It amazes me what people will do to make some cash. I placed an item for sale in our local San Diego craigslist section. The price was $300.00 I get emails from several people offering me a $3000.00 money order which they want the remaining balance of $2700 to be sent back to them in another money order after I cash the check. Out of curiosity I agreed with one of those people and gave him my address and sure enough I get a letter stamped "London East" with a British stamp on it. Inside is a cashiers check and of course it is fake. They rely on people going to a check cashing place and getting it cashed, or by the bank. Then we are supposed to send honestly the money back to them and of course. .. it needs to be done fast before the bank contacts you. It is amazing to me and I wonder how many of the people contacted actually manage to get this check cashed and then send the balance over there. This is the guy's email. What can be done?
Same with Nigerian scams. Someone ordered 3 grand worth of stuff from us and sent a fraudulent cheque for 10 grand. Then wanted us to wire transfer the difference immediately. What's even worse if the number of people falling for this. It's a numbers game I guess...
The most common is the Western Union scam for actual goods. They say they will be paying for an order with Western Union and then you get a spoofed email saying the money has been transferred (spot on to the real thing). You have to wait a day or two for Western Union to clear so people who have been scammed actually send the goods when they get the official looking email. Low and behold the funds never actually get to you. (they prey on the fact that if you get the real email, they always transfer)
I keep getting those paypal look alike emails as well which ask you to update your account. When you click on the link and look in your browser, it gives you some IP# or something like paypal-123office.com.
I've also heard of some people flying to Nigeria/South Africa with a briefcase full of cash as a result of these emails. The victims either get escorted to a fake bank that the scammers set up a few days before and "deposit" their money. Or, they get taken away at gun-point and the people demand more money from the guys family.
Ummm..If you fly to Nigeria with a briefcase full of cash, maybe you get whats coming to you. Sounds like a condidate for the Darwin Arwards
LOL the last Nigerian email I got sent me to an "official news site" of some country and the last news entry update was 11/2004
I once saw an fbi agent on tv, pleaded with American's to stop falling for obvious scams. He explained that a lot of person-hours is spent on overseas scams, that should be spent on fighting violent crime. Plus, another show said many of these scams are used to fund crime/terrorist networks. Anyone know of facts of statements like this, and do many people fall for these emails? tom
The only way we can stop the Paypal and Ebay scams is to report them, so please do. Just forward the email to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com, don't add anything to them, send them exactly as you received them.
Hey, did you know that the Nigerian scammers have an annual conference: http://j-walk.com/other/conf/
It is a numbers game but with those large figures they only need a small percentage of the people they contact to be suckers, and a new sucker is born every day.