Spammy Requests for Projects?

I often receive the following request from a yahoo or hotmail email account; sometimes even sent as a text to my phone:

"Hello, My name is J____ C_____, I would like to know if you can handle website design for a new company and also if you do you accept credit cards ?? kindly get back to me... so i can send you the job details also due to my hearing impaired surgery the best way to get contact to me now is through text messages or email. Thanks"

The name always changes and the wording varies from time to time, but the bad grammar and punctuation remain consistent. There seems to be a whole community of deaf people needing web design services.

Has anyone followed through and answered to this incredulous spammy request?

 

Never reply to these type of emails. These are spam emails and does not have any value. Better don't entertain these emails and never respond to it.

 

Thanks iwebsocial. I understand these are fake requests, I'm not a naive newbie, that's why I said "incredulous spammy". I'm just curious about who is sending these and what is the purpose of the obviously fake emails. I was just wondering if anyone has tried to reply and what kind of answer they got.

 

Don't respond to these emails. You can be working on a project you're never going to get paid for. I think their reason for sending these kinds of msgs is they want to get projects done, without paying for it....unless they're willing to pay in advance. It's just a matter of outsmarting people who think they can fool hardworking people like you.

 

Thank you Anitasol. After many years of doing web design, I have developed an instinct for distinguishing between solid leads and fake ones. I don't think that these people are trying to get free work. If anything, I would guess that they want to verify that my email is live to send even more spam.

 

Yes, that's possible as well. Well, the reason they're doing it is none of our business, but once they starting do it to us, we should kill it before it goes worse.

 

Thank you Sarahk. Your theory seems plausible. Some sort of money laundering. I would imagine that the targets are baby freelancers desperate to get some work... Possibly not native English speakers. The emails are horribly constructed and one would have to be pretty mentally disabled to take them seriously.

 

When someone uses the word "kindly" in his/her email to me, I automatically ignore that email.