Stupid Scam

 

My son has 4 tires/rims from his previous car (junked) in my garage.
After me getting on his case for almost 2 years to get them out of
there, he puts an ad in Craigs list to sell them.
Asking $650.  He paid $900 for them.  About 3k miles on the good
tires, but it's the alloy rims alone that cost him $900.
They're "special" rims.  Don't ask me, I never got into that stuff.
He lives some miles away and gets over here once or twice a week, but
I talk to him almost every day.
All I know is he dealing with a responder to the ad via e-mail and the
guy tells him he will have a cartage company pick up the tires for
him.
About a week after this stuff starts I get in the mail a big mylar
overnighted USPS envelope with a USPS cardboard mailer inside,
and a check inside that.
The check is for $2771.00 from an a computer parts company in Georgia.
Full page with perforated tear-off check, watermarks, etc.
The real thing.  I found the company's website.  Legit.
The mail and check have my son's name, so I call him at work.
Something's fishy, because my son basically lives paycheck to
paycheck.
He has no idea about it, so calls the company.  A guy there tells him
to tear the check up, as they closed the account after 4 or 5
fraudulently produced checks showed up a few weeks ago.
That's all they told him.  I put the check in the packaging and saved
it for him, thinking he could frame it as his first fraudulent check.
I don't even have one of those.
About 4 days later my son calls and tells me to check the mail because
the guy buying the tires emailed my son and said he sent the check.
Okay.
Next day my son calls again and says the guy says the check should be
there.  I checked the mailbox and got my mail, but nothing for him.
Then a little bell goes off, and I ask my son if the guy sent him a
tracking number.  Yep.  Same tracking number on the phony check
envelope.
Next day he's over at the house and shows me the last email the
"buyer" sent.  It says to send via Western Union the check excess over
$650 to an address in Michigan, supposedly the cartage company,
whereupon they will make arrangements to pick up the tires the next
day or so.
Incredibly stupid scam as attempted.
Maybe workable if done right.
If the buyer had said to expect a check from his company and named it.
Could have even said he was the CEO.
Then there would be no confusion about the check, and no big reason to
suspect it.
And if the "excess" was a reasonable amount for a cartage charge.
Maybe 3 or 4 hundred max.
And if my son had that 3 or 4 hundred in his bank account.
Still doesn't smell right though.
Any time you should be taking cash for a sale and find yourself
sending somebody *your* cash something is wrong.
But he was eager to sell the tires, is honest himself, and might have
fallen for it if it was done right.
He's got the tires on Ebay now, so I'm still hoping they're out of my
garage soon.
The "buyer" is sending him "URGENT" e-mails complaining about the
cartage company waiting for their Western Union moneygram or whatever
it is.  He doesn't respond to them.
The envelope with the fraudulent check was sent from a named person in
Nevada.  I googled her name and she has something to do with 4H out
there, so might just be doing remailing as a sideline if she's not a
crook.
The "cartage company" address in Michigan is a real address.
We're just outside Chicago.
The "buyer" emails with a gmail account.  Bad English.
My son printed the emails and I told him to take everything to the
Post Office fraud department, but he's only called them so far, so I
don't know where that's at.
My bet is it's a waste of time because they won't devote any resources
to it with all the scammers out there.
Anyway, that's all I know.  Keep your antennae up.

--Vic

 

Vic Smith wrote:
. . .


It's just one of eleventy-seven variations on the same basic scam --
they send a bogus check and ask you to wire back the "overpayment."
They hope you send the [nonrefundable] wire before you find out the
check is bogus.

Craigslist is supposed to be LOCAL.  If a real person doesn't show up
with REAL money, be VERY suspicious...