Last week I received the following email:

Good Day,
I'm Peter Russell, I would love to know if you can handle website design for a new company ?. kindly get back to me ASAP so I can send you the job details.
Regards
Peter Russell

Here was my response:

Peter:
I would love to hear about your project. Please let me know when you would like to chat.
D.

I then received this from Peter (including typos, grammar errors, and overall poor writing ability):

Hi Douglas,
Good to hear from you , I have small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now it located in OR and the company is based on importing and exporting of Agriculture products such as Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut and Cocoa so i need a best of the best layout design for it. Can you handle that for me ?. the site would only be informational . So i need you to give me an estimate, the estimate should include hosting and i have a private project consultant, he has the text content and the logos for the site.
Note:
I want only English language
I don't have a domain yet but i want the domain name as www.russellfarmcrops.com
You will be updating the site for me.
I will be providing the images, logos and content for the site.
I want the site up and running before ending of next month.
My budget is $2000 to $7000
The site will also be Mobile friendly
Kindly get back to me with:
an estimate
And will like to know if you are the owner
Do you accept Credit card payments
I will wait to hear from you
Regards
Peter Russell

From years of online experience, I thought that I smelled a rat. I first searched Peter's name on LinkedIn. I found several Peter Russels (not a coincidence, I am sure), but none appeared to match this Peter's background or experience.

My next step was to visit GoDaddy to see who owned the URL included on his email address (Yohbroker.com). There is currently no website at this address, and the 'WhoIs' information offered very little.

I also checked the availability of the URL, russellfarmcrops.com. It was still available for $11.99. This fact was another red flag. Why hadn't Peter gone ahead and purchased it?

This morning, I Googled 'Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut, and Cocoa' which led me directly to Cow and Rooster Design's blog post: "The old Gacillia Nut scam"

Within the Google search page, there were several posts linked to this scam targetting web design firms. It is so great that the web can provide the cheese that it takes to catch rats like "Peter Russel."