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Saint Paul’s Church, Jarrow, UK Speaking Scam (I Was Almost a Victim)

January 26, 2012 By 82 Comments

I speak and train for a living.

In fact, I call myself a motivational teacher (hat tip to John C. Maxwell for that clever term). If an organization wants to hire me to speak, my personal assistant gathers all the details, sends them our speaker contract, gets their signatures, the deposit is made into my account, then we know it is all legit.

So when she received the following email from a one Bishop Mark Jarrow from St. Paul`s church, my personal assistant had little to suspect that anything was amiss. She did do a quick Google search and found out that the Bishop and the church are real.

Here’s the email…

Name: Mark Jarrow
Email: bishopjarrow@gmail.com

Blessings to you from Jarrow, Leesa, I am Bishop Mark Jarrow, presiding Minister of the Saint Paul’s Church, Jarrow, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in Jarrow at the Church conference coming up on the 17th, 18th & 19th of February 2012. The conference is tagged: ‘Big things: How to start small’.

Please we would like you to convey to us your availability for one of the dates as it can fit in your schedule.
Also, please we would as well appreciate if you get back in-touch with us in ample time so we can start corresponding the details. Thank you and expecting to hear from you soon.

Remain Blessed.

–
Bishop Mark Jarrow
+44 7031873786

http://www.stpaulschurchjarrow.com/
St Paul’s Church,
Jarrow,
Tyne & Wear,
NE32 5QJ
United Kingdom.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
——————-

Given that I’m a woman of faith and I love speaking in front of groups where I can add principles from the Bible and not have people squirm, I was even more eager to visit St. Paul’s and speak to the Bishop’s conference.

The Bishop then introduced us over email to the Chair of the Organizing Committee, one Mr. Edward Smith. Edward would be responsible for getting my flight booked and for getting the contract signed. He sent over the contract, I signed it and my personal assistant sent the scanned pages to Edward Smith.

And that’s when things got a little weird.

Edward Smith said that I needed a UK work permit in order to speak at their event and that I needed to pay for it. He advised that I apply for the permit through his contact at the UK Border Services, a one Tambara Burks, as she could expedite the work permit.

I would need to send her £433 (equivalent to $670 CDN) and Tambara Burks would get me the permit within 2-3 business days (as opposed to 15-days as stated on the UK Consulate website for a fee of £190). All Tambara needed was my birthdate and passport number – which were provided to her by my personal assistant.

This isn’t my first international speaking gig. However, both my personal assistant and I were a bit miffed that not only did I have to incur a cost to get the work permit, but I also had to pay almost $300 more to get this Tambara to do it for me, rather than do it myself.

My virtual assistant’s radar was already going wild. In fact, it buzzing so loudly, she couldn’t sleep.

She blogged about her suspicions (with my blessing). She was a bit wary of how the English language was being used in the emails. It was choppy, full of spelling errors and just didn’t seem right. While waiting for a reply from Tambara on the best way to send the £433, my personal assistant started to do a more in-depth research.

  • She dug around St. Paul’s website and saw no mention of the upcoming conference on their website
  • She sent an email to the church to confirm that the conference was still taking place

That’s when the personal assistant to the real Bishop of Jarrow replied stating…

“I have been dealing with all these scam emails which have been involving the Bishop of Jarrow and the parish of St Paul’s in Jarrow. There is no such person as Edward Smith and there is no such conference. The police [in the UK] are aware of these scams [and] you will need to report it to your local police, as it would seem that the people who are sending these emails are probably Nigerian.”

I’m one not to judge people based on country of origin, gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, etc., etc., etc., so I wanted to disprove that this was yet another Nigerian scam. So, I went to the original emails and expanded the headers. In them, I found the IP addresses and did a lookup on each one in Google. The IP addresses of the computers that the fake Bishop of Jarrow, the fake Edward Smith and Tambara Burks used all originate in the country of Nigeria.

Here are the IPs…

  • 41.220.69.71 (the IP from the Bishop’s emails)
  • 41.206.11.30 (the IP from Edward’s emails)
  • 41.206.11.36 (the IP from Tambara’s emails)

And of course, we started to spot what we should’ve from the start:

  • The invitation letter and contract were not sent on official letterhead. I don’t know what the official letterhead of St Paul’s church would look, but I’m guessing it’s not like the ones that were sent to us by email.
  • Bishop Mark Jarrow used a gmail email address – bishopjarrow@gmail.com
  • Edward Smith used a hotmail email address – stpaulchurchjarrow@hotmail.com
  • Tambara Burks used a workmail email address – tambaraburks.ukba@workmail.com
  • The language used in the emails, although in English, was just weird. For example, when Edward Smith asked what date I wanted to leave Toronto, he said “please send us the departure airport that would best soothe Mrs. Barnes.” Frankly, I don’t need to be soothed and I’m not married.
  • All 3 had explanations for EVERYTHING. When we proposed that they pay the work permit out of the speaking fee and just send the balance by bank transfer, Edward Smith said that they won’t have the money from the sponsor until I’m approved for the work permit and they don’t have any money at the church because they donate the excess from their annual conference to charity.
  • And their webmaster is working on the website for the conference (which is now 2-weeks away from the day they wanted me to speak)

We now have a request from Tambara to Western Union the work permit fee to a UK address (which we will not). We forwarded that address to the personal assistant at St. Paul’s church who is forwarding it to the UK police.

This scam targets speakers and business people. The scammers often use real names of people associated with real religious or educational institutions. Back in 2009 when this scam targeted Colleen Francis, the man’s name was William Smith and he was inviting her to speak on behalf of the Holy Apostles Church in London for a youth conference.

If you got mixed up in this sort of scam, let me be the first to tell you…

There’s Nothing to Feel Embarrassed About. You are not a victim. You are an overcomer.

Event the brightest, smartest people on this planet get hoodwinked by con artists. This is the first time I fell for an online scam in the almost 20-years since I’ve been surfing the web. I usually tell people what scams to avoid and here I am almost a victim of one. I just thank God in heaven that my personal assistant was distrustful enough to do some more digging. She saved me almost $700 CDN.

Now that the criminals have my passport number, signature, birthdate and name, I had to do a pre-emptive strike to make sure that IF they plan to use my identity, I’m protected.

Whether you’ve parted with your money or not, you need to protect yourself. If you’re a Canadian citizen, here’s what you need to do…

  1. Call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501. They’ll classify it as a job scam and will collect details on the scam, then give you a file number. Don’t call the RCMP as they’ll just direct you to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
  2. Report it to your local police. Because it’s a Nigerian scam, some police officers will wave it off, especially if no money changed hands. However, be insistent on filing a report and getting a file number. Then, ask for a copy of the report for your own records. Most likely, the police will not start an investigation, but will keep your report on file.
  3. Contact your bank and credit card companies. Closing your accounts and reopening new ones may not help unless you gave the scammer your numbers. If you did not, just ask your bank and credit card companies to add an extra layer of security, such as a security question/answer that only you would know.
  4. Contact your credit bureau. The 2 in Canada are Equifax and TransUnion. Let them know that your identity has been compromised (if you gave personal details online) or that you’ve been a victim of an online fraud (if you sent money). They will add a flag to your file so that any time someone makes a query to your credit report, you’ll get a phone call asking if you approve it or not. This flag will be on your file for a period of 6-7 years (depending on the credit bureau). Depending on the bureau, you may need to pay for this service, so just enquire.

Here are some other resources you’ll find most interesting…

If you have resources for other countries or have your own story to tell, please leave it in the comments area below. I will not judge you and those in my tribe are quite supportive as well. Remember – don’t be embarrassed, protect yourself and don’t view yourself as a victim.

Update (Jan 30, 2012): It appears that sending $600 USD for the work permit is not enough. According to a commenter below, the scammers then ask you to pay for a $1,000-$1,500 security bond which will be returned once you arrive at the location of the conference. They also send an email with a hotel reservation, which on closer examination, is for a hotel that’s about a day’s drive away from the location of the church in England.

Another thing…the church in Scotland is real and so too is Bishop Mark of Jarrow. My personal assistant is working with the personal assistant of the Bishop who is forwarding all our emails to UK law enforcement. St. Paul’s in Scotland is as much a victim in this.

Update #2 (Jan 30, 2012): Here’s the deal – when applying for a temporary work permit, you need to physically go to the nearest consulate of the country you plan to work in. Fortunately, because I live in Toronto, every country has a consulate here in this city. You pay a fee, submit the invitation letter from the entity planning to hire you and you surrender your passport to the consulate. After the invitation letter is reviewed, a stamp is then placed in your passport. That’s the work permit folks. Someone overseas in the country you plan to work in can’t do this for you.

Updates #3 (Jan 30, 2012): There are 2 websites for St. Paul’s – one is www.jarrowparish.info and the other that the scammers are using in their emails is www.stpaulschurchjarrow.com. The interesting thing is that on the latter website, it has a warning about the conference scam. Not sure which one is the church’s official website…

Update #4 (Jan 30, 2012): The scammers have found this blog post. Here’s the reply from the fake Bishop Mark Jarrow (I didn’t edit)…

“We just came across a post online right now dated 26th January where Leesa Barnes 9I am sure with your knowledge) She was outlining blackmailing the Church and claiming she almost fell for a scam while you indeed are still in contact with us! Are we wrong in asking her to feature in this event? Why would she go around writing such gruesome things about the Church? I will pray for forgiveness for you both!”

Update #5 (Feb 1, 2012): According to some commenters below, the fake Big Things: How to Start Small conference has now moved to March 27, 28 & 29, 2012 and the Bishop’s name has changed to David Joseph Jarrow. Please note that the real St. Paul’s church has no such conference – even though the name of the Bishop is real. And if you go to the URL contained in the fake Bishop’s email, when you mouse over The Jarrow Lecture in the right side bar, you’ll see Conference Scam pop up. The church is aware that their name is being used fraudulently in this scam and are reporting this to the UK law enforcement to try to stop these people. We’ve been in contact with the Personal Assistant to the real Bishop and she’s been forwarding our emails.

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  • http://twitter.com/laurenamcmullen Lauren McMullen

    Wow Leesa. thanks for sharing this info. If someone as smart as you could come close to getting scammed anyone could. I will pass the info along to my contacts because they can not be the only group trying to do this. What is scary is that they had done their homework so well and knew just how to appeal to you.

    • Leesa Barnes

      You hit it on the head, Lauren. That’s what makes this scam so scary. The invitation pinpointed my primary occupation (speaking) and who I love speaking in front of (Christian groups). So, yes, they did their homework and were almost successful in getting money from me. My goal in detailing my experience is to ensure that others don’t fall into this trap.

  • http://www.mariagamb.com/ Maria

    Leesa – Great article and thank you for sharing this so others can be aware. It’s a shame people behave as such. I had a similar situation occur with a speaking opportunity in Italy. All my flags went up and we ended all communications with the organization.

    • Leesa Barnes

      Eek! Glad you caught it in time. What was the trigger for you with the Italian situation? For me, it was when they asked me to pay for the work permit. They NEVER mentioned that this would be my expense in any of our correspondences and all of a sudden, that bombshell was dropped in my lap.

  • Kurek Ashley

    Leesa,
    I wish I would have found your site a couple of days sooner. I did send Tambara my passport info and the fee for the permit. Once they asked for more money for the bond, I got suspicious and did a internet search and found your page. With all of the conferences i do all over the world in 17 countries, I was just being efficient and getting things handled quickly. And that’s what they are counting on. They put the workshop date very close so that it creates a sense of urgency. And because they send through the official looking agreement. It all looks on the up and up. Yet, it’s not.

    Oh well, a quite valuable lesson learned, for luckily wasn’t all that much cost. It could have been a lot worse. Now i have to get my personal information changed to protect myself there.

    Once again, thank you for your post and information.

    All the best
    Kurek Ashley

    • Leesa Barnes

      So sorry to hear that you did send money, Kurek and I’m appaulded to hear they’re asking for more. Would you mind sharing the next step in their demented process? What’s their excuse for asking you for more money?

      And don’t feel badly about getting duped. Anyone who does business understands the need to expedite decisions, especially when being asked to speak at the last minute. I applaud you for your courage in sharing your experience here.

    • http://www.facebook.com/felicia.slattery Felicia Slattery

      Oh Kurek… I’m so sorry they got you to send money. Obviously they have found a way to scam even the smartest and most successful folks.

  • Kurek Ashley

    Leesa
    This is what they send you next trying to get more out of you. By this point I had already figured them out and never sent it. Yet you’ll see that i will post it twice and the price of what they say is the cost changes. They can’t even keep it straight between the 3 scammers. (Mark jarrow, Edward Smith and Tambara burkes)
    Good Afternoon Deacon Edward, At the start of work today, I must tell you that I am done with Mr. Ashley’s work permit, But it cant be issued out as at yet because it was brought to my notice by the issuing dept. that non-British citizens coming to work in the United Kingdom starting from December 2011 as been required by the home office to pay a refundable sum of 1,000GBP as a ‘Bond’ to enact their stay. As soon as they get back to their countries, the fee will be remitted back to them in full.
    It is the new Home office’s rule that it be so for working immigrants applying for the work permit. I am emailing you now so you can find a way to forward to me the funds so I can forward them to the home office and send you the ‘bond holding letter’

    Warren Germain already sent me the funds for the bond, He will get his documents today, I have forwarded to him the fedex tracking number so he could monitor as well, Did he tell you this?

    Please Deacon, send the funds to me on Mr. Ashley’s behalf as he might be relunctant to send such amount of money, So I need you to forward the funds on his behalf, Once they he is back in the Australia the bond will be liquidated and you will have the funds back.

    PLEASE REPLY SOONEST !!!

    –
    Tambara Burks.
    United Kingdom Border Agency.
    N.A.

    tambaraburks.ukba@workmail.com
    845-784-0199 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 845-784-0199 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

    SECOND EMAIL

    Good Afternoon Deacon Edward, At the start of work today, I must tell you that I am done with Mr. Ashley’s work permit, But it cant be issued out as at yet because it was brought to my notice by the issuing dept. that non-British citizens coming to work in the United Kingdom starting from December 2011 as been required by the home office to pay a refundable sum of 1,400GBP as a ‘Bond’ to enact their stay. As soon as they get back to their countries, the fee will be remitted back to them in full.
    It is the new Home office’s rule that it be so for working immigrants applying for the work permit. I am emailing you now so you can find a way to forward to me the funds so I can forward them to the home office and send you the ‘bond holding letter’

    Warren Germain already sent me the funds for the bond, He will get his documents today, I have forwarded to him the fedex tracking number so he could monitor as well, Did he tell you this?

    Please Deacon, send the funds to me on Mr. Ashley’s behalf as he might be relunctant to send such amount of money, So I need you to forward the funds on his behalf, Once they he is back in the Australia the bond will be liquidated and you will have the funds back.

    PLEASE REPLY SOONEST !!!

    –
    Tambara Burks.
    United Kingdom Border Agency.
    N.A.

    tambaraburks.ukba@workmail.com
    845-784-0199

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Wow! Thanks for sharing the email of what happens after you send the $600. They want more money. I experienced the same thing as you where they forget what they ask for and then resend emails with wrong information in it. As Judge Judy says “When you tell the truth, you don’t have to have a good memory.” Because Tambara, Edward Smith and the fake Bishop are running a dishonest, crooked scheme meant to deceive hard working people from their hard earned money, they just can’t keep their stories straight. I’m glad you were able to stop them in their tracks before parting with anymore money.

  • Kurek Ashley

    These guys go as far as booking fake accommodation for you, yet it’s in Edward Smiths name. i have to hand it to them, their set up for the scam is good and very professional.

    • Leesa Barnes

      I got the same email. When I checked the location of the hotel, it’s in northern England, even though the church is located in Scotland. According to the map, it’d be a 10-hour drive from the hotel to Edinburgh. Only scammers would do this…

  • Lauren Hug

    Wow, Leesa! I’m so glad you posted this. 1) Because scams that are clever enough to suck in smart business people are über scary. 2) Because this post found its way into my twitter feed (via retweet), and I am now aware of and able to peruse your valuable insights. So glad you aren’t out any money!

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Excellent! I’m glad I could help you remain alert. As someone said on Twitter after reading this blog post, some don’t say anything because they’re embarrassed, especially if they were suckered into this scam.

      But if I see myself as a victim, then yes, I’ll hide and hope it goes away. And that’s just it – I don’t view myself as a victim. That’s why I need people to know about this scam and the way they operate. Smart business people are getting hoodwinked by this scam and we need to know what it smells like so we avoid it at all costs. The reason why the scammers keep doing it is because the scam works. My goal is to at least put a dent in their efforts…

  • Dr. Jennifer

    I’m glad that you figured it out! That happened to me a couple of years ago and I also didn’t get scammed. New kind of awareness is required in this world of internet connections. It’s sometimes complicated to do the due diligence that is necessary.
    Thanks for posting this …

    Take care…

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      It appears that these scammers change the name of the organization and the conference every few months. In a blog post I found from 2009, they used the name William Smith, the church was based in London and it was for a youth conference.

  • http://twitter.com/christinahills Christina Hills

    Leesa,
    Thank you so much for posting this!
    I too was almost a victim of an affiliate scam that originated in China.

    This was a few years ago, but I never blogged about it.

    So glad you caught this in time!

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      I hope you didn’t lose too much money. As I explained on twitter to one of my followers, it can be embarrassing to get caught up in one of these scams. We’re supposed to be smart, brilliant and know better, right? And unfortunately, some scams are just professional looking that we fall for it.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Eek! So sorry to hear. I hope you didn’t lose too much money. As I shared with one of my Twitter followers, the embarrassment of having fallen for this very sophisticated scam was totally out of character for me. But since I don’t see myself as a victim, I felt my need to share. So glad that you overcame your situation as well.

  • Anonymous

    Holy (and I do mean HOLY) moly Leesa! I’m so glad to hear your Spidey senses were firing on all cylinders. It’s a shame we have to be so uber-cautious and even suspicious but better to be that way than to be a victim! So glad you shared your experience. I will push out your link to my Twitter and Facebook peeps to warn others of this heinous activity.

    Great to re-connect with you and hey… REMAIN BLESSED BABY! ;-)

    Hugs
    Monica

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Hey gorgeous! Yes, please do share this with your peeps. Let’s warn as many people as possible about this speaking scam.

  • Louise

    Wow, good that you and your VA figured it out Leesa. They are so clever now, its hard to tell. But your intuition is always right! Yes, the language in the email was weird and would have got me questioning too. So glad you ‘overcame’ this bamboozling naughty crowd with your head held high! :) And thanks for sharing, so we can put our antenna up.
    Louise x

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      The language in the emails didn’t set off any bells for me. It did for my VA because she’s such a wordsmith. For me, it was when they started asking me for money that my radar went off. Sadly, by then I had already shared my signature on the signed contract, my passport number and my birthdate. But you’re right, Louise, never ignore the intuition (or voice of God as I refer to it).

  • Andrea Feinberg

    Leesa ~ Thanks so much for sharing this; it’s a very sophisticated scam, one that knew exactly how to appeal to you and clearly they did their homework. With your permission, I’d like to forward your email regarding this to those who I think should also be pre-warned. Some of us would be so tickled to think our reputation was going international and don’t have the super-sleuth assistant you’re blessed to have!

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Yes, please share! And you’re right – this is a very sophisticated scam. Like you said, for some, it will massage their ego to know they have an international invite to an international event.

  • Taylore

    Leesa, thank you so much for sharing your story. Alleluia for intuition! I’m going to save this post and share the link with my Social Media community. Your experience and sharing is a blessing to us. Thanks for looking out for us. Much love – Taylore

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Please share this with your community. When I plugged in “jarrow scam” into Google the day my VA said it was indeed a scam, there was only 1 LinkedIn discussion about the topic. Apparently, the National Association of Speakers has a blog post on this, but the blog is only available to its members. Hence the reason I had to share this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/TayloreAshlie Taylore Ashlie

    If you’re a speaker, you need to read this post to protect yourself

  • Judy Jackson

    Scary close call Leesa. The wording and grammar immediately red flagged it for me. Thank goodness for your VA’s ‘gut’ alarms going off. And thank you for sharing with us in such a bold straight forward manner. Particularly important for new people to hear this because they are so anxious about getting clients or speaking engagements or selling a product that they may ignore some of the ‘not quite right’ signs. Glad you put protection measures in place… will be praying that there are no further problems for you from this.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Yup, Judy that’s the issue – what’s next. I did everything I can to protect myself, so I pray that this is indeed the end.

  • http://www.EnlightenedMarketing.com/ Samantha Hartley

    My clients almost got taken by a scam out of China. The term I use for these is “smell funny.” Anything that causes you to do several Google searches and investigations means something isn’t sitting well with you. In your case, both you and Tambara got a weird vibe. In our case, the client sent me the emails after a lot of back and forth with China. Because they were so hopeful about getting a project, they wanted to believe the exorbitant sums written in the email, but with an objective eye, I was able to point out to them that it just wasn’t legit.

    Thanks for raising awareness about this kind of thing, Leesa.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Good point. If it’s taking too many emails just to finalize the arrangement, something’s off. My VA kept coming back to me with “stuff” from the scammers. I started to get annoyed because the longer my VA has to be involved in planning my speaking gigs, the more it costs me in her time.

      The key here is to NOT be a solo in your business. Everyone needs to have support. Your client is fortunate to have you. I rely heavily on my VA – not just to handle my calendar and emails – but also to raise any questions should something not look right. That’s another lesson in this – never work alone.

  • http://twitter.com/MyParentingCoac Brenda Trott, M.Ed

    Thanks so much for sharing. Once upon a time we were encouraged to send this type of information to the FBI. I tried reporting a “job offer” that was similar to this scam, and I discovered there is no such place to report it! I called my local bank, and they told me to tell my local authorities..don’t think they are interested.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Sadly, these scams are so numerous, it’s hard for the FBI or here in Canada, the RCMP to keep up. In Canada, you can report these scams to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. I don’t know what the equivalent would be in the US.

  • http://twitter.com/JudyHWright Judy H Wright-Auntie

    Hello from Montana, yep, I got it too. So excited to speak to the youth gathered for an international conference in England. I Googled the school, the headmaster etc. but they did not have any conferences scheduled or know the man who was encouraging me to send money for the work permit.

    We would like to think everyone in the world is as kind, thoughtful and respectful as we are. Unfortunately, they are not.

    This is how we get to be such Smart Cookies.

    Judy Helm Wright aka Auntie Artichoke, the storytelling trainer
    http://www.judyhwright.com

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      You and I grew up in a culture where bribery & dishonesty is not a daily occurrence. In other words, we meet more honest people in our lifetime here on this side of the world than we do dishonest.

      In other parts of the world, scheming, bribery, threats to your security and freedom are a daily reality. When one grows up in such a dishonest environment, it’s no wonder that they can operate these scams and have no conscious.

  • http://www.facebook.com/karen.monteverdi Karen Monteverdi

    Thanks Leesa,
    I have sent this comment to the International Coach Academy, there are a lot of new coaches that need to know.
    Karen

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Deidra-Miller/1458781777 Deidra Miller

    Leesa, I’m a virtual administrator and aspiring speaker. This is great info to know, thanks for posting. I also copied the link to my Facebook people.

  • http://twitter.com/De_Boone De Boone

    Wow! Thank you for posting this information.

  • Spiritdancer

    Thanks for this info.

  • http://twitter.com/TorontoCarol Carol Bremner

    I’m glad you found out in time, Leesa. And I guess there is some merit in my being a small potato – I’m not on anyone’s radar:)

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      If you have a nice looking website and seem like you have presence, you can be targeted. Stay aware.

  • http://www.valheart.com/ Val Heart

    Thanks, Leesa! Very helpful, appreciate the warning so much.

  • Coachnurse

    Thank you for the information. Will pass it along.

  • http://www.SystemsLiberation.com/ Tanya Smith

    OMG, Leesa! Thank you for sharing this valuable information. It’s amazing to me how someone can be so sinister in their thinking, but it is definitely reality. So glad you were able to secure your information and spread the word.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      I shall not be silenced.

  • Tamara G. Suttle, M.Ed., LPC,

    Thanks, Leesa! This is a great heads up for all of us!

  • April

    Wow….this is crazy [I'm glad God covered you and the rest of us from being scammed]. Thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/coachlindahillman Linda EmpowermentCoach Hillman

    It really is a shame that this is still going on. I was a victim of this back in 2009. at that time I found a website (after the fact) that would have helped me. However, I am glad that you did not fail prey to this. If you Google Pastor Edward Smith of Christ Church in Siddcup you will see that this scam has been going on for years. Colleen site also has many others who fell prey or almost fell prey. God help these people.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Oh my goodness! I googled Edward Smith scam and found a few blog posts dating back to 2009. This scam is old, but it seems like they change the name of the person doing the invites and the name of the organization. Crafty. If at least 10 people pay the $600 for the work permit, these scammers have made $6000. The last email I got from Tambara asking when I’ll send the money came from her iPad. No wonder they continue this scam. Wow!

  • Susan Kuhn

    Another tipoff. The address given was the UK not Scotland. That is like saying you are from Ontario, not Toronto. Excellent post!

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Thanks Susan. Should help others if they get this email in the future.

  • http://twitter.com/ZaraGreen Zara Green

    Many thanks, Leesa! I’m sharing with other speakers/trainers too.

  • http://www.virtualpartnering.com/ Cindy Hillsey

    Leesa, thank you for sharing your story. So glad you and your VA trusted her intuition!

    I have a lot of VA’s who follow me and many who support speakers. I’ll be writing a quick blog post about this and linking them back here to read about your experience.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Thanks for sharing this on your blog, Cindy. It’s important for VAs to trust their instinct and then voice their thoughts. Some newer VAs may think that they should just complete tasks and not say anything, but they should NEVER be afraid to comment on something if it just doesn’t feel right. If your client consistently brushes you off, find a new client. My VA is AWESOME in that she always gives me her thoughts on things I’m working on or people I’m working with. I value her input and in this case, she saved me from being victimized.

  • http://www.facebook.com/felicia.slattery Felicia Slattery

    Hi Leesa,
    A few months ago I received a “911″ email from a client asking for help in figuring out what to charge because she was invited for a speaking engagement in the UK on her area of expertise. She went around and around with the group and eventually it came out this too was a scam and just as scary. Her story was they would not pay her via Paypal or western Union and then started asking her for money so she could get paid by them. (Twisted logic, eh?)

    Because of my experience in the speaking industry, here’s the detail that would have tipped me off about your situation immediately: someone contacting me in January for an international speaking engagement in February. In our internet marketing world people can procrastinate because with internet technology it’s nothing to set up a telesummit or webinar (no room to get scheduled, no catering, etc.), it’s nothing to send an invitation (a quick handful of emails to our existing lists and social media promotion will do the trick), and having a buy button online is simple to set up & execute. Plus our market has been trained not to look for events more than a couple weeks to a month in advance anyway.

    But the REST of the speaking world — event planners for live events, typically hire their speakers AT LEAST 6 months in advance if not more. And for international gigs it’s usually longer. Unless this group had a story about someone being in place & suddenly cancelling at the last minute, I’d have been on guard at that moment.

    Another thing that would have sent up a red flag: you do not have to pay to speak anywhere. A work visa is required if you are going to be an employee. To get one check one time, you’re being paid an honorarium. Not as an employee.

    However, no judgement here. You are right. It’s easy to get excited about a speaking gig when an invitation comes. Especially an international one. I’d certainly do a happy dance at that email! And this group clearly has set up a system for scamming. They went out of their way to look legitimate.

    Kudos to you for not just figuring it out & letting it be. I’m glad you dug deeper to out the IP addresses and work with authorities in Canada & the UK as well as St. Paul’s. People need to know about the scammers who prey on business professionals too.

    I’m glad you did not lose out on anything more than time and you are brave enough to put all the info out there.

    I hope my comments soothe you, Mrs. Barnes. ;-) lol

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Thanks for my first giggle of the morning, Felicia! It does soothe me to blog this and let others know about this scam.

      That was one thing my mother said to me when I told her about the gig. She said “Leesa, you usually tell me about your speaking gigs at least 3-months ahead of time. Why is this so last minute and overseas to boot?”

      Well, she didn’t say “to boot” but you get the point. And of course, the scammers had an explanation in that a speaker cancelled and that their sponsor recommended me. My VA was already second-guessing this invitation, but for me, it wasn’t until I had to pay something for the honour of speaking that my flags went up.

      Lots of lessons learned here and if I’m fooled twice, shame on me.

      • http://www.facebook.com/felicia.slattery Felicia Slattery

        Doesn’t it bug you when your Mom is right about work stuff?? LOL

        I’m happy to hear your VA was looking out for you. It’s important to be surrounded by a team that has your best interests at heart and doesn’t simply do the tasks they’re told to do & keep their mouths shut! My team would jump all over someone trying to take advantage of me.

        3 cheers for awesome VAs!!! Just another reason why doing everything alone can harm you in business. We need another set of ears & eyes on everything we do!

        • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

          Yes, we CANNOT work in a bubble. We need to share our experiences, no matter how hurtful. It’s only when we do that we can help each other heal and avoid the same mistakes.

          And big 3 cheers for my awesome VA!!!! My business would be a little less effective if she wasn’t on my team. Keep her in your prayers too.

  • Dee

    I TOO SPEAK ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AND HAVE RECEIVED A NUMBER OF THESE REQUEST … take a look at my letter. Now I received the first one at the time I WAS requested to speak in AFRICA however that came through my Road Manager and of course was vetted long before it reached me.

    Hello Dearest Dee Marshall ,

    Blessings to you from Jarrow, I am Bishop David Joseph Jarrow, presiding Minister of the Saint Paul’s Church, Jarrow, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in Jarrow at the Church conference coming up on the 27th, 28th & 29th of March 2012. The conference is tagged: ‘Big things: How to start small’.

    Please we would like you to convey to us your availability for one of the dates as it can fit in your schedule. Also, please we would as well appreciate if you get back in-touch with us in ample time so we can start corresponding the details.
    Thank you and expecting to hear from you soon.

    Remain Blessed.

    Bishop David Joseph Jarrow
    +44 70359 51032

    http://www.stpaulschurchjarrow.com/
    St Paul’s Church,
    Jarrow,
    Tyne & Wear,
    NE32 5QJ
    United Kingdom.

    all travel arrangements such as Flight fare, Speaking fee deposit as well as Hotel accommodation will be taken care of as soon as you honor this invitation.We will send you all binding documents including a Letter of Invitation and Contract Agreement as soon as you honor our invitation.

    But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      What gets me is that they have the nerve to use Bible texts in their emails. They’re doing a dishonest thing robbing hard working people of their money and they’re quoting the Bible. But then again, so did the Devil when he tried to tempt Jesus while the latter was fasting.

      Glad you weren’t deceived into parting with your money. Stay vigilent.

    • mai lorenzo

      Hi, almost got the same just this day.
      Good Thing, I did a search on the net thats why I found this site.
      Shame on them to use the chuch and the bible…
      Thank you, Leese and Dee.

      Hello Dearest Mai Lorenzo,

      Blessings to you from Jarrow, I am Bishop David Joseph Jarrow, presiding Minister of the Saint Paul’s Church, Jarrow, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in Jarrow at the Church conference coming up on the 27th, 28th & 29th of March 2012. The conference is tagged: ‘Big things: How to start small’.

      Please we would like you to convey to us your availability for one of the dates as it can fit in your schedule. Also, please we would as well appreciate if you get back in-touch with us in ample time so we can start corresponding the details.
      Thank you and expecting to hear from you soon.

      Remain Blessed.

      Bishop David Joseph Jarrow
      +44 70359 51032

      http://www.stpaulschurchjarrow.com/
      St Paul’s Church,
      Jarrow,
      Tyne & Wear,
      NE32 5QJ
      United Kingdom.

      All travel arrangements such as Flight fare, Speaking fee deposit as well as Hotel accommodation will be taken care of as soon as you honor this invitation.We will send you all binding documents including a Letter of Invitation and Contract Agreement as soon as you honor our invitation.

      But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

      • Leesa Barnes

        Yes, shame on them for using God’s name and the Bible in their masquerade. Don’t even answer them. One should NOT argue, debate or get into anything with evil forces. Not even angels in the Bible had conversations with the Devil. When he’d show up, the angels simply said “Get thee hence.” My mistake was continuing to engage them. I’ve learned my lesson.

  • http://www.lisarobbinyoung.com Lisa Robbin Young

    There’s two things that come to mind here. First, our need to deeply trust that still, small voice inside us. Second, to be sure we’re doing our research.

    Leesa, you’ve offered a tremendous example of just how elaborate these scams have gotten, and you are to be commended for not only sharing it, but for spending the time and money to continue to follow up on it with overseas authorities. Many people would chalk it up as a lesson learned, and vow to be more careful next time, without letting their community know what’s up.

    Scams can come in all shapes and sizes, to be sure. I’m tenacious, so I often “waste” resources by sticking to my guns on issues of principle. When I had someone forge my signature on a bank account and withdraw all the funds (it was about $200), the bank refused to press charges or follow up because it was not “worth” their time and resources to do so. They simply replaced the $200 – but nothing was ever done to prevent the person who stole the money from doing again somewhere else.

    Not exactly the same thing as what happened to you, but the principle is the same. If people who are affected don’t speak up, the scamming continues. And sometimes, even the powers that be don’t care – but that doesn’t mean WE shouldn’t be looking out for each other.

    Through it all, we need to stay mindful of our gut, inner wisdom, God voice, deeper knowing, intuition or whatever you’d like to call it. Very often we ignore the warning signs that are blaring in front of us. Sometimes it only costs us a little, but over time, if we continue to ignore that voice, it just stops talking to us altogether until we’re ready to listen again.

    And that’s the worst possible thing that could happen.

    Great post (as usual, my dear!).

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      That’s what bugs me the most – how cavalier the banks and law enforcement is about this. I get that they probably get their share of Nigerian scams and that the amounts stolen aren’t worth the paperwork. But c’mon, if 10 people are scammed of $600 each, that’s quite a bit. Or, if that person goes from bank to bank skimming $200, they could make $200,000 in a month. No wonder customers are so distrustful of banks. They don’t do their due diligence, then ask the government for a bailout because they didn’t take care of the little mistakes, the small frauds, the small time crooks.

      But I do thank God for impressing my VA to toss and turn until she solved this issue. My VA said she couldn’t sleep because there was something about their emails that bugged her. We have a great relationship and she knows that if something just doesn’t feel right, say something. Some VAs may be starstruck working with a “celebrity” client and may not have the confidence to say something. Which is too bad because every business owner will say that their VA is the most valuable person on their team.

  • http://www.VivaVisibilityBlog.com/ Nancy Marmolejo

    Leesa, you’re such a smart cookie, nobody could pull one over on you. But dang, they sure came close with this approach! Scammers are finding new niches… looks like the speaker niche is their new target. I applaud you for sharing this and keeping your peeps in the know about this stuff. I also want to say to anyone who falls for these things that it can happen to anyone. Watching the language syntax was your big clue, Leesa. We all need to be hyper observant of everything from email addresses to logos to letterhead to IP addresses…

    thank you!!!

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      My mother said that soon, these scams will originate within our own borders. It’s easy (and that I say that now that I know what to look for) to spot these scams because of the poor language and the IP address of the originating emails. But when these scammers start to use impeccable English and the IP addresses are here in the US & Canada, will the crooks be that easy to spot? Like you said, we all need to be hyper observant.

  • Rudy

    Leesa,
    Thank you for sharing the experience that you and your personal assistant encountered. I would like to offer a suggestion to you and your audience. If I think an e-mail is suspect, determine the IP address used by the sender and “Google” the IP address or look for a site that will tell you the location of an IP address.
    For example, using the three IP addresses that you posted earlier, I went to What is My IP Address.com (http://whatismyipaddress.com). One of the tabs offered is an IP Look-up. Enter the numbers, and the information on the site will appear. There are many others that work the same. Based on your information, the e-mails came from three different cities in Nigeria.
    Continued success with your work,
    Rudy

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Nice! Thanks for sharing that resource, Rudy. Wish I did that from the start instead of wasting my time communicating a professional way with these scammers.

      And I really wanted it NOT to be a nigerian scam. There are some pretty decent people in Nigerian, but sadly, their dishonest citizens are creating a very nasty stereotype. Hence the reason why I needed to do an IP search first.

  • http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/jamaican-foods-min-e-book/18839860 Ddixon

    Totally scary and disgusting. Thanks for sharing

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=577756225 Placida Acheru

    Thank you Leesa,

    I am a UK based speaker and this post was shared in a Facebook group , I was curious what a church was doing scamming people. I haven’t had this experience but really glad to know that scams now target speakers and we should all be careful- who would have thought. Sadly these scam have been traced to my country. Well I have shared this to all my network so those in our profession are aware this is happening. Careful is the watch word now. And well done to you for listening to your VA. Thank you to all our VA’s that watch out for us. :)

    • Leesa Barnes

      Thankfully, UK law enforcement is taking this very seriously. We’ve forwarded all the emails to our contact at the real St Paul’s who’s sent them to investigators. Please continue to share this post so that more and more speakers are aware of this scam. There are some who already posted in the comments below that this blog post already saved them from becoming a victim.

  • Joan

    Thank you for all this detailed information! I will pass it on to my network as well! Warmly, Joan Pounds http://www.monetizationmagic.com

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Please share this as far and wide as you can. What the scammers didn’t take into account is that I wouldn’t hide this experience.

  • Sue

    Leesa:

    So happy you didn’t get totally roped in and that you and your VA were able to prevent ramifications. Thank you for sharing and for your very detailed updates.

    I went through something very similar this past year (actually a couple times in different ways) relative to someone claiming to be the promoter of a seminar and looking for guest speakers … the worst part was feeling like an idiot and that, as an intelligent person, I somehow got hoodwinked into believing this stuff. I was embarrassed to admit to anyone (including my husband) that my radar did not go off until too late … A substantial amount of money is now unrecoverable. The entire scenario (and a lot of details, account transfer numbers, names, etc that I hope was useful information) was reported to the police. Those involved were from Montreal, London UK, Nigeria, South Africa, China and Ghana.

    Just finishing off dealing with identity theft issue over the holidays — holy Money Mirror Batman! It certainly has been an enlightening year relative to dealing with my ‘stuff’ — in hindsight, of course!

    Blessings

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      Sue, I’m sorry to hear that you were a victim of a similar scam. I applaud you for having the courage to share your experience on my blog. The biggest reason why most victims don’t share their experience is because of shame and embarrassment. It certainly doesn’t help when you do share with a loved one what you went through and they start berating you about all the things you should’ve done differently.

      Sadly, there’s now a wedge between myself and a family member who went on and on about all the things they would NEVER do and how I shouldn’t be so desperate for business. Certainly not what I need to hear after already dealing with the sting of being victimized.

  • Patrick

    thank you so much for posting this…my wife and I were just in the process of getting caught in the downward spiral of this whole scam. Things just weren’t adding up, even though we had come to the conclusion intuitively that it was not for real it was surprisingly difficult to nail down if this was or not. This post was so very timely. BTW….what you described is EXACTLY what we have experienced.

    • http://leesabarnes.com Leesa Barnes

      This is EXACTLY why I published my own experience. When my VA finally dug up the evidence that this conference was a scam, I went searching online and found a LinkedIn discussion on the topic. Just one. It was important that people find multiple sources regarding this spam so they can get a perspective from someone who went through almost all the steps. I’m soooooo happy you were able to discover this ruse BEFORE you sent money.

      • Patrick

        We are in the process of notifying CAPS as well as spreading the word within our speaker community…our worry is the information we provided on the contract for the ‘work visa’ …having to notify credit bureau etc to cover our back…identity fraud is the concern.

  • http://learnerfocusedcoaching.com/ Louise Gray

    So sorry you were targeted on this, yet so glad you shared your story. I am also looking to expand my speaking and I will be on alert for things like this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/michelle.mattsen Michelle Mattsen

    I sure do hope your identity hasn’t been compromised.

  • http://www.facebook.com/michelle.mattsen Michelle Mattsen

    I sure do hope your identity hasn’t been compromised.

  • http://www.donaldwood.com/ Donald

    I just received a letter from ‘Rev. Jimmy King’ this morning. It was sent to my “info’ address which made it look good at first. They have done their homework with the website and all. Still, something was making me nervous about this. (The church was going to send me a contract? I thought I was supposed to send the contract to them.) I looked through the e-mail for an IP address and tried to track it with no luck (a gmail.com address). So I searched for the phone number that was provided – BINGO! Your blog came up. Thank you for sharing this information with everyone.