Written and posted by: David Harris
Seller Beware,
Regardless of what you’re selling there are people out there thinking of ways to scam you out of your hard earned money. If you run an ad for puppies for sale you will most assuredly get this type of response at one time or another.
Hello
Thanks for your response. .Am okay with the condition and pics of the puppy and i am interested in buying 2 of your puppy for my family Concerning the payment i can only send you check and i would need the following details for the check to get you fast..Here is the information needed for the check to get to you soon..
Your Full Name…..
Your Contact Address..
Your Phone Number..
last price….
Pls get back to me with the information so that the check can be sent out to you as soon as possible…Concerning the shipping of the puppy I have my shipping company that will come for the pick up at your location don’t worry about the shipment i will take care of that and the check will be overdraft after you received the check you DEDUCT THE MONEY THAT ACQUIRE TO YOU AND will help me to send the remaining balance to my shipping company through western union outlet for the pick up of the puppy
n.b== i will give you extra $50 to reserve for the pick up
These scam artist are preying on people and hoping that greed and hopes for a quick sell will overwhelm your good judgement. Remember the old saying? If it appears to be to good to be true then it probably is.
I get a lot of these, but this guy went a step further to get me to respond. He called my cell, then used operator assistance to make himself appear legit and to make it almost impossible for me to spot a scam. I would have spotted this scam in a second had he just called or e-mailed, but using an operator and faking being deaf made it appear that he really wanted a pup and was legit. But, once I got the e-mail I knew it was yet another scam.
There are hundreds of versions of this scam out there. They don’t even want your puppy. They want to sucker you into sending them real money after they have sent you a fake check. If you bite they will soon have you paying for this and paying for that all in the hopes of a big, to good to be true, pay off in the end.
You can stop this scam in two seconds or less by simply asking for a veterinarian referral. If a buyer is legitimate they will happily provide you with information about their vet, where they plan to house your puppy, what type of dogs they have owned in the past and will chat on and on about the details.
Scam artist ask nothing and tell nothing. They just wave money in your face and hope you will bite. Don’t fall for this temptation and let greed get the better of your good judgement. If you do you will be sorry.
Here is a link were you can read about the details of the typical Cashier Check Scam and an explaination of how it works:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp
Seller Beware.
If you have experienced or heard of other such scams please share the details with the blog. Perhaps you can save someone from learning this lesson the hard way.
David Harris
2 responses so far ↓
1 Danielle in KY // May 23, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I had this happen to me before and I played it out. Contacted the FBI and let them know. I called the operator assistance thing and warned them. Reported them on here as well: http://complaint.ic3.gov
They want you to cash the check and send them a lump sum. When the check OR money order bounces it is all on you and you have to pay it back. Also some people print fake money orders to scam people like this.
Here are the e-mails:
Hello,
How are you doing today,I just wanted to let you know that the payment must have been delivered to you today,So i will like you to proceed with it and deduct all the money that is accrues to you from it and send the balance via western union to the shipper information below for the pickup at your location….
Name: Kent Lawson
Address: 15 - 19 Chiswick High Road,
London,
W4 2ND
country .UnitedKingdom.
Once you have finalize everything via western union just get back to me with the details below…
Senders Name,,,,
Address,,,
Amount sent after deduct the transfer charges,,,
MTCN,,,
I will like you to do this snappy so that the pickup can be made in time and my shipper have provide all necessary needs and fill out all my documentations for the trip.
N.b i will like you to scan and send western union receipt to the agent as soon as you must have finished the transaction so here is their email catalystairshippingltd@yahoo.com and me as well immediately ok
so hope to hear from you soon to know you got this message.
_____________________
Thanks for your response.it was due to my hear Weiring impaired that lead to the tty and i will like you to reserve one playful male pup for me and also to let you know that payment will be by certified cashier’s check or money order. In view of this I need you to email me the information that would be required to send the payment, Moreso the puppy would be taken care of and would be pickup by my shipper as i am located in my address Laura L Carter, # 13508 Jodi Rd,Auburn, IL 62615-9762. So the shipper would be coming to your location to pickup the puppy with you.Also you need to know the payment will be included with the shippers fee to you and once you get the payment by mail take it to your bank and get it cashed and go ahead to deduct the money acrused to you for the puppy and send the rest balance to the shipper Via Western Union Money Transfer so that the puppy can be pickup from you immediately.
So in view of the above, here are some of the details I will need
for final issuance of the check or money order to you.
(1) Full Name………
(2) Mailing address….
(3) Your direct telephone both home and cell
{4} Acceptance of my offer…..
(5) Final asking price………..
Once you get back to me with all the above, the check will be issued out immediately and it will be sent to you .Hope to hear from you immediately.Finally i am making you a promise that the puppy will be taken Good care of and my children will be playing it him the pup all the time and will make it just like a child and nurtured like my friend,companion and pet at the same
time,never lacking any care and love from me at any point,i will also send you pictures from time to time for you to see what love i it gets from me.
Hope to hear from you immediately.
Regards
Laura Carter.
N.B.: I will pay you extra $50 to reserve the pup for me.Also it will be convinience to communicate through emial or if you use the yahoo messenger or hotmail msn messanger, my screen name is (laurac112) please do not hesitate to add me to your messenger list as friend!
2 David Harris // May 25, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Thanks for the links. It amazes me that people still try this crap and that people still fall for it. If it sounds to good to be true…………
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