HP Forum Archive 15

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Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #1 Posted by Meindert Kuipers on 9 June 2005, 2:22 p.m. I wanted to report a pretty smart scam relating my classified ad on the MoHPC for the MLDL2000. I received a suspicious mail offering to buy one: "Greetings, I saw your advert posted on the internet for sale and am very much interested in buying it from you, , I will be responsible for the the shippment from your location to my base, so I would want you to get back to me with your asking prize and recent pics and would want to know its present condition. I will await a reply " followed by a name and credible full address in North America. It just happens that it was in the city of one of the MLDL2000 customers and I asked him to check it out. It turned out the person with the name in the email did exist in the same town, and used to live at that address, but not anymore. All the other attempts to scam were very obvious of course. Juts wanted to share this. Meindert

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #2 Posted by Chan Tran on 9 June 2005, 4:02 p.m., in response to message #1 by Meindert Kuipers I got a few of those type. Some how the wording in the message make me feel uneasy. The words "Greetings", "Avert" and "Await" don't sound normal.

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #3 Posted by Howard Owen on 9 June 2005, 4:28 p.m., in response to message #1 by Meindert Kuipers I got one offer to sell that sounded suspicious after I posted my WTB for 41C chargers. The pitch was generic, as was the one you mention. It referred to the "item" instead of the charger, for example. So slime-sucking-scam-scoundrels are trolling this board. It wouldn't take a lot of smarts to make the pitches seem more credible, either. Buyer (and Seller) beware!

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #4 Posted by Namir on 9 June 2005, 4:52 p.m., in response to message #3 by Howard Owen Whatever form the scam is these scammers are NOT REALLY going to pay you. They may even send what looks like a check but it's bogus. An honest buyer sends you real money AND ONLY for the amount you are asking. I was talking to a French man a month ago in southern France and he was scammed for selling his car on eBay. A buyer from England sent him a check on Barclays Bank but the check was a several hundreds of euros above the price of the care. The buyer asked him to send the difference to an address in Nigeria (ding ding ding ... scam alarm!) and did not even bother to come and look at the car he bought! Namir

Sure wish people would send ME extra money Message #5 Posted by John L. Shelton on 9 June 2005, 6:07 p.m., in response to message #4 by Namir I'm looking forward to getting a check for a few hundred extra dollars. Someday.....

Re: Sure wish people would send ME extra money Message #6 Posted by alar on 10 June 2005, 4:43 a.m., in response to message #5 by John L. Shelton I received several messages of this kind for my ads. "My client will send you xxx$, you keep the price you ask (i.e. xx$) and send me the difference, i'll send somebody to pick-up the ITEM at your place"

Re: Sure wish... Sure thing! Message #7 Posted by Chadwan Ungumbe on 10 June 2005, 4:29 p.m., in response to message #5 by John L. Shelton Okay. What you have for sell? I pay you extra $10,000,000. You deposis check, and right away (same day) send me only $6,000,000 by West Union. okay?? You keep other 5,000,000 for you trouble. okay?? My dead uncle Ungumbe thank you for helping his favorite grandson. 12345

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #8 Posted by Thibaut on 10 June 2005, 7:00 a.m., in response to message #4 by Namir Yes, this is known now... A variant of the car story is the guys that actually pay double the price of a car, pick it up and ask the difference to be sent in Negieria. Not only they get a car for free, but they got in addition the same value in cash !

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #9 Posted by Namir on 10 June 2005, 12:25 p.m., in response to message #8 by Thibaut Thibault, In the case of the frenchman I was talking to, the buyer (who calimed to live in England) was more interested in the refund than to travel to Nice to get the car. The buyer sent a check drawn on Barclays Bank. I told him that I was 9.999% certain that the check will not have funds. The seller was too suspicious to even cash the check. Namir

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #10 Posted by Bill Wiese on 10 June 2005, 2:31 p.m., in response to message #9 by Namir Scams are even happening here, without any Nigerians involved. Quite a few used cars are sold here in SF Bay area (and prob in other metro regions in USA) via something called 'Craigslist'. There have been quite a few cars purchased by bank check, but then the bank check bounces. Turns out it's a phony check. There's also been counterfeit cash paid out in 'cash only' sales. When I sold my truck recently, I insisted that the deal happen at the bank, where I'd actually see the check being drawn/issued by bank or get cash directly from bank. Bill Wiese San Jose

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #11 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 11 June 2005, 2:30 a.m., in response to message #10 by Bill Wiese Hi Bill; I think Craigslist was started here and is still local. I've never dealt through it but two people have told me that it's a good source for stuff, tickets, used skis etc. I'll remember the bank check problem though, and your solution. - d

Re: Smart scam attempt through the classifieds Message #12 Posted by Thibaut.be on 11 June 2005, 1:47 a.m., in response to message #9 by Namir Sure ! that's why I'm talking about a variant of your case. I'm currently selling a car and have listed it on the web, and I received 3 mails from a UK address, very badly written, asking me for final price willing to pay by check... I just deleted the mail.

and one more to be aware of Message #13 Posted by barry (nevada) on 12 June 2005, 11:53 p.m., in response to message #1 by Meindert Kuipers i do a lot of business via the net, and i receive the scams every day, of all types. i have the received the following only once, and it could definitely fool even those who are aware; it was a "Notification of Instant Payment" via PayPal; it resembled the actual item exactly (not too hard to copy the html and do that), and was realistic in every way, EXCEPT that i did not recognize the name as anyone i was dealing with; the item they used was something off my website (which was for sale, but i had not discussed w/ anyone recently); the PayPal transfer number was not quite right (but close) to what was currently being used - the hope here was that (i believe) for me to click on the enclosed paypal link to log on to my account, which would have resulted in my password being snatched; when i logged onto PayPal per my normal route, there was no such transaction taking place. be aware, they are getting better at this - if i wasn't paying attention it could have been a disaster.

Re: and one more to be aware of Message #14 Posted by Namir on 13 June 2005, 6:39 p.m., in response to message #13 by barry (nevada) Barry, Very good point!! I have the habbit of logging on PayPal directly and not through email links. YOu gave me a very good reason to really stick with my practice! Thanks! Namir

if this keeps up, i'll be goldplating my calcs!! Message #15 Posted by barry (nevada) :0) on 13 June 2005, 11:29 p.m., in response to message #14 by Namir and i'll buy out HP and have them build whatever youse guys want!!!

Re: if this keeps up, i'll be goldplating my calcs!! Message #16 Posted by Jonathan Watmough on 13 June 2005, 11:39 p.m., in response to message #15 by barry (nevada) :0) I've recently had a couple of phishing scams come to my gmail account pretending to be from paypal. My gf had one this weekend too! I'm a computer guy, and I was almost fooled. This must fool quite a few people. Does anyone have any idea how much money gets 'taken' this way ? On a HP note, waiting for my CX to come from ebay ... trying to give that c**b**n guy a hard time. I do keep seeing that he always tries to offer a lowball buy now to people, maybe we should do the same to him ;-) Still working on my 41 version of S&SMC Counting Beans.

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