paolita Lussio - Italian massage scam? - 419-Legal Fraud and Scam Forum

pianodirt · #1 (**permalink**) 02-13-2008, 04:29 AM

Hello everyone - I'm a licensed massage therapist. I received the following email and at first it looks like a scam, but the author seems to know something about massage, which I think is rare in a scam like this. I emailed back and have again heard back. The guy has given me an address of a local hotel here in Seattle. If I decide this isn't scam, I will still require prepayment via paypal.

I searched the forums here and couldn't find anything like this.

Is this a scam? Thanks!

The email:

From: paolita Lussio [mailto

retty_paolita@]
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 6:50 AM
To:
Subject: structuralist needed

Hello,

How are you today? my name is Mrs Paolita Lussio, i live and work here in italy, i am 36yrs old. I have been doing massage since 1989.I do a deep relaxation massage in which the muscles relax without pain. I also do energy massage that helps people feel great when I am done. I am certified to do pregnancy massage. I have lots of happy clients here in italy. i have a client

Mr. Marcus Bravo , A model here in italy. He will be coming to state in three weeks time for a modeling job and he will be residing in Seattle, WA" temporarily until the neccesary arrangement for his modeling job has been made before he leaves, he will be needing good structural massage and muscles relaxation integration of 60 min session 3 days per week for One Month .

Mr. Marcus Bravo asked me to come with him to the state but i told him i would not be able to go with him to the state as i have a course i will be going for in a week time and because i dont do much about Structural massage and muscles relaxation integration . I promised to help him get a good structurist in your Area.

Pls tell me a little more about your self and your service, how long have you been doing structural massage integration? and would you be able to provide him structural and muscles relaxation when he arrived?

Pls i need you to get back to him with the amount you charge per session and also let me know if he can pay you via US Postal Money Orders or check before he arrived?

Pls send your reply to Mr Marcus Bravo to his personal email address (marcusbra1@yahoo.it ) Because he do check his mail frequently. Tell him i ask you to contact him okay, also tell him your session and charge for treatment,

Thank you very much and do have a nice day.

Mrs Paolita Lussio
Via Baracchini Flavio, 15
20123 Milano, Italy

Mercenary · #2 (**permalink**) 02-13-2008, 08:45 AM

Dear pianodirt

Welcome to this forum.
Even you have not posted complete e-mail address of sender with full headers, this message sounds scam.
If a model is moving for a job to another country it is sure that has already contacts to provide him whatever he needs.
The mail seem that is not addressed to you but is a bulc mail. I bet that comes from a free-mail address.
Stay alert

Scam Fighter · #3 (**permalink**) 02-13-2008, 05:27 PM

Here is the clue that this is a scam:

Quote:

Pls i need you to get back to him with the amount you charge per session and also let me know if he can pay you via US Postal Money Orders or check before he arrived?

Why on earth would someone need to pay you in advance? Do you normally demand payment well in advance? I'm guessing no. This is a classic overpayment-by-check fraud. They will send you fraudulent checks, which will be for more than the actual cost of service. (They'll use any number of excuses as to why they did that - mistake, or moving money to the US, whatever). They'll ask you to wire the overage to them using Western Union or Moneygram. You'll deposit the checks, which will look real, and your bank will "clear" them (meaning, give you access to the funds). Weeks later the checks will bounce, and you will be on the hook for the entire amount.

If someone wants to get a massage from you, I imagine they can just make an appointment, and pay when at the time of service, right?

Sure they know something about massage - the scammer is probably targeting massage therapists from a list somewhere, and did just enough research to sound knowledgable.

Don't fall for it.

pianodirt · #4 (**permalink**) 02-13-2008, 08:45 PM

I posted my "scam" email to a email list of some of my colleagues and two people have written back saying they have received very similar emails, but the names were changed. In my book, that is scam confirmed.

Thanks for the feedback here. I guess I can go ahead and post this email in the database now.

I looked at the headers and it verifies it came from a yahoo.it address, which is what shows up on the "from" line.

pd

Scam Fighter · #5 (**permalink**) 02-13-2008, 09:43 PM

Pd - just because it comes from a yahoo.it address doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually from Italy. ANYONE can sign up for a foreign yahoo address, regardless of where they're actually located. Lots of Nigerian scammers use yahoo.uk or yahoo.fr to make it appear they are from the UK or France, when they are sitting there in a sweaty internet cafe in Lagos, Nigeria.

There IS a way to actually tell where the email came from. If you post the entire email header here, I can do an IP analysis on it and at least tell you where the internet service provider is located. If you don't know how to find the complete header, look for a tiny link in the email that says "Full headers" -on yahoo it's in the way lower right corner, or in gmail it's at the top right of the body text and it says "Show Details". Click that link and you get a series of what looks like gobbledygook. Post that here and I'll tell you where this person is REALLY emailing from.

pianodirt · #6 (**permalink**) 02-14-2008, 01:01 AM

Cool, thanks. Here's the headers (minus my email address):

Return-path: <pretty_paolita@yahoo.it>
Envelope-to: XXX
Delivery-date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:50:31 -0500
Received: from web28015.mail.ukl.yahoo.com ([217.146.182.120])
by websites.arrowserver.com with smtp (Exim 4.68)
(envelope-from <pretty_paolita@yahoo.it>)
id 1JOZzE-0007kD-3E
for XXX; Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:50:31 -0500
Received: (qmail 20695 invoked by uid 60001); 11 Feb 2008 14:50:05 -0000
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
s=s1024; d=yahoo.it;
h=X-YMail-OSG:Received

ate:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Message-ID;
b=xks5Px4So4KmL8jii441M2z9BMZ1ZeNIb1x4iWg2Rr7mCiHM x0jtmDziebw7LinkgSRQ0TOyyyxAIUsz07F9CPKyljIXeSQmKB FMs8L61JsUwq8oKqHcfj0D9vNk77riiPCpipxvAnNhDe+Ned5K U41/QsG0zn71KPedTcpYnfg=;
X-YMail-OSG: RRVh.RkVM1k38Qs40Pyyp1KcVDEbhPwoDiyfqMJVciENei2egG 0IZ5I9utO79rjzPI4IdNOzxVfVsBsxJuJrI6n4sTzZLtvTXAEO 55qdV8pBb9CY7d63ZDYGJMg-
Received: from [60.52.230.109] by web28015.mail.ukl.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:50:05 CET
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:50:05 +0100 (CET)
From: paolita Lussio <pretty_paolita@yahoo.it>
Subject: structuralist needed
To: XXX
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1342982216-1202741405=:18991"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-ID: <583162.18991.qm@web28015.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6
X-Spam-Score: -25
X-Spam-Bar: --
X-Spam-Flag: NO

Mercenary · #7 (**permalink**) 02-14-2008, 10:59 AM

This will help all readers of this article if they have also received or receive in the future any message from the same sender to consider it as scam message.
Thanks

pianodirt · #8 (**permalink**) 02-14-2008, 07:17 PM

Where's the most appropriate place to post this scam email on this site?

Mercenary · #9 (**permalink**) 02-14-2008, 07:22 PM

There is no need to post it again. Scam's name in the title of this thread is enough (I will edit it for you) to make this scam known to anyone who will search through google or other search engine to find this post.

merlin1 · #10 (**permalink**) 03-10-2008, 04:40 PM

I have just received an email from the same person giving similer details.
I live on Vancouver Island.
Mrs Valentina Rocio
Via Baracchini Flavio, 15
20123 Milano, Italy
She says her model client needs a therapist whilst hereon the island. His name is Mr.Marcus Bravo.
The above address is a hotel. Hope this helps - John

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