scams

[aerodynamic]

Hey all,

Can someone explain to me how this scam can work? I get emails from these people constantly. They offer to send you a (bad) cashier's check for greater than the sale amount of the vehicle. You apparently cash the cashier's check, then send the balance back to them, or something like that. BUT, what I don't understand is how that check makes it past the bank. Wouldn't they know it's no good?

I'm confused.

[pigman]

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp

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.

[aerodynamic]

They do read your replies too. I keep telling them to steal from someone in their own country, not mine. I also suggest they try working for a living. It's interesting that most of them are worded almost exactly the same. Usually the english is pretty bad. They also use phrases few Americans would say, such as "I need to know your last asking price".
They seem to use primarily Yahoo accounts. I wonder why Yahoo doesn't work on this problem.

Thanks for the explanation.

[bruce]

Oh yes, please be to find my perfect English. My most honorable friend I may prevail upon you to proceed in procurring me a most highly regarded favor. Recently my most beloved grandmother of my father's side has recently departed. She left a substantial monies in a USA account which we cannot be privelegded to access to. This is whyfore I write you my most esteemed colleague.

Well, you get the picture.

[71GTX]

You write that so well Bruce!

[aerodynamic]

Was that really a letter you got? If so, I think my answer would have been "Sorry to hear that, but I'll be thinking of your grandmother while I'm spending her money!".

[Eric]

Sounds like Bruce has a side job

[bruce]

Sounds like Bruce has a side job

Didn't know I knew Nigerian English, eh? No, it's not the text of an ACTUAL email I've gotten, just kind of a condensation of the tone of several...

And if you ever post a page on MySpace, you'll see LOTS of scam emails along those lines! DAMHIK!!!

[aerodynamic]

Ok, just got this in the mail. Funny coincidence.

.................................................................................................................................

Dear friend,

My name is Mrs. Mary-Ann Williams, a wife of late Mr. George Williams, an American Businessman based in West Indonesia. I got your contact through the listed postal address in your country. I lost my husband to the international disaster in West Indonesia (the Tsunami attack) and I am also in the hospital receiving treatment after the exposure to the hard conditions of the Tsunami. I have been diagnosed with Esophageal cancer .It has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I
have only about a few months to live, according to medical experts.

My Late husband and I before is death once asked members of his family to close one of our accounts and distribute the money which he had there to charity organization in Ethiopia and Somalia; they refused and kept the money to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seem not to be contended with what we have left for them.

The last of my money, which no one knows of, is secured in a security film in Europe worth US$15,000,000.00 (Fifteen million United States dollars only) and secretly defaced and is coded for security reasons; this could be released at short notice when a willing and acceptable partner emerges.

I will want you to help me collect this deposit and dispatched it to charity organizations. I will give you more details when I get your assurance and willingness to help me in this my present state of predicament please send to me the following details below:

Requirements:
Name in full
Contact home address
Tel/Fax#
Any proved of identity scanned

I have set aside 20% for you and for your time as well as any expenses incurred during this process. Get back to me A.S.A.P.

Please reply to my private Email: maryannwilliams9@excite.com
Regards,
Mrs Mary-Ann Williams.

Wonder if her address is Gilligan's Island.

[landon1]

ya...i got one last year after i first got internet...they called me Mr. Landon and that a distant relative of mine, abdujibidibi landon, or someting had passed away...what??? Landon's my first name idiots, plus I am pretty sure I don't have any relatives from arabia or whatever