Look out for scams!

[x-ray]

I just posted this in the scam alert but I fear most people would not see it.

I have seen some scams before but this one is new. I have a Imacon 343 for sale and posted it on a couple of forums. I received an email from a supposed UK person named Allison with an email address name of Janeveski Zivko at janeveski77@yahoo.co.uk She wanted to purchase the imacon but when asking questions I found that she didn't even know what it was. She stated she was looking for a camera to take on a charitable trip to africa. Still she wanted to purchase it with a money order and then asked that I cash a $2500 money order to help finance the trip. My response was that I might have been born at night but it wasn't last night and that I could smell a scam here.

Look out for this one!

 

[x-ray]

From: Janevski Zivko <janevski77@yahoo.co.uk> (Add to address book)
Date: 2005/09/05 Mon PM 05:23:55 GMT
To: xrayarts@tds.net
Subject: Re: Re: Hello Sir, IMACON 343 scanner Mint $3900 us -- $3900
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your concern and commitment.
I am very pleased.Also i will be sending you total of $3900 for the scanner.
Dear sir,can you be of assistance to me at the moment,this has to do with my charitable trip.I wonder if you could be of assistance to me by helping me cash
extra money orders of $2550?
This is because all the expenses involving my trip, accomodation and general
convinence are bound by me.I need extra cash to enable me cater for the
challenges i may face there when i arrive, and of course support social welfare and
charity.
I cant stress this much futher,you seem like a man of exteem intergrity,i feel i
have confidence in your service already.Thanks for your acknowledgement.
I will give you a call soon. I will prepare the money orders for the payments
right away.
I await your reply Sir.

Best Regards,
Allison.

 

[Terence T]

The scammer will send these authentic looking money orders, sometimes backdated, and ask if you would send the sale item before the MO gets deposited. They sometimes arrange for a courier service to personally pickup the item at your address, footing the shipping charges.

Happened to one of my friends one time and we decided to scam the scammer by sending a box packed with rocks, and declared it for $3000, hoping they'd have to pay any custom duties before retrieving the package.

 

[sf]

This is just another form of a common scam. They claim some charitable pursuit, and work the money order system to get money from fools or just trusting people. I had someone from some African nation (can't remember which), ask me to do something similar to this for ten times as much. They work through emails, online auctions, sales websites, and especially Ebay, because it is so hard to regulate Ebay.

Spelling mistakes like what you see in that message are also red flags. And the composition reads like a scam with its use of rare grammar constructions and its vile appeal to emotion.

One more thing too: there are a rapidly rising number of scams coming out of the "UK" by people with Central Asian / Middle Eastern names using cover names. Sometimes they use a line on an ebay sale that says "Contact me BEFORE bidding, and you can have it for $$$$" - they try to get people to seal the deal outside the safety of ebay. The UK addresses are usually false, and are changed or are forwarded to other addresses.

Whenever I see one of these scams in action, and see bidders actually biting, I send a message to the high bidder letting them know it's a scam.

 

[x-ray]

From: Janevski Zivko <janevski77@yahoo.co.uk> (Add to address book)
Date: 2005/09/05 Mon AM 09:51:38 GMT
To: xrayarts@tds.net
Subject: Re: Re: Hello Sir, IMACON 343 scanner Mint $3900 us -- $3900
Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for being honest to me.
I would like to know how much the 20D canon camera will cost so i can add up everything together when sending you the payment.
Pls what will be the total cost for the both items?

This is my address in England;

93 Westy Lane
Warrington
Cheshire
England
UK
WA4 1QY

Here's the only other email I kept. To give a little more of the conversation, when I discovered they didn't know what an Imacon is, I suggested a canon 20D and a couple of lenses for her trip. I suggested purchasing through a local UK dealer or B&H in the USA.

Anyone in the UK know where this address is?

 

[llotse]

I have access to certain information and I can tell you that the address is genuine but no one with the name Allison is listed as living at that address. I am quite sure that the people living there are completely innocent and unaware that their address is being used. Try www.192.com and you may be able to get a list of the people that live there by typing in the address.

 

[x-ray]

Thanks for the info. I recently had a credit card number stolen and a wire transfer made to Belgium. The CC company called me to find out if I had done the transfer since there had never been one before on my card. Ofcourse I had not and the transaction was stopped by western union. The transaction had been mad over the phone and my 85 year old mothers address and phone number was used by the crooks. What a world!

 

[bmattock]

FYI - They also run this scam with Cashier's Checks - most US citizens consider them 'good as cash' and will accept them. Even worse - they've managed to befuddle bank processing equipment with forged cashier's checks - you deposit them, they float around in the system for two weeks, then they come back as no good. By this time, you've given the 'overpayment' amount to the scammer. He has your goods, he has your money, and you have NOTHING. No recourse, either.

These guys will offer to buy whatever you're selling, sight unseen. They will do the deal by saying 'oh, I was going to buy from this other guy and got a cashier's check, but he backed out - will you take the check and deposit and give me the difference? You can wait until it clears, I trust you completely.' Then you wait a week or ten days and figure it's ok and give him the cash - then it bounces anyway.

DON'T TAKE CASHIER'S CHECKS or MONEY ORDERS for payments anymore. They cannot be trusted. US Postal Money Orders only in the US. Otherwise, you are asking for trouble.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[DHu]

I always wonder how the scammers in the U.S. get away with this. If they prvides an address for the goods to ship to, can't the postal inspectors or the FBI just show up at the address to catch them?

 

[jlw]

They're usually not interested in the goods, they're just interested in the cash -- the amount they "overpay" with the forged cashier's check, and which you're usually supposed to send to them via a Western Union transfer or similar. The transfer can be picked up anywhere. The shipping address is likely to be an outright fake, or a third party who can claim (perhaps legitimately) not to know anything about it.

 

[former member]

This has become so prevalent That my Credit Union puts a hold on the money order/Cashier's check until it clears the foreign bank. That can be several weeks.

 

[Kim Coxon]

93 Westy Lane
Warrington
Cheshire
England
UK
WA4 1QY


Anyone in the UK know where this address is?

If you type the postcode into streetfinder.co.uk, you will find that it is a genuine address in the UK but who lives there I don't know.

Kim

 

[paulh]

My experience is that if a deal is too good to be true then its most likely to be a scam or something amiss.

Paul

 

[bmattock]

Most scams like this in the past relied on the inherent greed of the victims in order to work - in other words, if the victim was not just a little bit on the shady side themselves, they'd never be fooled. But it's not like that anymore.

The cashier's checks I spoke of are real-looking US cashier's checks, drawn on real, US banks. You take one and deposit it in your bank and they tell you there is a ten-day hold. So after ten days, the money is still there, so you figure it's ok. Then you give the scammer their money. Two days AFTER THAT, the cashier's check shows up phony.

The bank is not going to give you your money back - that's been through the courts already and it's just too bad for you - you assume all risk with counterfeit cashier's checks deposited to your account.

I guess that's what I'm trying to point out. It used to be that if something seemed too good to be true, it was. Now you can get scammed just trying to sell things on eBay (or even in the local newspaper classified ads). It used to be that if your bank put a hold on a check or money order and then released it, that meant everything was ok - it may not be.

The rules have changed. Just because you think you can smell a rat and therefore you're protected, you're not. The old 'rules of thumb' won't protect anyone anymore.

I wish I had better news. The simple fact is that you can't trust money orders other than US Postal and cashier's checks at all anymore. They may be good, but by the time you find out, it will be too late either way.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[paulh]

Yeap, you cant be too careful these days. Thanks for the heads up.

Paul