Strange eMail I've Just Recieved...Red Flags All Over The Place! Have You Gotten This Also?

poorguy · March 13, 2006 3:10AM

So I get this email, I read it and red flags went up almost immediately. I wouldn't reply to this email.

Hello,
I contacted you to inform you that I want to buy your product but first I want you to know that I can pay only through PayPal
because a friend of mine wants to donate some money to some children from England and from where he is right now PayPal is the only
payment method available.
I am in England right now and here, MoneyGram is the only way for me to get the money from him.
If you want to sell me your item through "Buy it now" option that's fine for me and please hear my proposal:
I will speak with my friend to make the donation on your paypal account and after the funds will arrive in you will keep
the money for your item and the rest you will send it to me here in England through MoneyGram.
Everything's simple like that!
After the money will arrive in your account and after you will keep your part, you will send the rest to a name and address here
in England to me using MoneyGram.
This is the only way for me here in Enland that I can buy your item and also receive the remaining funds.
I will support all the MoneyGram fees and for your effort and kindness I want you to keep another 100$ from the money that you must send
to me.
If you like my method please send me your PayPal address and I will speak with my friend to start making the transfer so
that we can close this deal.
Reply me asap
Thank you.Have a good day.

OffMetal · March 13, 2006 3:12AM

Wow... $100 extra

Are you selling some $50,000 coin?

poorguy · March 13, 2006 3:13AM

<< <i>Wow... $100 extra

Are you selling some $50,000 coin? >>

That was another red-flag. Neither the title nor the subject mention any specific item.

Russ · March 13, 2006 3:15AM

Obvious scam. He PayPal's bogus money from a stolen account and/or credit card, you send him a moneygram and he scrams with the cash.

Russ, NCNE

poorguy · March 13, 2006 3:22AM

<< <i>Obvious scam. He PayPal's bogus money from a stolen account and/or credit card, you send him a moneygram and he scrams with the cash.

Russ, NCNE >>

Darn, and I could have sworn that the money really was for "some children in England".

I've not recieved one like this before but the vagueness of the message and his requests were a dead giveaway.

itsnotjustme · March 13, 2006 3:25AM

I'm with Russ.

In the old days, a scammer would befriend a GI waiting at Western Union. Hey, the scammer says, I'm waiting too. I just need $XX to pay YYY. The scammers tells the GI I'lll have some extra, and can loan it to you. Just pay me back when yours comes in. The GI is taken aback... what a nice offer. Why, if mine comes first, I can loan you the XX you need. To no surprise, the GI's comes first and he loans the scammer money. Never sees him again.

stev32k · March 13, 2006 3:27AM

This is a fairly well known scam. I even got a notice about it in my bank statement last month. After you send the money to the buyer paypal finds out the payers account is bogus and back charges you. Since you sent the money overseas there is no recourse.

racingno19 · March 13, 2006 3:41AM

Diffently a scam, I live in Maine and this type of scam was being used quite frequently here last summer. Of course there were a few individuals who fell for it and found out the hard way. I had a canoe I was selling and recieved the same type of e-mail, they wanting to buy it $1000 over my listed price, but first they needed a bank account # to send the money,...... Ummm sure I'll do just that. I've known other people that have had the same e-mails or problems on ebay with the "buy it now" options.

VamGuy · March 13, 2006 4:22AM

Reply to it???

I wouldn't have even made it through the first run on sentence before hitting the delete button.

LanLord · March 13, 2006 4:34AM

check kiting used to be so much easier before the age of high speed electronics.

You could simply max out your checkbook at every branch possible and abscond with the money.

Now ya gotta lie about some poor kids in another country. Oh crap, I wonder if all the stuff about starving kids in china my parents threatened me with had to do with cheating someone out of money?

beartracks42 · March 13, 2006 6:21AM

The language sounds very much like the Nigerian banker e-mails my wife and I both get from time to time.

KurtHorn · March 13, 2006 6:39AM

Yes, I posted this same letter a couple weeks ago...

Bochiman · March 13, 2006 6:58AM

Sure......send me the money and the extra......while you are at it, send me even more "extra" money

TorinoCobra71 · March 13, 2006 7:02AM

hit/click the DELETE button in your mail reader!

SCAM!!!

TC71

relayer · March 13, 2006 7:50AM

I'd reply explaining that what he proposed was a violation of US money laundering laws and as a loyal citizen you forwarded his email to the FBI

Conder101 · March 14, 2006 1:42AM

Just a variation on the old scam of sending someone a cashiers check, having them cash it and send back 75% allowing them to keep 25%. Then a few days later it turns out the cashiers check is a fake or stolen and the bank hits the victim up for the full amount of the check. In this case they are hoping you will send the moneygram quickly before Paypal can notify yo hat the payment to you was bogus.