A Bit of Fun with a Scammer

[oldcarfudd]

I have a 1911 Stanley listed for sale in the HCCA classifieds.  In the last couple of days I've had this online conversation:

 

Subject:  1911 Stanley Model 63                  12/15/16

Hello Seller,

I saw your post concerning 1911 Stanley Model 63 for sale which price is $98,000 and i'm seem to be most interested in buying it.However,can I have a few pics sent to me via email ? Hope payment with Certified Cashier Cheque is acceptable from U.s.a bank...

Await to read from you,

John

Re:  1911 Stanley Model 63                           12/15/16

Pictures were included with the ad.

 

Subject:  Detail for the payment                  12/15/16

Hello,

Thanks for the mail i saw the picture I do appreciate it..However we can proceed with the sale by providing your details such as name that cheque will be payable to,mailing address,cell phone number in order for the cheque payment to be issue and deliver via USPS mail service respectively..

Await to read from you,

Regards

John

 

Re:  Detail for the payment                           12/16/16

 

Hello, John!

 

Yes, of course I’ll accept a Certified Cashier Cheque on an American bank!  But I want to know my wonderful Stanley’s new owner will take good care of it.  The front cylinder on early Stanleys generates interference with the flux capacitor of the magneto.  It must be charged with a 120-volt degausser, or the boiler will leak.  European degaussers only work on 240 volts.  I can send you my dual-voltage degausser for an extra $2,250.  Do you want it?  By the way, can you arrange shipping?  I've never sent a Stanley overseas before.

 

Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas!

 

Re:  Detail for the payment                           12/16/16

 

Yes am okay with your arrangement, Thanks very much with the honest you have toward this transaction, All i need now is your full details for the check payment, As i sad before on my last mail just send your full details so that you can receive your payment next weekend. Act faster.

 

John

 

(To Be Continued?)

[John_S_in_Penna]

Where did the criminal claim to be from?

He's certainly not from an English-speaking country!

[Guest]

Another prince from New Delhi perhaps?

[MochetVelo]

I'm curious how the scam will work. He gets your address and sends you a (presumably) phony check. Then what?

 

Phil

[Matt Harwood]

What the scammer will probably do is tell him that he has a "client" or a "partner" in the US who owes him money. He is going to ask that entity to send John a certified check for the price of the car plus the overage that he's owed (say his client owes him $110,000 and they agree that the price of the Stanley is $100,000). He will then tell John that his US-based client will send him a certified check and ask John to cash the check and go to Western Union and send him the overage, less, say, $2000 for his trouble. So he'll insist that John send him $8000. He's counting on greed and free money to be the hook. If John were a sucker, he'd be all giddy that he just sold his car for full asking price PLUS an extra $2000 from this naive overseas buyer.

 

Note how he keeps saying it's a certified check, which is important. He's counting on John assuming that it's instantly good and sending him a few thousand of John's dollars before anyone finds out that the certified check is no good. Later, when the check bounces, the money will be gone. in fact, when John balks, he's going to get very agitated telling him that the check is good right now and that he must, must, must send the cash via Western Union. There will probably be a ticking clock where he needs the money very badly or else the whole deal will fall through. Eventually, he's going to get really pissed off and start sending very angry messages.

 

Then he'll vanish suddenly without another word.

 

I have a half-dozen "certified checks" on my desk that were part of such a scam to buy cars. Fortunately, every one of them is so accurately forged that they include the bank's real phone number on them. One call and you know it's bogus.

[mike6024]

I got a cashier's (bank) check from one of these gentlemen. It was written as a very good Washington Mutual Bank cashier's check. This was back before Washington Mutual went bankrupt.

 

It was for $2,000 and it was sent to me by UPS envelope with tracking, not USPS.

 

The item I had listed for sale was $200.

 

I did not have an account at Washington Mutual, I had closed it and moved on to another bank at that time. I took it to Washington Mutual deliberately because it was written as one of theirs, as if the sender was an account holder of theirs. Gave it to a manager and said, "here, this is a fraud." He said, "How do you know?" and looked at it closely under a desk light. He didn't seem so sure, but took my word for it.

 

So I asked him can't this be tracked? I have the UPS envelope it came in so there should be a sender for it. Thought maybe he would turn it as well as the additional information I had, like the emails and UPS sender over to authorities. He did not and just said these are very common.

 

My instructions from the check sender was that a mistake was made and I was to Western Union the excess $1800 back, and was given a name and location to send that to. Then It changed and there was someone else in a different state I was to wire the $1800 to.

 

Well I yanked him around on purpose, and thought I might gather enough information that something could be done to track and punish. Nothing came of it. The only satisfaction I got out of it is he wasted his time, and a few bucks on the UPS delivery. You would think UPS would want to know if they were being used to facilitate a fraud.

[John_S_in_Penna]

On 12/16/2016 at 10:51 PM, mike6024 said:

...Thought maybe he would turn it as well as the additional information I had, like the emails and UPS sender over to authorities. He did not and just said these are very common.

 

If the bank didn't follow up on a fraud perpetrated in their name,

shame on them!  Any apathy would indirectly aid the criminal.

Surely that big bank had a fraud department or a detective.

[60FlatTop]

Whoa! Imagine him plugging in the Euro 240V degausing line. It could have pulled in the starter relay and that Stanley would have took off by itself.

Bernie