Possible scam attempt

[Matt Bufford]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I figured you guys would move it as appropriate.

I got this email today. I'm guessing they found me and contacted me through the forums - my website is wwwaaaaayyy to buried in google for anyone to randomly find it with a knife search.

Not sure what their intentions are, but seems kind of fishy. Email as follows:



Dear Sir,

We are Manufacturers and Exporters of all kind of Knives, Laguiole
Knives, Swords, Daggers, Axes and Damascus knives.

Some pictures attach with this mail please see it and confirm to us
which you need for your markets and also your customers. Please if you
have your own design so please pictures send us with complete details.

Awaiting your reply with good response.

Thanks/Best Regards

Tahir Zaman
Export Manager


Aziqa Enterprises
Kot Khaziri
Behind Cheema Market
G.T.Road Wazirabad,,Pakistan
Cell: +92 305 4748251
E.Mail: aziqaent@gmail.com

They also included myriad pictures of beautiful knives and some awesome designs. Again, I'm not entirely clear about te intent of the email.

[Recurve]

Get used to it Slack, there are small companies in a bunch of different countries that will be sending you those. They want you to buy cheap knock offs or have your designs cheaply reproduced by them. Politely smile and hit DELETE. Most are harmless BS some contain viruses -Jim-

[Ed Caffrey]

I get about 3-4 of those per week. As Jim said.....producers of el-cheapo knives, fishing for a bite. DELETE and go on with life.

The ones you want to really be scared of are the ones that ask to "purchase your produce....ship via UPS/FED-X to an overseas location, and want to pay with a credit card" RUN away from those types.

[Matt Bufford]

Good info from all. Thank you

[Ray Rogers]

Ya, I get those too. My feeling is, why would I want to buy a knife from or have my knives made by someone too dense to understand I make my living by making knives. That kind of makes us competitors in a broad sense. I think those guys are sincere as far as it goes but any email that is unsolicited is SPAM by definition ...

[ckluftinger]

So you mean the Prince of Liberia who offered me 50 million bucks if I sent his old cousin a couple of grand was not on the level? DANG!

[Cthulhu]

Y'know, that brings up something I've been wondering about but not seen discussed.

I see a LOT of pre shaped blades and blanks, esp "Damascus" coming out of places like Pakistan and India. Most of it on Ebay.

And having seen some actual blades from these places, it's NOT Damascus, it's cheap crap steel etched with a Damasc pattern to fool the gullible.

I'm going with the old adage that you get what you pay for, but since I'm working on a very tight budget, I'm always looking for a bargain.

So long way round, is ANY of this stuff coming out of Pakistan/India worth anything, or is it all

[Ray Rogers]

Some of the materials from Pakistan are probably fine but not likely the kind of quality we're used to. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to tell which is which. My advice would be to buy your materials through one of our knife supply houses like Sheffields, Jantz, Texas Knifemakers, etc. Some of the low dollar damascus they sell might well be from Pakistan but they will stand behind it and have probably gotten good feedback on it before they decided to sell it. Sure, it will cost a couple of dollars more this way but who can you complain to if your direct from Pakistan stuff turns out to be bad ...

[TexasJack]

This reminds me, I need to put in an order for a big can of anti-troll spray.