This is a scam, isn't it?

[runematic]

I received these messages the last few days unsolicited. At first I thought they might have been referrencing appliances I sold on this site a long time ago. But I think as it progressed, that it is a scam. Here are the messages I received. What do some of you think?

message #1)I'm Richard W. Campbell I got your advertisements ... I'm I'm Interested in Buying Your Washer and Dryers i will Like to know your Last Asking price Best Offer and if you would Accept Bank Money Orders for Payment.. and if You can make any Arrange for the Shipping .. Let me know .. Please get back to me as soon as possible
Thanks
Richard W. Campbell

This next one is the message that sort-of tipped me off. Take notice of the great grammer & command of the english language.

message #2) Thanks for your mail I am ok with the price of the Appliance ,My mode of payment is Bank Money Orders... Which You can easy get it cashed at your Bank Instantly .. Payment will Get 3 to 5 Business days Via Fed ex Courier Services.... As for the Shipping You don't have to Bother yourself My I have Make arrangement for a Special Professionals who is specialized in shipping of Appliance and Auto's All Equipment he has For Shipping Appliance . So you don't need to be Worried...and for there not to be delay in the shipping i would be sending both you and my shipping agent money together on the money orders that will be sent to you,when You receive do get it cashed instantly At your bank, you can then remove your Money for the Appliance . and then send the Rest to the shipping agent to wherever he may be,thats when i must have locate him and let you know where he his so he can come Over to your location to have the Appliance . and also the used car i bought there in your location. Cause I wouldn't be Around to do that I am Going for a Christian Missionary Trip I will be Needing your Full Information Below.Full Name that will be written on money Orders ( Not PO box ) Address:- City;- State;- Zip code;- Private Phone Number Land and Mobile;-
Thank's
Richard W. Campbell

I emailed him back & asked him how nice the weather was in Nigeria these days. Am I wrong?

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Sounds like you're right on to me.

Maybe you should tell Richard, "I can't remember Mr. Campbell,
did you buy the Pank or the Yella?"
Probably shouldn't have even responded ; who knows what virus
the email might have contained.

 

[countryford]

I had one

I was selling some car rims on craigslist a couple months ago. I received the same type of email. I replied to the first one and received one back thats similar to the second one. I just went and deleated it. My guess is they both are scams. Someone wanting to get your personal info.

 

[whirlcool]

I had something similar happen to me on Ebay. I sold an extra synthesizer I had laying around. The winning bidder, who had an Ebay User profile that indicated he was in the US, said he would send a friend of his to come and pick up the unit and drop off a cashiers check at the same time.
Fortunately, I had heard about this kind of scam. What happens is that the money (check, Cashiers Check, MO, etc.) is usually worthless and by the time you have found this out their "courier" has long absconded with your item!
It turns out that the user was really in Mexico rather than in the U.S. as his profile indicated. I canceled his bid. He complained to Ebay about it, and I pointed out to Ebay that the auction stated No International Buyers. Believe it or not, Ebay backed me up on that!

 

[whirlcool]

Here is a little known fact about hot weather.
Did you know that aircraft don't perform as well in hot weather as in cold weather?
Sometimes airlines have to weight restrict flights at airports with shorter runways, and if it's really hot even at airports with longer runways. How do they do this? Sometimes people get bumped due to these restrictions.
One of the worst cases is taking off from Denver on a 100 F day.
You'll use up most of the very long runway they have there.
Why is this? Warm air is thinner than cold air. The wings can't get a "bite" in the air as they can on a cold day. Aircraft that are relatively moderate performers will act like a rocket on days below 32F.
My link is to a density altitude calculator. Play with it, you'll see as the temp goes up, the altitude goes up as well!
The higher the altitude, the thinner the air.

Density Altitude Calculator - English/Metric

 

[whirlcool]

Uh, oh. I posted this in the wrong thread! Hey Robert, is there any way to move this to the hot weather thread?

 

[DADoES]

Scam, Scam, Scam!

This scam has been going on for a LONG TIME, several years. Before my local ISP shut down earlier this year, they had a free classifieds service. Sellers were *constantly* being contacted by "interested buyers" using this scam -- offering payment via a cashier's check in an amount wayyy more than the price of the item, the seller being instructed to cash the check, keep his cut for the item and give the rest to an "agent" of the buyer who will pick up the item and take care of shipping it overseas. Sometimes the story goes that the buyer owes his "agent" some money, which the funds passed on by the seller from the cashed check is to take care of that after the "agent" pays for shipping the item out of it (one wonders why the buyer would need to tell the seller that kind of personal detail, I suppose it's to add an air of authenticity to the story).

The cashier's check invariably is worthless, but looks authentic enough to even fool bank tellers. Anybody who cashes one will end up being out the funds when it bounces.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Rest assured that the "bank check" will bounce (it's not even a bank check). It won't do it in short order though, so waiting the typical week for an out-of-state check to clear won't help. It won't be until the check is actually sent to the bank it was written on that it will do the Rubber Rhumba. This has taken a month or more in some cases!

This scam has been around for a little while, as DADoES said, and has been written up in the major antiques/collectibles papers as well as by eBay.

Run away!!!

Chuck

 

[goprog]

Tell him to send the money order to his so-called shipper and
then have the shipper come to pick up the item and bring cash...

Yeah, well, no point in that since you know the shipper will
never show up.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

YES THIS IS A SCAM

I have a friend who owned an all-original, restored-to-mint-condition 1929 RCA Theremin -- one of the original theremin instruments designed by the inventor Leon Theremin. It had the matching original RCA #106 speaker also in restored/mint condition. The theremin and speaker both had been meticulously and historically-accurately restored by one of the leading experts in vintage electronic devices.

My friend was having financial difficulties and put the theremin on eBay with a reserve of its appraised value, $15,000.00. He did not get sufficient bids to reach his reserve which of course was greatly disappointing to him.

A couple of weeks after the auction closed, he got an email from someone claiming to be from Budapest or someplace like that offering to buy the instrument and offering to arrange shipment etc. of it.

Now, this was about 10 years ago and I don't recall all the particulars but I have to say, had it been me who was selling the instrument, I would have been leery. And I did frankly say so. But my friend, more gullible and trusting [at the time], felt it all looked good to so he agreed to sell it.

He received a worldwide bank cashier's check which had a 14-day hold put on it by his bank when he deposited it. [I personally would have taken it to the issuing financial institution to have them cash it.]

Once the hold cleared, he took the instrument to a pre-arranged shipping service and off it went.

Then, about three weeks later, he got a letter from his bank stating that the cashier's check he had deposited was a counterfeit and that the funds it represented had been removed from his account. [Thank God he hadn't spent it yet.] How it had gotten through the bank up til then is a detail I don't recall now; but I do remember my friend's utter despair.

His already poor financial situation was greatly worsened by the loss of the instrument, to say nothing of the emotional and spiritual loss -- it was truly a one-of-a-kind instrument that he had assumed would go to a prominent theremin player or perhaps a university of museum. As it is, God only knows where it ended up.

It's really very disheartening that there are such cold-hearted, soul-less, evil people in the world who think nothing of exploiting their fellow humans.

 

[whirlcool]

Unfortunately...

It's really very disheartening that there are such cold-hearted, soul-less, evil people in the world who think nothing of exploiting their fellow humans.

Believe it!
I am so sorry to hear about your freind losing his Theremin to such a louse and the scam he pulled.

One thing about the Internet is that you are dealing with people in a "detatched" mode. You usually never get to meet the people you are dealing with. For the scammer, it's much easier on the conscious to rip someone off in this manner. I'll bet some of these people wouldn't try to pull this crap if they were dealing with the people directly.
I think that we are only now starting to see the psychological effects of the Internet on people. It's all how people use it. Personally, I look at it as if I have the world's largest library in my home office. Others look at it as money that's free for the taking.