Hi everyone, I have a public service announcement. I know many of us sell things online wedding and non-wedding related. I became a two dress bride and am currently trying to sell my first dress. Today I got an email from a scammer. Many of us know that this is a scam but some people don't realize that it is a scam so I wanted to post the emails to warn everyone not to fall for it! Basically these people tell you they want your item for sale but they can only send you a cashiers check, when they send you the check they make it out for waaayyy more than what you were selling the item for. They then tell you to cash it and wire the excess to them the same day. They also tell you that they will have a shipping company pick up the item for sale. After a few days the check is found to be a fake and the money taken from your account, but by this time all the money is gone and you are stuck without all that money (sometimes thousands of dollars!) and without your item! So please everyone be careful of this scam and don't fall for it! Just ignore the emails! You can also tell it's a scammer by the terrible english, poor grammer and poor spelling.
The first email:
Hello, I am interested in immediate purchase of your Weeding Dress,but before i proceed on this transaction i will like to ask some question as follow. i can only raise cashier check or money order for the payment of your Weeding Dress so i will like to know if the Weeding Dress is still available and also if is in good condition?Please your answer on this, will enable me to issue your payment to you asap
1. Do you accept a ( Cashier Check / Money Order)as a mode of payment?
2. What is the firm price of the Weeding Dress?
3. Will you let a shipping company to come to your house for the pick up of the Weeding Dress?
4. Do get back to me with your contact info where you want the payment to address to
5. I will like you to contact me to my personal email address which is (nicholesmith01@yahoo.com)
Regards.
The second email: (after I sent a response telling them no cashiers check, and no pick-up shipping company)
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top">Hello, Thanks for your response, The price of the Dress is fine by me and i will like to inform you that there will be an excess fund on the check that you are going to receive and as soon as you receive it you are to get it cashed in your bank or any place that does the task and deduct your Dress price from the money and have the rest of funds wired via western union or money gram to the shipping company,so that they will be able to come for the Dress pick up at your giving location,and i will like to ask you some question before i can proceed: 1.can i trust you with the money? 2.will you be able to wire transfer the excess the same day you receive the certified cashier check ? 3.will u be available when the shipping company will be coming for the pickup? 4.can i take you for your words? I will be waiting for your answers and i want you to consider these Dress sold to me and kindly get back to me with the full name you want on the payment and the address you want it to be sent to.
Regards.</td></tr></tbody></table>
There you have it! Please be careful when selling things online!!! The dress is still for sale by the way (NWT Oleg Cassini CT221 white size 10).
I know of a similar situation that happend to someone trying to sell their textbooks. They ended up losing $500! I am glad you caught this & hope others do not fall into this scam either.
Oh wow, I went through the same thing looking for apartments! It's so irritating. Plus, I'm an academic/teacher, and the horrible grammar and spelling just makes me crazy!
My advice? Report her to Yahoo and let them know she's running a scam out of her account. They might close it down. It won't stop her, I know, but it will annoy her and let her know that her scheme is pathetically obvious.
This happens for absolutely everything. People fall for these scams every day - especially the elderly. If your parents or grandparents use email, make sure they know about these scams. You don't have to be actively selling something to be scammed.
Check out this website for more info (and a good laugh):
This is not a knock on anyone who's encountered this situation, but I think the misspelling, the poor language use and the odd terms would indicate to many that this was not a safe situation to be involved in.
Ugh. I'm with you. Wyoming's craigslist (yes, there's only one for the entire state ) is so full of spammers I'm pretty sure it's not worth posting anything on there anymore. VERY annoying and dangerous for anyone who is naive or trusting.
Similar thing happened to FI's co-worker. They needed to rent a place in London for their holiday. The owner said due to the short notice they'd have to wire a deposit. After sending the money she never heard anything back. The scammers, of course, would not respond to any e-mails or phone calls.
They lost $500 plus had nowhere to sleep! She reported it to Scotland Yard and made a visit to the station while in London. NEVER wire money to anyone you don't know.
I agree not to knock on anyone, but clearly this is a scam especially since the second e-mail completely disregarded what you responded with.
My FI is English and we wire money to the UK regularly and every time we do the bank makes us fill out a form stating that we know the people we are wiring money to, that this is not part of an internet e-mail effort etc. etc. Even though I have filled it out a hundred times, I still think do people really fall for this and wire money to a foreign country to someone they do not know.
The apartment thing is different I could see that happening, but who ever writes a check for more than the value of an item. Especially a cashier's check.
Hi everyone, I have a public service announcement. I know many of us sell things online wedding and non-wedding related. I became a two dress bride and am currently trying to sell my first dress. Today I got an email from a scammer. Many of us know that this is a scam but some people don't realize that it is a scam so I wanted to post the emails to warn everyone not to fall for it! Basically these people tell you they want your item for sale but they can only send you a cashiers check, when they send you the check they make it out for waaayyy more than what you were selling the item for. They then tell you to cash it and wire the excess to them the same day. They also tell you that they will have a shipping company pick up the item for sale. After a few days the check is found to be a fake and the money taken from your account, but by this time all the money is gone and you are stuck without all that money (sometimes thousands of dollars!) and without your item! So please everyone be careful of this scam and don't fall for it! Just ignore the emails! You can also tell it's a scammer by the terrible english, poor grammer and poor spelling.
The first email:
Hello,
I am interested in immediate purchase of your Weeding Dress,but before i
proceed on this transaction i will like to ask some question as follow. i can
only raise cashier check or money order for the payment of your Weeding Dress so
i will like to know if the Weeding Dress is still available and also if is in
good condition?Please your answer on this, will enable me to issue your payment
to you asap
1. Do you accept a ( Cashier Check / Money Order)as a mode of payment?
2. What is the firm price of the Weeding Dress?
3. Will you let a shipping company to come to your house for the pick up of the
Weeding Dress?
4. Do get back to me with your contact info where you want the payment to
address to
5. I will like you to contact me to my personal email address which is
(nicholesmith01@yahoo.com)
Regards.
The second email: (after I sent a response telling them no cashiers check, and no pick-up shipping company)
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top">Hello,
Thanks for your response, The price of the Dress is fine by me and i will like to inform you that there will be an excess fund on the check that you are going to receive and as soon as you receive it you are to get it cashed in your bank or any place that does the task and deduct your Dress price from the money and have the rest of funds wired via western union or money gram to the shipping company,so that they will be able to come for the Dress pick up at your giving location,and i will like to ask
you some question before i can proceed:
1.can i trust you with the money?
2.will you be able to wire transfer the excess the same day you receive the certified cashier check ?
3.will u be available when the shipping company will be coming for the pickup?
4.can i take you for your words?
I will be waiting for your answers and i want you to consider these Dress sold to me and kindly get back to me with the full name you want on the payment and the address you want it to be sent to.
Regards.</td></tr></tbody></table>
There you have it! Please be careful when selling things online!!! The dress is still for sale by the way
(NWT Oleg Cassini CT221 white size 10).
posted by soontobemrsc 34 posts 2 months agoI have heard of the same thing happening for apartment rentals.
Thanks for giving us all the heads up!
posted by MsB 212 posts 2 months agoHappened to me while trying to sell my first dress too! I didn't fall for it either though, good for you!
posted by Sweeney2Be 1,488 posts 2 months agoI know of a similar situation that happend to someone trying to sell their textbooks. They ended up losing $500! I am glad you caught this & hope others do not fall into this scam either.
posted by misssnowflake 23 posts 2 months agoOh wow, I went through the same thing looking for apartments! It's so irritating. Plus, I'm an academic/teacher, and the horrible grammar and spelling just makes me crazy!
My advice? Report her to Yahoo and let them know she's running a scam out of her account. They might close it down. It won't stop her, I know, but it will annoy her and let her know that her scheme is pathetically obvious.
posted by MelissaB 75 posts 2 months agoThis happens for absolutely everything. People fall for these scams every day - especially the elderly. If your parents or grandparents use email, make sure they know about these scams. You don't have to be actively selling something to be scammed.
Check out this website for more info (and a good laugh):
http://www.419eater.com/
posted by EricaBlonde 11 posts 2 months agoThis is not a knock on anyone who's encountered this situation, but I think the misspelling, the poor language use and the odd terms would indicate to many that this was not a safe situation to be involved in.
posted by HappiestOne 97 posts 2 months agoUgh. I'm with you. Wyoming's craigslist (yes, there's only one for the entire state
) is so full of spammers I'm pretty sure it's not worth posting anything on there anymore. VERY annoying and dangerous for anyone who is naive or trusting.
posted by caitlanc 41 posts 2 months agoSimilar thing happened to FI's co-worker. They needed to rent a place in London for their holiday. The owner said due to the short notice they'd have to wire a deposit. After sending the money she never heard anything back. The scammers, of course, would not respond to any e-mails or phone calls.
They lost $500 plus had nowhere to sleep! She reported it to Scotland Yard and made a visit to the station while in London. NEVER wire money to anyone you don't know.
posted by dmdwed 56 posts 2 months agoI agree not to knock on anyone, but clearly this is a scam especially since the second e-mail completely disregarded what you responded with.
My FI is English and we wire money to the UK regularly and every time we do the bank makes us fill out a form stating that we know the people we are wiring money to, that this is not part of an internet e-mail effort etc. etc. Even though I have filled it out a hundred times, I still think do people really fall for this and wire money to a foreign country to someone they do not know.
The apartment thing is different I could see that happening, but who ever writes a check for more than the value of an item. Especially a cashier's check.
posted by SanFranBride 25 posts 2 months ago