Scammer

[OPJ]

Last night, I listed my bandsaw [which I've now agreed to sell to a forum member! :wink:] on Trade-It; a site for selling things locally. I was amazed to get a response this morning (normally, I don't get any interest ). Here's the first e-mail:

"Hello,
I am carton. I saw your advert for sale and am highly interested in it,As i have been in need of this certain item for so long and i will like you to do me a favour by getting back to me asap with the price of the item and its present condition.

Warmest Regards,
Carton.
[email protected]"

Being a paranoid person, I was suspicious as soon as I read this (clearly no mention of the item in question, he hadn't read the advert, etc.). Knowing that Bristol is a "multi-cultural" city though, I thought I'd 'give him a chance' and replied with brief details of the price and condition...


This evening, I received this reply:
(It works best if you read it out in a Fonejacker voice! )

"Hello ,
Thanks for your offer is okay by me for £200. So I would like you to ignore other offers and hold it for me and I will offer you an extra £50 only if you can keep it for me and I will come for the pickup or I send my Freight Agent. I do not want you to be stressed, so id rather sends my Freight Agent to your location for pickup. Please give the information i have requested in order for my client to Make the payment:

(1)Cheque payable to:
(2)Home Address:
(3)City
(4)State:
(5)Post code:
(6)Country:
(7)Telephone number/mobile phone:

A well-known business association have agreed to make payment out to you on my behalf. You should be expecting uk cheque of £2,900 which include the shipping fee to cover the shipping expenses on me because i still have other pick up as well. The reason is being that my client couldn't issue out a separate cheque's on a single transaction like this due to company policy, as soon as the cheque clears in your bank you deduct your money including the compensation to hold the ad, then the rest would be sent to my freight agent for the pickup in your location. I hope I can trust you with my rest balance to arrange for my freight.
Many Thanks.."


Well, it made me laugh! With a little more effort, attention to detail (£2,900!!) and research, I could almost understand how people must get caught out by things like this... It's quite sad, actually.

Anyway, I just thought you might find it interesting. I doubt there's anything I could do to stop this individual from going after others?

Thanks for reading.

 

[Tony Spear]

Cheapskate!

Under the normal scam (known as the 419 scam - the relevant part of the Nigerian Penal code) he should be sending you a minimum of 1 Million dollars!

Google "419 scam" some of the stuff on there is hilarious!

 

[big soft moose]

Cheapskate!

Under the normal scam (known as the 419 scam - the relevant part of the Nigerian Penal code) he should be sending you a minimum of 1 Million dollars!

Google "419 scam" some of the stuff on there is hilarious!

this is a different scam - the 419 is where they try to get you to giveover bank details etc in the vain hope of receiving several million -

with this scam they would send olly a cheque for £2900 then if he was daft enough he would send them one for £2700 only to eventually find that their cheque was forged or stolen.

its quite a common scam on car sales though the ammounts are normally more reasonable - ie you are selling a car for 4k so they send you a cheque for 5 k , you send them a k etc

 

[Tony Spear]

Actually BSM, section 419 covers a great many types of financial scam, (fake lotteries, charity appeals etc.) it just happens that the "I have access to x zillion unclaimed etc." was the first one to emerge in a major way hence it got nicknamed "the 419 scam".

 

[Ironballs]

Normally I'll delete these striaght away but every now and then I will have a little toy with them, you can start with a comedy name to see how much of an ignorant silly person they are and if they'll bite. I've had responses to names such as Uri Jackass and Dr Scrote, with the Dr Scrote one (address 1 Vas Deferens Drive, Cocking, Middlesex, B4 LLS) I had him going for a little while until I took the descriptions of invasive medical procedures too far and he accused me of being a sick man who should rot in hell.

If you have 10 mins and want an amusing read, you should google Joe Eboh

 

[big soft moose]

Normally I'll delete these striaght away but every now and then I will have a little toy with them, you can start with a comedy name to see how much of an ignorant silly person they are and if they'll bite. I've had responses to names such as Uri Jackass and Dr Scrote, with the Dr Scrote one (address 1 Vas Deferens Drive, Cocking, Middlesex, B4 LLS) I had him going for a little while until I took the descriptions of invasive medical procedures too far and he accused me of being a sick man who should rot in hell.

If you have 10 mins and want an amusing read, you should google Joe Eboh

funny stuff but while I agree with the principal ( i like to wind up safer targets like jehovahs witnesses and double glazing telesales people), its definitely playing with fire - the perpetrators behind these scams can be very heavy indeed (and i'm not talking about joe ebohs weight) so baiting them and holding them for ridicule probably isnt the worlds safest occupation