Tag: scam

Bob Servant Fights Back Against Scammers

Bob Servant likes dealing with scammers – and playing them at their own game.

The book “Delete This at Your Peril” gives eight of his best dialogues with scammers and they are very funny.

This is the story of Peter’s Pots by Bob Servant.

A typical scam email arrived.

“Dear Beloved,

I have a job offer for you. My name is Peter Anderson and I work with Union Ventures Inc . Ltd. We extract raw materials from Africa for clients in America and Canada.

We are looking for a representative in America to work for us part-time and are willing to pay you 10% for every transaction. These payments would come to you in your name. You cash it, deduct your payment and send the rest to us via Western Union.“

Bob replies: This sounds very interesting indeed. Can you tell me more about the raw materials you trade in as  my friend Frank Theplank is also a trader in raw materials.

Peter:  Union Ventures is number one registered company in West Africa that deals on all kinds of raw materials.

Bob: Frank asked me if you deal in rubber, timber or china pots?

Peter: Yes we deal in rubber, timber and china pots and can do discounts for your friend.

[lots more emails about various products, nights out, freezing weather, favourites foods etc. – all very silly, but the scammer doesn’t seem to notice]

Bob: Frank needs 2,000 pots for the end of the month for a major reworking of Dawson Park. It’s going to be “Frank’s World of Pots”.

Then a long description of Frank’s World of Pots – with lots of very silly features.

Peter agrees to provide the pots quickly and wants a $10,000 deposit.

Bob: The 2,000 pots are to be filled with different things. Some plants but also surprises like chocolate bars, yo-yos, magazines and Chinese food.

Peter: I think what you and Frank are to do will be a great success and I am glad Union Ventures will be part of this. The order will only take us a week and we will have the entire factory working on it. You must pay the $10,000 through Western Union so we can start on the work.

Bob:  Frank just called me from the dog track to say I have to make sure the pots are suitable for people to put their hands in without risking the hand getting stuck. This must include motorbike riders who haven’t taken their gloves off.

Peter keeps insisting on the payment by Western Union and Bob agrees but then invites Peter to come over with the delivery of pots and stay at his house.

This exchange goes on for weeks until eventually Peter makes an ultimatum and the game is over.

Bob’s website is at http://www.bobservant.com/

Do you have an opinion on this matter? Please comment in the box below.

The Instagram Money Flipping Scam

On Instagram in particular but also to a lesser degree on Facebook, Twitter and other social media is a scam known as money flipping.

The scammers advertise that they can flip your money – that is to change a small amount into a large amount in hours.  Often the offer is to add a zero to your account e.g. change $100 into $1000.

How does the scam work?

People are conned into believing this is possible by photos posted of people who had their money flipped, testimonies of people who’ve made a fortune this way etc.

Of course none of it is possible – it’s just a simple scam to catch greedy people.

You contact the scammer and they tell you to buy a Western Union card or Green Dot Moneypak card or any other pre-paid money card and load it with $100 or $200 or $500 etc. as you wish.

Then to get it flipped into $1,000 or $2,000 or $5,000 etc. you give them the card details so they can multiply your money but instead they simply empty your card into their account and your money is untraceably gone.

A surprisingly large number of people have been caught out by this scam and there are endless scammers trying it.

Instagram and the other social media networks are trying to remove the scammers but as soon as one account is deleted up pops another one.

If something is too good to be true – it almost certainly is a scam.

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Ivana and The Gumtree Paypal Scam

Ivana and her husband had a car to sell.

Why not try Gumtree?  After all, Gumtree is British and it works for local people and especially for large items that the buyer collects.

In the case of a car – no point advertising for more than a short distance from home and it definitely needs to be collected. You can’t put a car in the post box.

The car went on sale but attracted little attention.

Then this arrived

“Great! please consider it sold and remove the adverts online as i am willing to pay your asking price? because i need to buy it for my cousin asap as a surprise gift, i have read through the advert and i’m totally satisfied with it,sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and I’m just recovering from heart surgery so I’m home-bound. can i earn your trust, hope i wont be disappointed? I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and cleared to your account and i’ll pay you via PayPal today once you get back to me with your paypal email and full name. Where is the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now? Await your response”.

Ivana recognised this is a well-known scam.

  1. The buyer contacts you via email rather than a call
  2. The buyer offers to buy the item immediately, at full price, doesn’t ask any questions and is extremely keen.
  3. The buyer cannot visit to view the item and has a sob story to explain this.
  4. The buyer wants to send a courier ASAP to collect the item
  5. The buyer tries to circumvent paying by Gumtree by offering another method (this means that if you are scammed, Gumtree cannot help)

Quite often these scammers say they will pay by Paypal and you might wonder how someone can scam you if they’ve sent you money on Paypal.

The most common ways are

  1. They don’t pay but instead send fake emails that look like Paypal emails telling you that the money has been paid. Always check your Paypal account rather than accepting an email as proof and never click on links to access your Paypal account.
  2. They pay using a stolen Paypal account. When Paypal find out its stolen – you don’t get to keep the money.

With Gumtree, cash payment on collection may be the safest approach.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.