Personal Chef Directory

Personal Chef Scam Alert

ALERT TO PERSONAL CHEFS:

It has been brought to our attention that certain scams

are being attempted on personal chefs, some of whom

are listed in this Directory.

You should beware of any customer who wants cash back on a money order or other

non-cash payment sent to you in advance. They want you to deposit their payment quickly, then ask

you for a full or partial refund to be wired to them before you realize that their payment is fraudulent.

There are also phishing scams designed to get your personal information (for unknown reasons). Be suspicious of

any emails asking for your location. For legitimate customers, your location is normally unnecessary,

since our website is already organized by location. We suggest you ask lots of questions and insist on phone or face-to-face

contact before divulging your information.

Here are excerpted emails from personal chefs we have seen about this:

Email 02/04/2010 (Phishing):

Dear Gary, here's the e-mail as it was sent to me.

Chef Joanna

From: Steve <steveclooney@ymail.com>, <rn@mx-out-cgi.daemonmail.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 04:04:55 -0800 (PST)
To: <pchefnet@ChefJoAnna.com>
Subject: Personal Chef Needed

Hello,
I am writing to inquire about your service as a Personal Chef. Kindly
tell me where you are located so as to know its proximity to my work
place and also to make further arrangement.
You can reach me on steveclooney@ymail.com for more details. Looking
forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Steve.

Email 02/02/2010 (Phishing):

Hi Gary,
They start with this same email. The kids are different, the story is the same. Once I respond, I get another email requesting all my personal information. Name, address, phone, cell phone, etc. Had I not started getting the exact same wording, I may not have been suspicious. But, then once they started asking for my personal information, I knew it was a scam.
Thanks for your help on this.
Chef Kelly

Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:33:24 -0800
To: chef's email
Subject: PERSONAL CHEF WANTED
From: waltercox10167@yahoo.com; rn@mx-out-cgi.daemonmail.net

My name is Walter Cox, I came across your ads on pchefnet.com and i saw your good works reading through and i would like to employ you as my personal chef. Let me know what area you are located in so i can tell how conducive that is close to my new inspection job which is bringing me to your area. Am coming in with my son and daughter they are 2+ and 5+ years of age and i want a reliable chef to take care of all our dietary needs and meals.
I wait to read from you with your readiness taking care of our meals and let me know your area location so i can see its proximity to my new inspection job.

Best Regards.
Walter Cox

Email 07/07/2007 (Potential scam):

This is Chef Deborah in Milwaukee WI. More recently I looked at the PCHEFNET Web site only to see SCAM ALERT. Well this is my story.

Around Christmas 2006, I received an email from a person stating he was a business Man from England. He further stated that he would need a chef for (1) month, because he would be staying in Milwaukee on business and that he would be working late nights and just wanted to come home to a home cooked meal! He said that he did not know where he would be staying because the company he worked for had not told him that yet? He wanted all my mailing information so that he could mail a Money Order to me because his company would not provide a company check. He said the company would pay any price I was asking and that he would leave it up to me to design the menu. That is where he blew it. I deal with companies all the time company checks are primarily the only way in which I receive payment.

Also, many of his words were miss spelled, grammar is key element for me in term of report, menus, contract, etc. He said he was a corporate businessperson. The whole conversation did not match up with his profile. He blew it once again. But first and far most my GUT told me this was a SCAM FRAUD. So when I saw the alert I was not surprised it just confirmed how he got my email address.

Many personal chefs handle their business from their home base. For some you maybe using your home address. STOP! Please rent a P.O Box of some kind its tax deductible. This world is crazy! When I get knew customers I try to do a background check on them before I conduct the first interview at their home Its better to be safe then sorry. The name of my business tells perspective clients I am a female, so I try to protect myself anyway. However, I deleted the email but I remember the first part of the name was Sir Something? Personal Chefs, Let’s stay safe. A big thanks to the chefs who started this dialogue.

Chef Deborah Spriggs-Ross, AASCA, CPC
Expressively Your Catering by Chef Deborah ™

Deborah later sent this potential scam sample. Here is what "Rev. Preye Macama" <revpremac@yahoo.com> wrote:

“Hello

I saw your add online, and I got facinated at your profile. I am Rev. Preye Macama from Cotonou, Republic of Benin. I am the General Overseer of Believer's World
International (BWI). I will be coming over to Wisconsin, USA, on a visit from the 1st to the 7th of October, 2007. I will be coming in the company of my wife, daughter and son of ages 5 and 9 respectively.

Actually, we will be requiring the service of a Cook/Chef during our stay, in the USA. Of course we are used to eating home cooked meal. So we thought its necessary to make arrangement to hire some one to take up the job for those periods of time. However we would like to be flexible in the contractual agreement. You are also welcome to live-in during the
period of the contract.

We can pay in advance to cover all your logistic issues. besides, my wife would like it that way, so that we can be assured we have someone to handle that aspect on our arrival. All your expences would be taken care of by our International Sponsor.

An early reponce from you in this regards would be appreciated. Please acknowledge if you can offer this service and give me a price quote.

Remain Blessed

Rev. Preye Macama

President/General Overseer
Believer's World Int'l (BWI)
Cotonou, Rep. of Benin
Tel:+299 21 138 7989”

Email 05/01/2007 (Phishing):

I think I just got phished (fished?) from someone who got my name off the directory, and I was wondering if
you might like this message on your bulletin board. Rather than list the five letters we wrote back and
forth to each other, I will paraphrase:

The 'Fisher' wrote me a letter, asking me for mypersonal information (and a resume) so that he could
buy me a ticket to come try out for him in London. Real good money potential, free apartment, etc. Had a
sick wife and hungry children and was too busy to do it all himself. He/It refused to meet any relatives I
had in London, either at home or at work, as a prerequisite I made before I gave him any real contact
information for my resume, references, my address, etc. Stopped writing after that. It claimed to have paid this
directory to acquire my email address, but this directory says that no one has to pay for p.c. names, and they have
no records of dealing with this person. The fisher's given name was Greg Woodard.

The whole thing felt fake to me and I hope people can use this as a warning for what might happen to them.
Thank You.

NOTE FROM PCHEFNET.COM

We never sell the info on our directory - it is freely published online in the Directory for all your potential customers.

The Directory cannot distinguish between your legitimate customers and those who wish to perpetrate a scam. However,

anyone claiming they paid the Personal Chef Directory for your information is definitely lying, possibly to make you feel

as if they are more legitimate.

Email 05/01/2007 (Refund scam):

Subject: Scam taking advantage of chefs: please read!

This person found me through your site and tried to scam me too. Thought you might want to know.

Here is what he sends as contact info:

Bishop Ben Okafor
General Overseer
Kingdom Life Ministries Int'l.
Porto-Novo
Republic of Benin
Tel:+299 88 75 72
kufwilis@yahoo.com

Subject: Scam taking advantage of chefs: please read!

Hi, all...

Forgive me if this seems out of the blue, but I'm sending this to every chef in my address book, to warn you about a scam. Recently I received an offer of employment, which sounded "Too good to be true". After reading it over a few times, I thought sounded like a check-cashing scam. To make a long story short, I have been posting about it in my blog, including his replies and comments from other chefs who almost got taken by this guy. Today, I got the first message from someone who DID succumb to the scam. She lost $1,100.00. I'm furious that this jerk has taken advantage of someone¹s efforts to make a living, and I feel that it's important to pass the word around. All the info, including correspondence, is in my blog:

Chef JoAnna's Blog

Please, forward this message to other culinary professionals, so nobody else loses their hard-earned money to this jerk... and if you know someone else who lost money, invite them to contact me directly.

Email 10/05/2006 (Refund scam):

Subject: Scammer on your network... almost got me.

Second email:

Hi Gary. Thanks for your quick reply.

He contacted me via email, asking how much it would cost for a large catered event. After several questions about what type of food, decorations, etc... I emailed him with an estimated cost of $6,670, and I only asked for a 50% deposit at first, then to be paid the reminder the day of the event. He sent me $7500 in "money orders", saying that he wanted to pay in full. He also asked me to deposit them into my account ASAP. I took one money order to a MoneyGram cashier (maker of the m/o)... instantly the cashier said it was fake.
Before I could email the guy back that day, he sent me an email saying he needed half of the money back, and asking if I would wire it to him thru western union. I called the cops, and they say that it is a scam. (duh!) The person sends fraudulent money orders, that will take about 5 days to show up as cleared in your bank account after you deposit them. Then the sender of the m/o's asks quickly for a refund, and only to wire them, or send them a cashiers check. You actually end up wiring them YOUR OWN money before their m/o's even show up as fake / bounced. I do not know for sure whether or not he contacted any other people in your directory (thats what I meant by "your customers"... sorry bad description), but I am only assuming he would try to do it /has already done it/ to someone else, too... you know? People like this probably do several scams at a time. Thanks for emailing me back. I dont want anyone else to get screwed over. Im just glad I caught it in time before I deposited those fake money orders.

First email:

I am alerting you of a scam... you may want to post on your site that there is someone sending FAKE money orders via UPS overnight to personal chefs (well, he did to me, I am sure he contacted lots of people in your directory with the same scam). He does this in attempt for payment, then says he need some of it back so he can buy a gift for his wife. He "is in Europe" and "Doesnt want to use his credit card" out there. He wants the money sent through Western Union. He says the party he needs services for is in Pasadena, CA.
If anyone puts these in their account, they will come back as fake, and may get into alot of trouble. I have contacted the local police in this area so I wouldnt get in trouble for having fake money orders on me. His email address is "love2conquer_sea1970@yahoo.com" and the sender is "Faisal Hasan".
He poses as Daniel H. Becker. But at the bottom of his emails it says Haley D. Becker. The money orders are signed by Sophie Watts, and the package came from San Jose, CA.

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