BEWARE of Scam !!!!

One of the things my business does is sell Gold and silver bullion coins.
Here's one for you happened 15 or 20 years ago.
Guy buys a small amount of gold from a NY dealer (10k) paid with cash.
Next week calls confirms price for 100k+ worth of coins.
Was told could not pay that amount cash but bank wire or cashiers check.Guy shows up with cashiers check on small unknown bank in metro area. Dealer a litlle suspicous so does not call number printed on the check but rather calls information for the banks number.
It was the same as on the check. Dealer calls xyz bank and asks to verify cashiers check and verify signers. Operator told him to hold for operations officer (music on hold) then operations verified check.

Bogus check..a new listing for xyz holding company..phone located in cheap flat...

And so it goes.. I don't accept cashiers checks . Payment can be stopped on a cashiers check even a little difficult but doable. Bank wires can even be recalled within 24 hours. I 've seen it all.

Cuidado!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is one that I received!


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: hello
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 15:00:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Dan firstenberg <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]



Hello,
Greetings from Merit consulting international,i want to buy some
item from your store.but,we sellinternational.Now,the items
will be shippied international to lagos state Nigeria via ups
air express,and we are paying with credit card.Awaiting your
response.Thanks,

 

Last year I was selling my Isuzu Vehicross and fell pray to at least a couple of these scammers. I had never sold a vehicle and on top of that never sold anything to anyone out of the country. I checked with my bank and a good friend of mine to make sure that I was not giving any info that would come back to haunt me. He asked to send a wire transfer and my bank assured me that this was the safest way. So I sent him the appropriate info, but only after calling and talking to at least two people from my bank and letting them know that I was worried about this being a scam. Soon after I gave him the info I recieved an email stating that he had sent too much money (ooooh the nigerian scam, great!!!). I called the bank they had no record of a wire and told me not to be concerned because it happens a lot with currency conversion. About a day later I check my bank record and he had infact sent too much money about $85,000 too much and it was issued on a check not a wire transfer through a bank in Georgia. Now the guy was really pressuring me to give him the excess paid. The bank told me to string him a long until I could change all of my accounts. This went on for about a month beginning to end and all the time I was turning away potential buyers, because I trusted what my bank had told me. After all of this I had at least 3 phone numbers for the guy a mailing address and an email address the bank, the FBI and the local Police told me that it was not worth them investigating and for me to just cut off communication. Luckily I did not lose any money on the matter, but I felt really stupid, even though I did call the bank every step of the way.

 

The best thing to do is going along with dose people,but knowing its scam. Let them do the expenses, sending cheques, calling long distance (but not collect call),let them believe they catch a big fish. As soon you get a cheque, put it in a frame above your desk or bed...to remember it next times....Seems the most deals on the internet are fake.
Greetings, Guido

 

See http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/class/scam/index.html

These scams frequenly originate wth accounts at internet cafes, and the scammers have several usernames. Flood one, and the scammer just shifts to another and moves on.

Other than stringing these guys along to cost them the nominal cost of sending the bogus check, there's nothing much to do but ignore them, unless they're fool enough to pull this from a country that enforces fraud laws.

Similarly, most spammers host on sites in places like China, Malaysia, or Yemen. (Isn't it interesting that Bernie is closing down European GPs to open new venues in these places? Adding more fly-away races doesn't seem to jibe with "cutting costs" in F1. I hope they pay him with a cashier's check. )
.

 

Paulie_b,
For what it is worth. This guy maybe an FChat reader but he is also reading the FCA Newsletter. I was approched in the same way as you were but the only place I advertized the item for sale was in the Newsletter.

 

After my experience the fraud department at my credit union told me that if I am to deal overseas again it would be a good idea to use either Western Union or an account a different bank that is only used for this purpose.

 

How disappointing, I was about to make a deal with someone from Nigeria, a retired oil minister, that was going to give me 3.5 million dollars for helping him bank 35 million of excess oil revenues here in the States.

Oh well.

 

cotcha Paulie, would you like in on the action?

 

"They are all interesting stories. I sell some of my Scuderia Shields overseas. Overall, what is the best method of payment from someone overseas? Probably wire transfer?"

I do a lot of ebay stuff and www.paypal.com seems to work quite well and it's insured.

 

Hi,
Today I received the cheque for paying my ferrari parts (the cheque whas coming from Nigeria).The value for the parts whas 2,000 Euro. The sweet man sends me a cheque : 6,200 Euro. The quality of the false cheque is very poor,I'm even disapointed.
On the other hand I'm glad because the moron hat to pay for this UPS delivery.Thanks ...

 

If you want to string them along paulie, here's a good place to start.

http://419eater.com/