The SCAM!

[smily]

I recently read about some questionable sales pitches. So I thought I would share a little story with you kind forum folks.

About a year ago, I listed a 1990 LY MH here on the forum.

I received a contact about it with interest in having it shipped to the UK.

A few points:

1. The Buyer had never seen ANY photos of the unit.
2. The Buyer had offered my an additonal doallrs to insure that I did not seel the unit before he had chance to close deal.
3. The Buyer was very persistant and certainly doing his home work.
4. The Emails from the buyer were some what strange because he uses uppercase in may of the words.
5. The check actually was sent by a third party who was not aware and he too was in the middle of a transaction from the Buyer for a high dollar custom $40K Motorcycle.
6. When the check arrived UPS overnight, I researched the sinding address and contacted the sender, (the Motorcycle builder). I asked him if he had sent me a check. He said no, but he did forward TWENTY envelopes for the Buyer as requested. He felt he was doing a favor for the buyer. His story checked out.
7. When I recieved the suspect check, it was very convincing except that it was for twenty thousand pounds instead of twenty thousand dollars. (Approximatley 37 thousand dollars a that time.) I also was suprised that a bank instrument for that kind of money was hand written.
8. I contacted the bank that the account was drawn on in the UK. Ironically, the administrator of the account had the same last name as the Buyer.
9. The Buyer was not in the UK. At first he told me that he was in the US. then he told me he was on business in the the Netherlands or some where in Europe.
10. The Buyer was in constant contact and even called me when I requested him to do so.

I will attach all correspondance and the check for your review.

I caution you, watch out!

1st email below
___________________________________________
Good day,

This is a purchase request notification for your recent advert posted for sale for your 1990 Landyacht 454 gas Chevrolaet on P-30 chassis

However, prior to further negotiation in regards to my purchase request, i would like you to keep me posted with the

following neccessary informations prior to making payment and pickup arrangement, i.e;

-the picture for a closer view ?

-your last and final asking price EXCLUDING THE SHIPMENT COST/CHARGES as pickup and shipment will be handled by a reputable

U.K SHIPPING COMPANY conversant with such shipment ?

-the area of location for pickup after payment ?

-your contact home, office and mobile phone number...?

Looking forward to doing good business with you.

Regards

Dr. Aldarico King Jnr.

7 Valentines Place

London, SE1

Phone: 0171 620 0777

Email: adalricokingjnr@yahoo.co.uk

[smily]

I had written a few emails and he had offered a thousand dolars to hold the unit for him. I told him that it was not necessary to send any additional dollars and the deal was good as long as he sent the cash.

He replied with this.
_____________________________________________
Good day Kenneth R. Smillie,

I am very sorry for the late correspondence with you in regards to the completion of this transaction, it is owing to the fact that i have been very busy lately on a WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT with my company in WEST AFRICA, moreso, i would like to use this opportunity in thanking you for your utmost attention and responses shown so far in the course of this transaction.

However, with recent development reaching me yesterday in regards to the disbursement and remittance of funds to you from my US BANKING/FINANCIAL INSTITUTION, payment had already been remitted and disbursed to you, infact here is the U.P.S TRACKING NUMBER provided by the U.P.S COURIER SERVICE handling the delivery of funds to you, i.e; 1Z39AY780190013211.

Therefore, please keep me posted as soon as possible upon receipt of this payment so that i can be able to schedule a pickup arrangement as soon as possible with the U.S SHIPPING COMPANY that will be handling the pickup and shipment prior to coming down to your place of location for the pickup proper because presently i am not in the UNITED STATE, as i am still working with the CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING CREW on a WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT here in WEST AFRICA with my COMPANY.

I hereby look forward to your utmost sincerity and loyalty to complete this transaction successfully.

Regards
Dr. Adalrico King Jr.

*NB
Here again is the U.P.S TRACKING NUMBER for the payment 1Z39AY780190013211

[smily]

I had received the check and it was way in excess of twenty thousand US. He had written and pointed this out and requested that I send some of the money back. Now think about this, the guy has sent 17K too much and only asks for 2K back

By this time I was very skeptical, remember he had not even seen any photos of the unit. I asked him to call me on the phone and he did.

Next email
__________________________________________
Good day,

In response to your enquiry, i actually negotiated with you in regard to your MOTORHOME, advertised at www.airforums.com.

Furthermore, in regards to the funds remitted and disbursed to you, it was mistakenly over-disbursed to you, infact the exceeded funds was actually meant for the completion of a WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT in WEST AFRICA.

And due to the immediate need of $2,000 for the progress of the CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, i hereby require your utmost sincerity and loyalty to TRANSFER $2,000 via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER out of the exceeded funds to the CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER in charge of the WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT.

Given below is the WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER in charge of the PROJECTS FINANCING as to who and where to transfer the $2,000 from the exceeded funds to via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER, i.e;

BOB EMMANUEL SMITH
7 GLOVER ROAD IKOYI
LAGOS 23401 NIGERIA.


More impotantly, because of the recent scam/fraud threat and alarming in Nigeria, i would like you to use the below stated informations as the TEXT QUESTION & ANSWER for the WESTERN UNION INFORMATIONS needed to pickup the funds, i.e;

TEXT QUESTION = WHAT IS THE FUNDS MEANT FOR
ANSWER = CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

Furthermore, please immediately this funds is transfered, i would like you to forward all other neccessary informations needed to pickup the funds, i.e

SENDER'S NAME ?
AMOUNT SENT ?
MONEY TRANSFER CONTROL NUMBER ?


I hereby look forward to your soonest funds transfer at your own convenient time possible tommorrow.

Regards

King Jr.

[AYRSTRM2]

This is a scam, don't give your bank account, routing number or any more personal information under any circumstance. Contact the FBI and your bank immediately.

They will ask you to refund the overage, with your personal check. Then the original will turn out to be a forgery, and everyone is going to get their bits stuck in the door.

Notice, that the All CAPS portions are actually generic proper nouns. Basically a <INSERT NAME HERE> kind of fill in the blanks. That way they can tailor the emails to any situation.

Stop all commo with this guy and get out before it's too late.


John

[smily]

By now, I have contacted the sender of the check.
He tells me that he was selling a MC to this guy and the Buyer had requested that he forward twenty emvelopes for him. The sender obliged. I spoke at length with the sender and he had sent the check for the MC to his bank. That bank submitted the check to collections. I called the issuing bank in the UK. I never did run this to ground but it was ironic that the account administrator had the same name as the Buyer.
Remember, the buyer is awaiting 2k from me via Western Union, yeah right!

Next Email
_____________________________________
Good day,

Please this is to further keep you posted that immediately the funds is transfered via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER to the CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER in charge of the WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, please endeavour to keep me posted with all the neccessary informations needed to pickup the funds so that we can progress with the PROJECT.

And in regards to the pickup arrangement, i have scheduled a pickup and shipment arrangement with a U.S SHIPPING COMPANY and this SHIPPING COMPANY will be coming down to your place of location for the an immediate pickup, ok?

I hereby look forward to your effective and successful funds transfer to the CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER in charge of the WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT.

Expecting soonest WESTERN UNION INFORMATIONS from you so that the funds can be picked up for an immediate progress with the WEST AFRICAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, however, i will endeavour to call you for further correspondent, ok?

Regards

[smily]

By this time I have basically waved this guy off, but I am playing a game with him and having fun with it.

Next Email
____________________________________
Good day,

I am now very worried for your late correspondent with me in regards to the acknowledgement for having received the package for the payment because my BANKING/FINANCIAL INSTITUTION just contacted me that payment has already been delivered, please i need to hear from you in regards to the acknowledgement for having received the payment so that we can go ahead and complete this transaction as soon as possible.

Regards
King Jr.

[scf31]

I see a lot of flags flying,,,,,,,,

[smily]

I indicated that I was waiting on the check to clear, but I was actually waiting to see if the sender's check ( MC guy) cleared before I even submitted my check.

Next Email
_______________________________________
Good day,

That is ok with me but i need to know the exact day/date given by your bank before funds can be released to you so that you can be able to transfer funds to the CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER in charge of the PROJECT.

Awaiting your soonest response.

Regards
King Jr.

[swebster]

Ken,
Thanks for posting the details of the correspondance. I too have been surprised at the number of scams that have been targeted to a car I am selling. I posted my 94 Golf on a local (Lousiville) website and included me email address. Within 48 hours I have four seperate scam attempts going on all with similar stories: Overpayment from a third party and I'm to send the buyer the the balance.

I also noticed the use of capital letters in many of the emails. I would think this could be the result of a Mail Merge which generates the initial emails automatically based on "spidering" classified websites. To prove this out I did a little experiment of my own.

Since I received four scams at once I replied to two and did not reply to the others. The two I replied to immediately went into a highly customized replies, more details and more frequent and sometimes even comical spelling and syntax errors.

Despite the urgency of all of the requests, the other two never contacted me again. I finally did send the scammers a "buzz off" email and notified yahoo (which was the emails address for all four attemps) who immediately researched the offending email addresses.

So here is my new personal policy for onlines ads:

No email address. If there is not email address listed then the auto responders can't catalog it and begin emailing me. While this may be an inconvienance for some real buyers, I figure if you want my car then you'll call me.

No one from London wants to buy my $2000 used car so I don't even respond.

Don't even reply to emails with strange syntax.

The sad part is that this is a local site and I was trying to reach local buyers. While it has since generated a few local calls, I was amazed at the number of scammers monitoring this site. In fact I'm pretty sure two of the emails were from the same scammer.

[smily]

This is not a real good scan but I assure you it looks REAL good in person.

[tin sista]

Ken and Steven,
Thanks for posting your experiences for others to learn from. I'm glad that you didn't suffer from them. It is very helpful to hear about these scams so one is prepared.

[Chaplain Kent]

I had a similiar response from an ad for a gaucho and side cabinet which I advertised on the forum. Although, I never responded beyond an intial e-mail asking for a U.S. phone # and contact name. I got several insistant replies that it was not needed so I just ignored him. The grammar used is not English and I would bet the e-mails did not come from England. I have since found that the scam is this- The check is bogus you cash it and then send $2.000.00 to him out of your account. He gets $2.000 of clear funds and most important your bank routing #. Soon your account is empty and then you get the letter saying the check was bogus.
It is surprising that this scheme actually works but we are all anxious to sell our items and here is that tempting check.

[ALANSD]

scams are abounding on the net. We all need to be careful.
I have tracked a few email scammers back to their Internet provider, then sent the provider an email forwarding the scam letter. In one case the scammer sent me 5000+ emails telling me to *** myself. Don't know how he figured out who notified the IP but maybe he worked there.
At least i knew i had shut him down....for a little while anyway.

[85MH325]

There are lots of folks out there who have made a part-time hobby out of scam baiting. Frankly, it's kind of fun! Last year, I sold a non-existant horse to a guy in Nigeria who then sent me FEDEX a really bad-looking counterfeit cashier's check. He was incensed that when I told him that if he was going to run a scam, the least he could do was make the counterfeit checks look decent. I told him that there wasn't any horse and never was. He was really angry that I'd wasted his time! His language deteriorated accordingly. I was amused.

Roger

[67caravel]

This exact scheme was recently reported in our local newspaper.

Good job for reporting it to all of us 'streamers!

The scam is : they always send more than the item and ask for the extra money to be returned. Or; your name is the same as the name on an account and if you send them so much money and sign some phony documents they will split the account with you. A lot of the scams are coming out of Africa.They play to your greed.

[Buttercup]

This does look like a version of the old "419 Scam".

[AgZep]

Nigerian scams like these are so abundant these days it hardly seems worth listing anything for sale anymore. We listed an old car on Hemmings this past spring (with e-mail and phone number) and a very creative scammer contacted us by phone via Deaf Relay. It didn't take too long to figure out that it was a scam, but it certainly wasted the Relay operator's time and everybody's taxpayer money, since U.S. Relay services are federally subsidized...

[Stefrobrts]

I've had the same problem with selling things on Craigslist. They now have a warning at the top of each page, and only use anonomous replies instead of emails. I got four scam responses wanting to buy my $300 guitar (nothing special) and ship it overseas, all of them using strange grammar and punctuation. I listed it again with 'will not ship' and finally got a reply from a local who wanted to buy it in person. But the scams are getting very bad, especially when you get more scam responses than real interest - how depressing!

A local couple lost a bunch of money when their bank confirmed that the scam check was real, only to have it come back weeks later as fake. By then they had already sent the 'extra' amount back to the scammer.

[summerkid]

HSBC is my mortgage corporation. A scam in & of itself.