Posted by Cody on 7/10/10 11:14am
Msg #344435

Is this a Scam??

I received the following email this morning..... I did not open the PDF attached... Anyone seen anything similar? He did tell me his name...

I'm a US citizen and need a notarization of a form done (attached) by an Arizona notary in a few days. However, I'm currently in Europe and will not be able to return. Do you have any sense or recommendations of how this can be done? For this application, it is absolutely insisted that the notarization occur in the state. I'm able to provide whatever information from me that you need but am not able to come to the US at this time.

Reply by Grammyzoom on 7/10/10 11:33am
Msg #344439

You can only notarize a document when the signer, you and the document are standing in the same place which would be the State ?where you hold your commission. Scam or ignorance .... who knows.

Reply by MichiganAl on 7/10/10 12:05pm
Msg #344448

I agree, hard to say if it's a scam or ignorance. Maybe a U.S consulate somewhere would satisfy their requirement?

Reply by Moneyman/TX on 7/10/10 12:21pm
Msg #344450

Good suggestion Alex! I also agree with Carol above.

Depending upon the type of document, it might just be someone that doesn't know the procedure. Might also suggest to them to call whomever they received the application from for additional suggestions.

Reply by Les_CO on 7/10/10 12:30pm
Msg #344451

Who cares? If you want to bother tell them to need to take the document to the nearest US Embassy and have it notarized there. There’s like 80 -100 in Europe.

Reply by MrEd_Ca on 7/10/10 12:33pm
Msg #344452

Attachment could hide malware/virus...

... in disguise. I think the rule of thumb from the virus experts is don't open an attachment to an email if you don't know the source &/or the sender. Other than that, it sounds like a scam.

Reply by Les_CO on 7/10/10 12:35pm
Msg #344453

Re: Attachment could hide malware/virus...

Best answer yet!!!

Reply by jba/fl on 7/10/10 8:15pm
Msg #344506

Having just spent a lot of money on Trojan, I should have

thought of that right away, but this is the best reason for not opening attachment. Best advice today!

Reply by Ernest__CT on 7/10/10 1:31pm
Msg #344459

Simply reply WITHOUT OPENING THE ATTACHMENT and explain why you can't help.

Reply by PAW on 7/10/10 7:32pm
Msg #344504

Similar inquiries

Since I do a lot of document legalization processing, and many of them are from overseas customers, I get the same question pretty frequently. Most often, the requester doesn't know exactly what they need to ask for. If they need their signature notarized, obviously you can't do it, and the suggestion of getting it done at a US Embassy or Consulate office is the proper way to have it done. Of course, even then, it may need an apostille (provided by the US Department of State for documents notarized by Embassy and Consulate officers) or possibly authentication by the US State Department and the Embassy or Consulate of the target country.

As for the attachment, be sure you have a good virus checker that checks ALL email attachments, including PDF and zipped or compressed files. If the attachment passes the test, then I would go ahead and open it.