This is not the kind of post I want to be writing about, but I feel it is important so that other Wedding Coordinators and Wedding vendors become aware of the strong increase in scams happening in the Wedding and Special Event Market. The end game is to try to get account information that would allow these leeches to hack into any personal information that would get them money. Sorry guys, you contacted the wrong company!
We hear so much about how Wedding coordinators are bogus and that they really do nothing. We certainly understand there are dishonest people out there that will take advantage of anyone, even on their wedding day, but we are not those kind of people. It seems recently that we are now on the reciprocating side of scams.
Ray Bass, store2store001@outlook.com, contacted us and wants to throw a 45th birthday party for his boss. After 2 email exchanges, he said he would pay the deposit for us and “how about paying 1/2 of my budget so you can get all vendors available?” His budget is $20,000 for a birthday party for 120 guests for 8 hours. Basically, he would pay the “rest payment” 1 week before. Yeah, no! I do not think so Ray. If you want to plan this party, you get to pay for everything. Money is not paid by a coordinator in advance awaiting to be paid back by the client.
Heng Buntha, hengbutha@gmail.com, telephone number (508) 581 – 3685 and wants to have a wedding August 1, 2016 (possible, but at this late date hard to find an available venue). He lives out of the country and wants someone to plan his wedding for 40-50 people all flying in from Asia, Europe and Africa. He has a budget of $70,000. Anyone that has that kind of money to spend on a wedding isn’t going to just contact a coordinator without scheduling time to talk, a trip to visit venues and put down deposits. He contacted this entire list of coordinators to see who would bite.
To: contact@cclweddings.com, mlarson507@gmail.com, juliadw@hotmail.com, taryn@tarynleach.com, vanessa@nessaevents.com, hello@chloeandmint.com, john@pramikentertainment.com, kerriloomis48@gmail.com,info@aqua83.com, contact@vpevents.com, info@balibride.com, info@sotiare.com, info@fancythatevents.com, jsoiree@gmail.com, cindy@atouchoflavender.net, kristeen@kristeenlabrotevents.com, info@starqe.com,info@ciaobellamore.com, hello@socalweddingconsultant.com, revelweddings@gmail.com, marcella@eventsbymarcella.com, debbie@floralfields.net, info@lalievents.com, info@enchante-events.com, events@sharibella.com,tastefultatters@gmail.com, divahelpmeplanmyevent@divinedivaevents.com, info@happily.io, info@modernlaweddings.com, hello@bringsomethingtothepartyla.com, Heng Buntha
Sorry, Heng… Your ploy is very creative and I am certain someone will be curious, simply because we want to help. I know we were, however, I want to be sure that every single person knows that there are many of you that try this scam. It is sad because I currently have two wonderful clients that we had to triple check prior to agreeing to service. They too are out of the country, planning a wedding here in Southern California. We do not want to seem like skeptics or that we do not trust anyone, because that isn’t the case. But because of these scam artists, we are having to be so much more careful. Look out for these people please. They seem to be coming out of the woodwork in droves. They are everywhere watching our business and taking advantage of the overall kind nature of Wedding planners and coordinators.
#weddingscams #coordinatorploys #moneyupfront #creditcardscams #highdollarwedding
#lastminute wedding #bankaccounthackers #bekindbutslightlyskeptical #wegetscammedtoo #weddingplanningscams #weddingindustryscams #eventindustryscams
serendipitousjulia 
Thank you for sharing!
Heng Buntha contacted us with the same scam information…
Laurie Hardman
Hi Laurie..
You are very welcome.. He contacted me and called me a low life scum because of this blog post. It made me question the post, but you are the third person to write in and say thank you, so I feel so much better about exposing this person. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Warm regards, Julia
Here is the verbatim copy of an email just received this morning from Heng Buntha at that exact email address. The ironic part, I received another unsolicited email 9 minutes later from http://www.masterstransportation.com offering to help me out with adding rental vehicles to my fleet with a low $250 deposit.
Coincidence? You decide.
Greetings,
I would be coming over with a group of six for a 12 days business
sightseeing,relaxation and tour.
Do you have ANY vehicle that can accommodate Six persons per vehicle? we can make use of any of the stated vehicles: a limousine, sedan, minivan, bus.and Vintage car.
Please kindly advise what you can offer to us for the 12 days we would be on
tour.
Date: January 16th 27th to January, 2017..
I would love to get the estimate/quote for a vehicle that can accommodate 6 persons
The price should be based on a 10 hours/ day. Let me have the quote in the format below:
Price per hour:::
Price per 10 hours a day:::
Total cost for 12 days::
Types of credit cards accepted:::
What areas do you cover/operate:::
I would forward full itinerary to you one week before our arrival. This would include our day to day activities, hotel address and times for the car service as well as flight details.
Please kindly confirm the booking and get back to me with the quote.
Regards,
Heng.
Wong Associates Corporate Finance
83B, Jalan SS 15/5A,
47500 Subang Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Malaysia
Wow! He is getting very creative…
I have a party bus company in Denver and was just contacted by Heng. I was a little weary and googled the email and spoke with another bus owner. Thanks for the insight.
Hi.. You are welcome. I am glad I could help.
Hello, I just received an email for a April 1st wedding this year (2017) from a Dirk Roberson – dirkroberson4gmail.com. Calling me Madam or Sir and giving his assistants phone number to contact, but preferred email reply. No mention of size of wedding or why so last minute. They used our email link from our website, which clearly stated my name and title. They still used dear Sir/Madam, which is a red flag to me. It sure sounds like a scam? I have had previous event planning scams for dinner meetings that never happened. Your thoughts are welcome.
Hi. Yes, it does sound like a scam. One of the toughest parts about trying to decipher the validity of these contacts is that we are all service driven and want to be helpful, not skeptical. I think it is some kind of money laundering and it must work otherwise they would stop.
I just received an email from Dirk Roberson also, he even went as far as to return my contract and send me a check. However, the check is dated for over a year ago and is for an amount $2100 over the deposit. I took it to my bank and they tried to contact the bank that the check was issued on and have gotten no where. Complete SCAM!
I knew something was fishy about this person! I have been scouring the internet trying to find any piece of evidence this person isn’t scamming us and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how we could be scammed. But we are! I received an email from a link on our website for caterings services for his daughter’s wedding on July 7th and he was way too eager to pay me without any contract or anything. I’ve rec’d a check for $2100.00 over the deposit also! So glad I didn’t deposit it and trusted my gut. Same name, same email address, same date even as another person stated. I don’t know what website I’ve come across but thank you!
I just received an email from Dirk Roberson about trying to plan his daughter’s wedding on 7-7-17. He prefers to communicate via email. When he filled out our contract that we emailed him we can hardly read the writing on it. He sent us a check for the wrong amount and now wants us to either pay his “decorator” or wire part of the money back to him in Turkey. Check came from Atlanta Georgia but the envelope came from Ohio and he is in Turkey. Just sounds like a scam.
I would like your thoughts
I cannot believe all of these scams… It sounds like money laundering to me. I am sorry Betty that you had to go through this.. Yours is the second comment I received about Dirk Roberson. I think I am going to look into trying to report this person. Thank you so much for commenting.
I knew something was fishy about this person! I have been scouring the internet trying to find any piece of evidence this person isn’t scamming us and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how we could be scammed. But we are! I received an email from a link on our website for caterings services for his daughter’s wedding on July 7th and he was way too eager to pay me without any contract or anything. I’ve rec’d a check for $2100.00 over the deposit also! So glad I didn’t deposit it and trusted my gut. Same name, same email address, same date even as another person stated. I don’t know what website I’ve come across but thank you!
Hi Allison,
I am still shocked that all of these people are being scammed still. As long as one person does it and it works, they will keep trying. I am really glad you didn’t deposit it either. You haven’t come across a website, but a blog post from me a year or two ago when I was trying to be scammed by Heng Buntha. Now it is this new person and I am SO glad people have written in to inquire about it. Thank you for your comment, it will definitely help. I just wish I knew how to stop these people.
Have any of you previously had your purse stolen ? I just received a $500 check from “an assistant”Dirk Roberson” . I am a personal trainer and he was sending it for his employer Amy Johnson who said she got my name off of TRX website. I called the bank and the check is a fake. In Sept 2017 my purse was stolen. Can’t tell if the two are related. In this case they did know my banking information because they stole my wallet with my checkbook. Trying to figure out what is to gain here. Creepy that they know where I live
Interesting!
I am in Australia and today received an email from a Simon Clay.
We operate a luxury stretched Hummer and his enquiry was regarding transportation for oil rig workers flying in from Malaysia for 2 weeks. Dates etc…I answered briefly as my senses told me watch out but still had a “just in case” attitude. So I googled the address from the email…and wow your blog came up! Reading the comments I see another transportation business had the same wording as the email I received.
…and he seems to have been doing this for some time by the time line of your blog.
Anyways……here is email incase helps others….thanks for the post!
Greetings,
I would be coming over with a group of 5 for two weeks(14 days) business sightseeing,relaxation and tour.
We are oil ring workers in Malaysia and we spend most of our time offshore without any form of extra curriculum activities so we want to take some days off for ourselves.we would be flying in from Malaysia
Do you have ANY vehicle that can accommodate 5 persons per vehicle? we can make use of any of the stated vehicles: a limousine, sedan, minivan, bus.and Vintage car
Please kindly advise what you can offer to us for the 14 days we would be on
tour.
Date:25th of March 2019 to 7th of April 2019.
I would love to get the estimate/quote for a vehicle that can accommodate 5 persons
The price should be based on a 6 hours/ day. Let me have the quote in
the format below:
Price per hour:::
Price per 6 hours a day:::
Total cost for 14 days:::
Types of credit cards accepted:::
What areas do you cover/operate:::
I would forward full itinerary to you one week before our arrival. This
would include our day to day activities, hotel address and times for the
car service as well as flight details.
Please kindly confirm the booking and get back to me with the
quote
Regards,
Simon.
83B, Jalan SS 15/5A,
47500 Subang Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Malaysia
Hello Tina,
Thank you so much for sharing. It is important for me to know that all of this is still going on. Scams are happening so much that I know it is an actual business for many to try and get as much money as possible with different forms of fraud. I just wish there was a business that focused solely on catching these individuals. Thank you again for sharing and cheers to your successful business.