Fake Cheques from Bogus Buyers

Some months ago I advertised an amplifier for £450 at couple of classified sites on the net. Since then I had over 30 emails offering to buy.

The bogus buyer then claim that he/she has a client in the UK who owe money. The client is to send me a cheque (of between £2000 and £5000). I am then to send the balance to a 'shipper' through Western Union.

At first I thought it was genuine and packaged up the amp ready for despatch and found out about Western Union payments. In the meantime the cheque bounced.

I have had at least 6 cheques since then. All are poor quality fakes.
The cheques are sent using UPS. So it must be costing them a lot of money.

I don't know what they hope to gain by sending such poor quality fakes!
Are the senders victims of some 'get rich quick' fraud themselves?

 

rule no 1: only deal direct with the buyer.
rule no 2: never EVER use Western Union.
rule no 3: never take a cheque.

these rules have kept my scam free so far

 

I have been doing some research into this recently.

Many people are having fun with a fast growing hobby called 'Scambaiting'.
One scambaiter collected over $1m worth of fake cheques from the scamers.
Some scambaiters get the scammers to send photos holding a placard and collect them as 'trophies' and publish on the internet.
Some others specialise in closing down fake internet banks.

Here are are some links:

http://www.419eater.com
http://www.aa419.org
http://www.419legal.org
http://www.aa419.org/ladvampire.html

 

Cheques are fine (as long as they clear). They avoid expensive paypal charges too.

 

Bluemax, I like that last link. Quite a novel approach to getting a little bit of revenge on the spammers.

 

The poor folk who fell for the 419 scam thought the same

 

surely if you make sure the cheque clears before sending the goods you're ok???

 

i too had this happen to me only cheque (from barclays uk) was actually genuine but stolen i never lost out but informed police however i have heard nothing since despite whois email traces etc i carried out on behalf of the boys in blue??
MO that is not the case if stolen it can take several weeks to clear and still be withdrawn by the clearing bank it was drawn on! seller beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Even if you are able to withdraw the funds from a 'cleared' cheque, you still have a legal liability to the bank if things go wrong.

The clearing system in the UK is much better than in US or Canada; so the risk is minimal.

 

I was recently offered $19m by one Roselyn Benson <[email protected]> Apparently she is terminally ill and wanted me to use the money for charitable work.

I was also contacted by her 'Barrister' Kelly William <[email protected]> based in Baghdad!

Then I got an email from [email protected]

Sir,
This is David Nigel of Foreign Payment Bureau Canada. We have a payment advice to your in the amount of 19MUSD.Please send us by fax to this tel/fax number(1-416-628-5121) your bank details where you this money wire to.You can also reach on the above number from 8:00am to 5:00pm est. monday to friday.
Regards,
David Nigel.

Address: 1806 Eglintine Av. Toronto, Ontario M6E 2H7.
Phone number +1-416-628-5121

The address turned out to be "Shanty's Caribbean Take Out"

With the help of folks at http://www.419eater.com I manged to shut down www.foreignpaymentsandsecurities.com and its sister 'bank'
www.pacifictrustcorporation.com

Now trying to shut down their other sister bank http://www.trustfinancecorporation.com

PS. This is a identity scam to get your bank and other personal details.

 

Taz, BlueMax.

I wasn't aware of that. Thankyou for pointing it out

 

dud cheques

i had the same experience,i was selling an arcam power amp on hi fi for sale.com,and this guy contacted me, eventually they sent a cheque, i wanted £200 for the amp the cheque was for £2000,drawn on beneficial bank in london when i emailed the guy about the difference in money he asked me to send the remainder of the funds by western union,needless to say the cheque bounced, and the bank retained the cheque explaining fraud was suspected as the account was closed, this doesn't put me off accepting cheques as payment for hi fi i'm selling. as most people are genuine, and i don't send anything until the cheque clears. i was oblivious to the scams going around until i read about it on a us vintage car sales website,read about it here:
http://www.gaspumpclassics.com/newsletter/030528_nigerian_scam.cfm

 

batemansxxxb
http://www.419eater.com/ has a forum
Post email addies of the scammers in the 'MAIN SCAM BAITING FORUM'.

The sacmbaiters will have some fun with the crooks and sort out them out.

 

Response (Mark Potter) - 08/10/2004 11:58 AM
To
Customer (Job xxxxxxxxx) - 08/10/2004 07:45 AM

We have suspended the sites in question, thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Regards,
iPowerWeb Support Team

Woooooooo Hoooooooooooooooo

http://www.foreignpaymentsandsecurities.com
http://www.trustfinancecorporation.com
http://www.pacifictrustcorporation.com

All three Scammer Banks dead.
Will they use VooDooo to bring them back to life?

Hopefully not!
I have warned Barrister Kelly William, Mrs. Roselyn Benson and David Nigel that they will be reported to InterPol and adviced them to be less adventurous in future and stick with their Shanty's Caribbean Take Out. :lol: