International Fraud Attempt Be Careful!!!

[ncstatefan]

I had a customer respond to purchase some used beds from me to ship to UK. They sent a money order for the beds & freight. They wanted me to send the $1500 freight money to a guy in UK. I asked why not pay him yourself, but they insisted it had to be done this way. Bottom line is that the money order was drawn on a NATIONS BANK & they stopped doing money orders 2 years ago. Please be aware that this scam originates in Africa. Lucky for me that I am too honest & would not cash this til they picked up the beds. I will be contacting the FBI,etc about this. Thought the good people of Tantalk would want to know of the fraud ring going on.
Regards,
Tim

[Beachbum110]

I work in sales from a differnt industry... and I see this scam 20 times a week or more. They buy stuff from the US with stolen credit cards, bogus bank checks, money orders... and fence the goods over there in the black market. We are perceved as greedy americans and will take any deal we can get. Once you make one transaction, you will get bombarded with other scumbags. Largos is a huge scam center.

Another popular scam is the one you described... but they over pay you, and ask for the difference back right away, in hopes you send them cash before the bank figures out the check or money order is bogus.

Bottom line if you sell anything outside of the US... tell them "wired funds only" or "western union" the money. This will put a quick stop to the transaction as they must use cash on their end. Only the legitimet ones will wire money.

[JohnnyComeLately]

I had the same emails, but I knew what was up from my days of fighting spam (as a network admin).

If you have some significant time to kill (15 minutes +), check out:
http://419eater.com/

and have the last laugh on the scammers. These guys will dupe the scammers into thinking they're legit dummies, but they need "photographic proof" of their (the scammer's) identity.
http://419eater.com/html/mariam_abacha.htm

So they come up with really bizarre requests, and since their English is limited they don't catch on (most of the time). In some cases, they actually take the scammers for a ride and get some of THEIR money.
http://419eater.com/html/martins_jide.htm

I can't tell you how many hours I've laughed myself to tears on this site. Here is my personal favorite:

Although it's changed a bit since I used to get on it.

_________________
John
-This Signature Intentionally Left Blank-[ This Message was edited by: JohnnyComeLately on 2005-04-05 17:47 ]

[Beachbum110]

John,

Thank you... you made my morning, but wasted a lot of my time... as I could not stop reading and laughing at all the various scammers getting scammed in return. I forward the Bill Murray to a few fiends you also deal with these Nigerian knuckleheads. The clown photo and the Mogwai was hysterical (I loved) "I am willing to pay up to $43,000 (forty three thousand dollars) for male Mogwai's and $50,000 for female Mogwai's."

I also love the fact he actually got them to send him money instead.

Great stuff... thanks!

Jim

[ncstatefan]

Should I waste my time reporting this to my local authorities & can they trace their emails they sent me or get any info from the mail I recieved to find these goof balls before someone gets had on Tantalk?

Thanks for your input,
Tim

[redheadgranny]

These people sent me two bogus checks for antique furniture. I called America's Most Wanted, but they couldn't do anything because I hadn't actually been ripped off. I have been able to warn a few people on Ebay, but there needs to be more done. The checks were on a bank in the mid-west and they took all the info I had on them. I had one check come from NY and the other FEDEXed from MD. Everyone be aware, the Addy was London and the shipper was in Nigeria. Keep on guard, Debbie in WV