Since 1920 we’ve let out our house in Harlech for summer holidays. We shouldn’t be the only ones to enjoy the best view in Britain.

On April 29th I got the following email. Compare it with the one that follows:

Cottage Reference: waa403/1
Enquirer’s name: Paul Markson
Email: Paul.markson@hotmail.com
Telephone: +001
Address :-
Canada.

Message :-
Greeting,
Its very not that easy to look for a weekly holidays over the net,i have take a closer look at your property which i saw in Europ Holidays web site, well i guess its will be more O.K if i write you to know about the property in details.
Checking in date will be August 01 2008.
Checking out date will be August 20th  2008.
Or alternativly if its will not be possible for the 4 weeks rentals we can as well start the rentals right from
Checking in date will be Sep 01 08.
Checking Out will be Se 31 08 .
its will be either four weeks  rentals or alternativly 4 weeks rentals,for the details about the property.
Firstly about the Locations of the property.
Secondly The cost for the Rental for the choosing dates total price needed for the dates choosen rentals.
Thirdly we required for discount for the cost of the rental.
Its shuold not be a problem using a personal Brand New Pc?,We just got married some couple of months ago,so we felt we shuold relocate for three weeks to four weeks ,Am from California and my wife is right from Canada Richmond,i will expect to have your answer.Let me have the total amount for the rentals.
Peter &Wife Anna.

The property was already booked, so I refused the booking. But he kept on trying to get a discount on the price, which I don’t do. I eventually ignored him.

This morning I got this:

Cottage Reference: waa403/1
Enquirer’s name: Mr Claude Fat
Email: Claude_Fat90@yahoo.com
Telephone: +33
Address :-

Message :-
Greeting,
Its very not that easy to look for a weekly holidays over the net, I have take a closer look at your property which I saw in Great Britain web site, well I guess its will be more O.K if i write you to know about the property in details.
Checking in date will be Oct 01 2008.
Checking out date will be Oct 20th 2008.
Or alternatively if its will not be possible for the 2 weeks rentals we can as well start the rentals right from
Checking in date will be Nov 01 08.
Checking Out will be Nov 20 08.
its will be either two weeks  rentals or alternatively 4 weeks rentals, for the details about the property.
Firstly about the Locations of the property.
Secondly The cost for the Rental for the choosing dates total price needed for the dates chosen rentals.
Thirdly we required for discount for the cost of the rental.
Its should not be a problem using a personal Brand New Pc?,We just got married some couple of months ago, so we felt we should relocate for three weeks to four weeks ,Am from France and my wife is right from Germany Berlin will expect to have your answer. Let me have the total amount for the rentals.
Claude Fat.
Note sorry for the bad english (Funny)..

It rang a vague bell, so I simply replied saying we were booked. The email bounced back, saying ” <Claude_Fat90@yahoo.com>: host f.mx.mail.yahoo.com[68.142.202.247] said: 554 delivery error: dd This user doesn’t have a yahoo.com account”

I then looked back through my emails and found the earlier almost identical one from “Paul Markson”.

What’s going on here? I’m sure I won’t be the only person to have got these messages. The problem is I can’t figure out what the scam they’re trying to work is.

Any ideas?