internet boat buy scam

Many have heard of this but check this out...I was selling a boat on ebay, and I get this email saying they were buying the boat but had made the check out for more than I was asking..."simply refund our money via western union." Beware! I filed a complaint with the internet fraud commission...Oh, and yesterday I get this phone call from someone I couldn't understand who was asking, "where my check?" in a very thick accent!

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ShowLetter.html (43.3 k)

yea man i cant see the letter it like makes me log in

Here's the initial email!

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 01:19:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: "jennifer owen" <examples_417@yahoo.com> Add to Address Book
Subject: Payment terms and shipping arrangement
To: "mehlenbacher rob" <robmehl@yahoo.com>

How are you today? I just got your mail and I have spoken to my customer and concluded arrangement on the payment.He has instructed me to inform you that payment will get to you in a cashier check of $27,500 which is a refund payment of a cancelled order earlier made by him.

Due to company policy this check has to be made out in
this amount to you ,because company policy only allows a refund
payment on one cashier check,so you are required to deduct cost of
the boat $21.000when payment gets to you and refund
balance $[6,500 ] to my customer via western union money transfer for
him to be able to upset shipping charges

After payment has reached you and balance sent back to
him,our agent will come pick up title and drive to a prepaid shipper
to be shipped to my customer,while title papers and other necessary
documets will be given to the agent at the time of the pickup.

Confirm this and provide name, address and phone
number for check payment to be delivered to you via fedex or US courier.


Thank you

I recieved the check like they said via fed ex and the check looked real until I took it to the bank...and they looked kinda confused and said the check will have to clear in 3 days!

I had the very same thing happen a while back. I took the check to a friend who is VP @ a bank and the check had a stolen number or something on it. They kept the check and I never heard anything from it again.

Still more crap from the fu^%*rs!
Goodday Rob,
Thanks for the mail and update.We are we to expect the transfer details because the shippers are not based in USA, it was a co -incidence that they happened to be in USA when you recieved your payment so that decided to utilize this opportunity instead of having to come from europe for your pick up.Please we would appreciate it if you can fasten things up so that we can seal this deal asap.they are threatning to increase the charges for this delay and our client never bargained for this in any way.

You are also required to provide the details, your "address / location" of where the purchased property is presently located at the moment, so that as soon as the agents receives the payment and the address / location from you, they will be able to seal-up their contract on all the pick-up and shipping arrangements. for their pick-up and shipping services to be possible.

Below are the customer's Details that you would need to transfer the pa yment to the agent via moneygram money transfer..


NAME - CHARLES. D. HARRIS

ADDRESS - 702 N Sam Houston Parkway East,
Houston 77060, Texas USA.


You may just go to any western union or money gram outlet or stores in your area to make the transfer. We are expecting your response with the all the details so that we will forward it to the shippers for them to pick up funds and come for pick asap.As soon as they pick funds up i will email you with details of when they will come for you be there to recieve them.Please confirm the reciept of this mail and get back with the infomation needed.
Awaiting,
Management....
--

i was looking at wakesetters on e-bay on day and came across a 04 VLX loaded no reserve. i sent the guy an e-mail and asked for some pictures and where he is located he told me in was in PROG!(in the middle east) when he sent me pictures they were from the maalibu web-site
i thik i still have the e-mail when i told him i thoght it was too much of a scam he told me i was
F**KING IDIOT SO i filed an complant with e-bay fraud dep. i havent herd anything fomr them back
NEVER BUY STUFF FORM E-BAY

Was it this guy???
How stupid would you have to be to do this?
(here is a copy of the email I received from him)



HI

I have removed the boat from Ebay because I already have many interested customers.
I have moved to Prague , Czech Republic and the boat is here.
The boat will be shipped by air.
If you want to buy it I require a $5000 deposit and the ballance to be paied after delivery.
The whole deal will be done through Ebay Square Trade department for our protection.
If you decide to buy please provide me your full name and address for shipping so I can initiate the transaction through Ebay. After that you will be contacted by them with transction details, invoice and aditional information.

David

Two ways to tell if the people are frauds. FIRST: Insist that ALL transactions from THEM are through Western Union (they require CASH for any transactions)
Second, tell them that because of the high dollar amount, verification of the merchandise in their posession will have to be made through a security agency (private investigator). Chances are, you will NEVER hear from them again.

Here is my email chain from the same email address. I replied to the first email saying I was gone on vacation for two weeks and it didn't register, so I knew I had a scam when I got a second one that mentioned that I had replied, but not the fact that i was going to be gone for 2 weeks on vacation and didn't want to talk until then.

When I returned, I replied telling her I was back, but Surprise Surpise....that email address was no longer valid. It sounded fishy. Lucky for me, I was leaving for vacation.

This is the first time, I have been aware of fraud. Where should I report this?

**************************************

----- Original Message -----
From: jennifer owen (examples_417@yahoo.com)
To: Laci A. Porter
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 10:02 AM
Subject: Payment terms and shipping arrangement....




"Laci,
How are you today? I just got your mail and I have spoken to my customer and concluded arrangement on the payment.He has instructed me to inform you that payment will get to you in a cashier check of $40,000 which is a refund payment of a cancelled order earlier made by him.

Due to company policy this check has to be made out in this amount to you ,because company policy only allows a refund payment on one cashier check,so you are required to deduct cost of the boat $32.500when payment gets to you and refund balance $[7,500 ] to my customer via western union money transfer for him to be able to upset shipping charges

After payment has reached you and balance sent back to him,our agent will come pick up title and drive to a prepaid shipper to be shipped to my customer,while title papers and other necessary documets will be given to the agent at the time of the pickup.

Confirm this and provide name, address and phone
number for check payment to be delivered to you via fedex or US courier.

********************************

----- Original Message -----
From: jennifer owen
To: Laci A. Porter
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 1:46 AM
Subject: update me asap


How are you? I just got your mail, I really appreciate your urgent response and please indicate your best price for the boat and also
give me a comprehensive detail about the present condition of the boat and my client likes the pics you send to me,also forward the pictures into my email box if there any again and as soon as this is done we will arrange for the payment and pick-up.please,don't fail to indicate the price of the boat and hoping to hear from you soon.
Best ......

I received the same email, I played with them for a while before I told them to bite me, I can't beleive people fall for this stuff.

lauri:
that is how my e-mail went from that same guy i deleted all
-alex-

Here's a good read on a similar scam where the scams the the scammer! Might give you some ideas ;)


www.p-p-p-powerbook.com

http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/files/thepowerbook.pdf

Laci, that's the EXACT same email I got! I filed a fraud complaint and hope they get their ass worked!

aircanada:
that was a good play there nice way to take matters into your own hands!
-alex-

this is a common scam... do not do any transaction with any person doing these scams... they send you a fake check which takes 3 days to clear meanwhile you sent the balance back... they never had any intensions of buying the product...

just drive down to western union and send him $7500.oo for his trouble

my buddy keep getting these "offers" for a car he had for sale, and just for the hell of it, he just keeps telling them to overnight the "check" ...They must be spending $20-30 to next day air the check, ao at least he feels like he screwing them a bit.

Lauri H, hahahahahahaaha. He was gonna ship the boat via air huh? hahahahahahaha.

I had someone call me on some high end art work I had for sale. I knew it was a scam as soon as the buyer said they had to send me a few thousand extra because that is what their "client" made the check out for.

I played along for a while and actually received a check. I then called the bank on the check and sure enough, it was a fraudulent check. Someone had stolen some checks from the bank and had made several attempts at using these checks. From what the bank said, it sounds like a few of people fell for the scam.

Combat Wombat,
Yeah, glad you caught that! So, I wonder, who was supposed to pay the shipping, and how much might that be??