Christian Biggins Design, Technology, SEO, General Ramblings. Something for everybody.

Very poor scam attempt

On Tuesday night, I put my bike up for sale on bikesales.com.au. Within an hour of it going live, I get an email from admdixx0110@gmail.com;

Hi mate is the BIKE still available for sale? if yes what is the condition and your lowest price?

Sweet. I was happy to have an early enquiry, so I replied that it was available and advised that they make an offer. I soon received an email from 'Adams Dixon'... Adams? Yes Adams;

ok no problem i will be paying you $9,500 with my PayPal account because it's
attached to my bank account and its safe and very secure way to make
payment. If my mode of payment is accepted just send me your paypal
email address,(Paypal ID) or send me paypal payment request so i can
pay in right away. Make sure you get back to me so that i can make the
payment. I have a private courier agent that will handle the shipping
after payments has been made, so no shipping included.
And if you dont have a paypal account, you can easily go to
www.paypal.com.au and sign up. its very easy. i will call you later
I await your reply asap.

Due to the nature of my job and my location i will not be able to come
for inspection am a very busy type as i work long hours everyday,i
don't really think i need to come for a look, because i have gone
through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it so i will call
you when am chanced from work but as of now we can be chatting online
or sending emails.
And can you please confirm to me again that the item is very good
with no fault?

Was Adams trying to sell me a Paypal account? Immediately my ears pricked up and my spider sense started tingling. At this point I was unsure of what the scam was, so I held off passing over my Paypal address;

Hi Adam,

I do have a Paypal account, yes. I'm happy to accept Paypal.
The bike is in fantastic condition, seriously, like brand new.

If you'd like to call me, that'd be great - 0000 000 000.

In hindsight, giving him my mobile number was probably not the greatest thing to do. I soon received another response;

yes i can call you but i think its late now, so i will call you in the
morning but you can as well send me the paypal email address so that i
can make the payment for you tonight and call you in the morning after
payment

At this point, I had done a fair bit of research into Adams' potential scam and was well aware of his intentions. The idea is, that they 'pay' you an additional $1000 (advised only through an email) and you are required to forward on the extra $1000 to their 'shipping agent'. I emailed him my Paypal address.

A day went by and no Adams.

This morning, Thursday, I check my mail when I get in and notice a couple of emails from 'Paypal'. The first is hilarious. Subject is 'IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM PAYPAL' and the email is written in comic sans (maybe? my font-fu is not great,) the greatest part is that at the top of the email, Gmail has advised that 'Images are not displayed' and would I like to display images from 'moneyrelease@officeemail.net' - A security feature with several benefits. I have screen shot it to give you the full effect.

I had also received another email too, an 'Instant Payment Notification' from 'Paypal'. This email was interesting as it advised;

This is to inform you that you are required to send a sum of $900.00 AUD to the address below via western union money transfer and get back to us with the relevant information which you will be provided with after the money has been sent, you are requested to email us the Mtcn (Money Transfer Control Number) , sender's name and address used to make the transfer and the secret question and answer.As soon as we have received these information from you, we will credit a sum of $10,500.00 AUD to your PayPalaccount.Below is the address where the money is to be sent to using western union money transfer.

Agent's Info:

David Williams, 7 Iship Yard Building, Oval Road, London, SE1 5EL. United Kingdom.

There's the money shot, right there. There was more about the requirements on me to make this payment to David Williams in the email, but that was the killer.

There was also a couple of emails from my mate Adams;

I was just about to make the payment when i had this little problem
with the picking up, I got an email from my private courier agent..i
taught i included that in my previous email.he said he won't come and
pick up the item unless i pay him the agent commission fee first in
order to be able to schedule a pick up time ,and my private courier
head quarters is in the United Kingdom and all commission payments
made for pick up, from anywhere in the world is sent to their head
quarters in the U.k and the only form of payments they accept is
western union money transfer and i tried to pay online but i will need
a credit card which i dont use and there is no post office(there is
usually a western union section in most post offices) or any western
union agent offshore! so i have to ask you to help me with the pick up
fees, i will include the $900 they charged to pick it up to the
payments i will send through paypal to you now so i will need you to
help me send the $900 to my courier agent through western union money
transfer. The western union money transfer can be made at a post
office near to you, there is always a western union agent in most post
offices or online at www.westernunion.com. I will be making the
payments shortly and will email you as soon as it has been done...

And this one;

I just want to inform you that i have just completed the payment and i
hope you must have been notified in your email about the payment i
made through PayPal, you can check your e-mail for confirmation of
payment, I have just made the payment of $10,500.,i have decided to
add the amount of $1,000 which i paid through paypal, So please i will
like you to help me wire the sum of $900 to my agent via western union
so he can be able to come for the pick up and also paypal said they
won't release the funds until they get the western union information
from you due to the fact that i emailed them about the excess payment
i made.i will need you to send the $900 to my pick up agent
Headquarters where they normally confirm any commission payment to via
western union money transfer(this can be done from the post office,or
online at www.westernunion.com) as they usually have a western union
agent there) , i added extra $100 to cover the western union charges
which shouldn't be more that $60-75 but just to be sure i added $100,
Here is my pick up agent Headquarter info needed to get the money sent
through western union money transfer

David Williams,
7 Iship Yard Building,
Oval Road,
London,
SE1 5EL.
United Kingdom.

Please kindly email the necessary details to paypal :the mtcn which
you will be given at the western union after the $900 has been sent as
well as the sender's name and address used to send the money through
western union,so i can forward it to paypal or better still you can
email it to paypal directly.

When doing a WHOIS on the IP address from which the 'PayPal' emails were sent, I found that Adams lives in Mauritius and was sending through Yahoo servers. I sent an email to Adams;

Oh Adam, I was hoping you would make more of an attempt than this....
I knew from email number 1 that you were scamming me, but I was hoping
you would try to make it seem even slightly legitimate ... The email
from 'Paypal' is a terrible forgery, the 'agent' in London? Oh please
...

From: "service@paypal.com.au" <moneyrelease@officeemail.net>

officeemail.net ? Surely you can do better than that.

Not to mention using Yahoo servers.... Terrible. I expected more.

I was hoping I could send him something, so I could attempt to get him as well as the dudes from SomethingAwful.com got their scammer; The Powerbook Prank

The thing that concerns me about this is how many innocent people do get taken by these people.

Lessons to be learned;

1. Dont trust anybody. Ever.
2. Contact Paypal if you are ever unsure. Their support are hard to get hold of but take security very seriously and will advise you of any issues they can see.
3. Dont send money to people in another country unless you are buying something from them.
4. Dont trust anybody.
5. Ever.

UPDATE (19/04/2010)

I received an email from 'PayPal' yesterday...

Dear christian@skylinesaustralia.com,

One of the benefits of using PayPal is that we make every effort to alert you to potentially problematic transactions. Our goal is to help you make sound business decisions.

A review of recent transactions indicates that you entered into an agreement with Adams Dixon by requesting money through PayPal, which shows that the PayPal account holder have authorized the payment you received.

We would like you to learn more about this transaction. It is important we know the status of the item bought concerning the information we requested from you, otherwise LEGAL ACTION may be taken against you since you have not replied to the confirmation of payment made to your account by her over time.

However the buyer has already contacted us in other to make report about your non response. We are ensuring to make PayPal a safer place, therefore we need to set confidence on our users. We use proprietary technology - and constantly innovation - to help ensure every transactions are safe.

We strongly advice you to send the money through western union money transfer and send the proof from WESTERN UNION by sending us the MTCN number and also a scanned copy of the paper receipt given to you at the post office or online to prove that the money has been sent in less than 24hours so that we can credit your account by releasing the PENDING payment or you face the consequences of LEGAL ACTION.

We have placed a temporary hold on the funds until the verification is complete.

------------------------------ -----
Transaction Details
------------------------------ -----
Case Number          :    PP-304-718-247
Transaction ID         :   0TR19308DU070732T
Response deadline   :     18/04/2010
Sincerely,
PayPal Team
PayPal Email ID PP943

Again, the email was sent from 'moneyrelease@officeemail.net'. Things to note;

1. Why, oh why, would Paypal be forcing me to use Western Union?
2. "We strongly advice you to send the money" - Surely Paypal have english staff who can construct sentences better than this... ?
3. Why would the response deadline be the same day that the email came through? Ooooh, seems Paypal doesn't get the 'timezone' thing (Sydney is +10, so ahead of almost all other countries.)
4. "We have placed a temporary hold on the funds until the verification is complete." - Hold away, I sold the bike to somebody else.