Another scam

Jewelry Discussion
41

Hi all,

I’ve been contacted by a very active scammer. The names change, Kenny
Moore is the name my contact used. He found me through my website and
offered to buy first one, then 6 pieces. What to look for: will not
converse on phone, only through email and skype. Said it would be
international cash transaction and didn’t ask for any discount. He
said he would only use PRIVATE COURIORS whom I would need to pay
directly. He said he would be enclosing checks written to others of
his “clients” in the states and that I would need to forward these
for him. He provided an address in London which [] kindly googled for
me; was in a bad neighborhood. An address in a very small country
next to Nigeria also comes into play.

I was pretty sure this was not kosher. Today I got a phone call from
a sculptor in another city who said he had a sizable cashiers check
written to me and in an envelope with my home address and Kenny’s
name for return address.

The Secret Service was contacted and they confirm this is a scam.
Don’t fall for it and let others know that if it sounds like a duck,
it probably is one.

IF YOU ARE SUSPICIOUS of a person or check…don’t deposit into an
existing bank account. Open a new account just for that check and ask
your bank to put a red flag on that account.

Marianne Hunter
http://www.hunter-studios.com

42

All these scammers use addresses in countries like the UK and
Australia when trying to hook companies in the US. They are nearly
all based in Nigeria or Singapore. Occasionally they will use a PO
box or one of the Mailboxes Etc services and often use stolen credit
cards or dodgy cheques as it can take weeks for a cheque to be
processed by its originating bank in a foreign transaction (god knows
why- they can do it instantly but asll stick to arcane transfer
methods that should have died out in the 1960’s).

A pretty good way of spotting the fraud is the use of a courier of
their choice rather than the postal system. It is used for items as
big as cars. They pay over the odds with a dodgy cheque, get you to
use the balance to pay the shipper from the uncleared funds but the
cheques bounce and you lose the goods and pay to have them taken
away because you have used your account to pay the shipper. Kenny
Moore will be some poor bugger whose card details ahs been captured
to give some legitimacy to the scam. If you have a London address it
will be an internet cafe or similar.

Nick Royall

43

I must get 3-4 scams a week sent to my e-mail. As much as I hate to
say it, any order from a foreign country is most likely a scam. I
must have had access to at least 100 million this month alone in the
obvious ones like lottery winnings, children of dead Nigerians who
want to send me millions and other no brainers but get plent of
inquiries from everywhere about shipping overseas orders as well.

Dave Owen

44

Hi There:

I think you might want to put out a warning to others like me. I own
a small, in home custome jewelry design business. Recently, rather
than contacting me through email, which is what most folks do, I have
been receiving inquires from the wire transfer service—meaning the
person on the other end is deaf. The person inquires about buying
gold jewelry with a credit card over the phone, rather than simply
going through your business website.

This is a scam, and an attempt to rip off small jewelers. These
people are using the translation service to keep the jewelry designer
from identifying the caller’s number. PLEASE let others know not to
fall for this!! It’s happened to me 3 times since March, and I know I
am not alone.

Thanks!
Eva B Jewelry

45

The called me two times, but I did not fall for the “SCAM”.

Linda
beadmeus.com

46

Most deaf people use email and internet these days anyway. It’s not
like the 80’s when TTY was the only way to communicate by phone. If
a call actually does come through the relay service, then the service
will have the caller’s number so a police report can be filed.

Carol
Carol J. Bova

47

If you look through the archives, this scam was going around about 3
years ago and now it’s back.

Donna in VA

48

I also received 2 phone calls this past winter from a tty service.
The person would not share their name or contact info, so I was
suspect. The wanted chains when they would call me. Usually obscure
5 mm chains.

Glad I did not take them seriously, and that you all are smart to
the scam.

Melissa

49

We had this problem at Desert Gems where I work as a sales
associate. It was a very broken, time-consuming and confusing
communication with long delays, from someone who wanted to buy 3,000
gold chains. (We don’t sell them.) Once I ended the conversation, I
googled “TTY scams” and got the background story. Sorry but I don’t
want to explain how this work – the short story is that you send
the buyer money.

Recently I read about someone on this blog wanting to buy kilos of
sapphires and I felt it sounded familiar, but didn’t want to say
anything. I’m a former police reporter, now a silversmith. Hard as I
try to be a regular person, I’m wary of everything.

As a sales associate and custom silversmith, I work soooo hard to
provide good customer service to a diverse group of customers, rich
and poor. Yet between all of the hacking, shoplifting, credit card
and ID theft, counterfit bills and scams, I’m ready to go back to
the stone age. Take me, please take me.

Betsy

50

It used to be that only a TTY or a relay service was necessary if you
were deaf. Now that texting and emailing is so prevelant, the TTY has
pretty much fallen to the side, and relay services not used as much.
Being deaf myself, I had to rely on my TTY or use a relay service,
but it’s been years since I used either one, since I’ve got most of
my friends and family trained to email me, and lately, text me. As
for scams, I’m always getting emails from Africa, Austraila and other
parts of the world asking me if I accept credit cards for wholesale
orders. I’ll get an email saying, we want to carry your goods in our
store, and do you accept credit cards for payment? I get at least one
per week, several per month. I put those messages in my junk folder
and delete them.

51

Hi Gang,

This mostly applies to those of you with websites that have
recognizable brand names. (Like knewconcepts.com)

We just received an email purporting to be from a network registrar
service in China, informing us (out of the goodness of their hearts)
that a Chinese company was attempting to register
‘knewconcepts.com.cn’, and a couple of other near-misses with our
name, and did these other dastardly folks have anything to do with
us? Should they (the registrar) let this other company register
those names? Please reply quickly, it’s urgent, etc.

So I replied, saying “no, indeed, these bozos have nothing to do
with us, don’t let them register” Received another email from the
‘other’ company, saying that the ‘first’ company was giving them
trouble, but that they would proceed to try to register those
domains, and there was nothing we could do to stop them.

Only one problem: they sent it to my brian@KC.com address. Which
appears nowhere on the net, except here, on the orchid archive. The
only way they could have gotten it was by way of the email I sent to
the first guy. (at the ‘helpful’ company.) (The first email came in
to Lee’s address, not mine.)

A little googling later, and I discover this is a reasonably common
scam. See here:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep81bw

and here:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep81bx

They’re trying to scam us into paying large sums to register those
domains, and probably set them up to be hijacked in the future. If
someone sends you an email like that, ignore it.

I’m looking into the mechanics of registering a. cn domain properly.
It looks reasonably complicated. Apparently the Chinese Info
Ministry has control of the. cn domain, and has partnered with a
couple of network services companies outside China to handle
non-Chinese domain registrations. (after manual approval by the
ministry.) If anybody cares, I can report back in a few days, once I
get it nailed down. If any of you already know the ins-and-outs of
it, please, (!please!) drop me a line directly.

For the moment, just remember: don’t panic. There is no such thing
as a Chinese internet company that’s trying to do you a favor. Give
them nothing. Don’t even bother replying.

(sigh)
Regards,
Brian

52

Hi Brian

If I see a “.RU” or a “.Cn” after the web-name, I immediately hit
the Delete Button.

No searching questions asked or trying to investigate who they are.

Nigeria is another sick problem. Rather safe than sorry!

Gerry Lewy

53

We’ve had the same scam here at Reactivemetals.com. High pressure to
use their service—we didn’t and nothings ever come of it. Always
beware folks!!

Deborah, Michele & Sharon
Reactive Metals Studio, Inc

54

Another scam to be aware of concerns expired domain names if you let
it expire someone will immediately snatch it up and try to sell it
back to you for hundreds of dollars. Don’t let it expire.

55

I have my c. c. on file with my website-holder all the time. It, s
renewed automatically 1-2 months prior to cancellation date.

I have 2 more unactivated sites to build while I’m at home. same
conditions…“c. c on file”…rather safe than sorry!..Gerry!

56

My domain was scammed by these snipers - I lost my domain I had for 7
yrs. It doesn’t matter if you have an "auto renewal set up - I did as
well. IT doesn’t matter. Period. The snipers work like do on eBay -
they snap it up the last second before expiration - and, as I
mentioned, you cannot legitimately “early” renew your domain. I did
change ISPs since they royally screwed up this year. But for 7 yrs
they did just fine. What these people do is they see a domain that
has been used for a long time - and grab it.

And I’ll give you one guess as to where these snipers are located.
Yup. CHINA.

If I want mine back I have to cough up $1675.

Right.

I’m on disability.

My entire govt check pays my mortgage.

Where the hell am I gonna get that sort of money.

So now, I have a LAME domain extension of “.us” Stupid. I want my
".com" back.

These people that steal artisan websites should be prosecuted for
larceny - since that is what they are doing - stealing.

57

Hi. Can you explain to me how you had your domain stolen if you had
automatic renew? Doesn’t your hosting company renew like they are
supposed to? Perhaps they are in league with the people who stole
your URL.

Seems like a catch-22… if you can’t renew and pay your fee up
front, ahead of the renewal date but your hosting/domain company
lets it go and doesn’t renew! Have you talked to your hosting
company? I find this rather scary because there doesn’t seem to be
any good avenue to protect your rights. I use Go Daddy and they have
renewed my domain name with no problem.

58

I wish I had a nickle for every domain I have had stolen.
Unfortunately the lack of any regulation on the internet allows
domain theft. The people you are hosting with will steal the domains
if you have a lot of traffic or they decide to sell their registered
domains to a third party.

the best way to keep an eye on your domains is to make sure your
domains are up to date in the domain registry. Especially the cheap
registrars who do a free domain with hosting service. they do not
put the contact as you. They put the contact as one of their sales
reps. You have to go into your account find the domain registry and
change contacts to your

I suggest using a gmail account so that you will never have to worry
about not being able to change your hosting as once they steal the
domain any email account you have on that domain is toast. You have
to check these registry entries diligently especially as renewal
time comes close.

This is extortion and yes for some reason not prosecuted. To get
back cpick. net they wanted 5k LOL so now it is cpcicktad.com

Artisan Jewelers are better off using social media sites to send
clients too because web sites are swiftly being made useless for
small business. Etsy facebook artfire all of these things allow you
to set up sites. I have used ecwid.com(free html generator for web
page store) and several apps that connect etsy to FB to keep
inventory updated on both etsy fb and my website.

I was an Internet Security Consultant with the US government and
also with liscensed auctioneers before my brain injury.

In my opinion unless you have a sales level that requires you to
have a legal department and I.T. department to maintain and protect
your content monthly minimum you are better off not spending money
on a domain unless you put up the site yourself and don’t mind
losing that site every time the wind blows.

Cpanel operators Domain Management then manage domains then click on
each domain and it should give you a preview of the contact
and a link to change if it is not correct

If anything was not clear or you need help feel free to email me off
list. I know my communication skills are not good post brain injury
so jsut ask I am here

Teri Davis

59

Hi guys,

I’m sort of puzzled by the last two messages in this thread.

If you use a professional domain registry (like dotster, godaddy, or
one of the heavies like Network Solutions) you should never have any
trouble with someone swiping a domain on you.

I’ve had alberic. net (along with several others) for coming up on
15 years now, with never a problem, and I even forgot to renew it
manually once. My registrar (dotster) held it for several days while
they contacted me. Now it’s on auto-renew, and they pull the trigger
on the renew at 2 weeks out, so it’s never open to any sort of a
‘snipe’. You can also set up transfer locks, so that the domain
can’t be transferred without a lot of fuss and bother.

I definitely agree that your network contact email should be an
address that is not connected with whatever domain you’re using, so
that if there are domain issues, they don’t affect your ability to
resolve it. I would also recommend that you never have hosting
services through your registrar, and that you absolutely never go
with a “free” registrar. Those usually are one step above a scam.

Dotster (and most of the other serious registries) have what they
call ‘domain privacy’ setups that you can pay extra for, to conceal
your contact info from a whois search. If you do a whois on alberic.
net, you get a domainprivacygroup.com email address as the contact,
rather than my real email. Keeps the spambots from harvesting your
email from the whois registry. Definitely worth the extra couple of
bucks per year. If it’s a valid network issue, dotster will forward
the email to me, but it keeps the spam out.

I don’t agree at all that somehow having one’s own domain is best
left to those with IT departments, or that artists should rely on
the tender mercies of FaceSpace or one of the other social sites.
You have no control (or ownership) over any content on those sites.
On your own, you can do whatever you like, whenever you like,
however you like, and get whatever look you want.

And nobody else will be able to screw around with it.

It’s really not that big of a deal, or shouldn’t be.

Regards,
Brian

60

Hi Lori

sorry to hear this happened. Guess that is why so many use Facebook
to promote their work.

Your page is yours for ever. I have the deepest respect for ancient
Chinese culture, I have a Chinese name and was brought up by a
Chinese amah, nanny. But I would not trust the new generation of
Chinese business people for one second. They are ruthless con artists
who don’t care at all.

To see where they come from google ‘Thick face black heart’ and
"Thick black theory" This will show you what we are up against and it
ain’t pretty.

so sorry Lori
all the best
Richard