OT – Beward Credit Card “credit” Spoof scam

[Shane Ross]

I got that one a while back I think. But if they are “you ordered this, and it is on the way” I ignore it, typically. But I too got the DELL one, and since I ordered my monitors from Dell, I took pause. But when I read that it was a laptop and there were no specifics as to my name or address or anything on the e-mail that would indicate that I ordered it, I figured it was spam. That is what you need to spot…the specifics. Because everything your order legitimately online will have at least your name if not your address or last 4 of the credit card. if not…SPAM!

This one is a mighty clever one though.

I had one where people offered to buy something I listed HERE of all places. A Canopus ADVC100. They offered to buy it but, they weren’t going to pay me direct, because they were owed money by someone they did work for and THAT person was going to pay me. (fishy). Then they sent the payment and OOOPS! The person who owed them money sent ALL OF IT to me! I received four $900 Money orders made out to me. “Oh,” they said. “We trust you. Cash those as they are in your name, take out what we owe you for the unit and then send back the remainder.” Well, that was REALLY fishy. So I called the issuer of the Money orders and yep…they were fake. So I politely said to the scammer “Nice try doofus.”

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Rennie Klymyk]

[Shane Ross] “I had one where people offered to buy something I listed HERE of all places.”

I had this same scam when I listed a printer on ebay. Ebay has a feedback profile at least, on the cow all we can do is check the seller’s posts and try to figure if they are real or not. I’ve purchased on the cow classifieds and had a great experience, thanks again Max! With my ebay fraud the guy used “buy now” and emailed saying he was a buyer for a number of companies, one of whom had requesitioned such a printer as I had. His buyer would pay me directly and could I imediately wire him his commission (the overpayment part) The printer was $900.00 and I recieved a cashier’s check for $3800.00. He hoped by the time my bank would get back to me telling me the check was no good I would have already sent him his cash. I figured he would have to physically go into western union to collect “his” commission so I kept him going while I called the police, notified ebay etc. The cops could wait for him at western union and jump him when he collected the loot I thought. The local police didn’t want to help because he was in the USA and I’m in Canada. Trying to get ebay on board to catch this guy through ebay’s message system proved futile. Between work, eating, sleeping and all, it was a while before I thought of calling the RCMP (Canada’s national police) and I was given a link to a vollenteer run organization where I could voice my complaint. I never did connect with anyone there through the email system on their web page and eventually the crook realized I was just playing him along. I had the satifaction of knowing he wasted $22.00 on fedexing me his phoney check (which is on my wall).

I would urge anyone in this situation to try to lead the crook on and get him busted. It didn’t work for me but next time everything could just line up and the guy could be nailed. People who don’t work like the rest of us but will try to steal from those who do work for what they have, should be nailed. We should all do what we can to nail them. What really gets me is what small minds these pea brains have, to actually think these scams will work! Unfortunately like in Walter’s case they are after your credit of your entire identity.

[Bill Lee]

What really gets me is what small minds these pea brains have, to actually think these scams will work!

Well, they do work, not every time, not in the majority of times, but obviously enough times to make it worth their time to try it, if you are seeing them again and again. You are doing yourselves a disservice if you make the assumption that they are all stupid; you can be trapped by something that doesn’t look simple or by believing that you can always outwit the dishonest. The Nigerian 419 scams still exist because someone is making money from them. Many of these scams rely on greed blinding people to their normal common sense.

And then if you think they are stupid and weak, then that might be a fatal mistake, especially if you try to confront them physically.

Now to bring it back more on-topic:
When you are securing your house and your studio, you need to approach it with these questions, “If I didn’t care how much damage I did when I wanted to break in/steal this equipment, then how would I do it?”, “What’s the risk of getting caught due to time, noise and possible attention whilst breaking in?”, and “What would make a potential buyer for this equipment not want to buy it?”. And you base your security on the answer to these questions.

Bill Lee