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"Nigerian" Spammer Arrested
Roger_Wilco writes "According to The Globe and Mail, a "Nigerian" spammer has been
charged with with first-degree attempted larceny. Hopefully we'll get a few less of that spam now."
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The original story was about an Australian busted for the 419 scam. This one is about a Canadian man being nabbed for it.
That he is not even Nigerian -- he is a Canadian. The last guy they arrested was Australian I think. Not that there are no Nigerians sending these emails -- it's just that they are not being caught because of the poor state of law enforcement in the country at the moment. But the fact is that this is becoming more than just a "Nigerian" scam, it has become a very international scam.
(Full disclosure: I am a Nigerian, and it brings me grief to no end that the first thing people think of when my country is mentioned is 419 scams).
Am I a hipster-doofus?
On another interesting note, Jonathan Land (who runs thespamletters.com) is a onetime member of Negativland. The name is just a coincedence.
If you could be anything you want, I'll bet you'd be disappointed.
How it works is, you cash the cheque and send him the car and the remaining cash from the cheque. Then several days later the bank calls and says the cheque was a fake and you owe them back the money. So, you're out the money you sent him and the car. http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/briefings/june 2003.htm
Bastards.
better safe than sorry...
www.scamshield.com
www.scambusters.org
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IMO, this is the saddest one, because it sounds more legit, and there is practically nothing unsuspecting people can do about to thwart it.
http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
Yup, I got that onw when trying to sell a used car. The "certified bank cheque" sent was such an obvious badly forged fugly thing that I can't imagine anyone being taken in by it. Just for grins I showed it to the local bank's manager. In addition to the things I had spotted he pointed out that they got the bank number wrong, many things were in the wrong place, etc. etc.
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
The reason they want your physical address is so they can FedEx a check to your location. It will look exactly like a real cashier's check, drawn on USA bank. If you call the bank you'll find that it's a bogus check.
We get this scam all the time, its the Nigeria v2.0 - basically it goes like this:
1. Nigerian offers to buy your product but wants to overpay you.
2. You receive check, ship the goods and send the excess funds to him via western union.
3. Your check bounces 3 weeks later and the bank deducts it from your account.
4. Profit!!! (at least for the nigerian)
We get 10-20 nigerian emails per week, being in the medical equipment business. Some of my sales reps have a ball replying to them.
Others have explained how it pans out. Though often, your car is never traded over because at some point a real person would have to show up to get the car, which would offer a way to catch them. Usually, you're just out the difference you send them plus whatever the bank charges you for processing bad checks. Though sometimes they will "change their mind" and ask for all of the money back...
here.
Basically, you get the check, you think it's cleared, release car and money, find out too late that the check was fake.
I have blog like everyone else
Some scam artists insist on using FedEx, or other courier services, so that they can avoid prosecution under the postal fraud statutes.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I work for a financial company, but this opinion is mine.
When doing ACH transfers (ie, when you cash a check at one bank, but the funds come from another), there's a 6 month window where a transaction can be reversed (ie, similar to a credit card chargeback). Most banks will settle within 10 days, but there's really no way of knowing that an ACH will not reverse, until that window has closed. It's usually the backwoods banks run by "Nan and Boyd" that take forever to settle ACH.
S
From snopes:
The scam works because the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) requires banks to make money from cashier's, certified, or teller's checks available in one to five days. Consequently, funds from checks that might not be good are often released into payees' accounts long before the checks have been honored by their issuing banks. High quality forgeries can be bounced back and forth between banks for weeks before anyone catches on to their being worthless, by which time victims have long since wired the "overpayments" to the con artists who have just taken them for a ride.
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You should send this to your local post office. This is mail fraud and the USPS takes this very seriously. The US mail inspectors are federal law enforcement officers, licensed to carry out investigations, make arrests and carry automatic weapons. You don't see much mail fraud because the USPS does a good job.
I am, of course, assuming you're in the US (you may not be as you mentioned the London address). The US Post Office is one of the few parts of our government that runs very well.