a new client in Jamaica...is this safe

[Guest craig]

I've been contacted by a gentleman in Jamaica...not New York, but the Caribbean. I have not met him previously, and he is proposing flying me there in May for two days. He will be advancing me a portion of my fee and airfare by postal money order. Is this something that anyone has run into in the past, and is it wise to pursue it?

 

Thanks

 

Craig

[bomerrang]

Crime Threats

 

""Kingston is rated “Critical” for crime by the Department of State due to a high frequency of criminal activity throughout Jamaica. Violent crime is a serious problem, particularly in Kingston. In 2012, Kingston saw a reduction in the murder rate and other violent crimes. This reduction may be attributed to proactive police actions. There were 1,083 murders, 1,218 shootings, 763 carnal abuse, 833 rape, 2,679 robberies, 3,094 break-ins, 691 larceny cases recorded in 2012. With a population of approximately 2.7 million people, the number of murders and other violence places Jamaica in the top five tiers of the highest per capita homicide rates in the world. Most violent crimes, in particular murder, involve firearms. There is no evidence that criminals and gang-related activities specifically target U.S. citizens. Crime may be as a result of several factors: poverty, retribution, drugs, gangs, and politics. Providing an environment conducive to crime and hard to police enables criminal elements and gangs to infiltrate wealthier urban areas easily. Most violent crimes take place in these types of areas. Jamaican citizens employed at U.S. Embassy Kingston are victims of crime far more frequently than their American colleagues, a fact attributable to the differing demographics between upscale expatriate neighborhoods and the rest of Kingston in general. Police are unable to patrol and protect most neighborhoods adequately, and as a result, burglaries are quite common. Most wealthy residents hire private armed guard forces to deter criminals.

 

While Jamaica suffers from a high per capita rate of violent crimes, these occurrences occasionally impact international visitors. Most criminal activity is “Jamaican on Jamaican” violence, often involving organized criminal elements and gangs. Crimes affecting U.S. citizens in 2012 were murder (4); reports of rape and/or sexual assault (15); reported aggravated assaults (4); reported kidnapping (parental kidnappings) (2); domestic violence (5) and reports of child abuse (4). These numbers are not all inclusive, and the numbers for rape and/or sexual assaults are believed to be under reported. Many crimes remain unreported for numerous reasons, including fear of retaliation. A special concern continues to be the number of sexual assaults perpetrated by hotel employees at resort hotels on the north coast and the need for forceful investigation and follow-up by the hotels and by police and other security officials.""

 

https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=14289

[MiamiLooker]

I've been contacted by a gentleman in Jamaica...not New York, but the Caribbean. I have not met him previously, and he is proposing flying me there in May for two days. He will be advancing me a portion of my fee and airfare by postal money order. Is this something that anyone has run into in the past, and is it wise to pursue it?

 

Thanks

 

Craig

If the money order is for more than the agreed amount and he asks you to refund the difference, it's a scam. The money order will eventually bounce and you'll be out the amount you refunded plus possibly additional bank fees.

[Newly]

cjargo, I can see how time in the Caribbean at this time of the year would be tempting, but it does sound risky. How about asking him for contact info from other escorts he has seen? If he has done the same with other escorts that you know or trust and they vouch for him it would get rid of a lot of fears. If he says you're the first I would be really concerned.

[Dave]

Craig -

 

BE CAREFUL.

This doesnt sound right to me.

 

Would he be making the money order out to you (needing your first and last name to do so)? If so, it's already a red flag to me. I would be very hesitant to give such information to someone I didn't know.

 

If he is NOT asking for such, but saying he will send you a blank money order - without your name listed on it - then you should ask him to send you cash instead. If he balks about doing so, that's also a red flag. Obviously he may be concerned that the cash can get intercepted en route to you (if it gets into the wrong hands) but remember, if a blank money order gets into the wrong hands, it too can be cashed - so his concern about not sending cash, but being ok to send a blank money order, doesn't hold up. Hence the red flag. Why be so worried about money orders? Well...

 

MiamiLooker was right to mention that scam with money orders. But another thing that could happen is that the potential client could be giving you a fake money order. When you'd go to cash it, your bank would give you the cash. Only later would the money order go thru the banking system, and (this can take weeks) your bank would then determine that there is a problem with it. So it would again bounce, like MiamiLooker's scenario, and in this case too, you'd have to pay the money back to your bank. But it could get worse. In probably the worst case scenario, you would be charged with fraud. In another scenario, you would be sued. And in less serious scenarios (but definitely also pains-in-the-ass) your bank account would be frozen - or closed down.

 

As for me, I always get deposits when hired for a trip - or even for extended sessions. But I will not take credit cards, or personal checks, or money orders, or ETFs. Now, I know some guys who do some of those things, and they've been ok with it. I know others who've done some of those things, and they've regretted it later. They may have given out certain bits of personal information they didn't intend to, or they experienced checks bouncing, credit card charges being reversed, or they felt they put themselves at other risks. I always ask my clients for a cash deposit. People who are serious about hiring me will work with me to make it happen.

 

TANGENT::: I know some escorts who tell their clients to send cash through (trackable) Fedex letter envelopes. Sending cash is technically not allowed by Fedex, but I've heard all sorts of things are Fedexed that shouldn't be...

When I teach my class about escorting, I suggest that people first figure out what their personal rules are. Often determining them means we have to use our "gut instinct", and honor our own feelings: this is not always easy to figure out. If you can come up with a list of 5 to 10 rules for yourself as an escort, you're probably doing ok. Much more than that, and you might be getting too rule-oriented, or too controlling, and maybe too difficult to work with. But if you have too few rules - or none at all (gasp!) - its almost guaranteed that you're going to fuck yourself up in a more serious way. Anyway, once an escort's determined his rules, I strongly suggest that he never break them.

 

I suspect your gut is telling you something here. Perhaps this is the start of you crafting out one of your own rules?

 

Feel free to contact me by PM if there's something you need to discuss privately. OTOH, I'm happy to continue to discuss this publicly here. This conversation may help other working guys, too. And clients might even gain a better understanding of our situations - which can only lead to better, healthier, more egalitarian, more respectful escort-client relationships. We need to be able to put ourselves in their shoes, and they ours.

Even though we usually end up barefoot together!

 

I've been contacted by a gentleman in Jamaica...not New York, but the Caribbean. I have not met him previously, and he is proposing flying me there in May for two days. He will be advancing me a portion of my fee and airfare by postal money order. Is this something that anyone has run into in the past, and is it wise to pursue it?

[rvwnsd]

I've been contacted by a gentleman in Jamaica...not New York, but the Caribbean. I have not met him previously, and he is proposing flying me there in May for two days. He will be advancing me a portion of my fee and airfare by postal money order. Is this something that anyone has run into in the past, and is it wise to pursue it?

 

Thanks

 

Craig

 

Here are some additional issues with the proposed transaction:

 

 

1. Given he lives in Jamaica the country, not Jamaica, Queens or Jamaica, Vermont, the money order will be issued by the Jamaican postal service. Were you to deposit the item to your bank account it would be considered a foreign item. A hold will be placed on your account, you will be charged a foreign currency conversion fee (because it will be denominated in Jamaican Dollars) and likely a foreign item collection fee. Were you to cash the money order, a hold would still be placed on your account and a collection fee incurred. Banks only give immediate availability on domestic money orders, not foreign ones.
   
2. Consumer and small business accounts typically do not receive deposits of foreign items. Therefore, your account would likely be flagged for additional scrutiny due to the foreign item. You don't want to be on your bank's watch list.
   
3. If he sends you a US Postal Money Order it is almost 100% certain to be fraudulent. Don't even think about cashing or depositing it. Use it as a prop when you tell the hilarious story to your friends.
   
4. You could ask that he send you the funds via Western Union and then collect the funds at a Western Union agency. However, he would need your legal name and address. Do you want to give a complete stranger who lives in a high-risk foreign country this information? Of course, he would need this information to buy the plane ticket for you.
   
5. If you go through with this transaction and go to Jamaica, there is no telling whether you will be able to come back. Air reservations can be cancelled, particularly when the rightful owner of the stolen credit card that was used to purchase the plane ticket initiates a chargeback of the transaction.
   
6. Even if the money order is not counterfeit, the plane ticket is good, and he gives you real currency when you get there, you could still be the beneficiary of ill-gotten money. In fact, this sounds like money laundering to me. Why should you be concerned with how the funds were obtained? Because our friends at the Treasury Department, FBI, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network are concerned. You don't want to be a messenger in the wars on drugs, terrorism, gun-running, credit card fraud, etc.
   

 

I would take a pass on this character. It sounds too risky to me.

[Mark Gordon]

Given he lives in Jamaica the country, not Jamaica, Queens or Jamaica, Vermont, the money order will be issued by the Jamaican postal service. Were you to deposit the item to your bank account it would be considered a foreign item. A hold will be placed on your account, you will be charged a foreign currency conversion fee (because it will be denominated in Jamaican Dollars) and likely a foreign item collection fee. Were you to cash the money order, a hold would still be placed on your account and a collection fee incurred. Banks only give immediate availability on domestic money orders, not foreign ones.

 

I would echo the cautions with regards to this proposed very dubious transaction. I suspect that this client is phishing for personal information. However, if you ever did accept payment with a postal money order, the best way to cash it would be at a post office, not a bank. Also, I would note that the exception to the above advice is Canadian postal money orders. They can be purchased in US dollars. I have no idea how banks process them, but they can be cashed with ID at any USPS.

 

http://faq.usps.com/adaptivedesktop/faq.jsp?ef=USPSFAQ

[Steven_Draker]

How about asking him for contact info from other escorts he has seen? If he has done the same with other escorts that you know or trust and they vouch for him it would get rid of a lot of fears.

 

+1

 

Ask your client for "referrals".

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

Just in case...

 

"dear model, we send a

consent request for the dispatch of information about websites in flash or html5 for models

 

I agree with you replicate the information

 

 

thanks a lot in adv and all the best

Mark and Daniel Web designer for males"

 

I think this one is fake too.