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Articles > Scamming the scammer: P-P-P-PowerBook!
The scam:
Seems like a smooth sale so far, right? Then I get this:
Hello, I'm very very interested for this item and I'm ready to pay you the best price $2100+ overnight or 2 days shipping charges (UPS DHL FEDEX OR FEDEX OR PARCEL FORCE) if we will use an escrow service to handle this transaction.
As for the escrow service , I am already registered with http://www.set-ltd.net and my uzername is the same with my email address.
I will pay the express shipping and also , the escrow fee . The escrow service will release you the money as soon as I will let them know that the item passed the inspection and is 100% ok.
The escrow fee is on my charge , don't worry. Please let me know if my offer is good enough for you .
If it does , I will initiate the transaction with the escrow service as soon as I will have your confirmation.
If is ok please register in order to make the deal and start the payment procedures.
Hope that everything will be ok and close the deal in the best conditions.
Kind regards !
Ok. I watch King 5 news. I've seen this on CNN.
Welcome to your textbook eBay scam.
At first, I was just going to reply with a 72pt font FUCK OFF, or perhaps a disgusting picture, but I decided to see what the upstanding members of the forums thought.
And of course, right away, it is all picked apart. . .
Almost right away, Grom posted this:
Hmmm that escrow service doesn't look very legit - check the verisign secureid link, it's just a javascript pop-up which pretends to be going to verisign's site.
The actual page it displays is just http://www.set-ltd.net/Ve ... riSign.php- or have I got the wrong end of the stick?
It looks hopelessly unprofessional and doesn't seem right anyway - ask him if he will use a different escrow service.
That one is either fraudulent or just plain shit.
After Starbucks discovers that the site is registered to:
Domain Name: set-ltd.net
Creation Date: 2004-04-16
Registration Date: 2004-04-16
Expiry Date: 2005-04-16
Organisation Name: Saral Surakul 851 Foxcrest Court Terre, 47803 US
Almost right away P-niiice discovers Saral is a college professor!
Could it be this Saral Surakul? http://www.indstate.edu/f ... rakul.html
Indiana State university is in Terra Haute.
Of course we all dig up a bunch of this information on this guy, and his office contact information.
I draft an email to send him with all of the info we dug up, when we get a better idea.
Why don't we string him along? Lets see how far I can take it. . .
Well that sounds ok to me! I was able to log onto your internet web site. (Which I must say looks very nice to me!)
I just had a few questions. . .
What should I use for a user name and password? I like to use the same thing for
everything. Ebay, paypal, email. . . is that ok?
In your FAQ, I noticed that you can use the set-ltd.net services, and it does not have
o be an online purchase. But if its not online, how do they get to your website?
Thank you!
Jeff
While we wait for our response, I post his email address and we go to town on his eBay account.
Almost everything is in German, and the feedback isn't that bad.
Translators come in to help with some of his feedback entries, but pretty much prove useless.
Our next email is pretty short and sweet:
Please retry to enter http://www.set-ltd.net and let me know your user name there.
OK.
Thank you.
So, I register on the site, and let him know:
From: MyNameIsJeff mynameisjeff@bootsix.net.
Sent: Saturday, April 24
To: 'scont06@yahoo.com'
Subject: What is the next step?
Hello!
I have just finished creating my account on the escrow site that you suggested. My escrow username is MyNameIsJeffHarris. Before we continue, I wanted to ask; do you know if this site had a strong digital defense. I read that escrow services who do not utilize a strong digital defense can often be attacked, and the buyer and or seller can lose money or their item. I really don't want this to happen! I'm sure you don't either!
I don't mean to ask so many questions; as you can see, I am new at ebay. By doing it this way, will I get to skip the extra ebay fees? That would be really great. I don't want to pay them extra money. What is the next step? I have never really used escrow.
Thank you! Jeff
Here is where our friend gets excited. . .
Scammer wrote:From: Gianluca scont06@yahoo.com.
Sent: Sunday, April 25
To: MyNameIsJeff
Subject: Re: What is the next step?
HELLO First of all I want ot tell you that you will not pay anything because I pay the escrow, UPS and other fees.
Ok? I started the transaction with the nr. 6813088950.
Now please enter www.set-ltd.net, acces your account with the uzername that you have and if the transaction is Ok with you please accept it.
Ok? Once you do that I will send the funds =2100$ plus shipping $180. Ok?
Please send the unit express UPS or Fedex.
I will send them money and they will let you know as soon as they get the amount.
Then you can send the unit at my address. Ok?
Do not worry I know a lot of people that used this service and it is OK.
Please let me know.
THANKS
After encouraging everyone to create more transfers, I sent this:
Hello sir!
Please let me thank you again for being so patient with me!
It is too bad we are settling outside of ebay, because I was going to leave you "EXCELENT EBAYER!!!!!11 A++++++++== WOULD SELL TO ANYTIME" I guess it is ok though becaue I would have to give them an extra $300 when the auction was over.
I logged onto your preferred escrow site and saw our transaction. I did not see any place to accept it though! Did I just not see it? Sorry I am new at this. Where do I go to say OK?
Where on the site does it say where to ship it to! I am very eager to get this thing shipped so I can hurry up and start the process to get my money!
Once I ok our transaction does it tell me where to ship the laptop? I am very positive you will be satisfied with the laptop.
One other thing, You seemed to confident about this escrow service, that I think I am going to use it myself for my other transactions.
Is that ok?
I will be buying and selling other laptops and would like the security.
I will be buying many things and will need a escrow service with a strong digital defense to send my money to so I don't get ripped off.
Thanks again! Jeff
Here are some more details of my new escrow transactions:
Seller username: mynameisjeffharri
Buyer username: Mayor Wilkins shipping with Captain Eddie's cargo ship
Who pays fee: Buyer
Who pays shipping: Buyer
Inspection period: 7
Item price: 34500 USD
Quantity: 17250
Escrow fee: 0 from 7141500 USD
Shipping cost: 1200
Total cost to Seller: 0
Total cost to Buyer: 602267700
Description:
A lot of bear kidneys from various bears, including (but not limited to) polar, grizzly, brown, Yogi, black, panda, and Care
A lot of these were listed, and pretty funny, but we decided to stop with them, because we didn't want our little scammer to grow wise.
While waiting for his response, I decided, that because it was my original sale, I would report the account to eBay.
I went through all the hoops, filled out all the forms.
To sum it up, I let them know what we discovered, and asked them to take some action. This is what I get:
Hello,
Thank you for writing to eBay's Customer Support with your concerns. My name is John and I appreciate the chance to answer your question. I'm happy to assist you further.
An Escrow service allows the buyer to send their money to the Escrow Company, and the Seller then ships the item to the Buyer.
Once the Buyer approves the item the Escrow service then pays the Seller. eBay recommends escrow for transactions over $500.00.
The Escrow service affiliated with eBay is called http://www.Escrow.com. eBay encourages members to take advantage of the assurance that escrow services can provide.
For more information on escrow, please see the following eBay page:
http://pages.ebay.com/hel ... scrow.html
I wish you the best with your future transactions.
Regards,
John W. S.
eBay Customer Support
Well thank you john! My cup runneth over! Let's see. Someone is reporting an obvious scam and fake escrow site.
Obviously he has no idea what escrow is. Better school him!
This pissed me off. Can this be eBay's response to other scams? Perhaps my follow-up e-mail was a little too angry:
Hi John,
Not to be rude, but I know quite well what escrow is. I also happen to know that this is an obvious scam attempt. Had you actually read the form I filled out on your site, and not replied with the canned response: Escrow 101, you would notice that I did not ask what escrow was. I was reporting someone wants to settle the sale outside of ebay, through an escrow site he referred me to. A site that claims to be a VeriSign secure site, but then you click the logo, he is hosting the VeriSign page -the page that should take you to the verisign site. This is a text book rip off. This can't be your answer to everyone who reports these types of things can it? I really think you should take some action against this person.
Jeff
It isn't long before we have a new email from the scammer:
From: Gianluca scont06@yahoo.com.
Sent: Monday, April 26
To: MyNameIsJeff
Subject: Re: Ready to ship laptop
OK I talk with escrow services and now is ok he have a litle problem with website.
The money is sent express to escrow.
Please email me when you will receive the confirmation.
And when he says express, he means express! Hours later I get my confirmation!
From: Set-Ltd Customer Service
Sent: Monday, April 26
To: chemically_balanced@hotmail.com
Subject: Payment received for transaction #6813088950
Dear customer,
Your partner "scont06" has completed the payment for transaction ID 6813088950
Item name: PowerBook G4
Item price:2100.00 USD
Shipping cost: 180.00 USD
Quantity: 1
Inspection period: 1 day
Escrow fee: 25.20 USD
Total cost to buyer:2305.20 USD
Your action is required now. The next step of the transaction is to ship the merchandise to the buyer. Please send the shipping details to your partner "scont06".
As soon as your partner receives the merchandise and the inspection period ends we will contact you to complete payment.
Billing Support Team
www.set-ltd.net
But wait?? What is also sitting in my inbox right next to this?
From: Gianluca scont06@yahoo.com.
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 3:44 PM
To: MyNameIsJeff
Subject: I'm waiting the track#
Hello I receive the confirmation from escrow services about the money is received.
Please send it as we agreed: fedex ups or dhl tnt express and please put a small value on the package so I will pay less taxes.
Here the duty taxes are 27,5% from the total amount wrote on the package so please do your best and send it as a family gift and with a low value.
This is my address: GIANLUCA SESSAREGO 9B VARLEY PARADE COLINDALE,LONDON,UK zip code: NW9 6RR
Please email me when you will send the package and give me the tracking number.
Regards
And now we have his address. (I'm not going to insert the screen shots).
Everyone had a lot of ideas on how to mess with this guy.
Holy shit!! The next course of action is WICKED obvious, he even said it himself:
"Here the duty taxes are 27,5% from the total amount wrote on the package."
Put like $8000 on the package and make the fucker pay $2200 for it.
This was perfect! Obviously, $8000, was high, but marking it $2200 and having him pay the 27% is genious!
I wanted to send him something, but couldn't think of anything. It had to be something worth paying for, and worth the effort. But what?
Send a three ring binder with a hand drawn keyboard taped to the inside of the bottom flap, and a hand drawn screen taped to the inside of the top flap.
Crayon preferred.
YES. This was perfect! Trick the scammer into paying a few hundred dollars for a fake laptop!
Genius! But I wanted to take it a step further.
While I thought about it, I sent another email, and posted my plan. . .
Hello! Well, it looks like I am ready to ship!
I got my email from the escrow site too. I also have your email with your address so I will be sending your laptop today or the next day.
I told my friend about you and she said that she would like to sell you more if you are interested!
Would you like to buy more of the ultra powerful G4 powerbooks?
She has them at her work to sell because people only know how to use them for AOL Instant Messenger and flash versions of Asteroid.
So please respond as soon as you can. I would like to tell her that you would like to purchase more laptops.
You seem pretty cool and trust worthy. So let me know fast.
If you want more, send the money to the escrow and let me know.
Once I get the email and know that everything is set up I will then send them all at the same time.
I save money on shipping this way!
Thanks again for all your help with this sale. I only wish I could leave you feedback on ebay because I wanted to leave EXCELENT SELLAR A+++ W@W LQQK OMGBBQ or something like that.
I think feedback is so cool! I like to come up with new and exciting ways to leave it!
I was thinking. Since you basically helped me save $250 from ebay fees, I wanted to share some of that with you.
So go ahead and tell the Digitally Defended Escrow site that I want to refund you $100 for helping me.
They can do that right? That is my gift to you.
I eagerly await your response!!!!!
Jeff
Even if he says he wants more and has sent the money for them all I will say I am sending the one first. Then the others.
Yes. I want to mail him something.
I don't really have any laptop to smash up. So I will construct one.
Crayons - 3 ring binder - glitter - failed cd burns which I will label as various programs - I will glue keys from broken keyboard. (or should I just draw them?)
A print out of this story will be included.
The package will be valued at $2100 and will weight the same as a real G4.
