I received another (one of many, but this one was just SO obvious) email of a potential customer.

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EMAIL:  jameswilliaminc1@gmail.com

Hello,
My name is James William with the J W. Inc And I am sending this email to your business in regards to the order ( Plaques ) with the details below :

Product name : Bronze plaques
Size: 8″ x 10″ x 3/8
Text Engraving: Thanks be to God ( Gud vare tack )
I will like you to email me back with the price and I will get you the quantity needed and also advise me the methods of payment that you do accept.However if you don’t have the specified size above you can get back to me with the sizes that you have.Your prompt reply will be gladly appreciated and email me back with you phone number so that we can proceed .

Urgently waiting to hear from you soon.
Thank you.

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In case it is not obvious to all, these are the things that make me certain the guy does not have honest intentions…

1. The email address makes me suspicious.  Many company may use Gmail accounts, but this is where I start looking for other smelly things…
2. It is “Hello” and not “Hello, Mr [Insert Vendor Name Here]”.
3. It mentions something with a religious message.  In my more naive days, I would have thought this is a good thing.  Now, if someone emails me or brings up their faith to early in the conversation, I assume they have less than honorable motives.
4. They are asking to buy a product I don’t sell anywhere on my website.
5. The method of payment is mentioned.  They will either send a bogus check that will take longer than expected to clear (meanwhile, you may already have shipped things) or they will do some credit card monkey-business.
6. He has practically committed to buy even if I have to substitute some other size for the size he requested. (…so that we can proceed.)

If you have money to burn and IF you want to support someone who is scamming for a living and IF you are boredom and believes your time has little value, give this guy the time of day and whatever else he may request.  If you are me, I rather read a good book then give this email more than a glance….but I did do a post on it, so I guess it did cut into my reading time….  Let me now go and see which of my domain names needs renewed by a scammer at 8 or 10 times the normal GoDaddy fee…..