Check this scam out!

As many people are these days, I am economically challenged in a big way. I know that there are philantropists out there who do help people and because I have been visible on many web sites, I was hopeful (despite the bad English and spelling) that this was a legitimate offer. Still, common sense prevails and so I played the game out until "Nigeria" came up, at which point I blatantly notified the scammers that they were being reported.
The e-mails I received are below:

First:

Hello
My name is Karen Shaw am 75yrs old of age, i Live in new york city] usa. My Husband is a good merchant, He have several industrial companys and good share in various banks in the world.
I spend all my life on investment and co-oporate business. all the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal accident that occur in november 5th 2003.
i am a very greedy woman with all cost i dont know much and care about people, since when i have an experience of my lovley ones i felt weak.
i found it difficult to sleep and give rest. later in the year 2004 february i was sent a letter of medical check up, as my personal doctor testify that i have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon.
i found it uneasy to survive myself, beacuse a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again.
i quickly call up a pastor/prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution, as my adviser.
He minister to me to share my property ,wealth, to motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student that need money/ business woman and man for their investment for
future rising.
So therfore i am writing this letter to people who are really need help from me both student in college, to contact me urgently. so that i can make available preparation on that. especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband, why they cannot survive the mist of feeding their self.please contact me
to stop weeping.
probably let me know what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orphanages homes near your town. now am so much with GOD, am now born again.
may the lord bless you, as you reach me,please to remind you, dont belongs to scammers or any act of fraudulent on internet.
thanks.
I AM A DEAF

I replied because there was no information that was not publicly accessible requested but I did mention that this sounded like a scam. I received the following response:

Dear XXXX
Please this is not a scam...
Thank you very much. I will be going for my surgery operation today and i want you to please try and pray for me also i have told my financial adviosr to send you a sum of $125,000 dollar to be able to do what you want. so therefore, you can contact him on this information asap.
Name: Charles Strube
Address: 242 mack ave
Detroit,MI 48207
Usa.

Fax: 743 090 1245
Email: [email protected]
Thank you for your Email and May God Bless you
Karen

So I went online and "googled" the address in Detroit which was (surprise!) a boarded up building. But I decided to play a little more...I wrote to "Mr. Strube" and received the following reply:

Dear XXXX

Thank you. Yes i am aware about the offer.
Please provide the information below for the process of the fund.
Full Name:
Mailing Address
Telephone Number
Occupation.
Thank you
I will be waiting for the information from you
Regard
Charles.---

Again, because this information is publicly available, I responded. Then I got this message:

Dear XXXX
Thank you for the Information.

This is to inform you that the payment was successful and the Bank has drawn on your name.
So therefore, i am writing you base on the delivery action to your door, that you will bear the cost of the fee.
Here beLow:
Courier Fee: $45.00
Insurance Fee:$110.00
Administratve Fee:$93.00
Total cost of $248.00 Usd.
Please kindly send the fee through Western Union to this information and get back to me with the Mtcn Number in other to deliver the parcel of the fund to you.
It will take only 24hrs for the delivery.
You can send the payment via western union again to this info:
Name: Charles Strube
City:Detroit
State:Michigan
Country:United State.

I will be waiting to hear from you soon.
Regard
Charles

Now all the bells and whistles were going off, but how much more information could I get from them? So I wrote and told them that I have no money to send right now, and gave them a date when I could send the money. I received the following urgent message:

Dear XXXX
Thank you for your E-mail. I can understand your position and what you are facing right now.Really, i have some meeting to attend in los anageles and because of you i have been holding down the meeting.
The only way we ca n made this out, is that the Bank Manager that is incharge of the fund has been transfer to West Africa, Nigeria for some firm restructions..
I would have love you to try and get $120 dollar and send to him directly so that he can help you. Because i just spoke to him sometimes an hour ago.
He said if you can meet up in the next 30 minutes to an Hour to send the $120 he will advice the management to send the fund to you today.
I think this is an oppoertunity for you.
Please you can send the payment to him on this information for help action.
Name: Lekan Benson
Address: 12 atiba street
Lagos, Nigeria
Once you have send the money through Western Union please try and send me the Text Question and Answer with the Mtcn Number to me immediately

Tex Question: Who money send to?
Answer: Manager.

Please do that asap.
Waiting for your reply
Regard
Charles.

I replied again that maybe I could get an advance from a friend in Alaska but it would take 24 hours. "Charles" began to think he had a keeper on the line! He replied:

Dear XXXX
Thank you for your reply.
Ok go ahead and get the money for an hour.
Make sure you send me the Mtcn Number and the Text Question and Ansswer correctly.
Please you can send the payment to him on this information for help action.
> > Name: Lekan Benson
> > Address: 12 atiba street
> > Lagos, Nigeria
> > Once you have send the money through Western Union please try and
> > send me the Text Question and Answer with the Mtcn Number to me
> > immediately.
> >
> > Tex Question: Who money send to?
> > Answer: Manager.
> >
> > Please do that asap.
> >> > Waiting for your reply
> >> > Regard
> > Charles.
Again, make sure the money is available for pick up.
Waiting
Charles.

When I didn't send the money, "Charles" began to get itchy! He wrote:

Dear xxxx
ThaWhat is going on? I have not heard from you since, why?
Please update me asap. You kep me waiting since yesterday, why?
Hope you have got the money sent?
Reply
Charles.

Then he began calling me, at first on my cell number which I didn't answer. Then he fell for calling my home number (my provider publishes and keeps a record of dialed, missed and received calls). Speaking with him on the phone told me that I was, indeed, dealing with a "foreigner" but again I strung him along because I wanted to get more info if I could. But when I didn't send the money again, I received another e-mail:

Dear XXXX
What is going on? Have you send the money i ask you to send to the Manager?
Why are you delaying, i do not want you to lose this opportunity.
Meanwhile, i suppose to have been in the meeting i told you yesterday, but because of your situation i have to suspend myself.
Do not disappoint me.

Waiting right now.... to hear from you with Good news...
Charles.

OK, so now I'm getting more calls from this joker and it's becoming a bit boring. I wrote to him and told him again that my connection with Alaska fell through and I didn't have any money. I asked why he couldn't just deduct the "fees" from the check he was sending me if this was legitimate and told him that once he mentioned Nigeria I started to smell a scam. I got this reply:

Dear XXXX
I am very disappointed in you so much that you can detect and accusing me as a scammer. Well, you can send the fee of $120 dolar throiugh my information to know that i am for real.
Here:
Name: Charles Strube
City:Detroit
State:Michigan
Country:Usa.

Let me have the Mtcn Number so that i can send the payment to you.
I hope this will be fair... I am not a a lair ok am from christain home and i tell the truth.
Thank you

So I wrote back telling him that the only thing I hate more than thieves and scammers are people who think that because they proclaim themselves to be Christiansthey expect the world to trust them. I also called the FBI and Michigan state police because I would have gladly sent an Express Mail to the address if they could set up an intervention, no luck there, so I then I both blocked the e-mail addresses and phone numbers so I could not be contacted by them again. I also notified ic3 and my bank of the attempted fraud. Now I have reported it here and on other scambuster sites.

Happy hunting!

Hi and welcome here. You are correct in that you are writing back and forth with a criminal.

We do not encourage doing so with your real email account, name or phone number. What you are doing is called scambaiting. There are ways to do this safely, using all fake information that does not connect to your real life in any way. Remember, the people behind these emails are criminals. The safest thing to do is just delete the emails. If you'd like to learn about Scambaiting, please visit our sister site, www.419Eater.com.

We do not encourage victims to bait their scammers.

Thank you for your post, 2smart2fall.

I too had recently been receiving an email of the same sort, the difference was that they posed under the name of a 75 yr. old woman named Sandra Owens. It's kinda funny because I smelt scam from the beginning but on the other hand that, "what if it's legit'' feeling was burning inside of me.

I am partially unemployed & was bored so I wanted to investigate further. I guess they got my email from a public jobsearch site when I posted searching for misc. jobs. They emailed me the exact same 1st letter but her name was Sandra Owens. It went as follows.

Dear sir/ma.
My name is Sandra Owen 75yrs old of age, i stay in new york city
usa.
i am a good merchant, i have several industrial companys and good share in
various banks in the world.I spend all my life on investment and coporate
business. all the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal
accident that occur in november 5th 2003.i am a very greedy woman with all cost
i dont know much and care about people, since when i have an experience of my
lovley ones i felt weak.do you need help or donation about money?let me know

So I replied to them, noting that it sounded too good to be true. I also replied that I was never going to reveal any personal info other than, like you, what is readily available public records. I didn't however, mention that it seemed like a scam, even though the stink of scam was all over this poorly grammared, foreign-like accent . Another thing I noted was why would she say that she is," a very greedy woman", and yet want to help financially? Greedy people just don't do that. It's not in their nature.

Their reply was this:

Hello,
Am sorry for getting back to you late,thank for getting back to me and what is your problem that you want me to solve for you?let me tell you little of my story,i found it difficult to sleep and rest. later in the year 2004 february i was sent a letter of medical check up, as my personal doctor testify that i have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon. i found it uneasy to survive myself, beacuse a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again.i quickly call up a pastor/prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution, as my adviser.He minister to me to share my property ,wealth, to motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student thet need money/ business woman and man for their investment for future rising.
So therfore i am writing this letter to people who are really need help from me both student in college, to conatct me urgently. so that i can make available preparation on that.
especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband, why they cannot survive the mist of feeding their self.please contact me to stop weeping.
probably let me know what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orhanages homes near your town.
now am so much with GOD, am now born again.may the lord bless you, as you reach me.
Thanks,and waiting to hear from you soon
I am A DEAF,
Sandra.

Okay, that last line was irrelevant(LMAO). I almost fell to the floor with laughter. After I composed myself, that "what if," feeling came back so I decided to play along. So, without lying, I gave a pretty good and legitimate reason for why I needed 250K(which I really do need by the way). I even offered to give 10%, thats right, 25K to the church I attend, to help others(I really was). This was her/their response:

OK i will be going for my surgery operation today and i want you to please pray for me really,I dont have much money because i have used most of it for donation.please make sure you are not greedy with the money please make sure you help the less previledge,churches and the orphanges homes so that they will pray for my concerning my health,take 95% to sovle your problem and help the poor with 5%.
I only left $250,000 Usd in my account but i will order my financial advisor to make out the payment to you as soon as possible.
contact him on this information before

CONTACT HIM ON THIS INFO:
NAME: CHARLES STRUBE
ADDRESS: 242 MACK AVE
DETROIT,MI 48207
USA.
FAX: 743 090 124
EMAIL: [email protected]

THANK YOU,
SANDRA.

So I contact this Charles and mention this whole deal, emailed copy of last email too, to which he replied:

Hello,
Yes Mrs Owen told me to send the money to you within 24hrs,How do you want your money $250,000 Usd?Cashier's Check,Money Order Or Wire Transfer?If only you can follow up with our procedure,then you will get your funds without any form of stress or delay. please get back with your Name,Address and your cell phone number so that we can send out the funds to you asap,I will give you a call immediately your fund is sent out.Mrs Owen is a woman of honor and intergrity.do pray for her,waiting to hear from you immediately.

Thank you,

Charles.

Okay, maybe I will give them the benefit of doubt , so I analyze the options... Money order's, impossible, unless they are willing to send me 500 of them worth $500 each. Wire transfer, not to my bank. I'm too smart for that. Western Union charges an arm & leg, I'd rather spend that fee on helping others. Cashier's check seemed like the most logical of all, My bank only charges $5 for one with no max amount. So I am starting to lower my guard as I cautiously give them the info requested, harmless info which isn't that secret, and opt for the latter option, Cashier's Check, and the reply was:

Hello Kahekina,
This is to inform you that the payment has been granted and process
today.Meanwhile, you are a very lucky person that i have done business with, through fastest way.I have made the payment in check and it has to be send to you as soon as possible for your important need.
But you will bear the cost of the Expenses delivery to your door.
Here are the Details:

Courier Fee: $45.00
Insurance Fee for Safety: $30.00
Lawyer Attestation Fee: $25.00
Administrative Fee: $20.00
Total Cost of $120.00 Usd.

Please kindly send the money via Western Union Money Transfer to this
is info in other to send the Payment to you through Overnight shipping.
Here to send to:

Name: Charles Strube
City:Detroit
State:Michigan
Country:United State

Once you have send the money please get back to me with the Mtcn Number from you,I will be waiting to hear from you.
Regard,
Charles.

All the whistles were blowing, "SCAM, SCAM, SCAM!" I knew it was just too good to be true. So now I figured I would do the same as you, play with the guy. Eventually bait him and get him captured by the FBI. So I replied that I just was too poor to send even $20(I figured I'm entitled to lying to these fools, I'm doing as they are doing to me). I even went to as far as telling them that $120 was my whole weeks salary(lied) and that my family would starve(partially true). I asked them, why couldn't they take it out of the funds they were sending to me. If they couldn't, I asked this, "FINANCIAL ADVISOR" if he could pay the fee upfront out of his pocket and after I received the check I would wire him $1,000(which I really would if this was a legit transaction). I would think that an $880 profit for sending one check in the mail is not a bad days work for me. Why wouldn't it be the same for him. If I were him, I'd even do it for a $380 profit.

I had just sent that email this morning and decided to start doing some detective work on my own. So I Googled the so called names of these characters to find if they had any credibility amongst any of them and thats how I found this forum. I am glad that I found your post and that you were smart enough not to fall prey to their scam. Now that I found your post, I no longer feel the need to press on with the game to try catch the "Bad Guys" since you did not fare any better . If it weren't for your post, I would've gotten exhausted with all the future calls and lose my cool and say some very unkind words to this person which I am not about. I will stop my game with these imbeciles and hopefully, that will end this whole charade . I'll put my time to better use. It was starting to get fun though.

My only hope is that no one else will be gullible enough to fall for it . However, I'd have to admit though, their scam was pretty crafty. Maybe if their grammar wasn't so terrible, I wouldn't have thrown them the red flag so early in the game after their fist email.

I will go back to the jobsearch site & post a message to warn others about that first email.

Hi Coconutcrawler and welcome here!

I'm glad to hear that you found the thread here about this scam and also that you saw red flags enough to check this out further. Great job. Thanks for posting more information on this scam here, it will likely help someone else in the future, just as 2smart2fall's post helped you out.

I too have also received an email from a Sandra Owens and a Charles Strube. I decided to do some research and found this site. I am so glad I did. Thanks for letting people know about this scam. Thank God.

God Bless

Amanda ---minneapolis, MN

Hi Coconut Crawler and mryjn143

Welcome to Scamwarners.

Very happy that you found out it is a scam before losing any money, there are many variations of internet scams and a lot of people are not as lucky as you have been.

Look aroound the forums and feel free to ask any questions.

For now, simply ignore any furture attempts to contact you, by responding you will give them a glimmer of hope they will be able to steal your money which will only make them hang around longer

Hello,
I also did some research after I contacted these people and let them know under no circumstances that I would not send money. I played with them but Charles insisted that I pay. I insisted that I would not pay. So I am sending their e-mail to [email protected]. I do not know what they do with these but every time I get an e-mail like this one I send it to them. I also to Charles that he was not very professional and that his grammar sucked. He still insisted that I give him money. I hope that this helps everyone that gets these things on their e-mail.

> My name is Sandra Owen 75yrs old of age, i stay in new york city
> usa.am
> a good merchant, i have several industrial companys and good share in
> various
> banks in the world.I spend all my life on investment and coporate
> business. all
> the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal
> accident that occur
> in november 5th 2003.i am a very greedy woman with all cost
> i dont know much
> and care about people, since when i have an experience of my
> lovley ones i felt
> weak.do you need help for business,project,school,window
> mortgage or donation
> about money?let me know,i am deaf.
> sandra

Welcome to Scamwarners kittcarson. Your information will alert and save others.

Thank You for Posting, I am glad you researched and realised this was a scam.

Noted this scam on this website http://scammers-exposed.blogspot.com/

Karen Shaw: "I Will Help" (Except that this is a Fraud Email)

Posted by admin on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

From Karen Shaw Fri Apr 3 01:58:13 2009

Return-Path: [email protected]

Also this shorter mail;

Dear sir/ma.

My name is Sandra Owen 75yrs old of age, i stay in new york city usa.
i am a good merchant, i have several industrial companys and good share
in various banks in the world.I spend all my life on investment and coporate
business. all the way i lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal
accident that occur in november 5th 2003.i am a very greedy woman with all
cost
i dont know much and care about people, since when i have an experience
of my lovley ones i felt weak.do you need help for business,project,school,
window mortgage or donation about money?

let me know,i am deaf.

W W! it's a great thing you have this great post. It is a great help for someone else who are not familiar with scamming. A great warning to all of us net users.. Don't trust someone who you don't know who really are. Be vigilant