Here’s an interesting article we found on AOL NEWS about this wedding scam. Turns out, brides as well as wedding vendors were taken advantage of by some unscrupulous swindlers!

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/fake-bridal-expo-in-boston-scams-brides-to-be/19380474

Here’s an excerpt of the story on AOL NEWS about the fake bridal faire.

BOSTON (March 3) — You can, apparently, be jilted long before you walk down the aisle.

Boston police said the would-be attendees bought tickets for $10 to $15 each, while another 100 to 200 wedding-industry vendors were conned out of $350 to $4,000 for floor space at The Boston 411 Home & Bridal Show 2010, which was to be held this weekend. Officials at the Hynes Convention Center were only alerted when vendors began calling to inquire when they could set up their booths.

The perpetrators, who advertised for months via an eventbrite.com Web site, Facebook, and Twitter, lured betrothed shoppers with promises of goody bags and raffle prizes, and said portions of the event’s proceeds would go to Haiti earthquake victims.

Though more elaborate than most, the scam was by no means an uncommon occurrence for an industry where starry eyes are accompanied by open wallets, and most vendors require significant financial deposits months before the big day.

The majority involve financially ailing vendors who abruptly declare bankruptcy and hold on to deposits without delivering the goods. In the past 18 months, dress shops have shuttered everywhere from New Jersey, where brides angrily picketed outside the empty shop, to Oklahoma City. In 2005, a Baltimore-based online bridal retailer folded, leaving 1,100 women without a dress — or their money. And back in the Boston area, dozens of couples found themselves without a place to wed when the Georgetown Country Club unexpectedly closed

last September without refunding deposits in the $9,000 range.read there rest here http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/fake-bridal-expo-in-boston-scams-brides-to-be/19380474

 

What I really mean to say is please log on to http://www.weddingwire.com and see my stellar reviews and perfect 5 star reputation in action. Here is the direct link to my wedding vendor page on WeddingWire.com

Read all of our Wedding Photography, Wedding Videography Reviews at

Whether a yacht wedding cruise or rehearsal dinner, special birthday party or corporate event, corporate party, relaxing sunset cruise or holiday party boat, a private affair aboard one of our classic luxury yachts will be a truly memorable way to explore the SF Bay on luxury bay cruises.

Here are some wonderful photos I have been lucky enough to take on the Sausalito Empress Yacht. This particular couple, “Gary & Lisa” had their wedding ceremony and wedding luncheon reception at the Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley. You may have seen my POST on this venue earlier in my blog. At any rate, this portion of their wedding was actually held as a surprise. Guests were told they were going to a SURPRISE location. Bauer’s Transportation in San Francisco shuttled the people around on this and previous days leading up to the wedding {the wedding day culminated a 5 day event}.

I took a BOATLOAD [lol] of pictures of them on the bow [or whatever you call it] before any of the guests boarded. About 200 in the sequence. Most of the images were taken as fast as my camera would take them. In kind of a continuous shooting mode. Since I’m also a wedding videographer, I often think in terms of shooting real time motion and emotion as well as REACTION from guests, etc. Often though, my second / associate photographer is usually shooting reaction.

Being on the San Francisco Bay is awewsome! It was very cold that night [I actually ended up coming down wiith full blown pnemonia following this 5 day event] so make sure you bring a jacket if you go on one of these cruises.

They actually take you right underneath the northern tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This last shot you see here above, I really love it. I will actually put that in my Gallery portfolio of images I use for Hanging Art and Stock Photos of the golden gate bridge. My stock photos of the golden gate bridge are very unique and I do very well with them.

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Like other industries, the wedding market is full of would-be scammers. One of the biggest scams us vendors need to watch out for are the EMAIL, cashier’s check scam. They’ve been trying for years to scam wedding vendors [POSING AS WEDDING PLANNERS] with these cashier check schemes which often involve sending a cashier’s check for more than the amount and the vendor refunding the difference. I hope by now that wedding vendors can tell a scam from an email that LOOK LIKE THIS, or similar to this.

The scammers are getting smarter of course. This latest email spam, scam includes Names and Addresses. Here is the Email I just received.

The first sign that this is a scam is the FROM email address. If it were a legitimate email it would be from the WEDDING PLANNER’S domain. The second is that the FROM email address doesn’t match the NAME of the person emailing. Also it is a YAHOO email address. If this were a PRO wedding planner it would be from a domain. The third sign this is an email cashier’s check scam is that the address given where the wedding is going to be is not a wedding site. It is a gas station or something. I used Google Maps to find this out. Fourth the English is TERRIBLE…with sentences like this Sequel to my findings , i heard you a one of the competent photographers around .

You can read the email and pick apart things such as this

cos i need to know if its within my budget = A true wedding planner would not talk like this, any mention of budget would be if the CLIENT can afford it, not using the words MY budget. and words like COS. Looks like a teenager wrote this.

There are many Grammer and punctuations mistakes in this email. And finally, if it so urgent, where is the telephone number or name of the company that is at stake? No web url to refer to show this is legit.

PLEASE, if you get an email like this DO NOT EVEN RESPOND. At the very least you could end up with a virus or something in the next email.