Possibly more scamming >>>

[Wyatt]

We are in the middle of selling a few of our snakes and I received a weird phone call this morning on my cell from an hearing impaired person who was using a teletype operator. Well he e-mailed me wanting my Retics and this is the message that was sent and the message that I replied with. The e-mail address is wmeer00@yahho.com, so be carefull !!!


Dear Wyatt,
Thanks for the conversation,
I am very happy to hear from you. I will make you an offer of $3500 has for now, I’m not in the state, i'm on exihibition right here in London, but i will instruct my client in the State that owes me $8,900 and he has agreed to issue a Certified Cashier's check of $8,900 in your name and mail it to your contact address ASAP, So I will want you to help me by wiring the remaining ($5,400) of the money through (Via Western Union ) to my shipping agent that will come for the pick-up........

If this is ok with you and if I can trust on you, reply me with your full address and cell phone # so that i can forward it to my client in order to mail the cheque to you ASAP.
Looking forward to your quick response.

If you wish to talk to me via phone here is my Cell Number: +44 07092038323 and i will be happy to speak with you.

Best Regards,
Mr. Werner Meer


( my reply )

Mr. Meer,
I will only accept a cashier check from the united states post office in the amount of $3500. No other amount will be accepted and will not be dispersed. No animals will be sent out until all of the funds have been checked by the US postmaster for verification and the money will then set in a safety deposit account for 30 days for verification of full use for the funds. Sorry but you can never trust anything nowadays.

thanks,
wyatt

TW Intl Inc.
DB Reptiles Inc

Any similar experiences ?

[Darin Chappell]

WHile I am certain this is just another variation on the now familiar Nigerian scamfest, there is one bit of information that may or may not be helpful to you. "44" is the country code for England, but, unless I am mistaken, that number given to you has one to many digits in it to be accurate.

Hope that helps you somehow . . .

[Clay Davenport]

It amazes me that these people actually attempt this scam, but apparently there are those who are trusting or gullible enough to do it or else I would think they'd have changed tactics by now.
For these type offers to be genuine, there would have to be quite a few very trusting or else foolish individuals to just trust someone they don't know from Adam with 4-5000 dollars in cash.
Let's assume for a second that this guy is for real. He has a client in this country that owes him $8900. He also has a shipping agent in this country that will come for pickup of the snakes. Apparently he is suggesting he has a buisness relationship of some sort with these people already, so why bother trusting you to send him the $4500 balance. The client could send the full amount to the shipping agent, who he already knows, and the agent could just bring you $3500 in cash when he comes for the snakes then send the other 4500 directly to England.
My first instinct is that these people are supremely stupid to think anyone would not see the numerous flaws in their plan, but then I think about the few that have most likely agreed to the offer and got taken for several thousand dollars.
The kicker up until now is that the offers came from Nigeria, where the scammers had a degree of protection from a government that just doesn't care. If this guy is indeed in England, then he's much braver, because I'm fairly certain that British law enforcement would be more than willing to help the FBI bust an international con man.

I'd suggest you have nothing to do with this fellow at all.

[ibabamba]

Can someone please explain to me how this scam works? I'm just not seeing how it would benefit the "scammer." Thanks,

[Bci Joe]

The benefit for the scammer is when he starts asking you to put money up front to pay for fees and transactions and other things, when problems 'suddenly arise' regarding the smooth, original plan..lol

With the most gullible, naive persons, or the nice guys, the scammer can keep this up for up to a year or more, having the persons continue to send money for this and that and the other thing...
This has happened several times.. TOO many times, and that's why they continue to do it.

THIS IS THE NIGERIAN SCAM AND IS THE #2 BIGGEST SCAM IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!!!

Since it would take much work, research and time on your part to try and bust these people, the most efficient thing you can do , in my opinion, is block their email to avoid further communication.
There is no winning with them.

Thanks and take care - Joe

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

The original check for the $8900 is no good. IF Wyatt went for this, (NOT implying you would Wyatt, just using you as the example as your the one the offer was made too) he would deposit the $8900 in his Bank account. Then send the balance (was it $4500?) through Western Union back to the crook. Wyatt's check would be legit.

Withing 1-30 days Wyatt would be notified by his bank that the $8900 was a fake check. Bank takes that amount back out of Wyatts account. Wyatt at that point would have already sent the $4500 legitimately through Western Union to the crook...............too late to get it back.

End result?

Wyatt is out $4500 and the animals (IF anyone actually picks them up) and possibly a lot of bank fees for all the checks that would bounce when the $8900 is suddenly yanked from his account

The crook would have a legit check from Wyatt for $4500, (Which was sent Western Union, so Wyatt can not get it back, it's like sending cash) and possibly Wyatts animals as well.

THAT is how the scam works.

[ibabamba]

Oh, I just assumed that anyone would wait for a check(cashier's or not) to clear before shipping anything, including money. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

Or maybe some of both, I had not thought of the scenario Joe suggested.

Either way, I am sure the $8900 check would be bogus.

[ibabamba]

Disregard my last post. Wouldn't the bank know it was a fake?

[Bci Joe]

I originally thought Cheryl posted her thoughts without having seen mine, but she raises an obvious point which I had overlooked!
I actually heard of it occurring as I mentioned above several times, that's why I posted - but the other is obviously correct too!

Yes, a normal person would or should wait for it to clear in the bank BUT ..
it is reeeaaaallly funny what this much money can do to a person....
in a way, it kind of raises your adrenaline/bloodpressure, for lack of a better description... it kind of makes you feel a bit drunk in a way.. it's funny how money makes people totally lose their train of thought, their morals, their values, beliefs, inhibitions, and to a point, their common sense!

it's like, you feel so happy about having this much money, you kind of forgot about everything else! such as the fact that you are being robbed for about twice that amount at the end of the day!! (not you or me, an average, maybe naive, person in this situation)

There was another thread about this recently, and someone admitted to leading these guys on in the past, and said he has a wall 'full', covered with these bogus checks and money orders he has received over the past couple of years!

Joe Rollo

[DThomas]

This happens more often than you think. I have run across this before in my line of work. Your bank will not know if it is good or not. They will cash it for you and then it will be sent to the issuing bank for them to pay your bank. Even then it is sometimes not caught.

Reason: These scammers have individuals working in the mail rooms of large corporations. These inside people then steal out bound checks. The scammers then make copies of them, using the correct info, acct#, check number, amount, but make it payable to whomever they are trying to scam. The corporations won't catch it because the check number and amount matched. It won't be caught until the company the check was supposed to go to calls asking about their money. This can take a month or two. The corporation then disputes the payment with their bank which then disputes it with your bank who in turn takes the money out of your account.

Advance fees and over payments requesting the balance to be wired is always a red flag and should be avoided.

Do not trust your bank to verify whether a check is counterfeit or not. All they do is verify the account is good and money is there to cover it. Only the issuing bank for cashiers checks or the actual business can tell you if the check is counterfeit or not. And do not use the phone number listed on the check. Call information for the number. The scammers alot of times will list a cell phone number on the check and pose as the bank or business to dupe you into thinking the check is good.

[Clay Davenport]

In this instance, as well as a few others I have seen, the buyer is promising a certified cashier's check. Under normal circumstances, it is not normally necessary to wait on these to clear. They are certified by the fact the issuing bank has reserved those funds in the account for the purpose of fulfilling that check, meaning it won't bounce.
In this case however, it is assured that the check would be a forgery. The plan is that the person cashing the check has full faith in the fact it is a certified check, and has no reason not to forward the excess money immediately.
I remember one incident where the certified check that was received was drawn on an insurance agency, it was a settlement check. More specifically it was a forged settlement check. The scammer had a genuine copy of an actual check from that company and altered it. The insurance agency verified that they never issued a claim to that person, and the check number was actually issued to a different individual for a different amount.

I have also heard reports of forged money orders, another form of guaranteed payment.

[Darin Chappell]

Take everything everyone has set forth about how difficult it is to spot a forged check here in the States, then compound that with the knowledge that every country in the world has its own numbering system, and that nearly none of them are compatible with any others. There is simply no way on earth for any individual (especially not your entry level bank teller!) to know whether that cashier's check is real or not when it comes from abroad.

I don't mean to be hard-hearted toward those who have lost money, but really . . . if it sounds too good to be true . . . it always is! Most of these people are small-time breeders like myself. Do you really think anyone in Uganda, Great Britain, or Timbuktu has EVER heard about us or our animals????

C'mon, folks! It's time to wisen up a bit!

[DThomas]

Well said Darin.

[Bci Joe]

I agree!

[JungleShadows]

Here is one I just had sent to me. Gee sounds awful familiar don't it? LOL Who are these people trying to fool?

Jody Pieper
*Jungle Shadows*

See below for email recieved from Mr. Alban:

"I am interested in buying your (Anacondas) 4 males at advertised rate of
$700.00. Goods to be
shipped to London. Cost and modalities of shipping to be born by
me.

Payment for the purchase is by check through a friend that owe me in In
Baltimore Maryland. The
debtor owes me higher than my purchase. He will therefore be
sending you a check for $4,500 to cover the cost of my order, as
well as the Shipping costs.

On receipt of the check, you will cash and deduct the cost of our
order .The balance you will send as we would instruct you to the
Agency that will ship the Goods to us. If this arrangement suites
you fine, please send me your address where to send the check, as
well as the name to be on it. Also send me your phone number for
easy communication.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Best Regards

MR. James Alban."

[serpentinedreams]

The secret service would be intrested in obtaining any checks from these people. I myself was contacted some time ago and played along with them sending there emails and finaly a check to the secret service before showing them the other thread here. It is funny how quick they will disapear once they realise you know. Although these crimes are dificult to prosocute it is a nice fealing to provide the government with as much ammo as possible. Shaun DeBord

[The BoidSmith]

What puzzles me though is that it seems to be some sort of an automated computer response (either that or they are reeeealy very slow). Check at their reply to my latest e-mail. Someone with a minimum savy of internet business transactions would understand why I was not interested in their proposal. But they still have to ask "why are you so angry"????

Their reply

Hi Alvaro Daniel Garcia,
Have told you the fault comes from the previous shipper so why are you so angry.
Kindly
David

My e-mail:


David,

Sorry, but I have lost interest in this transaction. The reasons are that first I get an e-mail from your shipper (supposedly in Italy) and he uses your username and e-mail account (and you are in New Zealand, right?). Then you provide me with a contact and a zip code for Mantova, Italy (41600), but you then send another contact person with a completely different zip code. There is too much money involved and a lot of inconsistencies in the information provided.

Thanks anyways.

Dan

[Adam Block]

Mr. Meer,
I will only accept a cashier check from the united states post office in the amount of $3500. No other amount will be accepted and will not be dispersed. No animals will be sent out until all of the funds have been checked by the US postmaster for verification and the money will then set in a safety deposit account for 30 days for verification of full use for the funds. Sorry but you can never trust anything nowadays.



Well SAID!!

Has anybody found out if we're better of saying okay then turning the check over? I didn't know if the checks are easy as pie to make or if that would be a pain in their butts.

[Bci Joe]

right about that... at least, if we lead them on, they do have to spend a certain amount of time, effort and money to do this!

Just like all that junk mail you get and credit card offers...

just take the 'postage paid' return envelope they send you, stuff a bunch of cr@p in there like other junk mail and credit card offers, and send it back to them!

They have to open it and feel like they make us feel.
Not only that, but if we ALL did this, not only will it eventually cost them a ton of money in postage/envelopes, but it will cost them a ton of money in the time lost by the reps opening these and not making sales!
you gotta have fun with these people... atleast it helps alleviate their intentions of having fun with you!

take care - Joe Rollo

[DThomas]

Originally posted by alvaro


My e-mail:


David,

Sorry, but I have lost interest in this transaction. The reasons are that first I get an e-mail from your shipper (supposedly in Italy) and he uses your username and e-mail account (and you are in New Zealand, right?). Then you provide me with a contact and a zip code for Mantova, Italy (41600), but you then send another contact person with a completely different zip code. There is too much money involved and a lot of inconsistencies in the information provided.

Thanks anyways.

Dan

Not really a good idea to send them a response like that. You just taught them how not to make the same mistakes next time, making it harder for the next ill informed individual to spot the scam. It would be better to just break communication rather then point out all of their mistakes.

You also posted earlier that you would send a link to this thread to them. Why would you do this? It serves no purpose but to warn them that we are on to them. It will not deter them. But it will give them a place to go and see what others are posting about their scams so they can learn what not to do. It will do more harm than good teaching these scammers what not to do.

[The BoidSmith]

You also posted earlier that you would send a link to this thread to them. Why would you do this? It serves no purpose but to warn them that we are on to them. It will not deter them. But it will give them a place to go and see what others are posting about their scams so they can learn what not to do. It will do more harm than good teaching these scammers what not to do.

Dennis,

You are right. The last thing they need to know it how to "polish-up" their scheme. With regards to sending them the link to this thread, although I had thought about it, I never did. The reasons being exactly what you are stating.

Thanks!

[DThomas]

Great! :D

[emroul]

Someone just emailed me something exactly like that.... He started out saying this:


Hello Jennifer,
I'm interested in buying your 0.3 CB '03 BALL PYTHONS that goes for $100....But right now i am in spain to buy some goods for my company in holland.

I will like to know the present condition and also like to know if you will accept banks cashier cheque.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards..
jeff

Then, I told him:

Thank you for your inquire, but I have sold the Ball pythons. All I have available right now are a pair of corn snakes.

Thank you,
Jennifer
emroul@cox.net

Those two were written on 11/8/2003

Then he asked me how much my corn snakes are. I didn't respond to him until this morning when he emailed me (I told him I sold the pair) because he seemed fishy to begin with. Now this morning he wrote me what sounds like the same thing that they call the "nigerian Scam"? (Is that it?) Any way, here it is:

Hello emroul,

Yes i reside in the U.S ohio, but i am not in town as i already told you in my last mail but if we can still continue with the transaction all i will need to is to call my business associates to make out a check $4000 when you get the payment you will remove $400 the $300 is for the little stress you are going to go through for me,then after that you will now send the balance of 3600 to my shipper's beneficiary who would be i chrage of the shipping aspect of the transaction.

Regards,

Jeff. (jeff_potter_1@yahoo.co.uk

Jeff Potter is his full name (or so he says).....

My question is, what transaction are we continuing? Oh well, just htought I'd share.

Jennifer

[Bci Joe]

just like someone said... sounds to be computer generated email/responses, since they don't make much sense....

[Chris DeLay]

Below is the second e-mail of this type I have received. This one came from a different e-mail address and looks to be a very similar scam; it looks much the same as the last I posted. The e-mail address it was sent from is jubril_ahm@libero.it

I figured I would post this to perhaps save someone from being ripped off.

Sincerely,
Chris DeLay
Stellar Constrictors




--------------------------------------------



From the Desk of;
Mr. Jubril Ahmed Sadiq
Zenith International Bank
Lagos - Nigeria.

Dear Sir,


I am interested in the reticulated pythons you have for sale.

I am the manager of bill and exchange of the Foreign Operations Department of Zenith International Bank of Nigeria. I am writing following the impressive information about you through one of my friend who run a consultancy firm. He assured of your capability and reliability, although I did not tell him the details of the business I want to do with you.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $25.5million dollars (Twenty Five million five hundred United States Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along side with his entire family in November 1996 in a plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relation to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately we learn that all his supposed next of kin or relations died along with him at the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this fund behind for the claim. It therefore upon this discovery that I and two other officials in the department now decided to make business with you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation of the deceased for safety keeping and subsequene disbursement since nobody is coming for it and
we don't want this money to go back into Federal Government account as unclaimed bill.


The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained after six years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Nigerian cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. We agreed that 30% (negotiable) of this money will be for you as foreign partner.

Therefore me and my two colleagues will visit your country for the
disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Please be honest to me. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of the fund to you as arranged you must apply first to the bank as next of kin of the deceased.

Upon receipt of your response I will send to you a text of the application with the name of the deceased and his country and other information about him. Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. You can also reach me through my Alternative Email Box (jubril_ahm@netzero.com).


Best Regards

Mr. Jubril Ahmed Sadiq

[Dennis Gulla]

I received that exact e-mail yesterday, 11/10. I believe that more people are catching on.

[Sasheena]

Well, I thought I would share the latest nigeria scam with all of you folks, even though it doesn't have anything to do with selling or buying snakes. They'll try anything! now they are saying that my dear relative Jim has passed on in nigeria, and they have been trying to find me for two years to give me the 15.5 million... blah blah blah...

These people are funny, but I'm sure the few people they actually do SCAM do NOT laugh. Sad that such things are allowed to exist, but hey, whattaya do? censor? nope!

[robyn@Pro Exotics]

what i don't get is why this thread has been run a dozen times, and every time it is labeled as a "possible" scam. as if it just "might" be true, or is hard to tell...

if you fall for this one, i think that just might be natural selection weeding you out...

[NEWReptiles]

Do these cons reply through KS classifieds or here?

[dvf1973]

not to respond to them, but INFORM YOUR LOCAL FEDS, copy and print the info and send it to them, they willl data base it, remember who we are dealing with here, they are alot darker than they are given credit.
not to be cheesy, but i have a sneaking suspision terrorist , or the supporters of , may be involved in this type of play, its just to obvious of a scam, that is what they do best, wether it be internal, or external, it seems to me that having this info in our system may connect these people to other things eventually, look at all the news as of this last couple of years on all of the scams here, its ironic as nigerias local isnt exactly friendly with us and our ideals, this new system our government has may work? its a bit creepy, i may be utterly wrong , but a hunch none the less

[BallsGalore]

I will explain it the best that i can. I was selling my s-10 blazer on a classifieds page early last year. I wanted 3500.00 for it I got a reply saying they had a contact in the U.S. that owed them 8500.00 and they would send me a cashiers check and i was to send them the balance to pay for shipping. I was like ok this seems fishy they were from africa. So I agreed and sure enough 2-3 weeks went by and a cashiers check from florida came. I deposited it in my bank account. I waited a week and still nothing bad on the check yet. A really good deal came along I couldnt refuse. A close friend of mine was selling an extra 100% het albino ball python male for 190.00 so i withdrew 200.00 and used it to buy the snake. The next week I went to deposit some money when they told me account was frozen I had to talk to the manager of the bank. The check came back counterfeit after 2 1/2 weeks the caught it. Slow bank system I guess. Well I had to pay back the 200.00 i withdrew no big deal.

The way it works is they give you a bad check, you cash it not knowing its counterfeit, keep your piece and send theirs back. You exchange the fake check for real U.S. currency.i think they target th United States cuz our money is worth more than others money is.. Then you get stuck paying the bank for the check you cashed. I found out the hard way dont even try it sounds fishy to me. Tyson Edwards

[M n R-Reptile]

What amazes me is all the money banks probably lose when someone cashes a check at a place like a check cashing store, etc....
Banks must lose TONS of money like that.

[dvf1973]

thats a brilliant point, crap maybe i will start taking these deals, i will cash them out at check cashing places, as they suck and deserve every loss they get, and the banks are protected by the fdic"not us" if you read the fine print.

[DThomas]

Originally posted by M n R-Reptile
What amazes me is all the money banks probably lose when someone cashes a check at a place like a check cashing store, etc....
Banks must lose TONS of money like that.

No, the checking cashing store loses the money. Banks do not take a loss on those transactions.

[KNOBTAIL]

place them into collection, they will pass through the federal reserve much faster than a deposit, and the monies, although will never arrive wont effect your checking account. Some banks may even charge you for that check being returned as insufficient.