|
|
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Had my Tele listed on Craigslist and got an email from "Frank" stating that he was going to send me payment via a cashers check or money order and would arrange pickup later. I sent one back stating that his pickup person could bring cash but if he already sent the check, his contact could pick up the check instead of the guitar, and have the police waiting for him. Then he sends an email that his "agent" made a mistake and sent me a check for $3400.00 via ups courier and if I would be so kind as to cash it, take my money out + 40.00 for my trouble, and send him the rest, then he would send me an address to send the guitar to. Yeah, I'm waiting for that to happen. How stupid do these people think I am? The trouble is, he will find someone who will bite on this deal and net close to 3K before the person finds out the check is a fake. Sheesh! :mad: |
|
|
|
Joined: January 2002 Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Use the wooden credit cards. They're better. |
|
|
|
Joined: October 2005 Posts: 5327
Location: Cicero, NY | Should've told him to come on over, then contacted the police and had them "handle the sale". |
|
|
|
Joined: February 2005 Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | I think Frank bid on my CL12. Is he from Nigeria? |
|
|
|
Joined: March 2007 Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | one thing that amazes me is how arrogant police is and how it can be possible that they don't track those persons.
1,5 year ago my friend was frauded for 4600 euro, and police didn't do anything but just have written protocol off.
I found him in 5 days and with cooperation of polish and british police they got him, but if didn't give them address and proofs to hand they wouldn't do anything.
If deal seems to good to be true - it's not true
if someone is lobbying you to buy / sell sth by 3rd party company which you haven't heard of it's scam |
|
|
|
Joined: September 2006 Posts: 347
Location: Reno, NV | . |
|
|
|
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | couldn't have said it better myself, Yak |
|
|
|
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Here's a copy of his last email to me...
Hello Jim,
How are you today?..I'm very sorry for getting to you late.I got a mail yesterday from my client that total amount of $3400 money order has been sent to you by UPS courier service which was a mistake ....cos the money comprised the Fender 72 Thinline Telecaster fund and the shipping cost for the pickup of the item and other items my shipper need to ship for me and the money he suppose to send to me...So instead of issuing it seperately...i:e Fender 72 Thinline Telecaster fund to you and the shipping fund to my shipper and the rest to me,..there is a missed up there..infact,i had brutterly acted cos i know that you will be confused and have a little stress with the amount sent to you .But notwithstanding,You go ahead and cash the money and deduct your own fund,deduct $40 for your running around,..i wiil get back to you with UPS tracking # of the payment anytime from now and information to send the rest fund to...i will get across to my shipper for the pick up arrangement after receiving there money.Please I'm really counting on you because I dont want to fall a victim of circumstance,and I hope i can trust you with my money.
Sure, you can trust me..he he he.... :p |
|
|
|
Joined: February 2005 Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Jim, Jim, Jim... why so suspicious? After all, he acted brutterly, didn't want you to have a little stress and was throwing in 40 bucks for your trouble to boot!
Just tell him you'd be happy to comply, but you'll need to wait 6 months before shipping when paid with a money order. |
|
|
|
Joined: November 2006 Posts: 3969
| With all the spelling/grammatical errors, this is almost surely a Nigerian scam operation. Impossible for US authorities to do anything, although Dateline NBC has had some luck tracking down some of these Nigerian scammers and exposing them on national TV. Jim, maybe you should forward all this to Dateline; it could be a new variant on old scams, now using craigslist, that deserves national attention.
EDIT: Or you could just let the morons who fall for this suffer. :p |
|
|
|
Joined: March 2007 Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | in europe, there is a lot of scam on car sales. There was a lot of cars in 10-50,000 euro price range on popular car trade portals which were significantly cheaper than "true" ones. Seller wanted to make a trade via some company which would take 30% of transaction sum for covering costs of transport car to you, then after car inspection another 70% would be payed after receiving car. There was no car - ofcourse.
One of those guys scammed my friend, but since he realized he got scammed just 5-6 hours after sending money, we were able to track scammer down.
But - in my opinion - this is buisness ruled by some greater organisation. There was awfully lot of users loging to a server where there was a website of "scam company" was maintained, and there were a lot of different fraud-sites running at the same time on one machine.
Btw, there was link to a some fraud-warning site earlier, which was deleted.
it's funny that guy from this site actually think the wy i thought when i was trying to locate scammer - but he only tried to get his photo, and i wanted scammer to look at photo which i sent (it contained malicious code which made his computer connect to a server i've administrated that time, and i got his true IP that way) because after getting his true IP address i can identify him.
but it's a long story. |
|
|
|
Joined: December 2004 Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | Please I'm really counting on you because I dont want to fall a victim of circumstance,and I hope i can trust you with my money.
Jim,
How can you be so heartless after a request like that? |
|
|
|
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | I'm going to use the Craigslist link to report it and see if they can do anything with it. |
|
|
|
Joined: January 2006 Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | There are scams like this everywhere. Best to recognize what it is, discard the check, and delete the e-mails. No sense in wasting any more energy than what it takes to disregard the matter in entirety and get on to more important matters. |
|
|
|
Joined: May 2003 Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | LBJ,
What was the photo you sent to the scammer?
http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm
http://www.geobytes.com/SpamLocator.htm |
|
|
|
Joined: March 2007 Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | an4340: it was a prepared by me .jpg, using one of publicly availble tools. i don't remember which one clearly, but i know it was one from first results given by google.
It used a hole in Internet Explorer, which was allowing to run a prepared code by browser. I made it connect with my server to a port 6667 (normally IRCd), so i wouldn't have problems separating scammer from normal traffic.
btw.
useful links, thanks
i wasn't aware of those tools.
sometimes i miss days i was nearly whole day in front of computer looking for new holes, waiting for patches and reading every security notice that went out on securityfocus or so.
Naah. Now at least i have life. |
|
|
|
Joined: April 2006 Posts: 1138
Location: CT | Cash the check. If its real, make him come pick up the guitar and his change (but not at your house!). |
|
|
|
Joined: October 2006 Posts: 5575
Location: big island | jim,
i've had this very same response to a few craigslist ads i have placed but scripted for my item of sale. nothing new. |
|
|
|
Joined: April 2007 Posts: 318
Location: Slightly northwest of Trader Jim | Jhim,I bring Pursonal Chek On Tursdey, I trust You lik Brudder, But you bring Martan Stiker an ID. You Kash Chek, We Okee dokee,I just needed you bank acowting nombers :D :D |
|
|
|
Joined: October 2006 Posts: 5575
Location: big island | "brutterly". heh,heh...
"hey brutter, i get one load of sailboat fuel for trade too" |
|
|
|
Joined: April 2007 Posts: 318
Location: Slightly northwest of Trader Jim | Originally posted by lanaki:
"brutterly". heh,heh...
"hey brutter, i get one load of sailboat fuel for trade too" Deesail? :D |
|
|
|
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | Originally posted by Gway:
Jhim,I bring Pursonal Chek On Tursdey, I trust You lik Brudder, But you bring Martan Stiker an ID. You Kash Chek, We Okee dokee,I just needed you bank acowting nombers :D :D You starting to crack me up. :D |
|
|
|
Joined: August 2002 Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | This scam has been around for a while. One of our brethren here got fleeced by that scam a couple of years back. He was out not only a few grand, but also one very nice Ovation guitar.
I recently won an used guitar on eBay from a reputable music store ... and then got no less than about 15 second chance offers from various people because the high bidder flaked, and in one case it was because the seller had several of these brand new, in origincal packagin, with accessories and operating manuals. The emails came to email accounts that have my username then the @ address of some web mail accounts (which I keep for reasons all my own). Funny thing is my email account tied to eBay is a specific account that bears no relation to my user name. And yes, the guitar was delivered to me today. :) |
|
|
|
Joined: November 2006 Posts: 2241
Location: Simpsonville, SC | Jim, i no yu smertar dan dat! |
|
|
|
Joined: March 2005 Posts: 2791
Location: Atlanta, GA. | I had a jerk "playing games" with me when #45 was on ebay.
It takes all kinds! |
|
|
|
Joined: July 2003 Posts: 3111
Location: Nashville TN. | Once you cash it they use the transit and acount numbers to empty your account.
I heard about this scam on financial show a few monthes ago. |
|
|
|
Joined: June 2006 Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | So...I relisted it, and within about 3 hours I get this one...from "owo odun"
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
--
Hello,
Kindly let me know if the above item listed still available for sale.Hope to read back from you soon.Thanks
What is it, something with Fender guitars that draws them out of the woodwork? |
|
|
|
Joined: September 2007 Posts: 108
| It seems to me these scams are not unlike predators that lure women into international prostitution, or sex slaves. The offer is so appealing, people WANT to believe it, even though they know they shouldn't.
The big difference, the women are enticed with the offer of steady work and a better life, free from poverty, and these scams appeal to just plain greed with a promise of something for nothing. |
|
|
|
Joined: April 2003 Posts: 608
Location: Caribou, ME | I think we've all had people try to scam us, but I've gotten to the point where, if I'm contacted by someone through craigslist that appears suspect (like the generic email mentioned earlier..."do you still have item for sale, if so, I will send a money order ok?") I don't even respond to it. When I set up a craigslist ad (seldom!) I never put my email or other contact info in there, and I suspect some of these are just looking to amass real names and their real emails, so I just delete them. So even if we were to respond, "Hey, pus bucket, I know you're trying to scam me!" he's actually got something from us. |
|
|
|
Joined: May 2003 Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | The strange thing is I've told people on things I've sold on ebay, I only accept two forms of payment, cash in person or pay pal, nothing else, and they send me cash in the mail. |
|
|
|
Joined: March 2007 Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | i sell on polish auction portal Allegro, and while we have paypal and paypal - like systems, i do not accept anything other than money transfer before sending item or cash in person.
when i buy, i always send money first directly to seller bank account
i have a +109 feedback, most of which came from selling items in $50 - $1000 usd range and no negative feedback.
only situations where i don't send money first is when someone is living near or has less than +5 feedback, or feedback is relatively new. |
|
|