When you have to move in a short period of time, you automatically become a target for scam artists. We are wise in this area (unfortunately), but still are shocked when scams come our way.

First, moving. Patrick found what he thought to be a reputatable moving company. When they asked for a credit card deposit before they’d even seen the house or our stuff and wrote a letter with all these spelling/grammar errors, I knew something was wrong:

Dear Ms. Mary E DeMuth,
Thank you very much for noticying this.
Please disregard this order for service and use this updated version attached below.

Looking forward to hear from you,
NAME OF TERRIBLE AWFUL YUCKY MEAN SCAMMER

(Note to self: grammar and spelling DO matter.)

Then I went on the web and found this message board about the agency. EEEEEK! I’m so glad I found it! Oh my!

So now we’re trying to sell our car. Today we received these emails:

Hello i am intrested in buying your (CAR) you have for sale so i will want you to get me the present condition and the lowest price and also the pics and i want you to know that i will be taking care of the pickup arrangement.And also you can email me direct on these email: EMAIL OF BAD MAN WHO WANTS TO SCAM US. Thanks!!!

Hello Patrick , Am okay with the price of the (Car),i will send the payment of Euros 6,000 in a form of cashier check or money order to you at your location,so be expecting payment from now okay and as soon as you received the payment i will instruct my Shipper to come pickup the (Car) for me at your location okay.Get back to me with your address once again and phone number and dont forget that you will have to sent the remaining balance to my shipper after the cheque as clear at your banks so that they will come for the pickup The (Car) at your destination Thanks looking forward for the information Thanks!!.And you can also get to me on these email, EMAIL OF BAD MAN WHO WANTS TO SCAM US.

In case you think this is legit (which I know you can’t). Here’s a site that outlines this scam. And, hey, you’d think the man would have the decency to erase (Car) and put the actual make of our car there.

So, yeah.

In addition to having to hassle with selling our (Car), our KITCHEN (Yep!), and everything electronic, we have to weed through these terrible folks bent on taking our money. It’s enough to make me yell really loud. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.

But at least I can console myself with this equation that may or may not be true, but I feel it is nonetheless:

Bad grammar+bad spelling+too good to be true=SCAM