scammer at it

[Hawkmoth]

Selling Lyra I've put her on several interweb sites and this is one very hot lead, not!

Got an email from a guy calling himself Helois Ramos.

After asking if the boat was still available I got this reply.

Great! please consider it sold as i am willing to pay your full asking price because i need to buy it for my cousin asap, i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it,sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and me being in wheelchair.

I would appreciate if you email me with more photos (if available) since i'm unable to see it in person.

I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and i'll pay you via PayPal today.

Where is the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent a

That's it just ends a

Do people really fall for these after all the warnings going around these days?

[Naughty Cal]

Unfortunately yes they do.

 

There was a lady on TV the other day who had paid for a car without seeing it. Low and behold when they got to the address given to pock it up from there was no car

[Delta9]

Reply saying that you don't use paypal but are happy for him to send you the payment in bitcoin.

[bargemast]

This seems to become standard practice, I have a boat for sale (in France) for which I've received at least 10 mails of different very keen buyers just like yours, with monies transferred for a boat they'd never seen, and pick up by courrier service.

 

Also a very similar text message with a phonenumber that worked out to come from the Ivory-Coast, so much more than unlikely, I

would even say impossible that this person is only in the slightest bit serious.

 

I wish you the best of luck with the sale of your boat to a real buyer.

 

Peter.

[bottle]

I recently 'won' a Range Rover but it was no good to me so didn't bother to collect it.

 

The e-mail even came from Range Rover UK... it was the bit after that, that gave the game away.

[Doodlebug]

I don't understand the scam?

 

They offer to transfer the money. If you email back and say yes please pay for it then whats the worst that can happen?

 

Or have I missread.

[Jess--]

the usual scam is that the emails you receive from "paypal" are faked so it appears that you have been paid but paypal are holding the money until the goods are delivered

 

they will overpay and ask you to pay "the courier" via some other means (moneygram / western union)

 

this money that you pay to "the courier" is where they make their money.

 

Other variations include actually paying via paypal with a stolen card and picking up the goods in person or having a courier pick it up, paypal then hit you with a chargeback but the goods are gone and because you didn't stick to paypals rules of only shipping an item to the buyers registered address you don't have a leg to stand on

[larkshall]

Careful, if you don't know this scam, I'd do some reading up. There are several variations on it but the essence is they try and pay you by forged bankers draft. By the time you try and present same, they have gone with the car. Another variation, they will require your bank account details to pay funds into. Don't worry they won't arrive. Worst case scenario they do use your bank account to transfer funds thru on the way somewhere else, then you get done for laundering drug money. Incidentally your bank account will be cleared out on way thru. The give away is that usually letters and emails are so poorly written, you would get suspicious.. I'm sure others will quote other scams. I'm not sure how they deal with a boat though

[DeanS]

A client of mine was buying an expensive printer from a Chinese company...suddenly they received a mail (badly written) saying the printer was blocked by customs, and a fee had to be paid to release..it....actually the whole cost for it had to be paid, so it could then be released and delivered....she paid...about £4000 ....and waited for a delivery which never arrived.....

[MtB]

The scary thing is, soon these scammers will figure out that paying someone a hundred quid or so to re-draft their emails into good Queen's English will be most worthwhile.

 

From the comments above it seems a well written email may fool lots of people who currently rely purely on poor grammar to identify scams.

[larkshall]

The scary thing is, soon these scammers will figure out that paying someone a hundred quid or so to re-draft their emails into good Queen's English will be most worthwhile.

 

From the comments above it seems a well written email may fool lots of people who currently rely purely on poor grammar to identify scams.

Mike there is evidence it's beginning to happen ie Queens English. I happen to also be bi-lingual in German. There the spammers are more and more using the formal written high German, or 'haupt deutsch'. Only seen in formal business talk. Very dangerous. Now if I was to charge a few Bitcoin could write them in Yorkshire.

[Delta9]

The scary thing is, soon these scammers will figure out that paying someone a hundred quid or so to re-draft their emails into good Queen's English will be most worthwhile.

 

From the comments above it seems a well written email may fool lots of people who currently rely purely on poor grammar to identify scams.

The bad grammar and spelling is most often intentional. By sending and email that will repel all but the most gullible, the scammer only ends up in contact with the most promising marks, thus saving himself a lot of wasted time.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Delta9

[Athy]

£100 a time to rewrite eBay adverts in decent English? This gun's for hire.

[MtB]

The bad grammar and spelling is most often intentional. By sending and email that will repel all but the most gullible, the scammer only ends up in contact with the most promising marks, thus saving himself a lot of wasted time.

 

Good point, but I was chatting to a security bloke the other day who works for the USA govt and he was telling me about months spent constructing whole internet personalities and histories to target individual govt employees, so they could fool such internet savvy peeps into clinking a single link sent by a supposed person they 'know'.

 

Scamming regular punters for money seems child's play in comparion.

[Timx]

^{From Another angle, buying a boat is so difficult, as private buyers is the best way to get a bargain, or so it seems to me, but it also seems the easiest way to get scammed, its frightening, I know look for the paper trail etc , but even then you could buy a financed boat or a stolen boat from a marina that's been sitting there a long time and has details on board etc etc. I am upgrading next yr to a NB , I don't want to buy new, but so many scams may make me.}

[Laurie Booth]

Careful, if you don't know this scam, I'd do some reading up. There are several variations on it but the essence is they try and pay you by forged bankers draft. By the time you try and present same, they have gone with the car. Another variation, they will require your bank account details to pay funds into. Don't worry they won't arrive. Worst case scenario they do use your bank account to transfer funds thru on the way somewhere else, then you get done for laundering drug money. Incidentally your bank account will be cleared out on way thru. The give away is that usually letters and emails are so poorly written, you would get suspicious.. I'm sure others will quote other scams. I'm not sure how they deal with a boat though

A couple of cheques I got

 

[larkshall]

A shame you couldn't cash them ! Good example though

[Athy]

Looks as if July 2006 was a good month for you - unless the cheques "bounced".

[Laurie Booth]

Looks as if July 2006 was a good month for you - unless the cheques "bounced".

I nice man from Nigeria sent them to me, I didn't cash them as it didn't seem fair to take his money.

[Emerald Fox]

Is EAST EUROPE LADY still around? I have found a Nigerian chappie who wishes to buy wonky-looking 'barges'.