Craigslist.org, Bay Area most popular website for classifieds,
although not directly involved in such transactions, is a common place to
encounter scams. The most familiar schema is someone sending you a check for
larger than the agreed amount, then asking you to deposit it and send the
“extra” cash via Western Union or other wire services. Beware! I
discovered one myself.
A couple of weeks ago I posted an ad for private yoga
sessions. Then someone named Lurd Guggard contacted me asking me to tutor his
14-year-old son. He explained in his multiple emails to me that he couldn’t
meet in person because he was going on the trip, but that the payment will be
arriving soon.
When the check arrived I sensed something wasn't right.
First, the check was for larger sum than we agreed on. “Ok,” I thought, “why would
I be complaining?” Then, the check was written on behalf of Hawkins & Parnell,
LLP, which sounded like a law firm. Third, the check was from Suntrust Bank in
Atlanta, GA. The rest of it looked like a legitimate check. Oh, one other
thing. The sender's name and address did not match anything on the check itself
or the name used in the email.
After careful examination of all of the above, I decided to
do the following (and recommend to you in case you find yourself in a similar
situation):
* Research to see if the company whose name appears on the
check exists
* Contact the company whose name is on the check
* Hold off on depositing the check
Meanwhile, I wrote back to Lurd Guggard informing him that I
received the check for larger amount and asking him if everything was correct.
Shortly after, I received the following reply.
“I receive an
important message from my Son Guardian that they are in need of Urgent found to make some arrangement for their
coming over this evening So i
want you kindly make arrangement on getting the money to them today because i don't want them to miss their
flight today .So i want you to kindly get $2000 to the Guardian
through western union money
transfer.And deduct your own money for the whole month and keep the ramaning money with you till i come to
pay my son a visit in your location .So get back to me with western union information as soon as you have the money sent . Here is the
Guardian information in which the money will be sent to through
western union
Name……Alina Aguirre
Address……101 W. Manchester Blvd
City………Inglewood
State……..CA
Zip-Code….90301
Thanks and God bless”
At this point I was convinced this was a scam. Again, while
still waiting for the law firm to get back to me, I wrote back to Lurd saying
that I will not be transferring any money anywhere. To which he replied with
this:
“Hello i don understand all what you are saying .all i
want you to do is to get the check cashed and in your bank,and deduct your
actual amount and get the rest fund send to the information i send
to you which is micheal Guardian information cos i don want them to
miss there flight on tuesday and get back to me with the westernunion information here is the Guardian information once again
Name……Alina Aguirre
Address……101 W. Manchester Blvd
City………Inglewood
State……..CA
Zip-Code….90301″
“Yeah, right,” I thought.
Today I finally received a call back from the law firm's
accounting department. They said the check is fraudulent and is written using
their account that has been closed for some time. It is their second one just
this week!
Craigslist has warnings about scams like this. They
recommend the following:
* DEAL LOCALLY
WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON – follow this one simple rule and you will
avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist.
* NEVER WIRE FUNDS
VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service – anyone who asks you to
do so is a scammer.
* FAKE CASHIER
CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD
YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.
* CRAIGSLIST IS
NOT INVOLVED IN ANY TRANSACTION, and does not handle payments, guarantee
transactions, provide escrow services, or offer “buyer protection” or
“seller certification”
* NEVER GIVE OUT
FINANCIAL INFORMATION (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal
info, etc.)
* AVOID DEALS
INVOLVING SHIPPING OR ESCROW SERVICES and know that ONLY A SCAMMER WILL
“GUARANTEE” YOUR TRANSACTION.
Also, here is who you can contact to report scam or fraud:
* FTC toll free
hotline: 877-FTC-HELP (877-382-4357)
* FTC online
complaint form (http://www.ftc.gov)
* Canadian
PhoneBusters hotline: 888-495-8501
* Internet Fraud
Complaint Center (http://www.ic3.gov)
* Non-emergency
number for your local police department.
This happend to me as well, this morning i recieved a check for $3800 for a $1200 snowmobile.
This guys been sending email since december, his name is David Agboola, with a bs ramble of letters for a email.
Its a Hawkins and Parnell check, I called them and got a recording that the acount is closed and the check numbers starting 177 are fraud
Same thing, except this guy is trying to tell me his wifes in her death bed and he needs me to send the excess money so she can have her operation today
He told me to send the excess money western union to
Name: JERRY KINNEY
City:ALTON
State:IOWA
Zipcode:51003
I had a similar scam with the same shipper name of Jerry Kinney from Alton, IA. The check was written from Hawkins and Parnell, LLP of Atlanta Georgia. I wonder if Jerrey Kinney is real and if he can be intercepted at the Western Union station?
Happened to me as well, a guy called Daniel Robbert wanted to buy my furniture and sent a check for more than the cost of the goods (without even coming to see the furniture, claims he was on vacation in Hawaii but did really wanted the living room set), then asked me to wire the rest of the money through Western Union. If it hadn't been for this site, I would have been scammed!
emails from the following address: donaldben1@gmail.com
phone number used in this scam: 709-208-5966
scammer attempts to get you to cash fraudulent check and wire funds via Western Union.
We see many victims of these scams at our website. Thank you for posting this information because it will help to educate someone else about these scams.
Shawn Mosch
Co-Founder of Scam Victims United
same scam here. wifes also on death bed,, now in oct. same name jerry kinney alton iowa,, excess of 1800.00 wanted for shipping
This is really good to know, i will definitely be twice more careful about this kind of scams, accepting checks i know and trust only, and verifying every detail of the unknown ones. It's amazing how persuasive and reliable these people seem to be!
Michael Carter ( probably an alias, micheal carter [enny1957@googlemail.com] ) apparently working out of Ohio is prowling Craigslist for people he can scam. He writes as though his original language/background was from Africa, Haiti, or perhaps Jamaica.
He sent a computer-generated check with about ten different fonts via the USPS Priority Mail (a FED offense) that has been filed by my bank and copied to the local Sheriff's Office.
He almost doubled the price of the item listed on Craigslist in his bogus check, then requested that I Western Union the excess money to his “..pick-up man..” who purportedly travels around gathering the items this pseudo-collector purchases.
He inferred that Jerry Kenny of Alton, Iowa was one of his pick-up men. There is no Jerry or J. Kinney listed in Alton, IA.
The other accomplice mentioned where the WU money should be directed to was Bayard Brooks of Kentwood, MI. There is a listing for B. Brooks in Kentwood, and the male who answered the phone has an Afro-Haiti accent.
You have to give this Carter scam-hole an A+ for effort, he dodged dealing with PayPal where everything would have been legit, and he wrote more than 10 emails to try and complete the scam.
After leading him along once my banker identified the goofy check as totally fraudulent, I delivered the entire collection to our local Sheriff's office – along with the USPS envelope having the perps finger prints on it.
I hope he has a fun time with the Iowa DCI, the FBI, the USPS authorities, et al – he's in deep fecal matter at this point..!!!
Moral: Be polite, offer trust, but save all correspondence and verify every fact before you send a dime to anyone no willing to do business via PayPal or other formal means…..
.
Thank you for taking the time to post this and warn us all. Craiglist is a wonderful service but with all such online services, some people think they can scam us. I'll keep in mind all you said here because I use Craiglist quite often and I don't want any surprises.
___________
Mathew Farney | Email Hosting
I appreciate your speculating as it arouses people’s concern today and lets this topic be discussable. We all know about it here.
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You deserve the best and I know this will just add to your very proud accomplishments in your already beautiful and deserving blessed life. I wish you all the best and again. Thanks a lot for providing detail on the yoga sessions….
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Thanks for sharing your concerns with us. yes craiglist is full of scam. Same thing regarding apt renting. They advertise for an apt and when you call or email, they are no rentals, they just want your info. dog heartworm medicine
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I am a retired police officer and the same clown that tried to scam you has attempted to do the same to me. The check he sent was written on Doane College and B. Brooks was the WU pickup guy. Although the envelope was sent from Grand Rapids, Mich. Turn the information to http://www.ic3.gov. It will get to the right authorities. Eventually. Of course as an old cop, I would love to see him set in prison for a number of years. And would really like to do the arrest myself. Just for kicks. The western union number is what he gets the money from and really makes little difference who it is to. With that number it can be picked up anywhere in the world. South Africa and Nigeria are notorious for these types of scams.
Saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for the wonderful clarity in your writing. I will immediately grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Pleasant work and much success in your business dealings!
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That is why we need very good internet security. Internet scams are something that occur on a daily basis, but if you use common sense and a little bit of your intelligence, that can surely be avoided.
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I had some friends who complained about being scammed on this website, but I had the luck of not falling into their trap. I was looking for an apartment to rent, and I thought to try on my own, without an agency. I looked on this website and found many interesting offers, but just when I was about to contact someone, a friend of mine from a Vancouver apartment rentals Agency told me to be careful because they had many customers complaining about problems with the site. I stopped just in time, and i found the apartment I wanted very fast and safe with the agency. I'm happy i didn't get scammed, but I think that someone should take some measures to stop these people from robbing us!
Some people lost a lot of money to these guys. It's one of the biggest scams on the internet, as the web-site has many visitors and many of them a bit gullible! But, what can I say.. me and my wife were looking to get our engagement rings on the website, but we changed our minds as soon as we heard about several problems some of our friends had. We bought them instead from a local jewelry shop, a bit more expensive, but at least we know the exact price and we agreed with it. I hope someone will catch the ones behind this scam, as too many people got tricked until now without any reaction from the authorities!
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your actual amount and get the rest fund send to the information i send to you which is micheal Guardian information cos i don want them to miss there flight on tuesday and get back to me with the westernunion information
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Thanks for posting, this saved me time and hassle.
I received an email from Micheal Carter, enny1957@googlemail.com, stating he was interested in my Craigslist (Dayton/Springfield, Ohio) item.
I responded to the first email before reading this post but was well prepared for the second email listed below:
Thanks for your response, am happy that the listing is still available and am okay with the price, but I will be unable to come with cash because I'm presently out of state on a business trip, but I can easily have a certified bank check on your name here and have it mail out to you, so If you're okay with the mode of payment, please get back to me with your home address, payee name that will be on the check and a valid phone number( not voice mail )… Once you received your payment, I will then let my shipper come for the pick up , so you don't have to worry about the shipping . Thanks
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