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AHEM
04-18-2005, 09:15 PM
I usually get these about three times per year. The most recent was today, so I thought I'd give everyone a heads up on the scam.

Here's the scenario:

You answer the phone to find an operator assisted telephone relay call. This is a service for the hearing impaired to be able to type to a live operator who will then relay the coversation between both parties.

The person on the other end of the phone asks to buy a fairly large quantity of a certain item, which is usually DVD players or other home theater components.

This person is interested in whatever you have in stock right now and wants to place a credit card order for six to ten pieces and doesn't haggle price, but emphasises how quickly the items are needed.

As it turns out, the scam originates in Western Africa (primarily Nigeria), and of course, uses stolen credit cards to try to obtain products. They're not interested in special ordering anything, and they want you to get the products shipped out ASAP before the card is reported stolen.

My guess is that the stolen cards are as a result of identity theft or perhaps Phishing scams.

Furthermore, these cons artists often have american contacts who are either knowingly or unknowingly being cut in on the deal, so they can provide you with an American shipping address.

At the conclusion of today's conversation, the caller asked for my email address, which I gave to him in an attempt to play along with the scam in order to hopefully obtain a credit card number and shipping address, which I could then in turn use to contact the bankcard issuer and the FBI.

So far, there's been no response, but following the conversation, here's the email that I received:

HELLO SIR OR MADAM
I LIKE TO PLACE AN ORDER IN SHOP I LIKE TO KNOW
IF U CARRY DVD PLAYERS......... OR HOME TEHATERS........ IN A BOX IN STOCK
NOW ......I LIKE TO KNOW IF U AHVE THESE ..BRAND IN STCOK...SONY
..PANASONICS.........AND I LIKE TO KNWO WHT ARE THE COST RANGING IN THAT....
AND THESE ARE THE MODELS.......

This person obviously doesn't use English as a first language. I'm told that the telephone operators are aware of the scam, yet are prevented from stopping the calls or divulging the orgin of the caller.

Just a heads up for everyone who's not encountered this one.

P.S. I'd pay good money to be alone for five minutes with this person with a ball bat in hand.

vwpower44
04-18-2005, 09:42 PM
We get at least one of these per month. We always hang up. Heaven for bid, if it is ever a deaf person try to purchase something.

Mike

tomciara
04-19-2005, 12:26 AM
I asked for ship to address once because they always send a call tag (that way you have no record of where it went).

Address was someone of a different name than the person emailing me; and there was no city name in the address I was given (Louisiana).

I wasn't trying to make a deal, just trying to dig in and hassle them a little.

Friend of mine bit and lost $2500. Bad news.

Kelly
04-20-2005, 08:58 AM
I get these now and then as well...usually just hang up...

The other thing that I get beat up with is those damn spam faxes.....

Apparently most of the spam faxing is done from a company in Canada, so they're bascially not touchable by the US authorities...

Every now and then I'll call the 800 number they give, and just waste their dime.....They waste my ink, I cause their 800 billing to be a little bit higher.....Seems fair to me.

AHEM
04-20-2005, 09:44 PM
The purchaser is now offering to pay the freight to West Africa via his or her Fedex account, and supply me with a Master Card.

"hello steve....
ok i need DVD-1710 $150.00 4 of them and i will handle teh shipping
...to ghana ......and i will give u my fedex account ....and i wills end
fedex for it wht will eb the total cost for that and i will give u my
master card for u to process my order......."

I haven't had this much fun since I don't know when.

tomciara
04-21-2005, 09:28 AM
The other thing that I get beat up with is those damn spam faxes.....



I haven't received a fax on my fax machine for 3 years. Try efax.com - you get the fax basically as an email attachment that you click and open. It's free if you only get a handful a month.

ZERO spam faxes.

AHEM
04-24-2005, 06:11 PM
Ok, so I managed to get to the point where I was given two card numbers to process. I called merchant services who referred me to the issuing bank (Citibank), who immediately put a hold on the cards and contacted the rightful card owners.

I think now, I'll ask for more card numbers.

Chalk one up for the good guys.

rhm9
04-25-2005, 09:41 AM
Ahem...

Are you close to a farm?

I bet you could get the right amount of horseshit to weigh approximately what a DVD player does!

THAT would be fun to watch someone open.

AHEM
05-11-2005, 11:29 PM
That's actually not a bad idea, and yes I live very close to a farm!

BTW, I just got 2 new card numbers.

tomciara
05-12-2005, 12:21 AM
Wow, you are really getting into it!! Good work, I know it takes extra time.

Man, I'd love to do the horse**** in the DVD box trick. It'd be worth saving a few DVD boxes for the next call...

flyingmachine
11-05-2006, 01:04 PM
I got a scam email a few months back just as I was getting going with the business. What tipped me off was he said he was "browsing my website", well at the time I didn't have anything other than a domain and a "coming soon" page...

Good Day,
I was browsing your website this morning and was interested in
getting a quote on a Hi- Definition HDTV Ready Plasma Monitor.This
unit will be particularly used for home entertainment.

The following will be my specification.
i. No speakers
ii. Frame Color : Black,Silver
iii. I need a static wall mount
iv. Sizes 42'' - 50"
v. High Picture Quality
vi. Monitor must come with a TV TUNER

Favorite brands would be Sony,Panasonic,Pioneer,LG,Fujitsu and any
well known brands are acceptable.My budget is about $5000.00

Thank you for your time and will be pleased to hear from you soon.
The name is David Howery


I replied that I would like for him to call me and asked if he needed installation service...

AM buying this unit for a friend and will not need installation.
I hope you get back to me soon with a quote.
Thank you

So, I played along a bit and sent him some prices...

Thank you for your quote.I will go for the Fujitsu Unit.
Am going to pay with my cards below and i will like you to split the
charges on them
Master Card
Card Number : xxxxxxxxxxx5688
Expary date : 01/2007
CVV: 539
Name Card : David Howery

Visa Card
Card Number : xxxxxxxxxxxx7157
Expary date : 06/2006
CVV : 246
Name Card :David Howery


Billing Address
David Howery
1339 west ardmore ave.
chicago,IL.60660

Let me know as soon as you run the card and have the order ready for
shipment.How long will it take you to get the order ready?
Thank you for your time


I did a reverse address search on whitepages.com and that address was assigned to a different name.

What a joke.

Darren
11-05-2006, 04:32 PM
We get at least one of these per month. We always hang up. Heaven for bid, if it is ever a deaf person try to purchase something.

Mike

I received a call similar to that recently... but my connection was bad... to make matters worse I was on a ladder hanging speakers in a doctor's office.

Bad thing is that my mother is deaf and uses KS Relay to communicate with me, so I thought it was one of her friends trying to get a qoute on a flat panel. The other party used poor english (as do many in the deaf community), I finally hung up and figured they would call again. Never heard from them again.

avconnection
11-05-2006, 04:43 PM
I just tell them we don't accept those calls.

Last time it happened, I received a call from a builder in town, wanting to know when I was going to do there satellite. I told them I wasn't, thinking they thought I was another dealer. Come to find out the last relay call was from a real deaf couple.

tschulte
11-06-2006, 08:47 AM
My friend gave me a website once where this guy was scammed just like this for computer parts. When he next got a call he took all the info, including the FedEx account number, and shipped them junk in boxes marked computer parts. The guy on the other end sent three or four nasty emails basically saying he was going to kill the guy. He turned these over to the police as death threats. The whole thing is documented on the site. He has pictures of the stuff he sent.

avconnection
11-06-2006, 02:24 PM
Way to go
What about sending oven doors

CCD
11-06-2006, 02:53 PM
Hey, this looks like a good way to get rid of all that crap I have around that they will no longer take since my town got rid of the electronics recycling center. Broken reel to reels, broken tape decks vcrs blown up subs. I have a shed full.

I got these calls when I was in the car audio biz daily.
I once got a check for 10k in the mail with an order.
I went to Bank of America which the check was drawn on.
The poor teller kid cashed it. I deposited it into my account and shipped all the stuff to the Bahamas. Bank of America called saying the check was forged. I explained to them I told the teller I thought it was a scam and he said it was fine and cashed it anyways. Bank of America had the shipment stopped at Customs in Miami and sent back to me. They sold it all back to me fo 50 cent on the dollar. I won twice and the Scamster lost and BOA lost big time. The poor teller was fired.

sirroundsound
11-06-2006, 02:54 PM
There is a web site out there somewhere with a ton of stories about various scams.
One story took forever to read, they played along with one of the Nigerian money scams. They kept the scammer calling and e-mailing thinking he was getting closer and closer to them sending him the money to release the funds, all the while pretending to be some form of a minister of a church that would really benifit from the extra "commision" money it would receive.
Eventually they turned the tables on the scammer and had him change his religion, because after all they couldn't send money to help someone outside of their church.
Then they pulled the best part of the story, they needed the scammer to send them money (only $100.00) so they could release the funds from their church accounts, and he did....

tomciara
11-06-2006, 03:05 PM
Hey, this looks like a good way to get rid of all that crap I have around that they will no longer take since my town got rid of the electronics recycling center. Broken reel to reels, broken tape decks vcrs blown up subs. I have a shed full.

I got these calls when I was in the car audio biz daily.
I once got a check for 10k in the mail with an order.
I went to Bank of America which the check was drawn on.
The poor teller kid cashed it. I deposited it into my account and shipped all the stuff to the Bahamas. Bank of America called saying the check was forged. I explained to them I told the teller I thought it was a scam and he said it was fine and cashed it anyways. Bank of America had the shipment stopped at Customs in Miami and sent back to me. They sold it all back to me fo 50 cent on the dollar. I won twice and the Scamster lost and BOA lost big time. The poor teller was fired.

We once sold a 50" Pio projection to a guy who looked bad - but the check was made out by one of those PayMaster check writers that embosses the payee and amount. Sure looked official. We called the bank and got the OK on the check. It went bad.

Bank says, "Those checks were stolen!" I said, "We called and asked you!" It was a dentist's checks and they were stolen and THE ACCOUNT STILL WAS NOT CLOSED. We lose.

One of our guys furtively started a camcorder during the transaction in the store. He also followed the truck for a mile or so in his car to get the license number.

Much later the truck was pulled over, a black book showed the pre-order for a big screen and the cops went to the apartment and found the TV. He had placed the order for a $4000 TV (at that time) and paid only $400 for it.

We got it back with just one bad wheel underneath.

The camcorder and license number on the truck sure helped.

flyingmachine
11-08-2006, 09:08 AM
I just got another suspect email today...

Good Day,
CEDIA referred me to you as a professional who can help me get a good Plasma Monitor
The following will be my specification.
a. Must come with speakers (inbuilt or removable)
a. Cable Card Ready monitor
a. Static wall mount
a. Sizes 42'' or 50" screen
a. Must be a tv tuner

Choice of brand will be Panasonic,Pioneer,LG,Fujitsu,Philips and any well known brands.
My budget is about $4000
I dont need installation for this unit, i'm going to handle that on my own.
I will also be handling shipping with my freight company.

I await your urgent reponse

I replied with this:

Hi, there is quite.a difference in price between a Phillips and a Fujitsu. Do you have a more specific idea on which model you need? How will you be paying for this and what kind of shipping do you require?

Then his reply:
Patrick,
Thanks for getting back to me.
Please send me couple of models you carry, thus both the Philips and Fujitsu so that i can chose from.
Do you accept Visa or Master Cards?
I will have my shipping company pick up the freight from your business.