I received the same message twice over a few years. The first
involved Cynthia Eid. Since Cindy is a good friend, I was naturally
concerned, so I called her. No, she wasn’t in London.
Jeff
It costs them nothing, and their chances of getting caught are nil.
They can send out hundreds-- why not? If even one person falls for
it, it’s worth their time.
I was thinking that we have a pretty large network in this forum, and I wonder if the scammers would be as bold if they knew we have friends everywhere.-)
Absolutely, they have nothing to lose.
Richard Hart G. G.
Denver, Co
I find that email inquiries that don’t ask any specifics - about the
merchandise, service, manner of transaction, etc. - are always
suspect. Most of the time scammers don’t bother to ask these
details. Unfortunately, I also know of a very nice man in south
Florida, who fell for one of the old Nigerian “inheritance” scams. He
could little afford tolose the $10,000 he sent the scammers. I was
heartbroken for him.
Linda in central Florida
We do not even bother communicating with scammers if we can avoid it as it is a waste of time.
Waste of time is the front line of defence for the folks at
419eater.com. Accourding to them, engaging the scammers into funny
dialogues and screwing around with the minds of deserving thieves
help somewhat to keep them away from real potential victims.
check them out, its quite funny what they are doing!
We do not even bother communicating with scammers if we can avoid it as it is a waste of time.
Good policy for another reason, besides the waste of time. If you
answer these guys, especially if you tell them why you know they are
crooks, you are just helping them learn to be better swindlers. Never
tell them how you know they are up to no good or they will fine tune
their hook and the next target is more likely to be fooled.
Stephen Walker
We get these all the time. Don’t even think twice about answering
them. One give away is the part about having their own shipper
picking up the items. Poor English is another and giving personal
which has nothing to do with anything (married last year
and moved to Australia). Sometimes they tell you that they live off
the beaten path and there is no direct mail delivery to their
residence. Ask for payment up front and you will probably never hear
from them. The credit cards they are using are stolen. Sometimes they
tell you they were visiting London and were mugged. Everything was
stolen including their passports. They will use the name of a
legitimate jeweler who you probably know. Sometimes they just say
they are interested in your items and ask you to quote without being
specific. Sometimes they say they are distributors and so on.
Good policy for another reason, besides the waste of time. If you answer these guys, especially if you tell them why you know they are crooks, you are just helping them learn to be better swindlers. Never tell them how you know they are up to no good or they will fine tune their hook and the next target is more likely to be fooled.
Yes that too.
Jim
James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
Fwd: Enquiry ! Another example of a scam?
Another example of a typical communication which we don’t bother
answering.
Dear Sir or Madam, Please allow me to introduce myself to you,
my name is Valentina Karen, I am writing to enquire for looking a
business partner, and we hope too we'll have a good cooperation
with your company. Please let me know if you could accommodate
and do a business with us. Is it possible to ship to Singapore
with fedEX, UPS or DHL delivery Express ? And Do you accept
credit card to complete order payment ? Please specify credit
card type which acceptable to complete the payment. Thanks, Your
prompt reply will be greatly appreciated and I Hope we can do the
business in the near future !! Look forward to your reply!The best scam fighter I ever read about was this one – I have to
give the fellow credit for keeping it up this long. Enjoy the laugh.
Barbara on a night on the island when the house is making very
strange sounds - things that go bump in the night?
It costs them nothing, and their chances of getting caught are nil. They can send out hundreds-- why not? If even one person falls for it, it's worth their time.
Well sometimes it’s worth sending the local constabulary.
My friend bought an Anglo-Saxon sax (a knife), and paid $8000 for
it. When the item was not sent the local police were sent around, and
it was determined they had left the day before.
The point, was that my friend could recover some of the lost money
from Ebay. . $2000 out of $8000, but it was better then nothing.
So for insurance reasons it is necessary to involve the police, at
least file a report.
Regards Charles A.
I was thinking that we have a pretty large network in this forum, and I wonder if the scammers would be as bold if they knew we have friends everywhere.-) Absolutely, they have nothing to lose.
My idea is that if you get one of these scams, you get an address,
one of the list members, goes and knocks on the door, and says
“hello”, just to check it out.
So when you get one of these, reply with this “I am happy to take
your order, one of my representatives will come to your door for a
cash deposit, and confirmation of delivery address”.
Regards Charles A.
I also know of a very nice man in southern Florida, who fell for one
of the old Nigerian “inheritance” scams. He could little afford to
lose the $10,000 he sent the scammers. I was heartbroken for him. "
In the con business there is a saying: “You can’t cheat an honest
man”. A thing that all this type of scam hasin common is the lure of
ill gotten gain. In the Nigerian scams it’s usually either the bank
or the government that is cheated. As for the idea that telling the
scammer how you know he’s a phony, Isn’t that exactly what many of
these replies on Orchid have done?
Jerry in Kodiak
The language used is entirely consistent with the usual Nigerian
scam.
Terry;
I wonder how many a day they send out? I did some more searching on the wording of the email and found some t-shirt companies that had gotten similar emails...
That’s good to know.
What did you do? Just type the email body into Google? Or how ?
Thanks.
Eric
Hi Eric,
I wonder how many a day they send out? I did some more searching on the wording of the email and found some t-shirt companies that had gotten similar emails. .
I did a couple of things: first I put the sender’s name and the word
scam in google search and found the person on etsy who had received
the same email; then I searched on google the email address and
nothing showed up. Then I copied the paragraph I posted her and put
that into google search and found the t-shirt company (and I believe
there were others)…not every single word was the same, but close
enough. …
Terry Binnion
On Dec 8, 2012,
The only way I’d ever send money to a friend overseas is if I spoke
with them on the phone. Email is no guarantee of identity.
If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
The only way I'd ever send money to a friend overseas is if I spoke with them on the phone. Email is no guarantee of identity.
Absolutely true, but it’s like anything, you can fake only so much,
and if you’ve known people over email and forums for over 10 years,
trust can develop.
One of my knife buddies (sounds terrible, but it isn’t), I’ve only
ever known over email, and we trade timber goods, and sometimes we
give each other money to spend on local goods that are non-existent
in our respective countries, or too expensive to import.
Regards Charles A.
Ahh, true. But that’s a bit different. If you got a message from him
out of the blue, using a different email address, asking for a large
sum of money because he got robbed while overseas, would you send it
without asking more questions? There’s one thing to correspond with
someone you’ve never met and become friends, send them money to buy
something for you and vice versa. But that’s pre-arranged. It’s
another to be asked out of the blue with no confirmation.
I had a friend send me over $5,000 once when times were really bad
and I needed the money to move. We’d never met, but “knew” each
other from email. And this was before the Internet made email so
easy. She trusted me, and I eventually paid her back. Will never
forget the generosity of this person I’d never recognize if I ran
into her on the street. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t ask her to confirm
her identity some way if she emailed with the stolen vacation asking
me for money. It’s called common sense.
Michele