signature line it says "SECTOR Vice President" it should be "SENIOR Vice President". I emailed him for an explanation of why the check was so much. This was his exact response.

Hi,
I was at a friend's party when i called our sponsor just like an hour ago asking for the rest of the money for out BTA
(Basic Traveling Allowance) and he made me realize that He misunderstood me concerning the instruction I gave to him as regards the amount he was supposed to send to you for the Booking Deposit, he has mistakenly sent our BTA along with your Deposit, i just got home now trying to send you an e-mail but fortunately you already sent me a message and it was the traffic jam that delayed me a bit, so Please am very sorry for this mistake and we beg you to be honest and kind with us
Actually he was supposed to send you just the money for the Deposit and send the rest of the money us here in Malaysia. This balance is required for our BTA and without it we cannot pass through the Malaysia immigration and United States Immigrations please we need this money without delay. to commence on our journey and we can go ahead and discuses about the date of our recording

What I want you to do now is to take the payment to your Bank and deposit or get it cash out, and just deduct Your Deposit and then let me know when the rest is in your hand so that I can provide you with the information that you will send the remaining amount to.
Once again Please am very sorry for this mistake and we beg you to be honest with us

Thanking you in anticipation of your favorable assistance.

I HAVE NOTIFIED THE FBI ABOUT THIS BUT THEY ARE PROBABLY ALREADY DOING THIS TO OTHER STUDIOS SO LET ALL YOUR FELLOW STUDIOS KNOW. - THANKS
PAUL
STUDIO 33 RECORDING
TOLEDO OH

Comments

I get these all the time from Africa, from England, from the Netherlands and from Asia. They are all the same scam. They want to send you a deposit. They want to send you too much money and want you to send them the difference between their deposit for you and what the check amount is for. They usually want it send to a US Post Box in some distant city. If you go to your bank they will cash the check BUT in about six weeks when the funds are not where they are suppose to be (yes it does take about six weeks for the international check to clear) the check bounces and guess who is left owing the money. But of course by that time you have sent them a good check using your funds and they cash it.

Your wife saved your butt so take her out to a fancy restaurant and buy her a great dinner.

On the off chance this was legit, you can always just send 'em back the damn check and let them sort it out themselves.

If they're real (and of course they're proably NOT), they can pay for a Fedex pouch to get it back to them pronto.

Never amazed me how people are still trying to pull this con-job, in so many different walks of life.

You and your wife were wise to sniff it out.