I know this is a scam, but how does it work?
 

Have our 2006 Mini Cooper up for sale on Craigslist. Get an email from "Kathy" asking if it is still for sale. I reply with "yes." Then she sends this email back:

kathy smith kat.kat.055@gmail.com

12:54 AM (7 hours ago)

to me
Thanks,i am a U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor operator on board the USS Donald Cook Roosevelt out of Norfolk VA (DDG-75). i am at sea right now so l wont be able to check the item so whats the present condition, because am buying this for my son as a surprise gift so am willing to offer you the amount you required. I can only pay through PayPal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i don't have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my PayPal account, and this is why i insisted on using PayPal to pay, all i will need is your PayPal email address to pay for it,Present condition and some pictures of it.But if you don't have a PayPal account yet, you can set one up at www.paypal.com it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your PayPal email so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted. l will be waiting for your reply asap



Now I have an account that I just use for paypal. When I get money in it I sweep the account. Seems like if she actually sent any money at all I could just sweep the account and she couldn't do anything about it. So how does this scam work?

Check the paypal link she put in the email. It may say paypal.com but it most likely links to a site that is a paypal spoof. It'll be some subdomain like paypal.westealyourmoney.com

You'll be "required" to link the new paypal account to a bank account or credit card.

You'll enter the information..........

or the deal will change,

http://www.zx-10r.net/forum/showthread.php?t=93956

Can you even send that much money with paypal?? (i'm assuming a 2006 Mini goes for at least 5-10 grand , prolly more?)

First off, the only nuclear powered surface ships are aircraft carriers.

i'de mess with them
See the scamalot blog in my sig


Haven't had a decent scammer in a while though... and i do prefer the russian girls scams.. coz i get pictures.

The paypal link is legit.

The source of any money sent via PayPal will be either a hacked PayPal account or was funded using a stolen credit card.

Given your profession you are aware that there are ways to get that money back from you. Then you are out the difference.

yea they'll use a hacked/stolen paypal to send u money. u give the car to carrier. paypal revokes the transaction and takes back the money. they get free car.

email them back. ask em where their son is. "oh! i'm actually going to be taking vacation to ______ next month. i could just drop the car off at that location"

I got the exact same email for a gun I had listed on Backpage.

Why is their English so poor? If they could only write the generic e-mail correspondence in proper English, they would be successful on a greater number of people. Plus, the story is way too detailed and implausible.

When are these scammers going to get their act together and pull off a good scam? I should advertise to do proofreading for the scammers.

Dear Scammers from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Russia and other foreign nationalities,

Please send me your Paypal account e-mail address and credit card information and I will proofread your scam e-mails for both grammatical correctness and plausibility with potential North American suckers. I offer 25% discount for scammers willing to pay Interac direct deposit!

I checked several sources, the USS Donald Cook is a gas turbine powered ship, not nuclear.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

angela

Required is past tense. You be looking for money in the present tense "require".

That should be all you need to see before cutting them off.

My response:

To kathy
It is in excellento condition and pictures are in the add. You are a very generous mother to be giving him such a fine product for a present. Where does he live?

If you are asking 15k, she will send you 17k and ask you to wire her back the difference. You will wire the difference before "her" source of funds is detected as bogus.

Tell you want pics. :)

They could have changed it out. They change engines in the M1 Abrams real fast.

Couldn't be that big of a deal.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...leys/freak.gif

It was all in the first few words:

"i am a U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor operator"

Awkward.

True, but she is on the USS Donald Cook Roosevelt.
The Navy cleared the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and now have the USS Donald Cook parked on top. This is part of the Navy's effort to save petroleum by car-pooling their ships.

I think this is completely legit. Kathy is a U.S. Navy, and if you can't trust a U.S. Navy then who can you trust?

Yep - piece of cake. From gas turbine to nuclear can't be much harder than an LS1 into a well setup 944, right? :D

angela

The scam revealed!
 

So after a few more emails back and forth I get this:

kathy smith kat.kat.055@gmail.com

11:22 AM (41 minutes ago)

to me
I was just about to pay when i had this problem with the pick up, my pick up agent says i will need to pay for the pick up before they can schedule a pick up time, they charged me $900 for pick up and delivery and also with the insurance fee, and payments for pick up made through them is made to their corporate international headquarters and the payments is made through western union money transfer,i will add the $1,000 to the money i will send through paypal as soon as i have made the payments, iwill email you and let you know and please i will need you to help me send the money to my pick up agent Hq in the USA through western union money transfer, this can be done from any post office ,there is always western union money transfer section in most post offices or at the bank. I would have done it myself but we cant bring some of our personal effects along,i am a little incapacitated.....I will appreciate your help here.

LOL,

From the thread I linked in my 1st reply.

Almost scammed with purchase of my bike/fake paypal scam. - Kawasaki ZX-10R.net

"Kathy: I was just about to pay when i had this problem with the pick up, my pick up agent says i will need to pay for the pick up before they can schedule a pick up time, they charged me $500 for pick up and delivery and also with the insurance fee, and payments for pick up made through them is made to their corporate international headquarters which is in State and the payments is made through western union money transfer, i will add the $550 to the money i will send through paypal as soon as i have made the payments, i will email you and let you know and please i will need you to help me send the money to my pick up agent Hq in the US through western union money transfer, this can be done from any post office ,there is always western union money transfer section in most post offices or at the bank. I would have done it myself but we cant bring some of our personal effects along, i am a little incapacitated.....I will appreciate your help here."

do u get a transaction receipt number when you do a western union transfer?

just send her a bogus number. she'll have to go to the western union to find out the number doesn't exist hehe. waste her time too!

oh did she give u the contact info for the pickup courier? phone number or email? u can fake an email. hell u can fake a phone caller id too

...the word 'agent' was the next clue. Stolen card, money, or paypal account most likely.

The plot thickens
 

She sends me this email:

kathy smith

12:41 PM (2 hours ago)

to me
I have just made the payments now and i expect PayPal to have emailed by now if not you can check your spam or junk mail for the confirmation,i sent $14,500 in all, to (kval2209@gmail.com) i added $1,000 meant for pick up and delivery and the western union fee,they said they have emailed you to this effect, you will need to send the $900 to my pick up agent Headquarters via western union money transfer,so that PayPal can credit the $14,500 into your account as soon as you have emailed the western union details to them, i added extra $100 to cover the western union charges which shouldn't be more than $100 Here is the pick up agent info needed to get the money sent through western union money transfer:

Terri Pope,
333 Carthage Rd,
Robbins,
NC
27325
United State

I will need the details of the transfer once you have sent fund . . .
1.The MTCN number that is the 10 digits number on the Western Union receipt
2.Sender's name and address used in sending the money
3.Actual amount sent.


To which I don't respond. An hour later I get this:

kathy smith

2:35 PM (12 minutes ago)

to me
Hello l have not heard from you since the payment has been made,am worried about this because by now you should have gotten the payment confirmation from PayPal so pls kindly reply back asap

I think she is getting worried. :D

send her a picture of your best friends. Gibbs and DiNozzo!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1329944501.jpg

Now tell her that you have checked your email and your paypal account several times and don't have the funds.

Ask her to start a claim with PayPal, and tell her you will hold the vehicle while she gets it straightened out.

See what her reaction is.

Done!

Kurt V

4:26 PM (0 minutes ago)

to kathy
Something seems wrong here. I have checked my email and my paypal account several times and don't have the funds.

Would you please start a claim with PayPal? I will hold the vehicle while you get it straightened out.

Kurt V

I had a guy "pay" for my Canon 5D2 on eBay with a fake paypal. The email looked legit, but when I checked my account there was no money added. He sent me a couple of, "hey, I paid send the camera" (for his cousin in Nigeria he said) which I ignored and notified eBay to cancel the ended auction.

That was fast!
 

She responded right away:

kathy smith

4:33 PM (1 minute ago)

to me
Have you receive the Payment Confirmation from PayPal,Kindly check your inbox or Spam mail for it because that's where i also receive mine and get back to me...

333 Carthage Rd, Robbins, NC 27325
damn...that's a lone trailer home out in the middle of nowhere.

what's a physical address gonna do for the agent? are you gonna snail mail the guy? ask for a phone number or an email address! better yet. get her phone number and say you'll call her and conference in the pickup agent.

Your reply:

Nothing yet. Maybe it a problem on my end with email attachments. Could you send me a photo of yourself attached to an email so I can see if I get that?

While we are waiting for Nostatic to get a response here is another line tried on a friend of mine who is selling an historic racing car:

"I really appreciate your respond,I am an oceanographer and am currently at sea at the moment,due to my occupation as a marine engineer at this moment i am presently working offshore,sometimes access to regular emails and phone calls are very poor in offshore due to inefficiency of the immarsat service, I located in pacific WA, and i want you to know that am okay with the car status and also the conditions of the car and the asking price as well, I am buying the car as a gift for my Dad as a surprise for him,he wont know anything about the car until they get delivered to him, i can only pay through PayPal as i don't have access to my bank account on-line as i don't have internet banking,but i have my bank account attached to my PayPal account and this is why i insisted on paying you through PayPal, kindly get back to me with your PayPal details if you don't have PayPal account yet,it is very easy to set up at your bank and get it set up,after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so as to put the money through so i can proceed with the payment and after the payment has been done, i have a pick up agent that will come around for verifications and to pick the car after i have made the payments for the car.So I will need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the making of the payment.

1.Your PayPal full name.
2.Your PayPal Email Address.
3..Your phone number.

Once again ,I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping. I will have my pick-up agent come over as soon as you have receive the payment confirmation.

Regards. "

This left us really "at sea"...

These scammers really need to work on their command of the english language.

The first sentence in the paragraph above is VERY redundant

Well bad news for the scammer, while we are trying to find that money she sent me I went and sold the car out from under her. :D

I always lead these people on..I let them send their fake checks to me from where ever,,can not be cheap LOL