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The Five Nigerian Gangs Behind Most Craigslist Buyer Scams
itwbennett writes Five Nigerian criminal gangs are behind most scams targeting sellers on Craigslist, and they've taken new measures to make their swindles appear legitimate, according to a study by George Mason University researchers Damon McCoy and Jackie Jones. In a new innovation, they're using professional check-writing equipment plus U.S.-based accomplices to not raise suspicions among their victims. McCoy and Jones will present their paper on Sept. 24 at the IEEE eCrime Research Summit in Birmingham, Alabama.
The biggest scams happen on Wall Street - start there.
I was selling off an ATI 9800 high-end model (was old by then though) & sent me $5,000 in money orders (wells fargo type): I was only asking for, iirc, $100 or so for the videocard too...
Right then, This crook began to attempt to "push me" into going to the bank immediately after I wrote him back via email & called him stating "Hey buddy - you sent me a *wee bit much* for this vidcard!"
He stated "It's a gift for your help"... lol, "yea, right"
So, right then, I called WellsFargo & they determined the money orders were part of a scam online + a known "bad" run of them that were stolen &/or duplicated...
Did this by their "MICR #'s" / "Routing Numbers" (for lack of a better expression - it's what I used on checks to do that in my old job back in the 1980's is why & it's similar enough here too) when I went to verify the funds being actually available or not!
They weren't, needless to say... however, were *I* to cash in on them? I WOULD HAVE BEEN LIABLE!
That's WRONG: Banks ought to be the ones doing THAT part of it, NOT I, as a depositor in good faith!
Now, I have a background in my past as a loss prevention mgt. figure & I had to verify personal checks A LOT on that job - that's pretty much HOW I did it too (bank calls, & verify funds etc. - et al) - so I did the same here.
Glad I did.
The bank it was drafted on THEN instructed me to call Wells Fargo to verify funds!
AGAIN - THE BANKS THAT ACCEPT FUNDS OF ANY KIND IN CHECK OR MONEY ORDER FORM SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS, as well as my OWN bank too, upon receipt of myself attempting to cash them in & deposit them!
However - Apparently, NOWADAYS @ least, THEY DON'T... & THAT, people, is TOTAL BULLSHIT!
Why?
Heck - It puts the depositor @ risk, & all it TAKES is a phonecall to the bank or money order company involved to check for funds being actually present, OR, if the money order or checks involved are stolen, or counterfeit, etc.
To me @ least?
It seems like banks are "in on the scam" by dodging THEIR DUTIES here, in not verifying check or money order funds being present OR if they are legit (not stolen or counterfeited etc.).
APK
P.S.=> In the end, I went to the local FBI office with the forged/stolen checks, with the email information the crook (a "reverend" out of Atlanta, no less) gave me, along with his phone number (disposable cellphone) - needless to say, the crook stopped calling me RIGHT after I did that... apk
This isn't your usual 419 scam. They're not offering millions of dollars to suckers.
What they're doing is buying stuff from Craigslist sellers with bogus checks that look awfully real. There's another step where they send a too-large check and ask for a partial refund. The checks are so good that they clear, and the fraud isn't discovered until weeks later, at which time your bank yanks the money back.
There's still hints of the usual 419 stuff in there, but you don't have to be either gullible or greedy. You simply have to misunderstand the idiotic system under which checks are processed, which is most of us. The idea that a certified check could fail, a month after you deposited it, is baffling to the majority of people who think of a certified check as practically good as cash.
The checking system is so screwed up that most sellers need to treat all checks with suspicion. But credit cards are expensive to process, and Paypal... is Paypal.
I thought a good host file could protect against this?
I gladly accept Nigerian checks on CL. This way the scammers are out of FedEx/UPS fee and I add another fake check to my office collection.