Follow the bouncing ball.

I have put a wave board up for sale and advertised it in all the usual on-line locations. I received this response.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Apr 25, 2005, at 3:30 PM, XXX wrote:

> I'm XXXX from Argentina, I'm writing regarding your item
> {Drops Carver 8'5" Length} adverted online for sale, can you please
> reply me with the present condition and the available picture with the
> final asking price.
> Reply me back asap.
> XXX
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I responded that the information was actually posted in the ad and that he sould have read it more carefully.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XXX responded:

i got your mail, thanks for the response, the final price $700 is ok by me.I will like you to remove the advert from the website. You'll be recieving your payment as soon as possible through my associate who's in US. I'll instruct him to issue out USPS Money Order to your name the total amount he his oweing me on our last transaction which is closed at $3800, you'll receive it as soon as possible, Immediately you get USPS Money Order i want you to take it to your bank, get it cashed and deduct your $700 and $50 for your running around for getting the transaction done, the excess is for my shipper for shippment payment alongside some other pets i placed order for in care of my shipper and you'll wire the remaining balance to the shipping agent through Western Union Money Transfer, for them to come for the pickup in your place without giving you any stress. They will use the funds to settle some customs problem and transport their self down to your place with immediately effect.So i do hope i can have your trust about the excess which is meant for my shipper.Note that you are not going to give the shipper anything, i am going to responsible for that. Let me know if this is ok with you....So if its okay with you try to send me the following information for the process of the USPS Money Order from a reputatable bank in the state.
full name......
home adress......
city.......
state
country
zipcode
phone number both home and mobile
I await ur this info so that i can fax it down to my client that will send u the USPS Money Order .hope this is acceptable?
I await your soonest reply
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't they have windsurfing boards in Argentina? This seems like a lot of trouble to go through to get a (slightly)used wave board. It IS a very nice board but ....

Has anyone got experience with this kind of thing?

mb

I just found this from http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/fakecheck.htm

This sounds like my guy!
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They tell you to wire some of the money after you’ve deposited the check. If you’re selling something, they say they’ll pay you by having someone in the U.S. who owes them money send you a check or money order. It will be for more than the sale price; you deposit the check or money order, keep what you’re owed, and wire the rest to them. Or you’re instructed to wire money to someone else who will arrange for shipping. If it’s part of a work-at-home scheme, they may claim that you’ll be processing payments from their “clients.” You deposit the checks or money orders and then wire them the money minus your “pay.” Or they may send you an overpayment “by mistake” and ask you to wire them the excess. In the sweepstakes and foreign money offer variations of the scam, they tell you to wire them money for taxes, customs, bonding, processing, legal fees, or other expenses that must be paid before you can get the rest of the money.

I've had tons of those bloody responses, and I've continued the email correspondance, as I want to get the the bottom of this and freeking catch this ass... anyway just ignore it, the guy deserves to be hung. I can't even tell you how many of those emails I've got its ridiculous...
sorry for my anger, it just bothers me when people are dishonest...

ditto, the first one of these I got almost 3 yrs ago. They had a thing on 20/20?. 60 min?? and confronted the guy, he had some thugs with him and was armed, lateron made death threats so....ya might not wanna play this hand...., kinda like confronting the obvious drug deal in my bus yesterday by two acknowledged fellons....I was tempted to grab the bag of drugs (pill-form, not weed, oh well might have kept that) that hung in front of me and offered to the loser's friend and go to the bus driver....not worth the effort

. wholly

In this case too many ifs... for me if I were in your shoes.

It's clearly a scam. The "cashier Check Scam". I sent this to him:

Mr Clarek! Pets? You placed an order for pets? You are buying pets and shipping them in a truck to Argentina!! I am appalled! Poor little kitty's and doggies? I won't sell my board to a person who ships pets in a truck to Argentina. The deal is off!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
wrote:

"around for getting the transaction done, the excess  is for my shipper for shippment payment alongside some other pets i placed order for in care of my shipper and you'll wire the remaining balance to the shipping"

Hi,

A similar scam was run in the TC last week.

The scam happened to a Victoria Landlord in the amount of $3800.

He advertised to rent a place near Uvic and a 'student' wrote to say they wanted to rent his place and that they would send a money order to hold it. The money order arrived in excess of what the deposit was supposed to be, to the tune of $3800. The 'student' wrote the landlord back saying that there had been a mistake and that they would like the landlord to refund the excess amount back. Unknowingly, the landlord did indeed send the extra payment back, and voila.. a few days later, discovered that the money order he was sent was fraudulent. ouch.

Wouldn't you just like to catch the bastard that pulls these scams!!! It's at the point now that money orders and certified cheques can also be counterfeit. It has been suggested to take any form of payment to your bank for verification, including cash.

I guess it stands to reason if you get that gut feeling that something is amiss, then it probably is!!

Good luck selling your gear!

Yup, total scam and it's very prevalent with any ad you put on the Coastal BC free classifieds. They are usually pretty obvious but if you are unsure, just e-mail back and say the price was a misprint, it's not $800, it's $8000. I've done this several times and they ALWAYS e-mail right back and say no problem. That's a dead giveaway!

If you want to take it one step further, agree to their deal and tell them to send you the cheque. However, instead of giving them your address, give them the address and phone number of the local police department's fraud investigation team. You may need to advise the police that you are doing this so they know what's going on.

There's a website out there that has lots of other fun things you can do with these scammers BUT like Kus said, you don't know who you're dealing with so be careful. I usually just respond with e-mails asking ridiculous questions just to see their response. It's all BS and it's funny to see how far they push it.

I just had the same thing happen when trying to sell a board on coastalbc, when i told them i wanted cash for the board i never heard back anyways, heres the address of the person who was trying this on me
tottimoore02@yahoo

It's getting silly. There are now three suitors from foreign lands who can't spell who want to send cashiers checks and ask the same stupid questions. Give me a price - when the price is clearly posted and send me a picture when the url pointing to the picture is in the ad.

The common scammer theme is that they are stupid! That's the dead give away. If the person wanting to buy your equipment sounds stupid, they are most likely a scam artist!

My suitors ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ scammer 3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From:
Subject: Drops Carver 8'5" Length: 257cm
Date: May 3, 2005 8:08:46 PM PDT
To:

Hello,
Am interested in buying your Drops Carver 8'5" Length:
257cm.I want you to give me the last price and send
the pics to me.
Thanks...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ scammer 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From:
Subject: Drops Carver 8'5" $700
Date: May 2, 2005 4:50:02 PM PDT
To:

Hiii Good Day,

My Name is Sandra Terry,and am hoghly intrested in buyting ur ads and i will want u to get back to me if its still available and also let me know more details on it.

As for the payment,i shall be paying with a Certified Cashiers or Money Order Cheque and if u are ok with this pls do get back to me via e-mail so that we can conclude on getting it from u.

Thanks and i look up to ur contact email today.

Regards.
Sandra Terry...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ scammer 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: John Clarek <>
Date: April 25, 2005 3:30:03 PM PDT
To:
Subject: Drops Carver 8'5" Length

 I'm John Clarek from Argentina, I'm writing regarding your item {Drops Carver 8'5" Length} adverted online for sale, can you please reply me with the present condition and the available picture with the final asking price.
Reply me back asap.
 J. Clarek.

you know you should just delete them when they come in but they are just fascinating to read! whats really strange is nobody has scored your sweet board yet - if i weighed 50lbs more and wasnt broke she would be mine. heres another thread:
http://www.coastalbc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=372

re: Drops CARVER 8'5" wave board.

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It's been sold! To someone who can read so he actually read the listed price and didn't send a stupid email saying "Wat is ur cost for merchandise?" and who noticed that there was a url pointing to a picture of the board so he didn't ask "Plez send pics".

It was sold to someone who doesn't live in Argentina or England and doesn't have a close associate in the US to whom he owes $4600 so, he can send me a "Cashier's Check" to take to my nearest "US Bank", so I can help him pay off his associate who will arrange to pick up the merchandise and ship it "with his other pets"

Best of all I will get to see the board rocketing across Nitinaht Lake this summer, the rider with a big grin .

Yahoo ... and thanks BWD or the Forum.

Here is another for the tale..... and it seems that the value of items is not really a concern here either.... Good thing I sold it already eh? I assume that boom & board really are spelled the same for this scam artist?


 Subject:   03 Chinook Aluminum boom,152-214cm, great shape, $120


Dear Sir,
                I am an agent working for one of my client here in africa,he will like me to find a windsurfing board  for him for is new  store at Mexico so i have seen your ads and i will like to know the final cost of the windsurfing board  so i can inform my client about this,and i will like you to know that my client will arrange for a pickup from your place as soon as the deal is sealed and payment is made out to you,so i will also like you to give me the name to be written on the Cashier's Check in U.S funds and also the address to send the check to so as to send it to my client to prepare the check for this transaction because he is willing and ready to make payment so as to get the windsurfing board   to is store soonest before he gets back to Mexico,i will be expecting your reply soonest.
 

Holy...that dude needs to take some grammar lessons. That is the longest run on sentence I have ever seen! JUst for fun, write back to him and tell him you're a bit confused about the whole payment thing and get him to explain it again