Spam-Attempted Fraud-Theft-How to classify?

mrearlygold · March 14, 2012 3:42AM

Not sure how to classify them but at least once a day and often it's more then once we receive a contact form that reads like this:

This sender is DomainKeys verified"Eric BBBB" <04568@yahoo.com<info@@yahXo.com>

Hello, do you have 1oz American Eagle Gold Coin? Do you have it available and what are your prices and availability. Which credit cards to you accept?
get back to me soon.

Eric

Again, I get these often in several variations and probably the most notorious come from hotmail, followed by gmail addresses although the one above is on yahoo.

Should we start publishing these ? ( complete) or is it just something not desired?

JamesMurray · March 14, 2012 3:49AM

Almost everybody i know online uses either hotmail or gmail , i wouldnt dismiss those out of hand.Just about every Nigerian prince or middle eastern banker holding gadaffis money that writes me uses Yahoo , why that is i dont know.

TomB · March 14, 2012 3:54AM

I get these and other similar ones nearly everyday, too. I just hit the "Spam" button on my email server and block them.

PerryHall · March 14, 2012 4:07AM

Have some fun. Tell them you only accept cash and then quote them a really good price.

Kove · March 14, 2012 4:08AM

It seems like it's always a yahoo.com address whenever anybody tries to scam me.

A couple of months ago, Chris Clements (nencoin) posted about a credit card scam. Turns out the same people he posted about scammed me, and Chris' post actually helped a lot. Unfortunately, his post was quickly deleted, but it helped me for the moment that I saw it.

VTCoins · March 14, 2012 4:24AM

I get these emails just about every day.

Branchmint · March 14, 2012 4:24AM

It is definitely fraud and potential theft.

I get these almost every day, too. I've seen accounts on yahoo, g-mail, and .live. They usually have "Hello", "Hi", or "Order" in the subject line. And they always ask if you have 1 oz Eagles, Maple Leafs, etc. The target is gold bullion. They always want to do business by credit card because their scam is to wait about a month after the order and do a charge-back on the card, claiming it wasn't them who made the order. Trust me ... I know because it happened to me.

My first piece of advice is to simply ignore these e-mails. If you reply, other scammers will be coming out of the woodwork.

You can also tell them that you only accept cashier's checks or money orders. That should send them packing.

Lastly, if you do engage in business with them, fully expect that they will attempt a charge-back. Make sure you document all the correspondence. Take photos of everything you send and the package you sent it (make sure the package has to be signed for). And make sure you have them agree to not do a charge-back (even though they will) as a term of the sale.

My case is still pending with the credit card company. I don't know how they will rule, but I'm sure glad that I kept all the documentation and photos. If I don't win, I'll be out about $8k. At that point, I'll get my attorney, the state attorney general, and the postal inspector involved.

As others have mentioned - and I wish I had known at the time - the best thing to do is send these e-mails to the junk folder.

JBatDavidLawrence · March 14, 2012 4:39AM

I think that I've averaged 5 per day over the last month or so...sometimes I get up to 20 in a single day...And those are just the ones that get by our spam filters...

Yuck.

ColonialCoinUnion · March 14, 2012 4:51AM

<< <i>I think that I've averaged 5 per day over the last month or so...sometimes I get up to 20 in a single day...And those are just the ones that get by our spam filters...

Yuck. >>

Ditto.

notwilight · March 14, 2012 4:55AM

The email domain is not relevant. Many legitimate emailers as well as scammers use all domains. -Jerry

mrpotatoheadd · March 14, 2012 4:58AM

Another scam to be aware of- unauthorized charges. The way it appears to work is that the crook steals the victim's cc info and orders a bunch of stuff online. The charges made by the crook are accepted because the victim's card info and address are current & correct. Next, the crook submits a change of address for the victim at the post office. By the time the victim realizes that they're not getting mail and goes to the post office to check it out, a bunch of stuff has already been re-routed to the address supplied by the crook.

For the record, I do not have firsthand evidence confirming every step above but based on what I've seen, it appears to be a definite possibility.

johnny9434 · March 14, 2012 5:48AM

<< <i>Have some fun. Tell them you only accept cash and then quote them a really good price.

>>

it is by all means a 2 way street

nencoin · March 14, 2012 6:00AM

<< <i>I think that I've averaged 5 per day over the last month or so...sometimes I get up to 20 in a single day...And those are just the ones that get by our spam filters...

Yuck. >>

Yep...ditto.

RichieURich · March 14, 2012 6:03AM

I get a lot of them too. Here is the response I send before I hit the SPAM button:

Hi,

We do not sell gold coins (not our area of expertise), and we do not accept credit cards (too much fraud). Sorry.

Maybe they will eventually get the hint that we already know this scam!

segoja · March 14, 2012 8:42AM

I don't even reply.

If you reply, then they know they have live activity.

Best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Absolute fraud.

Tassa · March 14, 2012 1:21PM

I get quite a few and just delete them. I've also been receiving a lot of TTY calls recently-I've been pretty suspicous of those. It isn't an issue because as soon as I tell them that we don't accept credit cards and/or that we only have bullion available for local purchases they hang up.

BBB Warns Small Business Owners to Beware of Telephone Relay Fraud

mrearlygold · March 15, 2012 12:05AM

I rarely allow payments to be made with a credit card but I have put a buy it now button on lower priced items and in the last month had several orders, all on or thru paypal that had no phone number. I send 1 or 2 emails requesting the phone number and when I don't get a response I terminate the sale and refund the money. I always wonder if I'm still being scammed, when I do the refund.

Funny thing is even after doing the refunds I get no reply from those "orders".

mrearlygold · March 15, 2012 12:06AM

<< <i>I get quite a few and just delete them. I've also been receiving a lot of TTY calls recently-I've been pretty suspicous of those. It isn't an issue because as soon as I tell them that we don't accept credit cards and/or that we only have bullion available for local purchases they hang up.

Oh I'm verrry outspoken on those and yes in the last month I was getting them almost every day.

Spam-Attempted Fraud-Theft-How to classify?

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