If you’re about to sell something online, beware! I planted a dummy advertisement and went hunting for scammers, which wasn’t difficult at all. Scams are all around us, and here are 2 where I deliberately offered myself as a victim.
1. The over payment
You advertise something and a buyer replies via email; the first reply is usually lengthy and generic. He claims he cannot pick the item up directly but wants to handle the deal by email. He sends a money order and says he has arranged shipment through a 3rd party contact.
This is the email I received from “Frederic Caren”, using a Gmail account:
“Do you still have this advert for sale?kindly get back to me with your last asking price and i want you to present me the condition…god bless.”
Notice that this potential buyer doesn’t specify the item and talks about the advert. This is followed by other, frequent, contacts, written in bad English. The buyer promises to send payment so another person could arrange the pickup of the item.
Well i am okay with the asking price ($50) for the (item) and i don’t want you to worry about the shipping because i have a shipping company that will be coming for the Pick up of the Advert at your residence as soon as payment has been made.
One month later, the money order finally arrives in the amount of $2,000. Poorly made, it was obviously a fake. The order arrived with a letter, which is a true bulk photocopy made for expert eyes (with a fade on the left-hand side). The letter instructs me to cash the money order and send the remaining balance to the 3rd party shipper.
Scamming 101:
1. The item is way too big to ship by normal means, so it can only be picked up (from your local area)
2. The buyer sends a money order and arranges to have someone else do the pickup
3. The money order arrives along with a letter from Paris, France, or somewhere on the other side of the globe from you
4. The money order displays a bank and address that are local to you
5. He wants you to cash the money order and send the remaining balance back to him
Do these ploys really work? To me, *everything* in this entire process is suspicious.
As of this date, we continue to receive emails from the scammer:
why are you silent with my payment,By now you should have recieved my payment in your mailbox kindly get back to me so i can know the status of my payment¦…….nice to here back from you soonest.
2. The Puppy scam
This scam is *very* popular and a lot of people are falling for it.
While browsing the online classifieds (Montreal based), my wife came across a super cute little dog “ he was going for FREE! Oh he was cute, but we already have 2 dogs. But later, on a another classified website, we saw the SAME picture and description, but with a different name and email address on the ad. This one stated the dog was 200km away from Montreal. Hmmm, that’s interesting – let’s contact him to check it out!
The scammer replies by email:
You’re not the first to answer but you seems honest.
Oh wow, you’re lucky! Now the seller explains he’s out of town and someone else is keeping the dog for him. Since he’s always on the road, he has to give the dog up. He’s willing to give the dog away for free, but is asking for $100 to cover the shipping costs by an animal specialist (they sometimes ask for $250). He instructs you to send the money to a P.O. Box number and ends his email with and send me some pictures once home, I already miss him!
In 99% of fraud cases, the scammers use Hotmail or Gmail addresses to hide their real IP addresses.
So, if you’re selling an item online, do not forget the #1 rule: cash & carry!
Email is a wonderful thing, but it can be very dangerous too!
I actually received the puppy spam on my hotmail address yesterday, from my brother. When I spot these, I usually refer people to http://www.snopes.com/ (there are many similar sites) which is a site that compiles all known stories (typically chain-lettered) and shows proofs on whether they are true or not.
Very interesting. Another good site for checking for email hoaxes is http://www.hoax-slayer.com/. In this case, you could search for “puppies” and the first scam would show up.
Assuming, of course, your spam filter doesn’t already catch it.
Oh the puppy scams. This takes me back about 18 months. My ex-wife placed an ad on the internet looking to purchase a Yorkshire terrier tea-cup puppy. Over the first week the responses were minimal and then someone from overseas sent her a very familiar email! Because she was getting a more personalized type of spam she didn’t realize she was about to be taken for $1500. Granted I still can’t believe she walked in to Western Union with the cash but that is another story. This whole mess could have been averted if she was using a secure messaging account that utilized a proper reputation base. I can still visualize this guy in a small office overseas, must have been practicing air-fishing as he reeled her in without sending a blanket of spam!
this guy emailed me too! Creepy!