Some guy says we owe 80k for airspace fees in the UK from a few years ago. Interesting, as we have never been across the ocean in our planes. Also interesting that they don't seem to know our company name or contact info. To complete the awesomeness, this was faxed to us rather than emailed, and the FROM: name of Pietro Ferrara isn't even the same name as the person allegedly signing the notice, who goes by the made-up name of John Daniels.
Whaddaya think? Should we shoot them a cheque for 80k, just to be good neighbors?
I'm a trusting faun, but it is suspiciously similar to an email alert we got from Nav Canada a few days ago, which I'm cutting n' pasting here for your enjoyment.
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ATTENTION NAV CANADA CUSTOMERS: FRAUDULENT BILLING SCHEME SENT BY EMAIL
This is to inform you of a fraudulent billing scheme targeting our customers.
If you receive the following email notification about outstanding debt, please DO NOT reply.
Instead, disregard the message, which is NOT from NAV CANADA.
NAV CANADA has contacted the authorities and is investigating. If you would like to enquire about the status of your account, please contact Accounts Receivable at 1-800-209-0864 or Customer Service at 1-800-876-4693.
We would appreciate it if you could forward a copy of the fraudulent email that your company received, in order to assist us in our investigation. The fraudulent email should be forwarded to alert@navcanada.ca.
The text of the fraudulent message follows.
From: Richard Vaughn [mailto:no-reply@nav-canada.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 1:46 PM
To: no-reply@nav-canada.com
Subject: UNPAID INVOICE
Dear Sir,
This is to notify you of an outstanding debt in the area of air
navigation service (ANS) Charges for the year 2007
If we do not receive payment within the next 48 hours, your flights will be grounded and cannot operate within Canadian domestic airspace and international airspace assigned to Canadian control.
If you have any questions relating to this warning feel free to contact
my desk. Your reference [Incident ID: 4962664].
John Daniels
Debt Collection/Unpaid Invoice Department
NAV CANADA
77 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, ON K1P 5L6
phone: 1-866-954-6999
http://www.navcanada.ca
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Man, good thing Lisa supervises me on the internet, otherwise we'd be 80k poorer...
Did you notice how this "John Daniels" is said to work in the "Accounts Payable" group? I guess the scammer is too economically illiterate to know that he should have used "... Receivable" instead.
ReplyDeleteIt's also somehow funny that the sender prentends to be working for NATS... as EUROCONTROL is in charge of collecting ATC related fees for all of Europe...
ReplyDeleteSame guy and same incident id on both messages?
ReplyDeleteYup. Nobody said the guy was smart, just a scumbag.
ReplyDeleteAnd can't spell "traffic." What is it about scammers and spelling?
ReplyDelete