Almost Scammed!

[Streetwise]

I posted to sell my Nokia Lumia 800 and got a email from yahoo user who wanted to ship the phone to Greece and claim to be from US. All was fine until I requested for payment. This is the reply I got:

Re: Reply to your "Nokia Lumia 800 NEW NEW NEW" Ad on Gumtree 
1 recipientsCC: recipientsYou MoreBCC: recipientsYou 
Hide Details FROM:Shake Garry TO:......... Message flagged Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:11 AMMessage body 
Hello am happy to tell you that I have made the payment into your bank account,kindly check your email both inbox,spam and junk email for the payment confirmation from Citibank what you have to do now is that you get the item shipped and send the Shipment receipt and Tracking Number to Citibank for verification and after Citibank verify the Shipment the money will be fully credit into your account thanks reply asap..

And here is the purported email from the Bank:

***MONEY TRANSFER CONFIRMATION MAIL***(TRANSFER ONLINE). 
1 recipientsCC: recipientsYou MoreBCC: recipientsYou 
Hide Details FROM:CitiBank Group Of Company   TO:reborn_sg@yahoo.com Message flagged Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:07 AMMessage body 
 
  

        .ONLINE PAYMENT  TRANSFER OF FUNDS.




Congratulations !Congratulations !! Congratulations !!! Dear  Valued Customer, This acknowledgment sets forth certain terms upon which  Mr S Garry is interested in acquiring some Items and he transferred the Total Amount of

Tat got my suspicions going. A few clues:
1. Email address front may seem genuine but if u put ur cursor over the email address, u will see the real email id...which is customerhelpdept@accountant.com
2. Spelling errors and the way the email is phrased....hint....Bank's email are very formal.
3. Don't think Banks hold money and verify shipt of goods before releasing money....well, not for consumers at least.
4. Bank's email id should usually start with their standard bank name

Checked internet on email address of purported bank and find there are similiar @accountant.com being use for scams/fraud.

Just sharing...sellers beware.....

 

[kei23kei]

HI, i would like to know did u send out the item to this scammer?
I was approached by this guy via gumtree website too.
i was selling a set of comics and unfortunately i had shipped out the comic and and the shipment could not be stop when i found out its a scam.

 

[Romeoscott]

up for awareness (for u)

 

[sgtrader8]

Post a free advert on gumtree to warn of the potential scammer email. This will deter the scammer in using the same trick.

 

[sicnarf_shoes]

I got it too. This time that guy told me paypal will hold the money until I email to him the shipping number.

I simply replied F*** you.

 

[GradeAbra]

I never use paypal before but do you seller have to receive the money completely first before sending out the item to the buyer?

 

[outdated]

I never use paypal before but do you seller have to receive the money completely first before sending out the item to the buyer?

Yes, anyway paypal got buyer protection, if you dont receive the goods you can dispute for money return.

 

[GradeAbra]

Yes, anyway paypal got buyer protection, if you dont receive the goods you can dispute for money return.

Dispute through phone call or just email?

Their office is in singapore?

 

[TOKARA]

Yes suntec t5 same office with ebay

 

[Toparts]

Please be careful, he can use different name or email address to con you, example that I have received from him:

On Jul 15, 2012 9:13 PM, "Mack Steven" <ireayomi2004@yahoo.com> wrote: Hello i am Mr Mack Steven from United State Of America, how are you today and how are your families ? hope all is good ? well i am interested in buying the item for my daughter in USA, because it my daughter that need it and i hope she would like it , so kindly get to me with the total cost of the item including the shipping cost to her address below with post office, i pay through either Paypal or Bank transfer ok reply soon.

First Name :Joy Last Name :Steven Address:6-A9 silkis way xesvan City-Edinburg State-Virginia Zip-Code :22824 Country :USA

Take note of that as he wrote almost the same format...

 

[waikiki]

I got the same scam as you from gumtree and mine was from BoA. The wired transfer receipt got a spelling error plus the email address which claimed to be sent from the bank. I scolded the scammer upside down and told him to get a life in jail as I would be forwarding the email to FBI.

 

[sin_way]

i can relate, fell for chat scam, but press the brake. beware of Badoo app that run on smart phones! they got many style.

 

[marilin]

same scam from gumtree LOL BEWARE!!!!

1st email:
Hello i am Mr John Williams from United State Of America, how are you today and how are your families ? hope all is good ? well i am interested in buying the item for my daughter in USA, because it my daughter that need it and i hope she would like it , so kindly get to me with the total cost of the item including the shipping cost to her address below with post office, i pay through either Paypal or Bank transfer ok reply soon.


First Name :Ranny
Last Name :Williams
Address:house 4b marshall area
City-Edinburg
State-Virginia
Zip-Code :22824
Country :USA

Thanks and have a blessed
day

2nd email:
The total cost is okay with me,Send me your Payment Details......If you have PayPal it will be more better as PayPal is very Safe and Faster for both of us,but if not then we can use Bank Transfer.


3rd email:
Hello am happy to tell you that I have made the payment into your bank account,kindly check your email both inbox,spam and junk email for the payment confirmation from Citibank what you have to do now is that you get the item shipped and send the Shipment receipt and Tracking Number to Citibank for verification and after Citibank verify the Shipment the money will be fully credit into your account thanks reply asap..

 

[a130572]

Up for awareness....

 

[dbzcardcollector]

is it just in gumtree that the scammer prey on"?

 

[marilin]

Another scammer from gumtree just sent me a SMS asking me to email him, then he replied as such:

Thanks for the mail...I am ready to buy it now for my brother in China as a surprise gift as promised, however due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and sent you an email regarding it. I would be glad to pay for it as soon as possible though i will not be available to come for an inspection due to my ever clumsy schedule not to mention that my boss is a psycho LOL. Kindly get back to me with answers to the following questions below

1) What is the condition?
2) Are you the Owner?
3) Pick up Location address for me to forward it to the pick up agent for them to schedule time and the date for the pick up?
4) Your Registered PayPal Name and Registered PayPal Email Address for me to proceed with the payment?

I would be glad to make the payment immediately through PayPal so kindly get back to me with your registered PayPal name and registered PayPal email address for me to proceed with the payment as I am unable to mail a cheque or do a bank transfer (sorry about that). You need not to worry yourself about the shipping, I will instruct the shipping company to handle that and they can meet you at anywhere of your choice to pickup. Therefore in order to complete the transaction, you just need to get back to me with your Registered PayPal Name and Registered PayPal Email Address and total cost so that I can make the payment asap. I will be waiting for your reply

Thanks and apologies about the long mail.

Best,
Paige

 

[MPotato]

too many congratulation is just too scammy..

 

[wira]

ya ..getting fed up ..too many scammers targetting the singapore classifieds section esp craiglist.

some are really obvious as they are willing to pay more shipping cost to ship the item to some far flung countries like Africa /nigeria.

Just remember banks and Paypal will not hold money in escrow for buyers and always check the sender email address.

 

[sHeep9]

no free lunch in sg..

 

[wackykid]

i tio this also from gumtree... when my ad went up at night... very fast i received the following mail:

From: Randy Abel <randyabel2004@gmail.com>
Date:19/07/2014 09:46 (GMT+08:00)
To: <my address>
Subject: Re: <item>

Hello i am Mr Randy Abel from United State Of America, how are you today and how are your families ? hope all is good ? well i am interested in buying the item for my daughter in MALAYSIA, because it my daughter that need it and i hope she would like it , so kindly get to me with the total cost of the item including the shipping cost to her address below with post office, i pay through either Paypal or Bank transfer ok reply soon.


First Name :Tonia
Last Name :Abel
Address:Lot 297, Piasau Lorong one Pujut-Lutong Road
City-Miri
State-Sarawak
Zip-Code :98000
Country :Malaysia

Thanks and have a blessed day

it sounded odd at first but i thought "no harm" if it's a genuine buyer and as long as i receive the $$$ first... there are a few conversations to and fro for a while... until finally i received the following mail:

Hello am happy to tell you that I have made the payment into your bank
account,kindly check your email both inbox,spam and junk email for the
payment confirmation from Citibank what you have to do now is that you
get the item shipped and send the Shipment receipt and Tracking Number
to Citibank for verification and after Citibank verify the Shipment
the money will be fully credit into your account thanks reply asap..

alarm bells in me sounded... i was wondering citibank got do such things one...?? why $$$ is not transferred directly over..? they got so wu eng to help verify shipping/tracking number meh??

then i do a google search and found many others kenna the same thing... all have the same pattern but except different e-mail/names...

www.scamwarners.com View topic - Paypal Scam (via Gumtree)
BE careful of SCAMS.

i was preparing item to be shipped liao but heng i never ship anything...

up for awareness..!


regards,
wacky