Avoid these emails / scammers.

DirtyHarry

Ok this is just to warn people not to get scamed by these people.

It all started when i placed an ad in the Buy and Sell. I was selling my computer.

When i placed the ad, i ticked the box to show my email address in the ad.

A couple of days later i got an email from this guy, the email read as follows.

*****
hi
i am jones calito,and i live in luz, lisbon portugal.i like to know if your Gamers PC.AMD 2400+, 768Mb Corsair DDR, 75GB HD, ATI 9800Pro 128Mb, DVD Drive+CD/RW, Sound card, Modem, 1 yr old, #900,is for sale.if it is,i will like to see the photos and your last offer. jones

email address is,
jonescalito@yahoo.com
*****

I replied saying this,
*****
Yes its still for sale.
Here are some pictures,
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=218018
cheers
*****

So then he replied with this,
*****
hi
should say i have gotten all the information needed about the computer however i will take it for your price, but i should inform you that the shipping will be done by my Shippers agent. I will like you to know that the computer will soon be paid for this is because my only son for whom i'm buying it will soon be 20years old by 20 febuary 2005 and we have not been in good terms so i need the computer for a make up,so the computer is needed before then. So i intend making payment soon, my collaeuge in ireland, owes me #3800 , so i will instrut him to issue payment of that amount to you, once you've Claimed / cashed the draft, deduct how much the computer cost #800, and then the balance you will send over to my shippers agent via western union money transfer, to enable him handle expenses incurred during and after the pickup of the computer. If this will be alright by you, then i will be needing your contact details so that the Draft can be addressed and sent to you soon. Also your phone number will be needed so that i can give you a call as soon as the payment package is ready to be sent. hope to hear from you soon,God bless jones

*****

Doesnt take a genius to figure out that this guy is a scammer, poor at that. But the issue is that, people will fall for this. No matter what, the effort they put in, does rip rewards. Otherwise it wouldnt happen.

today i got back from work and got this email,
*****
hi
i'm larry dixon,am interested in your Gamers PC.AMD 2400+, 768Mb Corsair DDR, 75GB HD, ATI 9800Pro 128Mb, DVD Drive+CD/RW, Sound card, Modem, 1 yr old, #900,if it is for sale please get to me with your last offer,and pictures.i reside in the portugal
thanks
larry

email address is,
larry501dixon@yahoo.co.uk
*****

As i said before, be aware of these guys.
If this has been mentioned before, sorry but i dont want anybody to get messed with.

Also if anybody else has gotten these emails, post the email addresses and spread the word of these scumbags.

Cheers all

Phil

sceptre

It's been mentioned before Phil but a little reminder of this practice every few months keeps people on their toes as it appears to be a pretty common scam.

Kobie

#900

Is that to say you're asking 900 euro for that? Who's robbing who here?

Stephen

Anywhere I see the words "western" and "union" together, a big alarm bell with flashing lights and a sign saying "SCAM ARTIST" goes off in my head.

Tusky

heh...exactly the same thing happened to my brother yesterday. They said they were from Scotland, otherwise the e-mails were exactly the same.

Our man in Havana

www.419eater.com

idontknowmyname

its an obvious scam to people who are aware of it, some people mite be stupid enough to fall for it

alleepally

I think the general Boards.ie member would never be caught out by a scam like this. Far too obvious for the net savvy population that hang around here.

ixus

www.scambaiter.com

send it to them, they'll play him at his own game.
some very funny things they've done

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Spacedog

I don't get it, he sends you a transfer, you cash it, when its cleared you send the machine and rest of the money on, right? wrong? I'm a stupid sucker I know, still someone explain it to my dumb ass.

chrismon

i got e-mails last year when i was selling a bike,and this was on a small forum, so many of them around.
You would think they would put a little imagination into their e-mails.

Chalk

its just a crawler,
it searches for-sale fourms and sites then emails the exact ad back with a name at the start and a request for info at the end.

if they get a reply then a person takes over

D!ve^Bomb!

yeah this happens on eBay ALOT!! you'd probably be surprised that some people do fall for it:rolleyes:

SouperComputer

four words: Payment in Cleared Funds Only (well five actually!)

[Jackass]

Spacedog wrote:

I don't get it, he sends you a transfer, you cash it, when its cleared you send the machine and rest of the money on, right? wrong? I'm a stupid sucker I know, still someone explain it to my dumb ass.

Basicly, he sends you a bank draft for €3,800 which his friend owes him, and the computer costs €800, so what he wants you to do is lodge the draft into you account, which will immediatly be credited to your account, so you'll think great! It's cleared, and send him a money order for €3,000 through western union.

The scam being that the account he uses to send you the draft will have had the €3,800 to order the draft withdrawn from it and therefore be empty, therefore 3 or 4 days later it'll bounce (if you've already cashed it/withdrawn it, you will owe the bank the money back) and you (the stupid person, not spacedog) will have sent him €3,000 through an untraceable source (western union), and like somebody said, it's a crawler so it'll contact loads of people, 90% of whom won't write back or will at least wait untill the draft clears (like you said), but the odd few wouldn't understand that a bank draft is not a guarentee like a money order, it's basicly a vouched for cheque (a statement from issuing bank that their is sufficient funds to pay, that being the reason it's instantly credited to your account.)
They don't care because neither there email or bank account can be traced, so it's just a matter of spamming people until they find nieve enough people and scam them out of €3,000 a pop.....if they're smart they get away with it, if they're greedy hopefully they'll get caught.

(Just occured to me Boards.ie mightn't want me posting an account of how to pull off a scam, please remove if unappropriate :eek:)

Steoob

well... i wouldn't ever fall for it, i'd just be waaaay too confused to know what the hell he was talking about and ignore him... weird

lizbeth

www.thescambaiter.com is the link (courtesy of a google search)

We had a bit of a scam at work this past week. Someone called using a Sprint Relay. (its an online service where they type, and a real live operator reads what they're typing, then types the response) The call was from someone in Nigeria wanting us to send merchandise which they would pay for by credit card, and of course they'd pay shipping. I told them I'd deal through email and the guy actually emailed me. Then our company's Loss Prevention Manager got involved and when the person called back on my day off, my assistant got the phone number and actually had the guy call the LP guy. We knew it was a scam, but you have to wonder how many people send merchandise to other countries/continents and find out later it was fraudulent.
Guess there's still a sucker born every minute though, if there werent people who fall for these things, there'd be no reason for scammers to exist.

Canis Lupus

It never fails to surprise me just how many ppl actually fall for this scam.