Someone is trying to scam me....

[Tweekish]

I put a DVD player up for sale on Amazon market place a few months back. Its not a really expensive player, and to be honest if it doesnt sell I was going to ebay it.

Last night I had a weird email from someone claiming to be interested in buying it. Now, I gave a brief description of the player hopefully here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000ION2US/ref=dp_olp_1/203-8282062-8973545). Here is the email I received

Dear Seller,

Goodday to you,i will love to buy this item you have at amazon.co.uk,am really
interested in buying the item,please dont be
annoyed,can i know the working condition of the item,i want to tell you that i
can only pay you through amazon payment and you will send the item by royamail
first class recorded delivery,mail me back if you are ok with my offer and i
will proceed with the payment. i will be waiting for your sweet reply if
possible today. Thanks.

Jenny.

Bloody rude, I though. YOU WILL send by recorded delivery. I send a polite email back saying that Amazon tells me how much to charge for shipping and that I already described what the player was like. So today I get not one, but TWO poorly spelled emails from "Amazon" telling me to dispatch.

Dear *********@hotmail.com,

Congratulations! Your Amazon Marketplace item has been officially
purchased.Funds in your Amazon Payments account are deposited directly into
your bank account every 14 days. There is no need for you to do anything
apart from posting the item to the buyer. Here are the details of your
completed Amazon Marketplace sale:

Order #:
Total Item Count: 1
Listing ID: 0501A517568 ASIN: B000ION2US Quantity: 1

You have agreed to ship the item not later than 1 to 2 business days and
make sure you send us the Shipment Refrence Number as soon as you ship the
item to buyer. This item will not be remove from Amazon.co.uk web-pages and
the FUNDS will not be TRANSFER into your Amazon account not until you post
the item.Note you are not allowed to send the postage reference number to
the buyer not until you receive your fund into your Amazon Account.Here is
your buyer's shipping address (use your own address as the return address,
and enclose the packing slip in this e-mail for your buyer's reference):

Shipping Label
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
PACKING SLIP:
Amazon Marketplace Item: Goodmans GDVD148HDMI DVD Player [Electronics]
Quantity: 1

Shipping address:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ship to: E. S Oluwatosin
Address Line 1: 8,nurat soetan street,command
Address Line 2:
City: Ipaja.
State/Province/Region: Lagos.
Zip/Postal Code: 23401
Country: Nigeria

Buyer's Name: Ms Jenny *****
Purchased by:
Cardholder's Name: Ms Jenny ******
Address: **********
City: ********
State: London
Zip Code: **********
Country: United Kingdom
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Amazon Buyer's e-mail: **********@rock.com
Amazon Seller's email: **********@hotmail.com

Time of sale: 30-June-2007
Shipping speed: standard shipping
Buyer's Price: £32.00 (GBP)
Amazon commission: £9.90 (GBP)
Additional shipping credit: £65.00 (GBP)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Your earnings (in your Payments account): £87.01 (GBP)
Note: Amazon.co.uk is crediting you £65.00 (GBP) in addition to your net
sales price to help cover shipping costs. This amount is adequate to cover
standard shipment of most items. You are required to ship this item even in
cases that the shipping credit does not fully cover your shipping costs.

At the end, it says This Mail was sent from www.madcoffee.com.
Authenticity of sender is not verified.

I checked Amazon, and my DVD player is still listed. I will contact them and ask whats going on. I need a suitable witty reply to send this person to say why I havent sent my DVD player to Nigeria....

[Martinus]

Fuck off?

[Zhyl]

Tell them that they can join your religion.

[happy-go-lucky]

Tell them you've posted it and it will arrive any time soon.

[Shave]

just googled the street name (also tried google maps and another map programme) and nothing finds it, and instead of nurat soetan street it keeps saying do you mean nuSrat soetan street

oh, and i'm sure it's a different zip code in nigeria, if they even have them, but searching the zip code gave me somewhere in vancouver

[Bail]

Say you were on your way to post it but got caught in the flooding thats been about (give a link to a BBC News page about it) apologize sincerely and offer to send them a High Def 52' Plasma by way of apology... See how it replies...

[Tweekish]

just googled the street name (also tried google maps and another map programme) and nothing finds it, and instead of nurat soetan street it keeps saying do you mean nuSrat soetan street

oh, and i'm sure it's a different zip code in nigeria, if they even have them, but searching the zip code gave me somewhere in vancouver

I was worried about it at first, but now I feel a little better about it :)

Should I toy with them or ignore it???? Half of me wants to give them the runaround!

[happy-go-lucky]

Toy with them. Definately.

[Martinus]

FAO: Ms Jenny *****
**********@rock.com

I am contacting you in reference to a query placed with us by *********@hotmail.com
on the 30th of June 2007. It has been brought to our attention that a shipping
address you provided to the aforementioned seller has been linked to a number of
complaints. The provided address is:

8,nurat soetan street,command
Ipaja.
Lagos.
23401
Nigeria


We would advise you at this time to contact your recipient and verify that they are
indeed at this location. We have advised the British High Commission (Chancery,
Abuja) to dispatch an officer to the location within fourteen (14) working days of
receipt of this email for a routine inspection. This is normal procedure in these
inquiries, you should not be alarmed and have not formally been charged with any
crime.



If you have any inquiries regarding this matter please quote case number #618327B-66A
in any further correspondence or use the interface below:
http://www.soca.gov.uk/contactUs/index.html


Yours sincerely,
Lt. Inspector Peter Iain Staker


Serious Organised Crime Agency
PO Box 8000
London
SE11 5EN


************************************************
THIS MESSAGE IS CONFIDENTIAL, IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT PLEASE DISREGARD
AND DELETE THIS MESSAGE. WILFUL SHARING OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION WITH OTHERS IS
A CRIME AND WILL BE PURSUED AND PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.
************************************************

[Tweekish]

Now, all I need is a fake email address I can send that from :D

[Timmeh]

I can make you a php page that can mock an e-mail address with a replyto if you like? Can have something like enquiries@soca.gov.uk? :)

I love screwing with scammers.

[CodingTim]

Careful you don't invoke the wrath of SOCA themselves, as Martinus said :p

[Martinus]

Think they'll get the 'Lt. Inspector Peter Iain Staker' joke?

I was thinking that they'll have the actual SOCA website is scary enough. Anyone stupid enough to pull this is just going to bail.

[CodingTim]

I only just got it myself, I must admit! :D

[Tweekish]

I can make you a php page that can mock an e-mail address with a replyto if you like? Can have something like enquiries@soca.gov.uk? :)

I love screwing with scammers.

I just dont want a big hairy dude knocking on my door demanding his DVD player! They do have my address afterall :S

[HeavyT]

Oh man. This has so much potential for lulz.

[Timmeh]

In all honesty, I doubt anyone'll even read the reply, it's probably just a bot that trawls the site, e-mails the same message to random people that have listed items in the hope that a few of them will be stupid enough to actually send the item without payment first.

It's worth a go though, just in case :)

[Tweekish]

What the hell, why not!

I have another email from Jenny

Hello Sian
>
>Thank you for mailing,i receiced your message and i am ok with the item,i have made the payment to amazon since i am satisfied with it,i
>believed they will send you the confirmation,when you receive the confirmation i want you to send the item,am sending this item to my
>father as gift for his birthday,the birthday party is coming up by next week,so i want the item to be sent asap,if possible today so
>that he can receive it before the party.i will be waiting for your reply concerning the postage reference number.thanks
>
>Jenny

Plus one from Amazon to say that my marketplace listing has just expired

Im sending her back one telling her that I have been flooded and it will have to wait until Monday.

EDIT

Hey Jenny,
I have to apologise about this. We have had some awful weather here over the last few days and this morning my entire road was flooded! We have been asked to pack up some essentials and go stay with family elsewhere until the flood waters go down. Luckily enough, the DVD player was upstairs and is all OK :) I should be able to get back on Monday to parcel it up.

[Sebas]

Don't worry. He's in Nigeria anyway. :p

[happy-go-lucky]

On Monday, tell her you're having a family crisis and can't send it till wednesday.

[esquilax]

Or that in your culture, Monday only occurs every three weeks.

[Mercury126]

Don't worry. He's in Nigeria anyway. :p
More than often these lads have friends all around the world. If you annoy this one too much and she does have your real address, then you may get an unfriendly visit from one of her friends. Of course she is probably far too lazy to actually go as far as that but nevertheless be careful.

[happy-go-lucky]

Tell her you're moveing because of flooding and can't send it for a bit. Win win.

[Mercury126]

Tell her your moving here (http://www.urban75.org/london/leinster.html), thats the address I use for all my baits :P

[Tweekish]

Seeing as they just sent me an email from "Amazon", I dont think she has my address at all. Im trying to work out what the point of this whole thing is, sending a dvd player to an address that doesnt exist is weird. How would they gain from that? Amazon sent me an email back saying they had lots of people getting these fake send now emails.

Now im definately going to toy with them :) Maybe sign her email address up to some spam too.... SOCA can be the icing on the cake.

[archbishop_josh]

http://www.419eater.com/

Try that site for some inspiration. There's some truly amazing ones their.

Ive been trying to bait one of these for a while but i havent succeeded yet.

[captain canuck]

vancouver I have no idea how you even came up with that; all Canadian postal codes are 6 digits, and a mix of Letters and Numbers (LNL NLN format).

I just got Keller, Virginia.

Also, note what happens when you Google just the numbers. That one has been used in a bunch of scams; it's the top result on my page.

[Tweekish]

I just noticed something.

HER address is Hendon, London. The last time I checked, Hendon was in Sunderland. HIS zip code leads me to a Christian... thing (http://www.5minutesite.com/browse/vpui0002005.php)?

[Bail]

Wait a min... How do they have your home address? The initial email was fake wasn't it? They'd have to be genuine to go via Amazon to get it, which their not, so how can they know anything about you other than your email addy?

[Shave]

I have no idea how you even came up with that; all Canadian postal codes are 6 digits, and a mix of Letters and Numbers (LNL NLN format).

I just got Keller, Virginia.


it gave me VA so I just assumed vancouver :p

[Tweekish]

Wait a min... How do they have your home address? The initial email was fake wasn't it? They'd have to be genuine to go via Amazon to get it, which their not, so how can they know anything about you other than your email addy?

They dont, I double checked!

I had another email yesterday asking if the DVD player was OK. I told her to fuck off.

SCAM ENDZ :(

[Martinus]

I'm glad you took my advice. ;)

[Rook]

Apparently a lot of Amazon scams are run out of Nigeria, you're not alone on this.

The moral of the story: don't sell stuff to anyone from Nigeria. Unless you're in Nigeria, and can ensure payment. With a .44 Magnum.

[Tweekish]

Amazon dont include Nigeria as a country they accept payment from. I guess this has happened a lot.

[captain canuck]

it gave me VA so I just assumed vancouver :p Never assume.

"Ass out of u and me", etcetera. :p

[Smartie]

I just noticed something.

HER address is Hendon, London. The last time I checked, Hendon was in Sunderland. HIS zip code leads me to a Christian... thing (http://www.5minutesite.com/browse/vpui0002005.php)?

Not wanting to wee on your bonfire, but Hendon IS in London (Barnet).
It's where the big police training place is.

[DangerMouse]

Im going to run a 'scam the scammer' thread pretty soon. Only problem is, i don't have any scammer e-mails in my inbox. If anyone has a blatant one, can u PM me the details and i'll take it from there. I do enjoy a good scammer baiting.

[Tweekish]

Apparently if you post in peoples guestbooks you can pick up a scammer pretty quickly.

[DangerMouse]

What guestbooks?

[Bail]

On blogs and the like. Leaving comments, bot picks up email addy, spammer sends scam.

[Mercury126]

Here (http://www.419baiter.com/_scam_emails/scammer-email-addresses.html) is a list of lads email addresses, lads don't care that they didn't send you an email. They send out thousands of them, just send an email to one saying I am very interested what do I need to do, I lost the original or something like that. I would advice you to sign up to the eater, they can help you if you get stuck and have loads of advice and modalities for the lads.

[sirch]

Here (http://www.419baiter.com/_scam_emails/scammer-email-addresses.html) is a list of lads email addresses, lads don't care that they didn't send you an email. They send out thousands of them, just send an email to one saying I am very interested what do I need to do, I lost the original or something like that. I would advice you to sign up to the eater, they can help you if you get stuck and have loads of advice and modalities for the lads.

The problem with that thread is that you don't know what the origional e-mail said. I am getting loads, all gone at the minute but there should be one in the next day or two. I shall PM you then.

EDIT: Lol, Spam email

FROM BARRISTER LIONEL

AGBO LLB.HON.
President Head, Union

Chambers COTONU,
C/112 Calavi-Igolo

Cotonou Benin Republic.
Private E-Mail:mygold@email.com

Fax:+229 21 0 80 80

Tel :+229 90 91 24 26,

Attention Sir,

I am Barrister Lionel Agbo ,the attorney at law to Late Micheal a national of your country, who used to work as the Director of Société Nationale de Commercialisation des Produits Pétroliers (SONACOP)Oil Company in Benin Republic West Africa Here in after shall be Referred to as my client. On the 27th of May 2001, my client, His wife and their three Children were involved in a car accident Along Sagbama express-road. All occupants of the vehicle Unfortunately lost their lives.Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives this has also proved Unsuccessful.

After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track His last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his Family hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in Repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank *here. These huge deposits were lodged particularly, with the " CONTINENTAIL BANK- BENIN where the Deceased had an account valued at about $18.5 million dollars. The Bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account confiscated.

Since I have been unsuccessful in Locating the relatives for over 5 years now I seek your consent To present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have The same last name so that the proceeds of this account valued at $18.5 million dollars can be paid to you and then you and me can Share the money.60% to me and 40% to you I will procure all Necessary legal documents that can be used to back up any claim we may make.All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this Deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. And the way we are going to achieve this is I will need the following information from you,

Your Full Name and Address,
Your Age, Occupation and Position,
Your Telephone and Mobile for Communication Purpose.


Please get back to me through my office email address
I await your Call and reply ASAP. reply this mail to my private mail:mygold@email.com

Best Regards,
Barrister Lionel Agbo LLB.HON.
President Head, Union Chambers COTONU








BARRISTER LIONEL AGBO
PRESIDENT HEAD UNOIN
CHAMBERS