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How about a favor?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:49 am
by Mark
I tell ya, the trouble a guy can get into if he isn't careful. For 2 days I've been working with a contact in Australia about buying $840 worth of parts from our store. For 2 days I thought he was the 'real deal.' Then when I'm ready to accept payment, I get the following e-mail asking for a favor along with his payment.

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"Thank you for the email,I want you to help me. Charge another $600:00 from my card to the shipping agent who will be coming to pick up my ordered items from you. The $600:00 that will be sent to my freight forwarder is for the shipping of my order and other items i ordered from different part of the country which is to be picked up by him and should be deducted from my credit card.Also, I'm compensating you with the sum of $90:00 for the transfer fee and for your efforts. Please note that i should have given the shipping agency my credit card for him to deduct the shipping funds but he told me that he doesn't have the facilities to charge or debit credit card , so that's why i bring my vote of confidence in you and i want you to assist me in this measure, so i want you to transfer the funds to him after you have make the charges and the money charged from my credit card is in your account,then you can now make the transfer to the agent via western union.i will have love to do this my self but there are no western union here around me cos i am out of town to monitor my estate construction at a remote village,So the charges you'll make on my credit card will be:
Your Fee:$844.50
Agent fee with shipping fare: $600:00.
Transfer Fee plus Your Compensation: $90:00
Total:1534,5
Note that my credit card will be charged for the amounts above .Please do get back to me if you are in the office right now so that you can process my Credit card for the order.
I await your quick response.
Kind Regards.
Mario"
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So what do you think -- shall I return the favor (in the end the favor will probably only COST me $1534.50! LOL.) I hear about stuff like this happening all the time, but the is the first time I've had someone try to scam me (in this fashion anyway!) We deal with foreign accounts from time to time, and until I got the above e-mail, it seemed legit.

Gees,
Mark

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:02 am
by Robert
SCAM !!


Enuff said.



Take care,
Robert

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:25 am
by Guest
It's just amazing to me that people fall for this stuff all the time. Heck, we still have folks buying big-screen TVs in mall parking lots with the promise of "I'll be right back with the TVs" once they hand over their money!

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:02 am
by Greg
I had a large air compressor that I was selling last fall on Craig's list. I got a similar Email, My reply was "When I get my CASH, you can get your compressor. I never heard from him again. Greg

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:37 am
by Demolition
The aggrivating thing is the scam artists never get punished.
If a Famous person gets scammed, then they will go after them.
But Regular Joe, Oh well Tuff.

My mom had a local person try to get into her bank account.
She found out where the person lived and found out the person had outstanding warrants from Atlanta. However Pine Bluff P.D. said they can't do nothing until they get the person on a traffic stop.

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:30 pm
by SpongeBob
A bit similar to what happens in our MH park. Four guys come buy and offer to shovel your roof for $500. Once we say, "way too much!" they say of course it is. However, they tell us to pay them the $500., then go to our insurance company and say we have a roof leak. They tell us the agent will come out, write us a check for $1200, long story short, we get our 500 back and another 700 to boot. WHAT A SCAM! There is no end to the scams out there. We all need be careful. Personally, I had my wife stitch all the pockets on my trousers shut. Have a great day everyone!
-Bob

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:57 pm
by Handweaving
Good examples.
Mine is that I received a deal from somewhere overseas.
I replied and wrote in my email (as if it was supposed to go to the FBI) that I thought these people were the ones they were looking for and could I be of any help. Now, that was fun.
Never heard from them again.

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:58 pm
by wes
this one.s goin around online classified ad sites. they're all about the same just different words

The potential buyer attempts to send a check far in excess of the purchase price, then requests that the additional amount be sent via Western Union to a third party. The check is subsequently dishonored, and the victim is left chasing an email address to reclaim their money.

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:13 pm
by Robert
There was a scam last year where someone sold about 10 "tv's", the thin one's that mount flush on a wall for $100 each in a Wal-Mart parking lot.


Turned out to be the oven doors from ranges/stoves with handles removed.


There are alot of vulnerable people out there and thieves prey on them like wolves after sheep. :x

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:15 am
by Guest
I'll tell you one thing. If I get one more "phishing" email asking me to "Verify your PayPal billing information" or "Verify your eBay account info" I think I'll create a new email address and start over from scratch.

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:41 pm
by Greg
Wayne, copy & paste the message with the address tracks , mail to spoof @ Ebay. Greg

RE: How about a favor?

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:18 pm
by Guest
I don't know how many times I've done that, Greg, but they just keep coming. I've gotten that form email back from eBay dozens of times now confirming the attempted scam. I've had my email account for many years and I think the longer you have it active, the more junk email and scams you get sent to it. I even get phishing emails asking me to verify accounts at banks that I don't even do business with. It's sad to think that if they didn't have people across the country falling for scams like this so easily every day, there wouldn't be so many new attemps to get your PINs and account numbers.

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:25 am
by cottonlily
Creepy stuff. Good thing you caught it.