Hello

I found this site quite by accident. I received an email in response to an ad I posted selling an item. The name was Gallen Foster. Then I found him on this site. Thanks for having this site as a place to find these worms. Those of us that are legitimately trying to post ads, etc. should not have to worry about people trying to scam them.

Hi mandevilla and welcome to ScamWarners. I'm glad that you found us and were alerted to the scam. Good for you for taking the time to search. You're right, it's such a waste of time for people trying to do buying and selling online to have to weed through the scammers. Being familiar with their scams and being able to recognize them quickly does help. Please do let us know if you have questions.

Welcome to ScamWarners, mandevilla.

So glad this site was able to help you. Feel free to look around and also post up any scams that come your way. You then might help prevent someone else from being scammed.

Hello Jillian and Dora: Thank you for the welcome. Have you ever heard of Gallen Foster? He emailed us about a antique bedroom set we had listed on GOIN Classifieds. I decided to look him up and couldn't find him on Zabasearch so I googled him found a reference for him on your site posted by Tracy. Do you have any other info about him? I did send him a reply after reading that post and said that it had been brought to my attention that he may be an internet auction scammer and if so, he should know that our computer is being monitored by a federal law enforcement agency and if he's not a scammer, then he has my apologies. I'm tired of these dirtbags meddling where folks are just trying to buy and sell things legit. Makes people not want to use online ads which are really convenient. If you have an email address of where to send emails that you think are fraudulant, I would be glad to pass his on. As for payment, he asked about a bank certified check, then he asked what kind of condition it was in, am I the first owner (it's an antique how old does he think I am? Born in the 1870's and still have it???? LOL). Then he asked about contacting a shipper. He also asked for our address and phone number which I did not give him. In my original reply, I did send pics, but I asked him where he was located and which bank would he be using? Luckily, I found your site and saw his name. He also wanted to send payment ASAP (his words). Thanks for the great welcome and thanks for having this site.

Welcome to Scamwarners mandevilla.

Further information on Gallen Foster;

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12410#p12410

Welcome here mandevila.

I must admit it's music to my ears, to know that someone came here before anything happened and before having sent one single penny.
That's why we do what we do on scamwarners

The questions he asked you are only for the show.
He wanted to sound really interested, to avoid you being suspicious.
It didn't work apparently

The scam would have been the following:
He would have sent you too much money with a check, and asked you to send the excess via Western Union probably. The check would have been a false one, and the time your bank realizes it, the scammer is gone forever with your money.

Edit:
I must or well write less, or well do it faster

Interestingly enough, I got an email from his "wife" "Mrs. Foster" today. Completely ignoring the other email I sent telling him that I know he's an auction scammer and that our computer is monitored by federal law enforcement. Every word that was written in this email was exactly what I've been seeing on here. The language was weird. Some of the words didn't make sense and once again, they asked for our address and phone number and the bank was American Bank. They didn't even ask about how much shipping would be. Especially weird since it's 5 pieces with marble. At first I was really happy to finally sell this antique bedroom set ($10,000), but after I tried to look him up, I couldn't find him, so I googled him and found him here. I'm very happy that you have this site. I can't afford to give some idiot money. I hate people who take advantage of others. Why don't they just rob a bank or some other legit means of thievery?

Thank you Godseed for the hand clapping-it made me laugh! Thank you all for the welcome. It's good to know that there are good people out there that want to help others. That's a rare commodity these days. I did send Gallen Foster an email as follows: "YOU ARE A SCAMMER!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED THAT THIS COMPUTER IS MONITORED BY FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL!". It will be interesting to see what he does next.

mandevilla, chances are he won't even care. At most, he might send you an email of cuss words and threats. And while baiters love to get threats, if this scammer has any of your real life details, it is best to just drop contact with him and ignore any replies.

If you are interested in actively baiting scammers, then you would do best to visit our sister site, 419Eater and learn how to do it safely and anonymously.

Dora: thanks for the info. I had another guy email us from Craigslist wanting to "save" our marriage. These people are just coming out of the woodwork! I'm still very gald I found out before I gave any info. Like I said, we naturally suspicious and if it sounds too good to be true, usually it is. I'll have to check out your sister site and read up on this. I think I have too much time on my hands

Hi Mandevilla

I am happy to see you spotting the scams, well done

419 Eater is a great place to use up some of that spare time in a fun and productive way but more importantly it does help to save people from being scammed.

You could also post any scam emails you receive in our forums, just do a quick search first to make sure we dont already have the emails posted

I had another guy email us from Craigslist wanting to "save" our marriage.

We'd be interested in seeing the whole email.
It's not a scam modality I've seen before.

EDIT I've just seen your other post linking an offer of lending you money and saving your marriage as a result. That makes sense. Loan scams are common.