Caution: SCAM

[TuonoTom]

Hello fellow KBers, thought I should let you all know about a scam that I have been a target of. After putting my CBR up on trademe and KB I got a text message from an international number (started with 12 so I think it originated from North Korea), saying "I want to know if your Honda on KB is still available for sale. email me on lath.cath@yahoo.com". So I sent this person an email saying that it was still for sale. After a few more emails she decided that she wanted to pay via paypal, which was fine, and I made it very clear that the bike wasn't going anywhere until the money had made its way into my bank account.

After a few more emails about details of the bike and more photos I get some emails from "Paypal" saying that "$7,000.00 NZD has just been transferred to your account by Mrs Catherine Latham who is a verified PayPal user." This seemed double weird because the bike was (well still is now) for sale for $4500, and the email from what looked like paypal came from the domain mail2consultant.com. At this stage it was pretty obvious it was a scam. I checked my paypal account and there were no incoming payments. The next email said that I had to send $2500 to some international shipping company to secure the payment to my paypal account.... yeah right.

Here's the last email I got from "her":

"the total $7,000.00 NZD has left my account and cannot be reversed back into my account,it is now in paypal database system but cannot be released into your account until you pay for the shipper's fee which i have added to the Holden money,paypal is doing this for security measures to safegaurd the buyer and the seller at the same time,you have to pay the $2,500.00 NZD because the shipper receive their money from the seller of the item and since you are the seller,so you have to send the $2,500.00 NZD to the shipper information via Western Union Money Transfer(their office located at any nearest post office) and get back to paypal via email with the mtcn(money transfer control number) that will be given to you after you have transfer the $2,500.00 NZD to the shipper at western union office,then paypal will verify the number and release the $7,000.00 NZD into your account immediately after,kindly do this now so that we can conclude the transaction.

....Cathy"

I like the fact it went from being a Honda to being a Holden. Do people really get fooled by this kind of thing?

[grusomhat]

Apprently. People get scammed by more obvious scams. It's quite sad reading some of the stories. There's a few sites where people scam the scammers, gotta love it.

See if you can get some money out of them. A couple of hundred to prove they are actually able to give you some money ;P

[Rayray401]

Lol. Ignore it. Carry on..

[EJK]

You know those pop up windows saying "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE THE 1,000,000,000,000,000th VISITOR TO THIS WEBSITE"
Well.....




....damn, I could have scored a free PS3

[GOONR]

Apprently. People get scammed by more obvious scams. It's quite sad reading some of the stories. There's a few sites where people scam the scammers, gotta love it.

See if you can get some money out of them. A couple of hundred to prove they are actually able to give you some money ;P

Like this one. The Hall of Shame is always good for a laugh.

[Ronin]

I like the fact it went from being a Honda to being a Holden. Do people really get fooled by this kind of thing?

Unfortunately yeah they do. I had the job not long ago of telling a client that the $8000 she had sent to some cock smoker overseas would never be seen again.

[Flip]

Well god on you for not being suckered in.

Can I suggest you let paypal know what is going on here, it effects their business and they should know about it.

[TuonoTom]

I have forwarded all the messages on to paypal so they can deal to it. I did try to scam them back but they aren't replying ha ha. I've never been the target of such a personally targeted scam, but I'm not stoopid.

[TuonoTom]

Thought I'd add this email, its hilarious:

"I can only conclude this transaction only via paypal,i have been duped via cheque and bank transfer before,that is why i selected paypal(www.paypal.com ) as a mode of payment because paypal is the best online payment,so both of us could be on the safer side,i am a woman of integrity.i am honest and dont cheat people out of their money,i own my company that have a 25 number of people working for me,awaiting your decision because i really need to pursue this buy sincerely.

Thanks

....Cathy"

Epic lulz

[kevie]

I have forwarded all the messages on to paypal so they can deal to it. I did try to scam them back but they aren't replying ha ha. I've never been the target of such a personally targeted scam, but I'm not stoopid.

If the scam came in response to your advert on Trademe from another trademe member tell them too, they may have information of the scammer they can forward to the police.

[Blackbird]

Yep, I had a Paypal scam message when I put the Blackbird on Trademe. Simply passed it on to TM. Got an acknowledgment but don't know what happened after that, if anything.

[crazyhorse]

These people are getting more and more clever. Or is it, more and more stupid.

Unfortunately some people do actually fall for them

[CookMySock]

It's a tragedy, because basically you can't safely sell stuff using paypal.

Steve

[Tank]

It's a tragedy, because basically you can't safely sell stuff using paypal.

Steve

Sure you can - and millions of people do it every day. It is and remains one of the the safist online payment options out there.

But I'm sure Steve from edgecome knows better than eBay.

[SPORK]

It's a tragedy, because basically you can't safely sell stuff using paypal.

Steve

Use signed, tracked shipping and keep your receipts. Easy way to avoid trouble.

But yes, I'm sure you know something everybody else doesn't.