Beware! "Western Union" scammer on the loose!

C

clintock

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It happens on ebay, it happens on craigslist, now it happens here-
A 'buyer' wants to send you some kind of bank draft thing--well it's an old con-
here's the paste of the correspondence I got reguarding an ad I have in the classifieds-

Dear seller,
I would like to know the following information about this items:
Where are you located?
What's the reason for sale?
What's the present condition of this items?
What's the final asking price given?
Will you accept check for payment?Do provide me with your full name,address and phone number as a regards to the mail.
Please get back to me as soon as you can,and i will be waiting to hear
from you soon.

Regards.


-- I thought that was odd for some broken cameras I don't even have described yet..
but I replied without my address, and got this reply--

Clinton,
Thanks so much for your fast response... The check
that will be issued will include the money for
the sales of your item + the shipping cost.I would
like to restate clearly that this item will be shipped
to DC and I have a shipping agent who would take
good care of this.
You are required to cash the draft you will recieve
and deduct the funds for the sales of your item and
have the excess funds sent to the shipper via Western
Union Money Transfer at one of their outlets around
you in order to schedule the pick up of the item.
All necessary transfer papers will be dully signed by
the shipper on my behalf when the shipping
agents comes for the pick up of the item.
I will be willing to entertain more of your questions
that might arise, please provide your CONTACT
NAME,ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER so that I can have it
forwarded to my Bank for immediate payment issuance.



-----AS IF!!!!

This scam is only slightly less old than the nigerian one.
 
Same guy

Same guy

There is a similar guy on ebay called 'Ashley's Store'. His feedback record is from a stranger in the US that he's probably pirated. He's in the UK. He's cloned 3 week+ old legitimate ebay ads selling expensive photography gear (free shipping of course)and then re-lists them for 15 hours, but asks you to make him an offer on the items.

He appears to have cloned eBay art for his communication with his prospective dupes as well.

Of course you have to pay him within 3 days via Western Union.
 
Someone tried to scam me too a while ago. It was the Nigerian scam. I was selling a Nikon Coolpix 4500 (which was my first digicam). It happened on April 2006, and it was on a quite known spanish second hand newspaper, that happens to be on the Internet these days too.

Well, the guy told me that he wanted the camera, but that he was a british citizen living in Nigeria, and told me he would pay $100 for the shipment if I agreed to send the camera to Nigeria. I agreed, and he sent me a fraud Western Union payment, saying that the payment was done and it would be sent finally to me when I shipped the camera. I called Western Union and they told me it was a total fraud, so I replied to the mother****** that I was going to sue him to his country tribunals. No more answer from him.

Anyway, I bought my M6 here on RFF, having only 5 or 6 messages, so not all newcomers are bad 😉.
 
I have a friend who keeps a vile collection of german porn. He attaches disturbingly large images of un-forgettable horror to the email he sends as replies to such scammers. If I could somehow manage to do the same without seeing the image myself, I'd be tempted to do the same, but i'm pretty warped from seeing just the one he showed me as an example- so I'll just tattle here instead.
 
Got the same one, wasn't positive it was a fraud until now. I had a hunch though when he asked for the item description and location of the items I had for sale. Both of those were clearly stated in my ad. I told him I only take pay pal or personal checks after they clear.
 
A slight variation on this involves counterfit checks. By law banks have to provide funds fast and you have to reimberse a balance to someone. Your check is gone and the conterfit subsequently bounces and the bank removes the money from your account.

This has been all over television and the counterfit is so good experts can`t tell it.
 
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