Watch out for con artists!!!

[Moog]

I have given up selling second hand audio due to the hassles involved. In most cases, the first people to respond quickly are all scambers. One hilarious email was from Lagos and the "buyer" even offerred to pay much more than the asking price and after which he was to trasfer funds to my account. Another conman wanted me to deliver immediately on a Sunday and he promised to deposit the funds to my account the following day on a Monday. Phew!

[Bullet_GP]

I have also had tons of replies to my ads in Junkmail and Gumtree...

The first thing you notice is most of the times the idiot cannot spell properly. Here is an example:

Hie is the item advertised still for sales? I will paid via paypal then you sends it to my brother in West Africa...

These idiots really p*ss me off!!!

[AD]

Hi Guys,

there seems to be a new trick to the list:

I have found a couple of ads recently, advertising some really nice gear at really good prices. When I Google these ads to get some more info, I find an overseas add with the same wording, pics etc at a more realistic price.

I.e. Wilson Watt puppy
      Vienna acoustics center etc.

[GearSlave]

I see a very worrying trend lately...

Two weeks ago, my dad got taken for one of those scam EMails from FNB. Now he knows all about these scams, but what happened here was interesting: He banks with FNB and was waiting for a payment. As he received the SMS notification, he received an EMail from FNB as well, stating that there was a deposit into his bank account and that he should click the link to check his balance. He did so, not thinking it's anything weird because the EMail arrived just after the SMS. It was a hoax mail and they took him for R5k!

So, this morning I'm expecting a payment as well and true as nuts, as I get the confirmation SMS I get an EMail from FNB that a deposit was made into my bank account. Imagine my surprise as I don't even have an FNB account, but this mail came through straight after the SMS. Now how fishy is that?! How would any scam site know that I received a payment?! The guy that made the payment is also with Standard Bank, so now how do you explain this one?

[Robert_E]

Inside job at the bank... how else would they have YOUR email address at that exact moment. Sounds like it's automated too. This is worrying!

[...]

I see a very worrying trend lately...

Two weeks ago, my dad got taken for one of those scam EMails from FNB. Now he knows all about these scams, but what happened here was interesting: He banks with FNB and was waiting for a payment. As he received the SMS notification, he received an EMail from FNB as well, stating that there was a deposit into his bank account and that he should click the link to check his balance. He did so, not thinking it's anything weird because the EMail arrived just after the SMS. It was a hoax mail and they took him for R5k!

So, this morning I'm expecting a payment as well and true as nuts, as I get the confirmation SMS I get an EMail from FNB that a deposit was made into my bank account. Imagine my surprise as I don't even have an FNB account, but this mail came through straight after the SMS. Now how fishy is that?! How would any scam site know that I received a payment?! The guy that made the payment is also with Standard Bank, so now how do you explain this one?

Had the same happen to me, I was also waiting on a payment, got the e-mail and clicked the link, luckily fraud division shut my online banking down immediately.
It cost me time to get new cards, passwords and getting my internet banking active.

[Byrd]

This is why I segment my emails. I know who the email is from or at least what datasource.


Sent from my awesome iPhone using Tapatalk

[---------]

I segment my emails.

Byrd, what is this and how do you do it?

[---------]

I recently placed a wanted advert for a Cambridge Audio tuner on AVSA and just received this email:

"Dan Cunningham <dancunningham0@gmail.com>
Please let me know if you're still in need of the above as I have in stock for sale. Please shoot me a mail with your mobile contact.
All the best
Dan Cunningham
Address: 207 Lower Clapton Road,
London   E5 8EG,
UK"

Anybody heard of this guy? Should I pursue it or just ignore him?

[Noizyboy]

on those Bank type emails or anything i think is dodgy i go and click on the Properties and then on details which shows the original email addy and you can see when its a fake.

[surfsup]

You can always lie and tell him you have a mate in London that can come and pay and collect straight away. See what his reaction is?
Ask for his address and phone numbers etc to make it seem all legit. Just a thought.

[frikkie]

on those Bank type emails or anything i think is dodgy i go and click on the Properties and then on details which shows the original email addy and you can see when its a fake.

Correct - also, using Firefox, hovering the mouse over the hyperlink, you'll get to see the actual website address/mail address the hyperlink points to in the status bar bottom left. It's habit of mine to quick-check every link before I click it - even on well-known sites like our forum here.

[Atjan]

I've also had a number of emails from "Absa'' and 'FNB' requiring me to update my details recently. Interestingly enough it also happened around the time I received some notification from either bank, I do bank with both. Either way I've not paid attention as I never do to bank emails.....
What I do find irritating is that I've sent mails like these to Absa's fraud dept before but never got feedback.

A couple of years ago I worked at a rather big company. For months the majority of us received emails from fake addresses from our own company, peddling all kinds of enlargement products. In the beginning most of the guys did not evenwant to tell anyone they got these mails....
Turns out its some trojan or something that resided in our email server. Hence enabling the sending of these mails from our own server. Banks will never own up to that but I'm pretty sure something similar is going on.

[dean]

Stay away that same guy tried to rip me of he is a well known con .

[tyke]

some guy in jhb tried to scam me once regarding the sale of my plasma. He offered to pay the full price and including shipping, no negotiating of sorts. I thought oh wow lucky me.

Long story short, he deposited a cheque into my account at the close of business at the bank. Insisted that I courier the item immediately as he did the deposit. I said hang on I will have to check the account for clearance etc and call him back. Lo and behold, the cheque was deposited but not cleared, called him back but he never answered the phone.

The next day the bank calls me and asks if i sold anything recently and if i released the item. I said no and they advised that it was a stolen cheque chequebook and advised me not to release the item.

I did eventually got a hold of the guy and screamed some not so nice words.

Gumtree is getting a bit scary and my advice, always ask for an address and actual pictures of the item. Then cross reference those on google. If its on google walk away.