I gave him? the benefit of the doubt

DutchMarco · Mon 01/02/2010 20:16:38

So I tried to sell my new cellphone today (Megashaft Windoze will never be my kind of OS, not in mobile form or whatever; eyeing Android now) so I put up an asking price of 299 euros, one ady I saw in te mail that I had an offer for 310. Whahey! thought I, so I contacted this guy, sent him an e-mail ( in Dutch), and got answer in English (this raised suspicion a bit) and the buyer said he wanted to buy it for a friend of his who had helped him with hospitalization in Nigeria (!). Oh well, for that kind of money you give someone the benefit of the doubt, right? But I was definitely in cautious mode now.

So the guy said he'd pay me through Paypal, and include E50 for shipping. (which costs only E17.76 for a foreign shipment)Ever more luring into actually shipping the damn thing!

I received 2 mails from "service@paypal.com" <assignedaccountmanager@accountant.com>
claiming the Paypal transactions were completed, of course, I saw nothing of the sort in my Paypal-account. So I wrote the 'buyer' (calling himself Justin Qilliams, jwhills41@yahoo.com) thatso long as I hadn't erceived any money, I wasn't going to ship anything. Now, this is when the real fun started:

I started getting e-mailswith 'Justin' claiming he had genuinely paid the money, but Paypal wouldn't book it to my account until I gave Paypal a shipment confirmation,And he'd take legal action unless I was wiling to protect my good name and my Paypal account (which he'd have Paypal block), and I promprtly also received 2 mails by the "FBI Investigation department" <investigationcomplain@cyberservices.com> (I thought the whole FBI was about investigating and it was the CIA that also had a department beside that, one for shooting magic bullets from grassy knolls).

But I wasn't going to rigorously cut this path off, so I offered him the chance of coming by my house in person, collect the phone and pay in cash, if for some magic reason Paypal had delayed transferring his moneys to my accounty, then either I would transfer it back to cancel/withdraw his transfer.to get his money back. I even said it was now up to him to make sure taht Paypal didn't follow those ridiculous rules about not transferring money immediately as is the Paypal-norm (I think, but I'm not telilng this guy I'm not 100% sure about that) but they'd have to transfer the money immediately to my account.

The moment it arrived there I would imediately send him the phone, and not a second sooner. But the guy wouldn't let up (well, maybe he just has, I haven't received any mails anymore after that), he continued to believe I was stupid enough to fall for his transparent ploys.
So ehst have I learned from this? I really hate it when people take me for an imbecile, I'm insulted that they think I'm stupid enough to fall for their nonsense. Don't get me started about how this applies to politicians as well... (you already know what I'm talking about, so fill in the gaps yourself) I know I've got to be angry with this guy, and trust me, I am. But I can't help but laugh at him for the stupidity that he has portrayed, It just wouldn't dawn on him that I owwould not fall for this scam.
Maybe the light first dawned on him when I adressed him in my last mail as "Justin (Or whatever your real name is),
And he actually repeatedly ended his mails with an ultimatum, like this:
"Am waiting within 30 minutes".

I hop you all got a good laugh out of this, I certainly did (and a good cry and similar frustrations as well).

Oh, and if anyone is interested in buying it, here's the add (in Dutch)
Link To Purchase

Darth Mandarb · Mon 01/02/2010 20:36:54

I have a friend that sold her 30,000USD engagement ring (after she dumped her fiance and he told her he didn't want the ring back) on eBay for 16,000USD to some guy in Spain. The guy said he wouldn't just hand over that kind of money to her in "good faith" and that he'd put it in escrow and when he received the ring in the mail, the money would be hers. You know how this story ended.

Andail · Mon 01/02/2010 20:55:21

Darth:
One person made a fortune (the man who stole it)
One person came out even (your friend, who didn't pay for the ring in the first place)
Another person came out even (the fiance, who couldn't care less if the ring now is in the hand of the woman who dumped him, or some dude in Spain)

So all in all, it was a good deal!

Darth Mandarb · Mon 01/02/2010 21:43:14

Haha exactly! A part of me wants to strangle the scumbag for scamming her ... but at the same time it was a stupid [very stupid] scam for her to fall for.

She called me and asked me what she could/should do. I said, "you sent him the ring already?" and she said, "yeah..." and I said, "sorry kid, you got screwed"

Marco - glad you didn't fall for it!

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 02/02/2010 00:46:09

A 30000 dollar ring? Jesus, the ring's worth more than the woman!

Also, the guy's last name was Quilliams? That's one of those typical Nigerian scammer names, I believe.

Blue · Tue 02/02/2010 06:38:55

This reminds me of something I read some time ago.
A guy wants to sell his Powerbook on eBay, and gets contacted by an obvious scammer, so he deciedes to scam HIM instead.
Very fun to read! And he documented everything with email correspondance and pictures.
http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

Gilbert · Tue 02/02/2010 07:06:30

I'm actually more impressed by the 7-leg spider story (search more to find out what happened to the picture at the very end). It's a bit different in context though.

Ryan Timothy B · Tue 02/02/2010 07:35:48

Quote from: Gilbet V7000a on Tue 02/02/2010 07:06:30
I'm actually more impressed by the 7-leg spider story (search more to find out what happened to the picture at the very end). It's a bit different in context though.

I did a Google search and apparently he sold it for $10,000 USD. Is that the correct 'full' story?

Gilbert · Tue 02/02/2010 07:48:01

Actually I'm not quite sure as I never searched deep enough. Some sources did mentioned that the guy who won the bid didn't pay for it eventually. Anyway, it was a fun way to defer the payment of your debts. I don't know how many people would really be that patient to play along with it though.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 02/02/2010 09:33:35

That's a great site, Gilbet. Completely destroyed my sleep pattern but very worth it.

Misj' · Tue 02/02/2010 12:28:51

Quote from: DutchMarco on Mon 01/02/2010 20:16:38Oh, and if anyone is interested in buying it, here's the add (in Dutch)
koop me op marktplaats

Unfortunately I'm not currently in the need of social contact (present company excluded of course...so if you feel you're socially isolated drop me a PM, and I'll try to increase that feeling by ignoring you

). So I'll refrain from buying any sort of communication device at the moment. Although I do feel that somehow you owe me money (approximately 200 guilders) and if you want send me a fake paypal email that should cover it.

Anyway...great story. Let us know if it continues.

Ps. Gilbet, I fully agree with ProgZ...except for the sleep pattern (because I read it in my bosses time).

mouthuvmine · Tue 02/02/2010 13:36:20

This is funny. I was trying to sell my new laptop on craigslist, and got pretty much the same thing. Except this guy's son lived in Nigeria. I didn't really WANT to sell anyway, so I had fun telling the imaginary buyer that he could pry it from my cold, dead hands.

FYI, I still have it. That was all the deterrent I needed.

Stupot · Fri 05/02/2010 08:46:11

This reminds me of a thread last year about email scammers in which I sent links to these videos. Funny as Hell.

i stole your car · Fri 05/02/2010 20:09:39

Quote from: Gilbet V7000a on Tue 02/02/2010 07:06:30
I'm actually more impressed by the 7-leg spider story (search more to find out what happened to the picture at the very end). It's a bit different in context though.

Thanks for killing the last 3 hours of my life.

Radiant · Sat 06/02/2010 01:21:41

Surprisingly, a friend of mine met a total stranger in a train, and this stranger fast-talked him into going to an ATM, withdrawing $500 and giving it to said stranger...

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 06/02/2010 01:44:26

I want to meet this friend of yours, Radiant.

$$

I'm curious how this person had talked your friend into doing this without threatening.

Snarky · Sat 06/02/2010 03:12:23

Quote from: i stole your car on Fri 05/02/2010 20:09:39
Thanks for killing the last 3 hours of my life.

Is there more to this story that I'm missing? Because it seems like a one-minute read and a quick laugh to me. (I'd seen it before; still funny the second time around.)

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 06/02/2010 04:02:23

Snarky, there's a few funny emails and such to the side. If you find the spider one funny, check out the others.

I liked the one about the party invitation. lol

Radiant · Sun 07/02/2010 00:12:11

Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Sat 06/02/2010 01:44:26
I'm curious how this person had talked your friend into doing this without threatening.

While I suspect some alcohol may have been involved, it's mostly fast talking and lots of it.

I met this guy once at the airport, who in a polite and professional fashion explained to me that he was importing cars into the country, and the one he had just imported was held by customs because he had not enough money to pay the import tax. He couldn't sell the car until customs released it, so could I please loan him some money to pay this fee?

Sounds like a classic Nigerian scam, doesn't it? I kindly told him to fuck off, but my point is that this guy wouldn't be there in the first place unless he could make a decent income that way. So yes, I assume that if you speak to enough people each day, you'll probably be able to convince someone. There's one born every minute.

Stupot · Sun 07/02/2010 00:41:00

My friend almost fell for a scam in Thailand where he was talked into going back to this guys house for a game of Blackjack. Then this big guy come in and bets heavily and my friend has a hand that can't possibly lose, so this guy calling himself 'Uncle' convinces my friend that they're playing this big guy for a fool and that my friend should go back and get the money needed to call the big guy's hand.

He didn't, thankfully... he saw what was happening and walked off angrily, but apparently this scam is quite common lots of people fall for it.