Nigerian Nightmare
 

Got a simple email from someone yesterday about my recent CL ad for the Cayman. You know the kind - they show up a day after you post and they ask if you still have "the car" and how much. Since I was using and old email acct for the ad, I thought why not play along. So I responded that I did.

This morning I get this email from Danny :

"Thanks for your mail.i will appreciate more pictures..I am ready to buy it now for my son as a surprise promise gift,And due to the nature of my work,phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it.i would be glad to pay for it as soon as possible though i will not be available to come for an inspection due to my tight schedule.Kindly get back to me with the following questions below:

1) Are you the Owner?
2) Pick up Location?
3) Your PayPal Email ID to effect the payment
4)what is The final Price
5)is there any other issues with the item not mentioned on Craigslist?
6)kindly remove the post from craigslist

I would be glad to make the payment immediately through PayPal so kindly get back to me with your PayPal ID. You need not to worry yourself about title transfer and shipment,i will instruct the shipping company to handle that therefore in order to complete the transaction do get back to me with your PayPal ID and total cost so that I can make the payment asap. I will
be waiting for your reply"

Red flags all over the place. I found it interesting that he wanted my PayPal so bad but I suppose they figured they had my email addr so all they had to do was put their crack pw team on it to break the code or attach some sort of spyware pgm on my PC.

Anyway, here's my response:

"Hi Danny,

Wow, you're a tremendous dad. Wish the world had more great people like you rather than all the people filled with hate and deception.

Attached are more pics that you requested.

Here are the answers to your questions:
1. yes
2. the city of the advertisement
3.
4. I'll make you a special deal and knock the price down to $36,000
5. nope, it's perfect
6. I have a standing practice to keep ads up until the car has left the premises. Leaving it up after that would be false advertising and would lead people on. I wouldn't want to mislead anyone. That wouldn't be nice.

I left #3 blank as I'll happily give you the ID over the phone. I figure if you're able to squeeze out a 5 min email, you should be able to give me a quick call. You can reach me anytime at the # listed in the ad.

Tex"

I attached the pics below.

It's too bad that you have to weed through this crap. I got an email from someone the other day that was sort of similar and the addr looked suspicious. But then when I looked again it was t4968 and I thought it might be a Porsche person. I did respond with basic info but didn't hear back. Don't know if he was legit or a spammer.

Think I better go run my spyware protection now.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1357053695.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1357053712.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1357053725.jpg

In the time it took me to write this post, I got a reply from Danny:

"Am satisfied with the price I will be buying this for the price you have listed it for.Payment will be sent using PayPal and i will handle the PayPal surcharge as well.I will arrange with someone to have this picked up for your location once i have paid as i am out of town at the moment.In the meantime, i will be glad if you can set up an account with PayPal is very easy and safe just log on tohttp://www.paypal.com/ and set up the account PayPal is the only online payment company that i trust i have been using it for for the past 3 years and i have never have problem with them.i will be glad if you can get back to me asap so i can know if you are still interested in this deal. i can assure you that am a faithful person and this transaction will be a legit transaction.pls kindly get back to me if you are interested in this deal,Thanks and God bless you"

He sounds like a good Christian man wanting to give his son a car. Guess he liked the extra pics.

HA!! I love it...this cracked me up. Send them a 'new' fake paypal account like "youareanidiot@reallyyouare.com"

Keep up the fun!

Yeah I thought I'd wait a while (let spyware check complete first) and then get back to him saying I'm new to PayPal and may need his assistance to get me through the transaction. Here's my new acct: pound_sand_123.

There are entire websites dedicated to baiting Nigerian scammers. Some of the things they do are hilarious.

419 Eater - The largest scambaiting community on the planet!

After all is safe, be sure to waste as much of his time as possible. Had similar boguss emails a couple of years ago. You can usually tell these creeps by their grammar. Morons! !!!!

You 'da man! When I sold one of my BMW's on eBay, I stated in the listing that I would not accept any Liberian gold as payment! :D

I thought this was going to be a thread about Christian Okoye....

They'll send you a fake email indicating that they've sent you a payment of some amount and they will overpay by a few thousand dollars. Really no payment had occurred. Then they'll ask you to send back the difference in payment.

There's a great article on beating the scammers: How to Beat Nigerian Scams - WSJ.com

Essentially, responding to scammers and toying with them will reduce their efficiency on reaching others as they have to spend time following up. The real solution here is to use automated bots to do this.

A buddy of mine got hit for 10K. The scammers had a fake eBay escrow account that looked like the real thing. Bastards.

Good to know. Won't take any chain yanking to that extent.

These people are obviously talented and smart. It's too bad they don't use their skills for good rather than evil.

Safety First
 

I'm glad I'm only dealing with a real Nigerian Prince. He's going to refund my $5K and send the $100,000 in gold as soon as it clears customs.

I used to mess with them when I had time. I like responding to cl ads like the one awhile back for a panamera for $30k. The picture had palm trees and mountains in the background. It was advertised as located in a town near me. I'm in KS by the way. Waste as much of their time as you can. I ended up giving the moog the direct phone number for the FBI internet fraud dept. in DC. He emailed me back a day or so later and called me a "time loser"....

An attorney in Miami got hit for $90K by the Nigerians. The scam was, a potential client hires the attorney to collect back child support. Attorney contacts the deadbeat dad who is willing to pay. Deadbeat dad gives the attorney a cashiers check for the amount, attorney deposits the check and takes his cut and gives the client her share. A month later, the bank debits attorney's account because, of course, the check was a fake. The attorney then has to make good on the funds because they came out of his trust account!

I was in federal court one day when they actually brought in one of these guys. I had a copy of the defendants that were scheduled that day. The Nigerian was charged under 20 different aka's. It took up nearly half the first page of the document. When Mr. B walked into the court in belly chains and handcuffs we all gasped. The guy looked like he was 15 years old. But already a master of banking fraud.

I was looking for housing on CL and responded to a few ads. A few were Nigerian scammers which I picked up on as soon as I read the weird language style. He asked for personal info, I was tempted to send him the contact info for an FBI agent I know. But I think the agent would have just called me to say "thanks but I can find Craigs List on my own". Tha site is a cesspool of fraud and fencing.

Which i why you should help me spread the word about "Listburn" (a project of mine)!!! :cheers:

Seriously.. I got so fed up with Craigslist, I decided to start my own. It's not the greatest, but has some features that kinda minimize the Nigerians lol :D

The Jamaican scammers are just as bad. They prey on old people. An old guy I know was talked out of nearly $20k, which was cash advances off his credit cards he used to then buy Walmart gift cards and call them back with the numbers on the back.

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. These people will burn in the hottest part of hades one day.

I responded to an obvious scam regarding a Boxster for sale on Craigslist a few years ago. Below is the ad, followed by my reply:

> > Hello,Now I am not in the town. I'm in London , Ontario (Canada) and I have been very busy. Anyway , thank you for your interest in buying my 1998 Porsche Boxster. The car is located in Indianapolis , USA right now and has US papers. Why is the price so low? My mother is terribly sick and the doctor is asking for about $4,900 before any operation can start because she has breast cancer and one of her breast have to be cut off to prevent the other from being infected since it has already been in a critical condition . So I had to move out of USA to be with her in Canada at the St Joseph's Health Care .So i need to sell this car at this price $5,155 because i want to sell it fast. My mother life is preferable than a car. It does matter how much i bought the car. So all that I want to do now is to sell the car at this price,($5,155) .The title is clean and you will have absolutely no problems to register the car .I want this transaction to go smoothly enough as I am caught in the middle of some very important events and have little time at my disposal. The car is like new, in perfect conditions , accident free , no scratches , no special marks , no need for additional repairs what so ever.. a genuine road runner ready to be yours, but only if you shall understand and you won't make me loose time as it has already happened to me . The car is exactly as shown in the pictures .I have a contract with Yahoo Finance so this deal must go through them. According to Yahoo Finance you have 5 days from the time you receive the car to inspect it and decide if you want to keep it or not.Here is how it will work:1.First of all I will need the following details from you:- Full Name - Full Shipping Address- Working Phone#2. After I will receive the details from you, I will forward them to Yahoo Finance .3. After they will process your info, they will send us both invoices. The invoice will send you the details on how to make a refundable payment.4. You will send the payment to Yahoo Finance . They will hold in trust the funds and advise me to ship to your address.5. Yahoo Finance will contact me and I will ship the car to you. After you receive the car you will have 5 days to test, verify and do whatever you need to the car..6. If you decide to keep the car you will contact yahoo and confirm that you will keep it and they will release me the money7. If you will decide that you will not buy the car, Yahoo Finance will refund the money and I will have the shipping company come pick up my car. If you wish to make the transaction, please send me the necessary info so that we can proceed.I look forward to hear from you.Thank you!

My reply:
OK. Sorry to hear about your mother. I really want the car so I'll do what I need to to get it.
> I'm also out of town in Nigeria right now. I'm assisting a deposed dictator in getting his funds to the USA. Perhaps we can work out a deal by transfering the funds to you in exchange for the car? Oh, you're not an idiot, just a thief? OK then, never mind.