From: Glenn Shaw (milspectruck@verizon.net)
Date: Tue Jun 06 2006 - 12:59:30 PDT
Hi
Since you have this scam decipher I would like to know how:
He hi-jacked an MV'ers password and took control of an MV auction.
Sarge wrote:
> Sarge here,
> I'm all over this one. The actual seller had his auction hi-jacked last
> Saturday.
> I contacted E-Bay who said "We will take appropriate action" , which of
> course translates into English as "We won't do doodly-squat unless it takes
> a penny out of our pocket".
> I then contacted the FBI Internet Crime division and made a full report.
> At least they are honest enough to not bother to lie to me. In other words,
> they will read my report in 2008 and take action when hell freezes over.
> I contacted the real seller who seems to be nice enough and quite honest.
> I contacted the scammer who I am going to keep on the hook for a while.
> TJ's tribulations inspired me enough to have a little fun here.
> The scammer is most definitely not a native English speaker and I will post
> our communications on this list if anyone requests it.
> Mandatory MV content: This scammer is attempting to scam MV'ers to the tune
> of $5,000 each.
> Here is his plan:
> He hi-jacked an MV'ers password and took control of an MV auction.
> The MAN truck was previously listed with a starting bid of $17,500 and a buy
> it now price of $22,000.
> When the scammer got the real seller's password, he immediately changed it
> so that the real seller could not access his own auction.
> Then he changed the item description to remove the original sellers name and
> telephone number. Then he inserted his own e-mail address.
> He changed the starting bid price to $1,500 and the buy it now price to
> $5,000.
> Here is where he got clever: Only pre-approved bidders were allowed to bid.
> Meaning you had to e-mail him for pre-approval.
> That caused a feeding frenzy amongst the MV community.
> Here is a 20 ton 8x8 MAN prime mover for $5,000!!!! Who wouldn't jump on
> that?
> Well, E-Bay had 10,167 hits on that page. Let's say 10% of lookers thought
> it was a good deal.
> So now 1,000 MV'ers e-mail this dork and ask to be pre-approved for bidding.
> But! The scammer does not pre-approve anybody. Why not? Why mess with the
> theft of $5,000 when you can make millions?
> He waits until the sale is over with zero bids. Zero bids because he did not
> pre-approve anybody.
> Now he e-mails those thousand (I'm one of them) and offers the truck for the
> buy it now price of $5,000.
> If he can scam one thousand buyers of $5,000 each, that's a cool $5 million.
> Or even if he can only scam 10 percent (100 buyers), which is not so
> far-fetched, that is still $500,000. Pretty soon, we are talking about some
> real money.
> Now you are in e-mail contact with him and he starts offering you the "E-Bay
> Purchase Protection Plan"
> There is such an animal and it usually works pretty well. However, E-Bay
> only offers the plan if you buy the item by using the Bid feature on the
> auction. Otherwise, you are on your own.
> The scammer then sets up a real bank account and has you wire the $5,000
> into an escrow holding company. This is an impartial third party "money
> holder". He then says when he has shipped the vehicle to you, and you are
> happy with it, you release the escrow funds to him. Of course the escrow
> company is a fake, the bank account is emptied, he's rich and gone. You are
> Screwed!!!
> Anyway, that's the scam, now you know, happy bidding!
> -Sarge out
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Tue Jul 18 2006 - 21:47:07 PDT