A great turn of phrase

June 28th, 2009 Editor

Sometimes the marketing of an event, business or other enterprise can really be given a boost with some creative thinking.

A week or so ago, while driving through a smallish town, we passed a new garden centre that had a banner stretched along their street frontage.

Very simply done, with huge letters proclaiming:

“We’re so excited about opening our new plant nursery, we’re wetting our plants!”

I’m still chuckling about it and have told dozens of people.

So the next time you start and advertising campaign, try to be creative.

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The scammers and fraudsters are getting creative!

June 21st, 2009 Editor

Many of you will have received email messages, usually from a yahoo email address, asking you to supply accommodation for a group of people for a longer than usual stay….

I know of several B & B’s who have been, almost, successfully conned - one who went so far as to accept a booking, received a cheque and was then asked for a refund by Western Union, fortunately the B & B owner had the sense to check with his bank to see if the cheque he’d presented had been cleared. It hadn’t and turned out to be a stolen one…..The matter is in the hands of the Police but as the transaction was an international one any positive outcome is unlikely.

As the title suggests they are now getting creative! This is a message through the IM part of Skype:

[19/06/2009 4:12:12 a.m.] lancelot mbeke:this name is different from the body of the message!

Greetings Sir/Madam

I am Engr.Henry selekeane,from South African Diamond board,
I wish to make a reservation in your hotel for a course program

Details of the Reservation :
Arrival date: 1st July 2009
Departing date :7th July 2009 (1weeks)
Rooms:6 doubles They didn’t check my site only 2 doubles available!
No of people:6(Adults only)

kindly get back to me with the total cost if you have availabilty
and include break fast and airports shuttles.

Best Regards
Engr..Henry selekeane
5th Floor SA Diamond Center,
225 Main Street, (Cnr. Philip) Johannesburg 2001
P.O.Box 16001, Doornfontein 2028
+27762047957
[19/06/2009 4:14:22 a.m.] lancelot mbeke: e mail= henry_selekane@yahoo.com yahoo email as normal!
[19/06/2009 4:15:28 a.m.] lancelot mbeke: or contact Mbeke lancelot here,for updates.his is the board  attonery. Poor spelling

As you can see it meets a lot of the typical scam details which I have made bold to point them out and my comments/explanation in RED.

Please don’t acknowledge these messages in anyway - they will just keep hounding you or passing your details on to others.

If you do get messages like this through Sktpe you can block them and also report them for abuse by contacting Skype at www.support.skype.com

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