• General Information August 13 - 01:14 am

We had to disable posting again due to the moronic insistence of some bots in sending us spam.
It'll be re-enabled at some future date.

Posting has been re-enabled to everyone.
The idiotic spambot attacks seem to have finally stopped.

WARNING TO THOSE MARKETING PRODUCTS ON THE INTERNET.
A variety on the many scams originating from Nigeria has come to our attention.
We were contacted recently by someone wanting to purchase an art piece from this site as a birthday gift for the his wife.
After several emails the deal was set to go ahead and we gave him options for payment.

He had mentioned when asked what country he was from that the family was from North America and were missionaries based in Lagos.

The buyer later mentioned he had recently been mugged and his laptop and mobile phone stolen. He had been in hospital and was still recovering.

A few days later he asked if it would be possible to check on the price of the top of the range SonyEricsson mobile phone here in Australia rather than contact folk back in the US where it might be even more expensive.

We gave him the information he wanted and then credit card information was given over a secure line for the transaction.
While these phones were being forwarded to the store from the warehouse he asked for a quote for two laptops - one for the pastor in the Mission and the other to replace the one he had stolen.
A further couple of thousand dollars was deposited here - but then a chance remark from the computer dealer raised our suspicions.
A phone call to the merchant bank and a refund of the deposits to the two different credit card accounts was quickly sorted out.
The phone order (and the computers) was cancelled and the customer in Nigeria notified that the goods were being held pending an enqiry from the bank and the police.

Needless to say, he has not been back with any more chit-chat or any more requests for further transactions.

In over nine years of internet sales and carving commissions from all over the world we have not been involved in any fraudulent incidents until this attempt.

We will be much more alert in future - the bank and the police have advised that even in the event of having put through a sale and later finding out it was fraudulent, pleading innocence will not stand up in a court of law and the money will be re-claimed from the business who accepted the deal regardless of whether there are sufficient funds to cover the repayment.

A lucky escape - but a timely warning!
Admin

Greetings new users of this bulletin board service.
In the past we have had folk who wish to respond to messages but have had their messages bounce back.
Invariably this is due to "typos" such as:
putting a comma (,) instead of a dot (.) between the components of the email address.
or inserting a hyphen ( - )instead of the underscore ( _ )symbol.

Please be careful with the shift key so that those who wish to reply directly to you, rather than post the message for all and sundry to read are able to do so.

Cheers
webmaster