I've been scammed 3 times in the last month!

I've been the recipient of 2 scammers in the past week and another last month and just wanted to share what they are doing so that you can protect yourself.

The first one started with my website. A "woman" e-mailed me to say that she was in love with one of my fabrics, and could she buy some of it from me. She said she would like a lot of it if I had it. I responded with the yardage and my price. She then told me she lived in New Zealand (explains the late night e-mails) and asked if I could send it COD (cash on delivery) or she could just deposit the amount directly in my bank account. She knew that I'd decline the COD and was really after my bank routing information. Never, ever give out this information to anyone that approaches you online or thru e-mail.

The second one also started with my website. I received an e-mail in the middle of the night (first flag - what are they doing looking at my site in the middle of the night?) from a man who claimed to love one of my fabrics (second flag - a man likes cat fabric?)) so much that he wanted to reupholster his sofa with it. He needed a LOT of material (third flag - big purchase and high shipping cost). I didn't even respond. Let's get real here. Who in their right mind would put quilt quality cotton fabric with cat heads all over it on a sofa? Having been scammed earlier, I knew where this was heading.

The third one happened last night for an item I put up for sale on Craigslist. I had posted a china cabinet for sale for $1000. I got an e-mail from someone asking to come out and see it if it was still available. I said yes it was and when would he like to come over. He then claimed that he lived out of town and his trip was cancelled so he wouldn't be able to see it until late January. But he loved it and was a gift for his god cousin (say what?). He would send me a cashier's check for it, and send extra to have it shipped and he would get the shipping company involved. (I had red flags here, but wanted to see where he was going with it). I told him that a money order would be more appropriate, but if he insisted on a cashiers check, he would have to wait for at least 2 weeks for the bank to clear it, and that shipping would be very expensive since it would need to be crated to be shipped and it was extremely heavy. He said no worries, that he owned a shipping company and can he please have my name and address so he can mail me the check. (huge flag here, as why send me extra money to ship it when he owns the shipping company?) I ended the matter by telling him that I would take a money order for $1000, that he would arrange and pay for shipping directly. Of course he didn't respond back after that cause he knew I had figured out his game. I went out to Craigslist to read about scams and this is a classic scam played by people: out of town buyers purchasing things sight unseen, paying by cashier's checks or phony money orders with a third party (primarily shipping companies) involved. What would have happened was that I would have lost the money that I paid to the shipping company when the fraudulent check or money order bounced. In this case, shipping would have been hundreds of dollars.

Watch out for these things. If I've had 3 scams in a month - there are desperate people out there. If you are selling anything online at all, seller beware!!

Momofmany said:

What would have happened was that I would have lost the money that I paid to the shipping company when the fraudulent check or money order bounced. In this case, shipping would have been hundreds of dollars.

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And you could also be charged with mail fraud.  Very serious federal offense. 

A girl I work with told me about her son's experience with a craig list ad. He was selling tires or tire rims or something. Same thing happened. Someone from another Canadian Province wanted to send him a money order for more than what he was selling the tires for. He was to cash the money order, and in turn get another money order for the sale amount of the tires, and the tires were to be shipped to another address in a different Province.... or something along those lines. Enough to know it was a scam.  However, he and his Mom (the girl I work with), were sure it was legit and they were going to go ahead and do it.  A few of us begged and pleaded with her to stop and think about it, and we even gave her dozens of links outlining the scam. In the end they didn't go for it.  But the temptation of extra money... free money... is sometimes greater than the doubt that is cast in their minds.

I agree, to research things. No one gives things away for free, and if someone wants to give you money, out of the blue like that, listen to that gut feeling that tells you it's too good to be true, because it is!

I'm sorry to hear you got scammed, but that's how the intarwebz are

For what it's worth, I plan on purchasing your product as soon as my babies need it, and I can spare the coin.

God cousin, hahahahaha I love it!

I can't even remember what I was selling now (maybe one of Craig;s fishtanks) and I don't know how many people emailed me wanting to send a cashier's check. I just laughed at them!

Wow, I guess its the time of year for this

That's crazy though!! It's good you were able to recognize the scam though, some people aren't that cautious!! 

The ones I find most laughable are the one supposedly from a bank that says my bank account has been compromised. The thing is, I do not have an account there and never have had on there. But I do know that some people are gullible and will click on the link and put in their info. To me it is an obvious scam.

Others I have received involve Paypal.  They send an email addressed to "Dear Paypal User" I know for a fact that anything coming from Paypal will have my name attached. And if I go directly to the Paypal website, any legitimate email will also be on the site.

Call me cynical, but everyone seems to think this whole "free market" crap is so wonderful, and it's government regulation that got us into this Great Recession. Freaking hypocrites, nobody is stopping you from operating a small business any more than the cops are stopping the hookers and crackheads from doing "bidness" next to my house. They are still there despite how we try to run them out!

The reason Bernie Madoff and his ilk get away with scamming everyone is because we idolize people like Donald Trump and his game of exploiting and scamming anyone not smart enough to watch their money the way those douchebags do it.

People are sick of it, and I'm sick of it. It used to be that a person ran a business with the premise they were helping the community, and if they made a profit it was all good. Nowdays profit is all that matters.

It's all about the greed...and that is the problem.

I can't believe how many people fall for these scams. I mean, really, some guy from Nigeria is just going to let you keep a few thousand dollars because. . .he likes you? Someone who wants to buy your stuff is going to send you extra money. . .out of the goodness of his heart? They're just so obvious to me that I don't get how anyone can think it's legit. Maybe I'm just naturally suspicious :lol3:.

Yup, my craigslist stuff is always pickup in person and cash or paypal only.    The only way they could get their paypal money back would be a legitimate fraud complaint that paypal wouldn't pursue without just cause.    For all other purchases, I use my credit card (local or online) and don't worry about fraud as they can't steal my money, only the bank's.    Fraud/dispute protection + 5% cashback... yes please!

Another huge scam is the Western Union/secret shopper scam.  Someone receives a letter stating that they have been selected to be a secret shopper and enclosed is a "cashier's check".  There is a list of things that have to be done.  Buy stuff at various stores to evaluate service and the biggie is to transfer funds via Western Union.  Many banks don't train their tellers to look for checks like this.  The bank I worked at did.  We would have on average two fraudulent cashier's checks a week from this.  Many banks make those funds available then the person withdraws the cash and sends it Western Union.  By the time the bank finds out it is bogus, the scammer has the cash and the victim is left with a huge negative balance in their bank account.

I do have to say if you use Craigslist make sure you meet in a well populated area.  Here in Ohio we have a huge murder case going on with ties to Craigslist.

Scam letters are part and parcel of e-commerce. Learn the scams - there aren't too many, most are a version of the Nigerian scam.

On the lighter side of scams, give this a read: http://www.daventryequestrian.com/scam.html
There are 4 parts to it that I know of, and it is hilarious.

Sorry, I disagree. While there have always been some greedy, dishonest merchants out there, it doesn't mean the whole free market system is bad.  People don't usually start a business "to help the community"; they need to make money in order to live. They sell a product; people have the choice to either buy it or not. The sellers are in business not to run a charity, but to make money to live a comfortable life. And most, like Trump (even though I think he's obnoxious and don't personally care for him), work very hard for many years, often sacrificing a lot, to make their venture successful.  What's so bad about that? Good for them, I say.  Now, I am NOT defending scammers here; however, many scams involve the potential scam victim being greedy themselves--they want something for nothing, as well, and are willing to take a chance for it. Deep down, they know something is fishy, and/or immoral; but they want something for "nothing".   Madoff, of course, is garbage, but I got the impression some of his victims realized that the profits he promised them were crazy, but they invested with him anyway. The same with the so-called "predatory" mortage lenders.  When I applied for a mortgage, I had done my homework. With the Internet and books, there's no excuse not to understand mortages and whether you can afford them. Frankly, if someone is too stupid to know how much mortgage they can afford (assuming their financial picture remains the same--no job loss, etc.), they have no business buying a house, IMHO.  People are not forced to take a mortgage; you can shop around.  Sure, the lender may try to talk you into buying more mortgage than you really can afford; but you should do your own math. I spent 2 months crunching numbers; DH had just started working at his now job, and his paycheck varies by 100's of dollars each week. I took pen, paper, and a calculator, and ran our estimated salary at different interest rates. That was fun. Then, I bought a house that cost a lot less than the maximum we could afford. 

zeety said:

Call me cynical, but everyone seems to think this whole "free market" crap is so wonderful, and it's government regulation that got us into this Great Recession. Freaking hypocrites, nobody is stopping you from operating a small business any more than the cops are stopping the hookers and crackheads from doing "bidness" next to my house. They are still there despite how we try to run them out!

The reason Bernie Madoff and his ilk get away with scamming everyone is because we idolize people like Donald Trump and his game of exploiting and scamming anyone not smart enough to watch their money the way those douchebags do it.

People are sick of it, and I'm sick of it. It used to be that a person ran a business with the premise they were helping the community, and if they made a profit it was all good. Nowdays profit is all that matters.

It's all about the greed...and that is the problem.

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MargeCat said:

Sorry, I disagree. While there have always been some greedy, dishonest merchants out there, it doesn't mean the whole free market system is bad.  People don't usually start a business "to help the community"; they need to make money in order to live. They sell a product; people have the choice to either buy it or not. The sellers are in business not to run a charity, but to make money to live a comfortable life. And most, like Trump (even though I think he's obnoxious and don't personally care for him), work very hard for many years, often sacrificing a lot, to make their venture successful.  What's so bad about that? Good for them, I say.  Now, I am NOT defending scammers here; however, many scams involve the potential scam victim being greedy themselves--they want something for nothing, as well, and are willing to take a chance for it. Deep down, they know something is fishy, and/or immoral; but they want something for "nothing".   Madoff, of course, is garbage, but I got the impression some of his victims realized that the profits he promised them were crazy, but they invested with him anyway. The same with the so-called "predatory" mortage lenders.  When I applied for a mortgage, I had done my homework. With the Internet and books, there's no excuse not to understand mortages and whether you can afford them. Frankly, if someone is too stupid to know how much mortgage they can afford (assuming their financial picture remains the same--no job loss, etc.), they have no business buying a house, IMHO.  People are not forced to take a mortgage; you can shop around.  Sure, the lender may try to talk you into buying more mortgage than you really can afford; but you should do your own math. I spent 2 months crunching numbers; DH had just started working at his now job, and his paycheck varies by 100's of dollars each week. I took pen, paper, and a calculator, and ran our estimated salary at different interest rates. That was fun. Then, I bought a house that cost a lot less than the maximum we could afford. 

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So the American Dream basically boils down to how accurately one is able to "count cards" to beat the house in Vegas? Forget about hard work and doing the right thing, it's all about me me me and getting everything I can get before someone else gets it before me.

And all those defaulted mortgages just had to be from lazy, poor minorities on welfare who were spending their entitlement money on crack cocaine instead of paying rent. The banks and mortgage companies like Countrywide and Bank of America never forged any documents to push through loans they would later sell off as worthless collateralized crap...toxic investments the government had to cover to keep the global financial system from collapsing.

Yea, here's a nice bridge, you wanna buy it?

lol yaaay for scammers! Though you have to admit its kind of funny when you know they're trying to scam you, you feel like saying, "OOO you FAILED" in their faces and then just laugh at them.

I used to work at a bank and technically, a money order and a cashier's check are the same thing, if gotten at a bank.  Pretty much the only difference (at my bank) was that a money order was $3 per check whereas a cashier's check was free (one check free per visit.)   In both cases, the money is deducted from the persons account when the check is printed, the only real difference is that instead of "Money Order" at the top of the check it said "Official Check" That and (if I remember right, it may be the reverse of what I'm thinking) the Cashier's check has to have the name of the person its being sent to.  But considering the guy was a scammer, his "cashier's check" was probably a phoney anyways.

Sorry for the thread jack. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and buy my babies a bed made with love and the hard work of a real American, someone who works for a living.

Please keep in mind this is the Cat Lounge and not, IMO. Feel free to start a debate thread there. :bigthumb:

AbbysMom said:

Please keep in mind this is the Cat Lounge and not, IMO. Feel free to start a debate thread there. :bigthumb:

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Thanks for the reminder Karen.

I opened this to give people a heads up that people are scamming out there. I've had my website up for close to 8 years, and this is the first time that I've been scammed. To have 2 scams from that website in a month is a bit startling. I know Craigslist scams go on all the time. When a potential buyer contacts you about something you listed, there is now a warning on the e-mail about scamming and a link to their scamming page.

Thanks for the head's up, Amy. There are a lot of desperate people out there, more now than ever... We have to very careful about giving out too much information :nod:

I am glad you posted this.  With a new baby coming we need to turn our office into a bedroom; so I have to both buy a new desk that will fit where we are moving the computer and things to; and sell the 2 desks I have in here.  I was thinking of posting them on Craigslist; but I'm a little leery of having people over to my house and things.  I will deff say cash only.  And they will be a weekend meet-up for when DH can be here if someone wants to look at them or buy them. 

I had to laugh today though; my friend got an e-mail from the *FBI* saying if she didn't contact them immediately she would be going to jail.  Do people seriously have nothing better to do?