I got this reply to my listing of my brother’s Leonard rod on Craig’s list:
Thanks for the prompt response and i will love to make an instant
purchase i will be posting a certified check though Courier Service to
cover the cost of the item while you hold on my behalf. Once you have
this,my mover will come pickup at you place.I will be needing the
following information to issue out the payment . . .
1.Name to be on the check
2.Home address
3.Telephone
4.Your state,city and zip code
** Pls not that the payment for the item will be overnight to your
address asap. I have taken a close look at the advert and am
completely satisfied i really need this and will appreciates that you
help save this for me till the payment arrives as it will save me some
extra cost
regards
–
Will it do any good to turn this over to anyone and if so to whom?
I used to turn those over to the FBI as they are interstate. They may or may not do anything but once in a while, they nab the courier. The scammer is most likely working from an internet cafe in Lagos Nigeria. That’s where most of mine traced back to when I was handling international sales for a broadband wireless distributor a couple of years ago.
rainbowchaser, you can notify the fraud department of your local p.d. and the local FBI office to see if they are working a pattern. the hard truth is, if you haven’t suffered a monetary loss, you probably won’t generate a lot of interest. that particular scam has been around quite a while and usually involves sending you a counterfeit money order or cashiers check that is two or three thousand more than the item they are buying. they request you deposit the check, keep a couple extra hundred for yourself and and send the rest of the extra funds back to them. of course by the time your bank discovers the check is counterfeit, they have their (your) money and you and ultimately your bank end up getting the shaft.
thanks guys. I didn’t think there was much I could do but there is a lot more expertise on this board than I can come near matching so it was worth asking.
You need to contact Craigs List.
They can do more than anybody else and a lot faster.
I had a troll pasting on Craigs lust and I got a ton of pictures from queers posing nude.
Since the dude was using my email address in the ads, they gave me his info.
I tracked him to his employer in New York and he got fired.
Craigs list acted quickly to tear down the ads.
But Craigs list has a real problem with their loose posting control.
If you have some free time on your hands, you might want to play with him. Here’s a suggested start.
Dear
I am really excited by your response to my listing. I live out in a rural area and I have never seen a certified check or received anything by Courier Service. I will be so happy to sell this item and get a certified check by Courier Service! I just hope my neighbors down the road see it when the Courier Service arrives! I wonder if they have a special truck that says Courier Service. Wow, that truck would really impress the folks down the road.
I am sorry to say, though, that some parts of your message confuse me. What is an address asap and a PLS not? Again, my apologies, but I live in a rural area and this innernet thing still has me kind of confused.
I am looking forward to selling this item to you and hope that you might also be interested in some of the other things I just inherited from my wealthy Uncle Bob.
Also, do you take Paypal? I don’t know much about Paypal, but I have heard that it is a good way to send money directly from my bank to yours. If you do take Paypal do you need to know the details of my bank account? I guess I can send you the details if you need them.
A couple years ago when I had some free time I played with a couple of these scammers.
I gave the first guy the local police office address to send his certified check to, and when he later contacted me to ask whether the check had arrived I told him my dog had eaten all my mail that arrived that day. I said the mail had also included a shipment of Omaha steaks, which my dog also ate.
I told the second guy (who purported to be a woman) that I lived in an isolated valley in Montana, with no electricity, and had to drive a number of miles to the nearest town’s public library to use their computer so I could email him. I told him I was unmarried, and owned a large ranch worth millions of dollars. After a few emails, we exchanged pictures - mine was of a poor man living in a shack, and his picture was of a scantily dressed cheerleader. After a couple weeks, we began talking romance, and he was going to come to Montana to live with me, but he wanted me to send him some money in advance. About that time, I broke off our “relationship” – at least I occupied him for awhile and perhaps kept him from scamming more people during the interim.
sonny, BALONEY. craigslist cannot and will not release any information, even on the bad guy, without a court order, search warrant or subpoena and that is only to law enforcement during the course of an active investigation. not sure why you’d make such a claim.
Often I reply to the email scammers who inform me that I have come into a large fortune and that they need my help in getting these finds released from some bank. I inform them that my rate, as a consultant, is $200.00 per hour, with a guaranteed minimum of 8 hours; that mileage is billed at $0.50 per mile and mileage is portal to portal; and, that all incidentals are billed at cost plus 20%. I then ask them to reply if they are still interested in my services. So far, I have had no takers.
maybe. i guess we need more info from sonny. if he contacted them and claimed someone was fraudulently using his email address then they should absolutely not have given him any information. seems there is a lot of legal liability that craigslist would not be willing to incur particularly as sonny claims he was able to track the guy down and get him fired. but you’re right, i did miss where sonny said it was his email and craigslist is definitely not the most secure site out there.
We get a couple per week, … I like to string 'em along for a while then mail bomb the account so they at least have to change e-mail accounts.
There is a neat site somewhere out there where the real game is to actually get the scammer to send real money (tables turned so to speak). or at least embarassed. I a famous table turn, … the correspondant managed to get the scammer to hold up a sign and be photographed.
Hey Rainbowchaser,
And when “my mover will come” , I’d meet him with several of my less than sober friends (yes, I know, hard to believe I have any) and beat the living s__t out of him. And then waterboard him for more information ( I was MI interrogator, IPW in Army, I know how…)
Mark, I don’t need to waterboard. I have a 12 gauge Ithaca pump to tickle him with. I’ll tell you anything you want if you massage the back of my neck with that thing. And it is not hard to believe that you have less than sober friends
That was probably me! LOL.
I wish one would take me up. My first invoice would be an eye opener. I would put in at least 8 hours driving the outer belt around Houston, have lunch and dinner at the priciest place in Houston, and buying all kinds of incidentals.
I think I read that sending these things out is the national pastime in Nigeria.
