Real or Scam?

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David Loukides

David Loukides

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Mar 17, 2006
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Hi Guys,
I Got this Email this morning.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Dave.

Dear Sir,

I am the editor of a chinese magazine which is relevant to knives, Shengwen CHEN.
My colleagues and I are very appreciate your works, but they are not widespreaded for most of the others, so we sincerely hope that you could give us an opportunity to cooperate with you, and then share them with all of the chinese readers and knives enthusiasts.

Details:
We hope that you can email us one of your works per month, include the photos (the more, the better) and introductions,
and we’ll displayed all the informations about your name, works, website, and contact way on our magazine.

If you are interest in our invitation, please contact me.

Looking forward to your reply. Thank you.



Sincerely,
Shengwen CHEN
 
Sounds a little fishy.

I would ask Mr Chen about his work and proof that he is indeed an editor of a "chinese magazine"


Also, is Mr Chen asking for a knife every month? It is unusual to ask for that many knives in my opinion
 
It does say "email", so maybe they are just starting a magazine and looking for free content.
I did a quick google and don't find a magazine


But even if it is legit, maybe it's a setup for later sales/scam to china.


or perhaps it's a way of getting designs for CCC production.

If it is legit, are you willing to sell to buyers in China?
 
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Yup, that's a good point--shipping knives to China (except for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which have their own governments and currencies) can be tricky!
 
Ask him to send you copies of all 2010 and 2011 issues of his magazine. That should be easy if he really is the editor. Take offers like this from China with a wheelbarrow full of salt.
 
There's a pretty good chance your knives will make the ever growing list of Chinese knockoffs in the near future, methinks.
 
I got the email also.

He's asking for photos, not knives. Probably legit...

I'm not very interested though.
 
I received the same email. Any photos I have would be publicly posted on my site and the forums, anyway.... I don't see the harm. I have a dummy email account that i use for questionable sources... truthfully, I haven't the slightest clue if it helps but I feel safer sending stuff from an account that isn't linked to my customer contact info.


Rick
 
I get similar emails at my computer business, only they're professing to increase website traffic etc. I personally smell a scam.
 
Yeah, I also got the email....

I'd look deeper before correspondence though.

A quick internet search has revealed no knife publication...

I agree with Don... not very interested.
 
Maybe the next offer will be from a Nigerian Knife magazine:rolleyes:

I run an airgun website and we always get offers like this from the Chinese. They are phising for people to scam. They want to gain confidence and then will try to get any information and product out of you.

So Beware
 
I get similar emails often. I'd say they are phishing. I'd be careful. Asking for previous editions is a good idea if you are intersted. if not mark it as spam.
 
I checked my other account..... no response... this is common. I often get folks interested in buying products that aren't even on my site like QUENCH TANK or KILN KNIFE. I email a simple question back from the dummy account like "Could you please specify?". For the most part they are phishing scams but I do get the odd foreign customer who is using an online translator to comminicate.

One of my best Japanese customers started our relationship off with "Like very much to order your hammer knife. Do you accept Credit Card Payment? This set off scam alarms so I trashed it..... he sent three more identical requests over the next month and finally made mention of an internet forum I frequent. Turns out, he was a real dude and now owns 6 of my blades.

That is really what started me using the dummy account.

Rick
 
I have customers all over the world for a few custom items I make and the translators can be tough to spot. Even when a legit customer contact me from India or China the shipping is so expensive and the chances of the item ever getting there is next to nil, I just tell them sorry I cant ship there. India and China are like black holes for packages
 
They might be collecting photo's to copy as cheap immitations.
(but then why not take photo's from websites)
I wouldn't trust them
 
Gee wizz. All I got was someone telling me I have a five million dollar inheiretance, no pictures for books. Frank
 
Hi,
Getting to a Good Question by 12345678910,
"If it is legit, are you willing to sell to buyers in China?" I had to think on this.
The answer I came up with was I would be probably not do it. I might do it threw a Agent here in the USA.
This put a end to the question, Real or Scam? Because at this point showing off to China would not make sense.
If any body else does follow threw with the same e-mail I would be interested in finding out how they made out but I still have no intentions on changing my mind at this point.
Thank You For Your Input!!!
 
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