Con man alert!

[John_Mc]

If anyone gets a call from WILLIAM from CA. Beware!!!   He is a con man.  Took me for about $700 about a year ago.  He will give you a sob story about losing his father to the virus who had all kinds of Ford parts....  Beware of this snake!!  

[John_S_in_Penna]

Thank you for alerting us all, John.

 

If ordering from an unknown person like that,

I think C. O. D. (cash on delivery) is a useful

method from the post office.  Let's thwart 

anyone who would prey on our hobby.

[John_Mc]

1 hour ago, dc-8dave said:

Hello John,

                     It might be more helpful if you shared a few more details.

Very well, he called me from phone number 510-330-3452, Hayward CA.  He said his name was William but his voice and story were similar to the guy who ripped me off about 2 years ago.  That time he also told me that his father had recently died and left him with all of these Ford parts.  I asked to send me pictures of what he had, but said he only had a flip phone and not not tech savvy enough to send pictures.  This guy is good, make no mistake, he will describe the parts needed in detail.  He had a phone from Reno NV at that time.  He is human garbage and I just want everyone to know of this.  

[wayne sheldon]

Interesting case. Sounds like the same person discussed a couple years ago I think here, and I know on the model T forum I spend too much time on. I have a few long-time good friends in the Hayward/Oakland area. Nobody there seems to have any idea who this might be. And they are not happy about their area getting a bad name for this (what some of them have said should be done to the human garbage pulling this stuff is not printable in a polite forum!).

What I find interesting, is that someone would be trying to pull the same basic scam from the same basic area for a couple years, and still getting away with it. He appears to be at least somewhat knowledgeable about the cars and parts, but still in the same area? I guess he doesn't want to mess with what works. 

It could be that he is still using a phone number from that area, but lives some distance away. I still use my Bay Area cell phone number from twenty years ago, even though I am over 150 miles away. IF he is still using the same phone number? I would doubt that. But law enforcement SHOULD be able to find him. However, maybe he changes his phone number to "burn" phones and that area is a convenient place he can get them?

[John348]

4 hours ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Thank you for alerting us all, John.

 

If ordering from an unknown person like that,

I think C. O. D. (cash on delivery) is a useful

method from the post office.  Let's thwart 

anyone who would prey on our hobby.

 A postal money order sent through the mail is mail fraud and a federal offense as well

[Guest]

Caveat emptor semper.

[Terry Bond]

A phone number can easily be spoofed.  The crook is probably somewhere in Nigeria and has made his phone number seem as though it's from Ca.  Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a caller ID display showing a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed.   Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

 

Terry

[wayne sheldon]

Terry Bond makes a very good point. A large percentage of spam and robo-phone sales calls are done using spoofed and hacked numbers. Many (read that as whole LOTS and BUNCHES of them are!). I don't know what spam list my phone number is on, but I seldom answer my phone anymore unless I recognize the caller. I have googled probably a hundred numbers in the past couple years. Easily half of them are known scam/sales calls. Interestingly, one number I googled lead to a scammer tracking website explaining this in detail. There was even a posted complaint/apology from someone that discovered THEIR home phone number had been hacked and used by scammers without their knowledge up until they got contacted about it. Way too many modern phone messaging and call forwarding systems are too easily hacked. Way too many of those systems are commercial and business systems with multiple phone numbers most of which are not specifically assigned to any particular individual.

Even so, many of those numbers could be traced by interstate law enforcement if they wanted to. And most could easily be shut down within a day.

[TTR]

While I don't condone anyone being taken advantage of, but unless additional, contradictory evidence is provided, the way I read/see this is that OP got taken by someone, perhaps TWICE, merely because of his own greed ?

Cons based on promise of quick and/or easy profits happen every day, all day, all around the globe and unless those targeted are mentally challenged, unable to rational thinking with common sense, they should just blame themselves.

Edited September 3, 2020 by TTR (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

This is a very common scam. I know I've said it a dozen times here, but when someone magically contacts you after you place a wanted ad and says they have "the item" you want, it's often bogus. They're not local, and maybe even in another country, but somehow they have a cache of goodies that are exactly what you need. Seems like a miracle, right? Better yet, he's already got a story which probably involves a dead father or brother, working remotely on an oil rig, deployed overseas in the military, having shipping already lined up and the "item" is already wrapped up and ready to ship, and offering you free shipping (and probably free return shipping if you don't like it, plus a money-back guarantee).  He will also claim to be unfamiliar with how a digital camera and E-mail work, or that he's away from where the stuff is and his poor old mother/neighbor/wife doesn't know anything about it, or it's already packed for shipping and they don't wan t to unwrap it. After he contacts you, you will surely describe to him EXACTLY what you need and how to identify it, so he'll go on Google and find pictures of, you guessed it, exactly what you need.

 

If you hear that kind of nonsense, RUN! Don't fall for it. It's not real. There are no parts, no miracle car, no free shipping, no money-back guarantee, none of it is real. This is one of the most common scams right behind three-card monte.

 

The only thing a scammer needs to succeed is a willing victim. Don't let your excitement drown out the sound of the alarm bells going off in your gut.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Guest]

 One way to outsmart a scammer is to ask for a pic of the part with a distinguishing item in the photo. ie show me the part with today's newspaper showing the date, or with a bottle of milk next to it.

[Matt Harwood]

When someone sends me photos of a car or a part, I just do a Google reverse image search to see where else it appeared. Pretty easy to find the eBay ad or Craig's List post where they cribbed the images.

[Jim Skelly]

Matt,

 

Would you please elaborate on how to do a reverse photo search on a specific car.  

[Matt Harwood]

2 hours ago, Jim Skelly said:

Matt,

 

Would you please elaborate on how to do a reverse photo search on a specific car.  

 

Sure, here are the steps. It's easy:

 

1. Go to Google.com and click on "Images" in the upper right-hand corner.

 

 

 

 

2. The screen will change slightly and show you this camera icon. Click on it to upload the photo that you're searching for.

 

 

 

3. You can either paste the URL of an image that's already online or upload an image. If someone has E-mailed you images, download the image onto your computer someplace you can find it easily, like the desktop. Then click on "Upload an image."

 

 

 

4.Find the photo on your computer.

 

 

 

5. Find the image, select it, and click Open:

 

 

 

 

It will show you what it thinks the picture is (Google is pretty good at identifying things, although it doesn't know this is specifically a Marmon):

 

 

 

 

It will show you similar images that it thinks are a close match:

 

 

 

 

And it will show you all the websites where your exact photo has been used. Some guys will get tricky and rotate the image or change the size, which can fool the algorithm, but most crooks aren't that savvy. Note that in this case, it is showing all the places I have this Marmon advertised, including a post on the AACA message forum.

 

 

 

Hope this helps people spot the grifters!

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Ken_P]

3 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

This is a very common scam. I know I've said it a dozen times here, but when someone magically contacts you after you place a wanted ad and says they have "the item" you want, it's often bogus.

 

Exactly! I'm looking for some specific license plates. 72 hours after I posted here what I was looking for, I got a mis-spelled email, no pictures, just "email this guy and he has the plates you're looking for." I didn't email him, and today I got a more misspelled email with a phone number to call. Uh-huh... Still, thanks to the OP for sharing his experience. Glad he didn't get taken a second time.

[DB26]

This sounds like the same guy (from Nevada) that tried to scam me about 3 years ago. Same story too. Dad died and left him (In my case) all his NOS Dodge parts. No pictures and money order required. 

Edited September 3, 2020 by DB26 (see edit history)

[Hudsy Wudsy]

Matt, that undoubtedly took a long time to create that response about Google Photo Search. Thank you for all of that effort on our behalf.

[Matt Harwood]

9 minutes ago, Hudsy Wudsy said:

Matt, that undoubtedly took a long time to create that response about Google Photo Search. Thank you for all of that effort on our behalf.

 

Not as long as you'd think. Maybe 10 minutes. Some screen caps and some quick Photoshop work, no problem.

 

Remarkably, I started with this Jaguar as my example car, but since it wasn't online yet, it didn't find any results. I thought it would be more helpful to show a car that would have some hits elsewhere on the web to illustrate how it could find those sites. However, the really interesting thing is that Google correctly identified the make and model of the car from just my photo:

 

[Hudsy Wudsy]

36 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

Not as long as you'd think. Maybe 10 minutes. Some screen caps and some quick Photoshop work, no problem.

 

Remarkably, I started with this Jaguar as my example car, but since it wasn't online yet, it didn't find any results. I thought it would be more helpful to show a car that would have some hits elsewhere on the web to illustrate how it could find those sites. However, the really interesting thing is that Google correctly identified the make and model of the car from just my photo:

 

Yes, that is amazing. I don't pretend to understand it all, but I know that we truly benefit from it all.

[Jim Skelly]

Matt,

 

Thank you VERY MUCH for the detailed explanation.  It will help all of us to (hopefully) root out some of these scammers.

 

Jim

[MMRestoration]

We just got a call from this guy with the same number, same story wanting to sell us some parts for a 35 Chevy Suburban we are building.  He got us a few years ago on some early 28 Model A headlights.  We sent him a bank wire transfer for the parts.  He sounds like he knows his parts.  Not today.  He has a distinctive voice, talks fast.  Said his dad just died of covid.  Said his dad bought 4 1935 Suburbans new for taxi cabs in 1935.  Hmmmm.  Well if his dad was 20 in 1935 when he bought them that would make him die of covid at 105 years old!  LOLOLOLOL!!!

Seriously though.  This guy needs shut down and prosecuted.

Edited September 4, 2020 by MMRestoration
added information (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

1 hour ago, MMRestoration said:

This guy needs shut down and prosecuted.

 

Please give his full name (his alias).  

 

Maybe give his phone number.  Some of our members

may want to waste his time!  There are videos on Youtube

where honest people--computer experts--thwart scammers

by wasting as much of their time as possible.

[MMRestoration]

27 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

Please give his full name (his alias).  

 

Maybe give his phone number.  Some of our members

may want to waste his time!  There are videos on Youtube

where honest people--computer experts--thwart scammers

by wasting as much of their time as possible.

He said his name was William and his number is 510-330-3452

[John_Mc]

6 hours ago, MMRestoration said:

We just got a call from this guy with the same number, same story wanting to sell us some parts for a 35 Chevy Suburban we are building.  He got us a few years ago on some early 28 Model A headlights.  We sent him a bank wire transfer for the parts.  He sounds like he knows his parts.  Not today.  He has a distinctive voice, talks fast.  Said his dad just died of covid.  Said his dad bought 4 1935 Suburbans new for taxi cabs in 1935.  Hmmmm.  Well if his dad was 20 in 1935 when he bought them that would make him die of covid at 105 years old!  LOLOLOLOL!!!

Seriously though.  This guy needs shut down and prosecuted.

Yep, must be the same scum bag that called me.  He talks very quickly and is VERY convincing, make no mistake about it.  He also knows something about cars, since I asked him some question and he knew the answers.  When he scammed me last year, he was for sure living in or near Reno Nevada.  He had taken the name of Edwin Fenner.  I’d love to see this crook behind bars

[broker-len]

Sorry for your lose ---$ 700.00 is allot of money THE FIRST TIME !!---Do you think you should have learned from the first mistake ??---do you think you should have been more careful ??---do you think you should have demanded to see pictures as a prerequisite for sending money a second time-? Why not contact a local car club and ask some one to do you a favor and go look at the parts ?--I do not know how bad you needed the parts or how rare they were but your car hobby is getting expensive

[oldcar]

 

 

 

Hello You are both lucky, it sounds very much the same "modus operandi" that cost me over US$5,000. He is a very polished operator, he had photographs of both his, recently departed fathers now rare 1929 Renault RY1 Monastella and more of the engine and gearbox. He had obviously researched these rare and now almost impossibel to find parts before answering my "Wanted advert". He could even send me a "weight-bill' Invoice etc for the Air-freight from the USA to Australia.  All of these "Looked correct' right up to the time I started to track down the very professional "Crate"that my parts were said to have been packed in.

It was only then that I started to smell a rat!

Due to his father's recent death, he had asked that I pay the money into his sister's bank account. It was only discovered after my Bank did some checking on my behalf that the account had been opened in time to receive my money and closed again as soon as the money had been withdrawn. All very slick and impossible to trace. With me he used the name "KELVIN MAX". It appears that he is well known among the British motor cycle fraternity and he has made a "very nice" living out of ripping them off too. He also is known to use a variety of names including Atwood Fogliton and or variations of that. 

You really need to be very alert if you get caught up in his net. When "looked up" the address he gave me was a vacant block of land but you only find these things after the "bird had flown".

To "Broker Len". I must have spent a very sheltered life here "down-under", This was my first experience of such a polished operator. He had answers to all my questions. and was able to provide photographs of what is a very rare car, Mine is the only known example in Australia and there are probably less than a dozen or so in England and a handful more in France. Yet he had answers to all my questions, claiming he had a very knowledgable mechanic who did all the "heavy lifting" on his father's car.

 

Bernie Jacobson

Victoria, Australia.

If you need to you can do a search of my name. I am not about to disappear. I am now very near to my 84 birthday and have been an active Vintage car enthusiast all my adult life. 

It is very easy to be wise after the event, Looking now at the photo of the Crate, it has obviously been "re-touched". At the time you are so pleased to be able to find the parts you need you tend to overlook such things.

For those who have no idea what a 1927-9 Renault looks like I have included a photo of my rather "non-original" 1927-9 Renault Monastella. It is still a work in progress.

Edited September 5, 2020 by oldcar (see edit history)

[Robert G. Smits]

The above posts only represent the "tip of the iceburg"  I would say this scammer is making a nice living.  Many times it is not greed on the part of the victim, it is suddenly locating the unobtainable part.  After purchasing the the Ron Van Geldren V16 with missing grill and side panels I walked around Hershey for several years wearing a sandwich sign advertising for the missing parts and never found them.  I would have been ripe for a scam!

Fraud takes many forms in the internet age.  A year ago I purchased a car on BAT.  The owner in California was represented by a dealer in Washington State who I had been in contact with several times prior to the end of the auction.  In response to my question for routing information for the wire transfer I received a email reply from his computer directing me to sent the wire to an account on the east coast stating that he had not had time to establish banking relations at his current location.  This raised my suspicion and I called the east coast bank and asked them to verify that the account was in his name which they wouldn't do.  I contacted BAT and told them that I would only pay the person whose name was on the title or they could cancel the transaction.  The "end of the story" is that his computer had been taken over by a out of country scammer.  Before you send that wire call the recipient to make sure everything is above ground.  I came close to losing 30K.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Robert G. Smits
spelling (see edit history)

[Trulyvintage]

No one is going to save you from yourself if you are expecting to get something for next to nothing.

 

No One Ever Talks About Greed.

 

The anticipation and expectation of getting a “ good deal “ at less than fair value.

 

You Can’t Have A Con Without A Mark.

 

Don’ Be A Mark.

 

 

Jim

Edited September 5, 2020 by Trulyvintage (see edit history)

[John_Mc]

2 hours ago, broker-len said:

Sorry for your lose ---$ 700.00 is allot of money THE FIRST TIME !!---Do you think you should have learned from the first mistake ??---do you think you should have been more careful ??---do you think you should have demanded to see pictures as a prerequisite for sending money a second time-? Why not contact a local car club and ask some one to do you a favor and go look at the parts ?--I do not know how bad you needed the parts or how rare they were but your car hobby is getting expensive

Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

 

My point of the post was to warn others.  Would I do it again?   What do you think?

Edited September 5, 2020 by John_Mc (see edit history)

[John_Mc]

1 hour ago, Trulyvintage said:

No one is going to save you from yourself if you are expecting to get something for next to nothing.

 

No One Ever Talks About Greed.

 

The anticipation and expectation of getting a “ good deal “ at less than fair value.

 

You Can’t Have A Con Without A Mark.

 

Don’ Be A Mark.

 

 

Jim

Greed had nothing to do with it; did I mention anything about getting a great deal?  Did I mention money at all?  
 

He claimed he had rare Ford parts - plain and simple.

Edited September 5, 2020 by John_Mc (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

2 hours ago, Trulyvintage said:

No one is going to save you from yourself if you are expecting to get something for next to nothing.

...You Can’t Have A Con Without A Mark.

 

I wrote this on a similar crook-related thread, that of

the car dealer in Michigan who cheated customers:

 

"I'd recommend blaming the criminal, not the victim.

Criminals--whether they are bank robbers, con men,

or dishonest car dealers--practice being subtle and secret,

and while after the fact their deeds may be obvious,

they may not be obvious beforehand."

 

"Thankfully, we can rely a lot on trust in business, since

most people are honest.  Not blind trust, but practical trust.

That's what makes our hobby enjoyable.

Criminals violate that trust."

[padgett]

'nother reason I prefer local cars with a clean Florida title. Have had too much success.