PPA members in multiple states reported requests for photography services at a child's birthday party through the Find-A-Photographer Search at PPA.com. Based on the similarity of their content and coast-to-coast distribution, we believe these e-mails to be scams.

If you have received e-mails claiming to have noted your affiliation with PPA--and you believe them to be suspicious--please ignore the request and notify PPA's Member Value & Experience team as soon as possible. With your information, we can investigate the e-mail address and notify other members if appropriate.

At present, we have included the following addresses on our blocked senders list:

ronda.adams70@yahoo.com
johngarnet@yahoo.com
 
If you receive a request for a quote or consultation from either e-mail address, we encourage you to delete and ignore it.

The FTC provides good information about protecting yourself from the top ten online scams. PPA also distributed the article, "If a Project Sounds Too Good to Be True, It Just Might Be," which provides tips on addressing e-mail scams. In addition, you can join the conversation about the latest scams on the OurPPA Forums, helping you stay informed and share information with other members.

If you have any questions, please contact PPA at 800-786-6277 or csc@ppa.com.

I just received a scam e-mail and thought it would be a good time to remind you what of some things to look for when identifying a scam. In the example below there are several clues.

1. The from address is not a ppa.com address even though the name is "ppa.com support."
2. Note the mispelled words in red. Many of these scams originate outside the US and obvious typos can be a sign.
3. The link in the message does not go to ppa.com. Anytime a link goes to a site you don't recognize, it is probably best to avoid it.
4. There is no physical address and phone number at the bottom of the e-mail. Most legitimate e-mails will have contact info and a postal address somewhere at the bottom.

From: ppa.com support [undamaged@rogersmarvel.com]

Dear Customer,

This e-mail was send by ppa.com to notify you that we have temporanly prevented access to your account.

We have reasons to beleive that your account may have been accessed by someone else. Please run this file and Follow instructions:

http://emailsupport.zxq.net/settings.zip

(C) ppa.com

If you are ever uncertain about an e-mail that seems to be coming from PPA, contact our service center at csc@ppa.com or call 800-786-6277.

This e-mail has been circulating to many PPA members and it looks to be a typical e-mail scam. It is recommended that you delete the e-mail and not reply to it.

My name is Joe and my wife's name is Pamela, we live and work as wine producers in Malaysia and will be relocating to the State of Texas,USA on the 23rd of December,2009.
Could you please spare a few seconds to view our website : www.whqt.org

I came across your contact information on ppa.com and I hereby write to request if you will be available to offer 4hours of photographic services for the celebration of our 5th Wedding Anniversary on our arrival to the States. Myself,my wife,my lovely daughter-Debbie and about 12 family members and friends will be present.

Could you please provide answers to these questions if you are interested in this offer
1)Will you be available to provide this service on any date between December 26th and December 31st if so which exact date will you have time so as to include this in our plan?
2)What is your address location so as to estimate how close you are to us ?

Should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me on my phone no :01160173305450

Regards,
Joe J Akins
Winery Headquarters
92 Jalan Keranji,
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia