Dumb dumb Spammers

[eitai2001]

Don't you just love these, they think us computer shops are gullible ... sometimes I reply and give them supplier contact details, and they disappear :


Dear sales manager,

We are general merchandise dealers in all types of electric items. We also act as brokers between customers and suppliers for different type of goods depending on the demand.At the moment we a customer who would like to purchase:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB Internal Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive

We are out of stock of the above items that they need,but we told them we can find a supplier who can sell the goods to them at a good prices and this is why we have chosen to contact you.
They have told us to inform you that,they will make payment for the above goods in US$ dollars by cheque because they can not make a wire at themonet for security reasons.

So can you send us the prices of the above items per unit? Waiting for your reply soon

Mr. Kenji Moses

OBY ASSOCIATED DEALERS
Plot 12 Benkiwanuka Street
00256 Kampala Uganda
East Africa
Telefax:0025641235763
Mobile:00256755371180

 

[LazyLion]

Spammers or Scammers?

 

[eitai2001]

Same $hit different smell

I think scammers would probably be a better term though

 

[Surv0]

lame to say the least.

 

[poffle]

haha i dont see it being a scam? they asking for prices and thats about it? lol

 

[eitai2001]

will make payment for the above goods in US$ dollars by cheque because they can not make a wire at themonet

Thats the danger right there ... if they are resellers ... they can get from suppliers. If the suppliers don't want them ... it must be for good reason

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Collect a few dead hard drives, when a scammer comes round, play along, and when he asks for the hard drives to be couriered to him, do so...


...not sure whether it will be safe to do so, but will be worth to try it - scammer will think he got brand new stuff when all he got is faulty, outdated junk

 

[Messugga]

ATA/100 is pretty out dated as it is People who fall for this sort of thing, deserve to be ripped off. Uganda? I'd never ship anything, anywhere in Africa other than SA, and even then not to people I don't really know.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Most shops (who plays it safe) won't accept any cheques anymore as the scammer either does one of two tricks :

1. Pays in an amount twice the required amount, then phone in and say they want a refund of the excess amount, shop refunds the amount in goodwill, cheque bounces, scammer is gone with the excess amount.

2. Pays with cheque, shop checks with bank, cheque clears out OK. When shop tries to cash cheque, it bounces as the scammer withdrew all available funds from cheque account.

Safest course for a shop is to refuse all cheques.

 

[Messugga]

Can't really blame them. In this day and age, not being able to pay via credit card or money transfer's BS.

 

[MrWireless]

Na....those bastards have a trick up their sleeve!

Back in 2004 I got a totally random cheque - for what worked out to 2 million rand! A few days after receiving the check I got this mail asking to fill out a random mix of DVD's (was running an online DVD store) and ship it through to a "contact" in SA.

To cut a long story short...checked up on the cheque, bank said funds were available and it looked safe to deposit. Customer was willing to wait for the cheque to clear....we were still not happy so we then racked our brains! Checked over and over with the bank, could not find a problem...

Thought perhaps they were planning to hi-jack the shipment once it had left - that was the only answer we could think of. Clearly Nigerian, cheque was foreign....

Then after checking again and again with the bank - right up to top management...it turned out that they can REVERSE the check up to 7 YEARS after it has been deposited. Ouch - 7 YEARS - NEVER EVER accept an international cheque. Why the hell thats in place I do not know!

We posted the cheque back to him - and never heard a word since!

 

[Zenbaas]

Thats some serious info right there...crazy stuff!

 

[JohnnyQ]

It's not just cheque's that pose a problem, was listening to a talk the other day, tourist's (international) pay with credit cards here in SA, and once they get home they cancel the transaction, and the merchant loses all the money.

 

[fxit_man]

lol @ Ugandan telephone number