An unknown individual from Africa is contacting people who post ads in our classifieds and attempting to scam them. He's already taken one of FTE's users for $4500.

Basically, he contacts you about buying parts you post for sale. He then sends you a cashier check for thousands of dollars more than the purchase price. Claiming its an innocent mistake (such as saying the check was intended for a different sale), he asks you wire (Western Union) the difference back to him. After all, a cashier's check is supposed to be good as cash, right? Wrong. The check he sends is a counterfeit check that's so well done your bank will accept it. A few days later, after you've wired him the money, your bank will notify you that the check is a counterfeit and you then owe them the money (banks aren't responsible for bad check deposits to your account, only for bad check withdrawals).

Please exercise caution and good judgement when dealing with individuals on-line and never deal in cash. I recommend the use of an escrow service for all transactions. Never let an individual convince you that a suspicious transaction is "on the level."

 

These scam artist sure are getting better nowdays. My Fiancee received a letter a while back adressed right to her at our house and we had not even lived here for a year. It was from some Lottery in spain that apparently does exist, but someone was using the name for their own scam purposes. She is an accountant so deals with letters a bit. She said that the letter was done in a proffesional business manner and that the envelope was of a legal size. I told her to call the feds or something and report it but we never did. Just burned the letter. It said we were entitled to over $380,000 or something like that. Basically we figured it was too good to be true and tossed it. We did find out that it was a fake.

I refuse to do any international deals whatsoever except for Canada if they are considered international. I would think not when I can drive north for a few of hours and visit. But what do I know? This is mainly because of what is going on in the world today.

 

Thanks Ken,
I saw this on the Contour.org MB earlier this week. The scam also included a few other variations, but all done with vehicle/parts sellers here in the North American continent.

 

I really don't understand how someone can fall for it. How can someone not have a major red flag come up in their mind when they get a $4500 check for a $50 part?

 

Yo,
Here is one of the threads on it:
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/sh...2&fpart=2&vc=1

and one specific thread:
"...What ever you do. please don't deal with those people they are scammers. My buddy just got scammed out of 10000 dollars. See what they do is they send you the money and your bank will be like yup there money is good and then you will be sending the car to this place and the scammers will cancel payment before the check makes it to the federal mint that is closest to you. My friend was scammed a little diffrent and by a difrent person but it is the same concept. "

Ken, it is similar to "the pigeon drop". The way the pigeon drop scamworks where the players convince you that they have some "found" money (they show you a bag or case with a wad of big notes and say it was dropped by someone, usually near a bank) and you can gain a share of it if you just do a few things to show good faith. One of these good faith things is to give them some money (say $4,000.00 if they claim they found $20.k) for "safe-keeping" until the "found" money "clears" the various hurdles. Of course, once you give them your money, they are long gon; the bag they showed you is empty or gone too and you have been ripped off.

 

I don't know how long this has been going on but last month a local guy here in Washington got stopped trying to cash a counterfeit Bank of America cashier's check from a guy in Nigeria. From the looks of it anyone who has a vehicle listed on eBay, autotrader.com, or pretty much anywhere online is liable to get hit with one of these frauds. I guess they're just not getting as many suckers to bite on the old 419 scam.

 

I had a truck of mine for sale at another site and recieved an email from someone in south africa. He wanted to buy the truck for an exporter. So i told him the price and he explained that the exporter had given him a check for $5000. He would send me the check, i would use what ever money i needed to pay for the truck and to ship it and then wire transfer the money back to him.
I emailed him back to tell him no deal, but about once a week I get an email from africa wanting to buy my truck and using pretty much the same story.

here is one of the email's i have received



Thanks for your mail.

I have told my client whom i,m buying the truck for he said is it ok for me because he wanted to use for dumping refuse and i have bougth one like that before.

So,i will like you to assist me by doing favour for me.

Look ,i bought this type of truck for him last time and he is owning me some money there and he needed some thing like that again and i,m his agent so he want me to buy it after that will write a check together with the oild balance,so i will like you to help me clear the check and send me the balance that will be my old balance and the shipping rrangment which i have made the arrangment here.

He will write the check like this $5,850 so the above will send back to me via western union money transfer.

Thanks for your co-operation

Joshua

 

A further note of caution.

Using escrow accounts is still the way to go on most big ticket items, but online crooks have even found a way to steal money using fake escrow sites. I've attached a link to an article I read a few weeks ago about this.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/846795.asp?0si=-&cp1=1


Man that ticks me that someone here on FTE has been burned!!

 

I have revied 3 of these e-mails today ,, Maybe its time i play INTERNET COP and catch them at there own game ????

 

There are literally thousands of these scams operating out of Nigeria and a few other countries. Next time anyone wants to buy a truck from over there maybe we SHOULD ship it to them with a small tactical nuke in it with a remote detonator and triggers... Reverse terrorism...

Terrible of me, -slap face!

I have seen a few people almost get taken. Just last month a guy came to me asking whether he should take out a bank loan to claim his "inheritance" from a Nigerian company his grandfather had "invested" in. The paperwork was spectacularly done but it was a clear scam.

I don't understand why the ISP's can't filter these thing out of the email since they have to be getting thousand's of identical emails from the same source at any time.

They must be making some huge money since it costs a lot to send paper snail mail.

How do thes guys get a buyer rating on ebay? Do people check the buyer ratings? You would think a single bad deal like this would get a buyer's account jerked on ebay.

Of course maybe we should hold even a cashier's check for 10 days b4 honoring it. Do postal money orders work any better?

 

When I sell things on eBay, I hold both cashier's checks/money orders and personal checks for 14 business days (that's 3 regular weeks, it seems there is always 1 holiday in there to make it even) on order to make absolutely sure it clears before I ship.

USPS Money orders are better, as you just go to the PO and show your ID and they hand you cash. As you have no account there, they can't automatically debit your account as can the bank in the event fraud is later discovered on the other person's end.

 

That is good to know, -Thanks!

 

You can pick up the phone and call or e-mail the issuing institution of the cashier's check or money order to verify if it's valid.

A car dealer here in Denver recently got taken by a scammer who walked in and paid for several new cars at once with a bogus cashier's check. I bet that was one depressed salesman!

 

The only way I do business is with USPS or Bank International Money Orders.

 

Hi Dennis, that's the problem, the scammers are forging the documents, be they bank, postal or certified checks or money orders. Or as I learned during my year in B.C., "cheques".
They look perfect, imprinted and all, but they're bogus like counterfeit money and fool quite a few people, we're all conditioned to acept money orders without question but you can't any more.

Best,

-Bill