This isn’t the post I had planned, but after receiving my second one of these today I thought it was something I should share now. From what I have read these scams are becoming fairly common. They are targeted at photographers in the form of text message.  I have googled the subject and have found that many photographers have received a similar text and the warning signs seem to be the same every time. Although I doubt most people would fall for the actual scam, they waste a lot of time leading up to the point where you know they are scamming you so I thought I would post some warning signs to look for and hopefully avoid them wasting a lot of your time.
Warning sign number one:  Out of area phone number.  As with most of the warning signs this alone is not usually cause for concern.  I often have clients contact me who are in the military and stationed elsewhere, live far away but are coming to the area to stay with family and want family photos, or have just moved here and do not have a local phone number yet.  This is one thing both of my scammers had in common though so add it together with any of the other warning signs or just a funny feeling that something isn’t right and it may be a warning sign.
Warning sign number two:  Broken English or grammar mistakes.  Again this warning sign is not cause for concern by itself, but is something else most scammers have in common.

Warning sign number three:  Communication by text only.  Most clients initially contact me either by email or phone call. In both of these situations I was contacted initially by text and never contacted in any other way.

Warning sign number four:  unusual events.  The first event I was contacted about was a birthday party for a teenage girl with five hours of coverage.  The second time it happened was for a family reunion one day followed by a wedding the next day (because real people would really attempt to do that).  From the research I have done family reunions seem to be a popular choice.

Warning sign number five: unusual priorities.  Upon initial contact most clients have questions about availability, pricing, and packages. In both of these instances from the first time I was contacted the main concern was whether or not I accept a credit card payment.

Warning sign number six: the actual scam. I only got that far the first time. I never let the second scammer take it this far,  but here’s what happened:  I told them I did accept credit cards, gave them a price quote that they agreed on and even got an invoice sent out.  They then told me they were having trouble getting the payment to work through my invoice.  I told them I could send a paypal invoice but they said weren’t comfortable using PayPal because the last time it “messed up their credit card”.  I said I would look into my invoice program to see if there was a problem and will try to send another one and they said that would work but there was another problem.  The limo company that was hired to drive his daughter and her friends around at the party could not take Credit cards at this time, so I would need to pay them and then add the cost into the client’s invoice.  Sure, I’ll get right on that.  Once I was sure the second scammer was also a scammer, I told them I would need the deposit in cash To which they replied “I will be paying with credit card” and then I replied “you will be paying in cash”.  They then were unsure when they could meet, etc. etc. and after me becoming extremely irritating intentionally, they finally said they now could not afford it. I may or may not have entered them into my complimentary “Cat fun facts” hourly text program.

I borrowed it from here