is this a SCAM???

Ok here's a quick overview.

I posted on my local free advertising page looking to buy a laptop. Now i receive this e-mail.





My name is Amy Benson and I am now in London, United Kingdom (I was sent here wih my work).
It's brand new, in box, 100% perfect condition. FULL warranty. It has been received as a gift so I don't know it's exact price, I hope the price it's attactive enough...
I made an order for a new TV for UK use and I need the money from this sale to pay it.
We can close a deal ASAP.
Obviously we need a way to complete this deal that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are after.
I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the Laptop in less than 2
days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by UPS, which will handle the payment and delivery of the Laptop.
I have found a procedure that will allow you to pay for the Laptop only after you will receive it and through this way you
will see it and test it before I receive my payment.
You can visit www.ups.com for more information. I'm sure you've heard about them, I worked with them many times.
Like I said, I will pay for a 2 days delivery so you will receive the Laptop right away.
I will explain to you step by step how this will work:
1) First, you will have to send me your full name and address. I will need them for the shipping.
2) I go to UPS and leave the Laptop onto your name as the intended receiver.
3) UPS will check the Laptop to see if everything is OK with it and also the legal papers that will come along with the
Laptop.
4) UPS will send you a delivery notification to let you know they have the Laptop, in which you will be told that they have
the Laptop and that they checked it.
5) At this point you will have to go to a Western Union Agent Location and make a money deposit on the UPS payment agent name
for the amount we agreed.
6) After you make the deposit you will have to send the info about the money deposit to UPS (MTCN, sender's name and address)
7) UPS will verify the payment informations and if everything is in order they will deliver the Laptop to you .
8) After you receive the Laptop you will have a 5 days inspection period to check it and see that all is in order. If you decide to keep it, you will instruct UPS to release the funds to me. If you decide not to keep it, you can send it back free of charge and UPS will refund you the same day.
I will pay UPS for the shipping and you will pay Western Union for the Money Transfer fee .
Let me know if we can do this.

Thank you,



From the sound of this and using the USP company, its sounds very legit....At the same time, doing international business without meeting in person is sketchy.

please, tell me how to respond. Right now i'm going to ask for pictures of the laptop.

any advice??

 

Very VERY sketchy. I absolutely suggest that you don't do this.

 

LOL I postd in the other one.

I dealt with the same Amy LMAO

Amy [[email protected]]

This is the email i got:

Hello,
Thanks for your interest. It's brand new, in box, 100% perfect condition. FULL warranty. It has been received as a gift so I don't know it's exact price, I hope the price it's attactive enough...I am currently located in United Kingdom (I was sent here wih my work).
I made an order for a new TV for UK use and I need the money from this sale to pay it.
We can close a deal ASAP.
Obviously we need a way to complete this deal that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are after since I am currently overseas...
I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, this way you will receive the product in less than 2 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by UPS, which will handle the payment and delivery of the product. It is the UPS COD system.
Please visit http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/bussol/offering/global_transport/package/exchange_collect.html
for more information. I'm sure you've heard about UPS, I worked with them many times with this COD system. 100% protection and very simple to use... It is also used by Importers and Exporters. You will receive it before I get paid. In case you will not be satisfied with it's condition (witch will never happen) you will receive a FULL refund.
If you agree with this COD system (the safest way to close a deal in my opinion), please email me your full name and address so that I can start the transaction.

Thank you,

LMAO

 

it does sound like it. but it's UPS, something i can actually trust loll

 

General rule of thumb: anything saying you have to act now/ASAP/immediately is likely a scam. I wouldn't touch it.

 

it doesn't sound legit to me for a number of reasons..
1. why would ups open up a package and inspect it? they aren't allowed to do this.
2. since when did ups start inspecting laptops?
3. western union- once the money is gone its gone, untraceable i believe..

If i were you i'd want to meet her and work out another payment method e.g. cheque or paypal...
plus to inspect the laptop first hand rather than letting a courier company do it which i very much doubt are able to due to the privacy law..

 

LMFAO..this ones is [email protected]

WOW this sucks...got my hopes up so high.

so how shall i mess around with this guy.???

 

LOL!!! Tell her to send you the system first see what she says.

 

give em false details obviously

 

HAHHAHA . i emailed her back saying to send me some pictures and such. then i'm going to act like i'm buying it. pretend to send the money. HAHA

 

LOL ya give them retarded info. Screw around with them LOL.

Unreal, I got pretty much the identical email as you did LOL, and I GOT my hopes up before too LOL.

Wow, just wow!!!

 

Just go along with it, waste her time if you are bored.

Stuff like "That's great Amy! I will be in London on end of this week, we can do this face to face!! What is your phone number?"

 

I had a go with an internet scammer and actually had him jailed. I contacted the cops and they ended up catching him through information provided by me.

 

Amy prolly doesn't even live in London. Mostlikey in Africa or something from what I've read.

 

Sorry but I can't make any pics as the laptop is already deposited at UPS ...

Amy


LOLOL

 

LOL hilarious!!

 

Ask for her phone number, say you're willing to pay for long distance charges!!

 

holy scamathon!

 

HAHAHA.....LOL

This is too good. You can way have fun with this.

Tell her that you need her full name, SSN, credit card number, and birth certificate for UPS forms!

 

i replied

thanks for the reply. Well i just talked to one of my good friends who work Hartsfield International Airport. He is able to get me tickets to London for VERY cheap. I had in mind taking a week off of work, so i can come visit you. This time to money will be WELL spent. So how do you think about my plans?

HAHHA LOL

 

WOW...that would be great. You would save me from shipping.

i think she knows i'm messing around.

 

Dude, I didn't read more than the first couple of lines before I came to the conclusion that yes, it sure it is.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Need a laugh?
http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109&pp=25

 

I highly doubt it's even a woman.......generally men are the ones that run these scandals.

 

Hmm, no mention of Africa? Sounds legit.

JK

But seriously, the email from 'UPS' is entirely not real. So you send the money and they keep it and you get nothing in return.

And since when does UPS act as a shipper/bank/unofficial multinational small claims court?

 

Ttpmx>.....lolhahhaha

 

damn! i tried emailing her but she's not replying to me maybe i came on a bit too strong ((

 

Uh, dude, that link to that website has a trojan on it. Thanks a lot you ass (Don't worry, virus scanner removed it)

It sounds completely like a scam. And I agree with one of the above posts; since when does UPS act as a shipper/bank business?

 

Heehee. You guys are too funny

 

lmao I read that page that ttpmx posted now THAT WAS FUNNY LMAO!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Anyways, don't worry, I think "Amy" will be replying soon, just keep us all up to date kk?

 

Maybe your system has a trojan, but no, that link doesn't "have a trojan on it". Did you download a file from somewhere on that site? I'm at a loss as to how you think that a link to that plain forum archive somehow has executable malware embedded in it.

If there is something malicious linked to in that thread, please tell me what exactly it is and I'll remove my link. I thought you guys might enjoy reading through that story as much as I did.

 

Yeah I enjoyed it lmao, but no there isn't any malware on it, I'm at constant realtime scanning and I got nothing. it was funny!

 

And here's another

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

Man I'm in a laughable mood tonight, hahah.

 

hehehehehe!

this is great

 

Western Union is a dangerous way to send money to someone you have never met before. It's cash and completely untracable.

If you recieve a possible scam email, just copy and paste the first line into Google and you will likely end up with a database that lists all the email scams they can find.


The scary thing is that the email sounded pretty legit (altho if the price is too low you should be suspicious). And they could easily spoof the email from UPS, email spoofing is far too easy.


You should have played around with them more. . There is a whole group of people on the internet who have a hobby as "scambaiters". They waste the time of scammers to prevent them from stealing money from other people. Sounds good hehe.


EDIT: Ttpmx beat me to it.

Wow these scammers are getting (slightly) more sophisticated, they even talk about Escrow. Even though it's obviously a fake escrow site...

 

It lookss like...
This can be notebookreview.com's P-P-P-P Powerbook.
I cracked up when i read this. It's only other way around.

 

Best one ever...i read it a long time ago, but if anyone hasnt, you NEED to! Its so great!

 

lmao thats great i hope amy responds soon

 

It was just when I opened up the link, my virus scanner alerted me that a trojan had infected my computer. Nothing serious, I got rid of it. But no, all I did was open the link.

 

Ummm...

Ask her to send you naked pictures of her. See how she replies. Tell her if that's too much to do, then she at LEAST send bikini pics of herself.

 

BTW, I'm only half-serious when I say this.

I've heard of other scams before that involved some widow claiming that her husband died and that she needs to for some strange reason give out some of the inheritance money that ranges into the millions. One guy said he just responded to her emails with the kind of requests I just mentioned in my above post. I don't know whether those requests were fulfilled...one can only hope...

 

Total scam. UPS inspecting the laptop, load of hogwash. Western Union is the magic word. But sadly most people will fall this scam. Should string her along and milk it for all it's worth. Entice her by telling her you'll send the money when your inheritance comes in and have to move large amounts of money out of the country to prevent paying taxes! LOL

 

Of course its a scam
ebay had a load of them involvng squaretrade and western union mostly out africa and eastern europe
This is just the lastest technique.

 

1) Send them an email and get their address with zip code and landline number not cell number.
2) If you do get a phone number ring them up say your in the area and would like to come to check the system over. At this point your calling the shots (Yes I know your not in the UK).
How long has this person had this unit up for sale?
If the deal is that good it would of been sold by now don't you think?
As I'm lead to believe the UK has many brokers they could take it there or the likes of ebay...
Just my 2 euros worth...

 

As soon as you read the email, it straight away goes into too much detail about payemnt, the routine, and so on. If I was responding to an ad, I would say I have the item, what condition it was in, and how much Im after. I would then wait fo rthe buyer to get back to me if they are interested, before we discuss payment methods etc.

 

This definitely looks like a scam to me.

UPS do indeed offer a Cash/Collect-on-Delivery type system, as do many other carriers and it works in a similar way as described by 'Amy' - however Western Union is the give away, a favourite of scammers and a service that should never be used for paying somebody you don't know.

In fact the UPS link posted earlier states...

The Importer instructs their bank to wire transfer payment to the UPS bank account. UPS will not accept cash, checks, credit cards, PayPal or Western Union money/wire transfers.

 

As far as some of that hilarious scambaiting goes (that was linked to) - I can't help worrying that these scammers are so desperate and dumb that when they have to cough up money for the shipments they probably go out and mug someone or break into a house... I can't really see them putting their own money up because I doubt they have any to spare. They may borrow from a friend - but if that is the case the baiters are hurting the (quite possibly innocent) friend as much as the scammer.

 

If they had enough guts to rob people out in the streets/break into houses, they wouldn't be hiding behind the PC trying to scam ppl IMO.

 

Okay. if we're talking about good things rto do to scammers this:
http://www.419eater.com/html/okorie.htm
Has definatley got to be my favourite scammer scam ever. It's a long read but its really worth it. the short version goes: Scammer getting a tattoo to get some money.

 

Oh man, I just read through that and it is classic! Thanks for sharing! +rep.

 

Wow, I just read all that too. I'm in disbelief... it's rather disturbing.