Phishing Scheme?? How often do you get hit when selling through classified?

Buster6X6 · Dec 17, 2005

In general I have sold things over the internet several times. All is well that ends well.Today I got three email's from Andy Moore saying he will purchase all three items I have advertised in our classified section.Anyone heard from this guy?, he is not a member of this community. He said it is for a birthday and he will pay with PayPal.It just don't add up. As soon he asked for my address and phone number flags went up.This is more a heads up for our members.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Greg

MattCarey · Dec 17, 2005

It would seem odd that he would want the three items you have--just because they are so different (bronica c, retina and canon mount zoom).

If he pays up front with pay-pal, what could any possible scam be?

Matt

jimgalli · Dec 17, 2005

Yes, same thing here. Will pay on monday blah blah blah.

r-brian · Dec 17, 2005

Ok, I got hit with the same e-mails this evening. Check my thread in 'Feedback and Discussions'. Looks like someone ran a phishing expedition on all the classified section.

Pay by PayPal with a stolen credit card and you lose your equipment. Sounds very Eastern European scamish to me.

Brian

Pastiche · Dec 17, 2005

It might be helpful if this thread were re-titled - "Phishing Scheme on APUG" or something to that effect. Not everyone will check into this thread, not knowing that by "hit" you mean "scammed" .. or attempt thereto....
Think - Public Service Announcement"

Jim Moore · Dec 17, 2005

I received this one tonight..............

Hello Jim,
Thanks for the mail,i''m glad you still have the Unit available ok,Well i will like to pay you the amount of $3150.00 for the Wisner 5X7 Field Camera With 4x5 & 6x17 V-Pan + shipping cost to my In-Law place,Via Western Union Money Transfer BidPay Service.please i needed the item urgently beause i want to present it to my in-Law as a birthday gift and my wife has been disturbing me over the item i want to present his perant.i will need your details listed below for the payment:

( FULL NAME......?)
(FULL ADDRESS.........?)
( PHONE NUMBERS............?)

Please kindly do that immediately and get back a.s.a.p.,Looking forward to hear back from you soonest.

Thanks.
John.

NBlease i will like you to ensure me that you are the private owner of the -(Wisner 5X7 Field Camera With 4x5 & 6x17 V-Pan )-becuase i dont want to involved in stolen
properties......

Signed "John" but it comes from "Andy Moore's" email address.
The first email I received from him was signed "Andy".

mfobrien · Dec 17, 2005

I had exactly the same email for my Contax G1. Flags went up when I read the wording -- it was as if he never read the damn listing. Then, he wanted to pay via Bid Pay and Western Union, and to have it sent to someone else for their birthday. No way. That reeked of scam to me. I told him I already traded the camera for other gear. I pulled the ad, maybe I will post it again later after the holidays --

Jorge · Dec 18, 2005

If you guys are bored and have nothing to do, why dont you string the guy along and make him pay.

I dont recall the thread but someone here posted a link to a thread about a guy who got the scammer back. He strung him along for a while and at the end he "confirmed" he had received the notice from WU the money was waiting. So he told the scammer he was worried the computer would get lost or damaged, that if he could please send him a prepaid Fedex airbill so he could ship it Fedex. The scammer thinking he was going to get a computer for $125 buck sent the prepaid airbill....so the seller filled a box with old magazines and shipped it to the address on the airbill........ I thought it was pretty clever.

JHannon · Dec 18, 2005

Jorge said:
If you guys are bored and have nothing to do, why dont you string the guy along and make him pay.

I dont recall the thread but someone here posted a link to a thread about a guy who got the scammer back. He strung him along for a while and at the end he "confirmed" he had received the notice from WU the money was waiting. So he told the scammer he was worried the computer would get lost or damaged, that if he could please send him a prepaid Fedex airbill so he could ship it Fedex. The scammer thinking he was going to get a computer for $125 buck sent the prepaid airbill....so the seller filled a box with old magazines and shipped it to the address on the airbill........ I thought it was pretty clever.

This is the thread Jorge Dead Link Removed

The "Western Union" payment seems to be used quiet a bit with these scams, are they easy to forge?

--John

Jorge · Dec 18, 2005

JHannon said:
This is the thread Jorge Dead Link Removed

The "Western Union" payment seems to be used quiet a bit with these scams, are they easy to forge?

--John

Yep, thats the one......I think it is funny as hell....

Sean · Dec 18, 2005

I filed a complaint with the FBI. Hopefully this guy will move on to the next site by tomorrow and leave us alone...

leeturner · Dec 18, 2005

Regarding Western Union payments, Ebay UK and Ireland and now banned these payment methods for selling due to advice from the police anti fraud section.

eddie gunks · Dec 18, 2005

sounds very funny! just a few questions? why do teh scammers use bidpay? i am not sure i understand why your name and address tips you off to them being a scammer. i read about the guy who shipped the stuff fed ex, and scammed the scammer. i guess my question is how do you make sure and secure the payment with bidpay? i mean if bidpay says you have the money is this not in fact true? how should i protect myself? if the pay companies say i have the money, i should have the money, right? i have made several online purchases, but i have only sold 1 or 2 items.
thanks fo teh laughs
eddie

photomc · Dec 18, 2005

Could be wrong, and if so my apologies...but these seem a bit out of place, almost like someone trying to find out why there scam failed?

eddie gunks said:
sounds very funny! just a few questions? why do teh scammers use bidpay? i am not sure i understand why your name and address tips you off to them being a scammer. i read about the guy who shipped the stuff fed ex, and scammed the scammer. i guess my question is how do you make sure and secure the payment with bidpay? i mean if bidpay says you have the money is this not in fact true? how should i protect myself? if the pay companies say i have the money, i should have the money, right? i have made several online purchases, but i have only sold 1 or 2 items.
thanks fo teh laughs
eddie

Dan Fromm · Dec 18, 2005

eddie gunks said:
sounds very funny! just a few questions? why do teh scammers use bidpay? i am not sure i understand why your name and address tips you off to them being a scammer. i read about the guy who shipped the stuff fed ex, and scammed the scammer. i guess my question is how do you make sure and secure the payment with bidpay? i mean if bidpay says you have the money is this not in fact true? how should i protect myself? if the pay companies say i have the money, i should have the money, right? i have made several online purchases, but i have only sold 1 or 2 items.
thanks fo teh laughs
eddie

Eddie, BidPay sends the seller two e-mails as well as mailing a money order. BidPay needs name and mailing address to mail the money order, e-mail address to send the news that there is a money order. The first e-mail says, in essence, that the buyer has paid and that Western Union hasn't actually received the money. The second says, in essence, that Western Union has the cash in hand and that it is safe to ship. Given the ease of faking e-mails, ...

Pastiche · Dec 18, 2005

photomc said:
. . . x, y, z ....

I Second That.

Alex Hawley · Dec 18, 2005

I had an e-mail from Andy Moore this morning. Deleted it without reading. Then I saw this thread. What a coincidence.

MattCarey · Dec 18, 2005

photomc said:
Could be wrong, and if so my apologies...but these seem a bit out of place, almost like someone trying to find out why there scam failed?

I have jumped down the throats of people who I thought were spammers in the past, so I have tried to back off some (even though I was correct).

Given that this guy only has one other post--asking about how to sort classifieds by seller:
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I'd be careful for a bit with offers on the classifieds--another round may be in the offing.

Sorry, Eddie, but since one of the tip-offs that this was a scam was the fact that people received offers for each item on the classifieds, asking how to sort the classifieds by seller would make me suspicious that you were trying to avoid this mistake in the future.

Matt

p.s. I hope you stick around, post a lot of useful information and good images and prove my suspicions wrong.

Paul Sorensen · Dec 18, 2005

I got Andy's messages too. I just thought he was a jerk who didn't read the ad. Never occurred to me that he was a scammer. What ticked me off was that he was asking for current condition and updated photos, the photos are a week old and the stuff has just been sitting here waiting to be sold in the last week. I have already posted my stuff on eBay so I just sent him a reply to that effect. I was actually very glad that was the case since I was getting a really creepy feeling about the guy. Such an anglo name yet his english was severely lacking. I guess I don't expect a scammer from eastern europe to have the name Andy Moore.

Sean, were you able to get an IP address for law enforcement? Since he sent the emails through our system, we can't do a heck of a lot of email tracing.

John Bartley · Dec 18, 2005

Just a thought here ... this guy turned out to be a scammer as far as we know, but one of the nice things about Western Union is that when you collect from them, you collect cash, greenbacks, folding coin of the realm ...etc. If you really wanted to know whether or not a scam was taking place, all you need to do is send him your name and address and email address, all of which aren't exactly private anyway. With that little bit of info, if he is legit, you will receive an email stating that you have CASH waiting for you at your local WU office. A simple phone call confirms this and then you know for sure. Once you have cash in hand, send the goods. Otherwise, no cash - no goods. Why a scammer would use WU ?? I have no idea as all it takes is a bit of patience to prove or disprove what they are.

cheers

moose10101 · Dec 18, 2005

John Bartley said:
Why a scammer would use WU ?? I have no idea as all it takes is a bit of patience to prove or disprove what they are.

Many people believe everything they read in an email, including the fake one that they get from "Bidpay" telling them it's OK to ship.

There are still millions of people on-line who haven't heard about phishing schemes, even though every newspaper and TV station has done multiple reports on them.

Ole · Dec 18, 2005

John Bartley said:
Why a scammer would use WU ?? I have no idea as all it takes is a bit of patience to prove or disprove what they are.

I've no idea, but WU has been kicked out of most of Europe. No banks will cooperate with them, it seems the documentation, traceability and fraud protection is so far substandard as to be unacceptable to much of the banking world...

Phishing Scheme?? How often do you get hit when selling through classified?

Buster6X6

MattCarey

jimgalli

r-brian

Pastiche

Jim Moore

mfobrien

Jorge

JHannon

Jorge

Sean

Admin

leeturner

eddie gunks

photomc

Dan Fromm

Pastiche

Alex Hawley

MattCarey

Paul Sorensen

John Bartley

moose10101

Ole

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Phishing Scheme?? How often do you get hit when selling through classified?

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