Warning! New Scam going around.
 

Basically the scam is getting somebody else to cash fake Postal Money Orders and then wire the money back to them, or to someone else.

Originally the scam was simply have someone cash the money orders and receive some of the money as payment for the help. Sounds stupid, right? Yeah, but there are a lot of idiots out there who need money and don't realize they are being scammed.

Now, one version of the scam (which is how they attempted to scam me) is to contact you about an auction, some item that they want. The grammar is horrible in the emails, and no name is ever used. I was selling some turntables for my roomate on ebay, and this guy contacted me saying "my client wants your item. I deal with U.S. transactions for them and ship the items to them". I thought it sounded weird so I required either a money order or cashiers check to help secure my money. He said, that's fine, what I'll do is send extra funds, then you'll be able to pay the "shipping company" which will come pick up the item. I told him to secure the transaction by using the buy-it-now function, and he never did. The auciton ended without the reserve met, and he send the check was on the way.

Well, I received the package today, and I was expecting around $800-$850, the price of the items was $750. I figured, $50-100 for shipping internationally was reasonable. So I opened it up and yup, an $850 Postal Money Order, but there were 3 of them. Sequential Serial Numbers and all for $850. $1800 to ship seems a little high, so I figure, this guy is just routing money through me. The worst part is that he wants me to "wire" the money throught Western Union to some Chick in the UK and now she'll pay the shipping charges. What?!

Obviously, this all keeps getting more sketchy, so I examine the Money Orders, very bad fakes. The back tells you what security features to look for, and then they aren't even there.

Just a heads up to not reply to any emails regarding purchasing your items for clients outside the states. If you try to cash the fraudulent Money Orders, you are involved in a federal crime, and the authorities will be contacting you.

For more info Money Order Fraud

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

go cash those fuckers and buy some turbo ----!

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

wow i bet you fell off the stupi bus on camp retard didnt you?


he clearly said they where fake. its a kinda good scam where he ghets your ---- for nothing. lol. hm....

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

And you would probly get hassled trying to cash them.

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

Just had a few of those guys try that on me for a mixer im selling.

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

send me the fakes >:D

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

Get some illegal to cash them for you. They won't be getting hasseled anyway, they don't excist. (sp) :D

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

It's not exactly a new scam, but the money order part is. There's an entire thread about it on honda-tech.com.

When I had my car for sale on www.hondaclassifieds.com I got numerous e-mails like that, each requesting the same. I just told each of them I would require a personal check and 10 days for it to clear if I were to have anything to do with them.

I'd take the money orders to the post office if they're post office money orders, and say you recieved these but they're obviously fakes, how can we track these guys down. I wouldn't sit around waiting for them to send a real MO, I'd be looking for a way to make it bite them in the ass...especially if they are fake postal money orders, then they're in deep ----.

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

If you don't wanna have an illegal cash em, then just turn em in and give em the envelope that you had.

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

yeah yesterday at my job someone was trying to scam us out of $1800 worth of laptop batteries. and as you said it was weird from the get. to make a long story short (cuz i was on the fone for over an hour) this lady calls up and said she works for a company that helps deaf people comunicate with companies via the internet and a "chat room". so the guy types to her she says what he tped and then does the same for me. now we went back and forth for a while befor i knew what they were looking for but once i found out it was all good. then they said they wanted one at 189 ea then they said 10 so we brought the price down to 180 the said ok. then they gave a card number and b4 i could ask for the securety code on the back of the card she gave it to me. normally people dnt even know about the code. so i run that card and it denies it so i get a dif card (similar numbers same code on back) run it no good. so then the guy wants 900 on each try that and samething so then i was like well you can have him send us a check and once it goes threw we will send them. she pauses and "types" and then is like well it looks like we will be signing off now thank you have a good day and hangs up. it was wierd.


edit: sell them to someone for half the price of what they are worth and let them deal with it. thats the only way to make any money off it

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

a local guy recieved a counterfeit western union and didnt know it until a week later when the bank let him know...

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

I almost did go cash them, just for the fact that he sent $1800 for shipping, I knew it was shady.

I'd get rid of them somehow, but they are addressed to me, with my name and address. The bank probably would have taken them at first, but they would have come back eventually, so it's not worth it.

I'm trying to get the guys info by saying I need an address to send the wire transfer info to. I already talked to the Postal Inspector, he confirmed that they are fakes, and he just told me to drop off the info involved in the transaction at a local post office and they'll forward it to him.

Overall this sucks, interweb scammers suck

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

i posted my dads car on Craigslist cuz hes trying to sell it, ive gotten 6-8 bogus "im a broker and ill give you 3x what the car is worth for my customer in south africa" type of bs... Some of em are pretty trickey but most of them are pretty obvious scams

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

take a picture of you holding 1800 american dollars then send the picture to them with your face blured out and flipping them off. and on the back write "---- you, i have your money"

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

/\/\/\ Do that! Then they'll be like WTF!?

You can get into some serious trouble trying to cash bogus checks just try to get the most info from them possible and let the authorities take care of it.

Re: Warning! New Scam going around.
 

I've dealt with a lot of this ---- working at a bank for two years and now I work for a major shipping company and we get pallet load after pallet load of african fraud merchandise. This scam is just so common and well known I don't know how anybody falls for it. And even if they do I don't know how anybody can even get funds from the bank. Here's the problem:

If you go to the bank with a large cashier's check (that's the more common scam) they are most likely going to put a hold on your funds (per Reg. CC). That is assuming that the teller doesn't notice it's a fake, but since 90% of teller are stupid asses, there is actually a pretty good chance. But the chances that it won't be found as a fake before your hold is released is very slim. Then the just pull all the funds back out of your account anyways, and you're never able to send the cash.

They guy that is going to get screwed the worst is the one that has the kinda cash in his account to cash the check against. If he sends the cash (which is just idiotic) he's going to have to eat it when the bank pulls all the funds from that check back out of his account. Sorry, the bank isn't going to eat that one. Greedy bastards.

But this new money order one might set more ppl up for problems. There is probably less of a chance of a hold, just because money orders are under $1000. But even at that, the fakes are almost all of terrible quality, so who knows.