Are you selling items online? Be careful!!!

Hello everyone,

I just took a few minutes to read other posts and it seems that the guy who tried to scam me has been doing it for a long time. The stories told in these posts are very similar and all sound too familiar:

"I'm in Australia - He in Malaysia wantin to buy my item" - posted recently (Feb. 18th)
"Larry Miles AKA [email protected]"
"[email protected] AKA [email protected]"
"Fake buyer scam"

and even a post from July 2011: "Scammer claiming to want to by your item"

The item I have for sale is a car (MazdaRX8) and I got an e-mail asking the sale price and if the car was still for sale. After my reply, he sent me an e-mail with the "pay thru PayPal" story. I was VERY suspicious because he claimed to be in the UK (marine engineer who couldn't come see the car) and I'm in Portugal - who wants a left-hand drive car sent to a country where the same model, even though right-hand drive, costs almost half???

Just like the scamwarners said in the above-mentioned posts, I also got VERY REALISTIC LOOKING PAYPAL notifications of the transfer and a warning to pay the 800 euros to the shipping company in 24hrs!!!!

My luck was that I googled!!! First I looked for the guy's e-mail and after looking at the details of his e-mail, I came across the name JASON COTWELL. That's the name that got me here.

What's scaring me the most is that this guy is STILL getting away with it - obviously he has changed the e-mail, name he uses, etc. but the similarities to the info given in the other posts are all there - I'm convinced it's the same guy.

Here are the details he used with me:

e-mail: [email protected]

Transport Company: " COURIER EXCHANGE "

Receiver's Name: Jamie Caulker
Address : 235 Regent Street
City : London
Postal Code : W1B 2EL
Country : United Kingdom

e-mail details of the PayPal notification:
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from mail-wi0-f195.google.com (mail-wi0-f195.google.com [209.85.212.195])
by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id i12si4117291wiw.29.2012.02.19.13.30.14
(version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER);
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:30:15 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 209.85.212.195 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.212.195;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 209.85.212.195 as permitted sender) [email protected]; dkim=pass [email protected]

e-mail details of his e-mails:
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from snt0-omc2-s31.snt0.hotmail.com (snt0-omc2-s31.snt0.hotmail.com. [65.55.90.106])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id s61si4649861yhn.75.2012.02.15.12.56.51;
Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:56:51 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 65.55.90.106 as permitted sender) client-ip=65.55.90.106;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 65.55.90.106 as permitted sender) [email protected]

Thank goodness for Scamwarners!!! I've already sent his e-mail to PayPal but I'm afraid many others might fall for this because he's gotten away with it for quite a while!

Funny I had the same thing today. I had a Mazda MX6 ad which i put on yesterday and got a reply from a "jordan David" stating the exact same thing that "he wanted to buy it as a "gift" for his "son" and that he was in able to come down as he was offshore.but he said his agent would come and pick it up once money was in account. When I ask for the agents name and company and his verification...nothing that's when i checked the inrenet and found this. So somewhere some slimey scumbag is trying to get his kicks off. I immediately took my eBay ad down straight away. Must be mazdas its targeting at the mo. I sent a nice message back stating that if I found then I'd break his legs but unfortunatley I was on the "international space station" and I would send my agent round to them once I recieved the so called payment. Surely Ebay is aware of these scammers and should prevent them even trying to scam genuine sellers. Probably one of the reasons they email you early in the mornibg to try and get you unawares because you're still half asleep....

Welcome to ScamWarners, wolfy252.
Could you please post up the email from the person you mentioned, including the email address after removing your personal details.
This will help anyone carrying out a search on their potential buyer. Thanks.

It seems Jason Cotwell is still at it. In his first email he used the name Jason Snoop. He apparently uses the same email template for everyone. Here is the recent email we received from him on Craigs List. His email addresses are:[email protected] and [email protected].

Hi,

Thank you for getting back to me. Can you assure me that it's in good state and that i will not be disappointed with it.I'm ready to pay your asking price and to be honest, i wanted to buy this for my Son, but the issue is i am an oceanographer and i do have a contract to go for which starts tomorrow and am leaving any moment from now.The contract is strictly no call due to the lack of reception on the sea area. But I'm able to access email anytime as we will make use of laptop so my only quickest payment option is PayPal as i can send money via PayPal anytime.Since I'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be responsible for all the paypal fee/charges on this transaction and if you don't have an account with paypal, its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one. Just log on to http://www.paypal.com. I hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible? I have a mover that will come for it once payment clears and they will take care of very necessary paper for me. So i look forward to hear from you soon. will like to see more pics.

I need the address where the agent will meet you and your PayPal email address so i can send the money now.

Many Thanks

Hello all out there, HEADS UP!

My brother was gonna sell his car Audi R6 on blocket.se and he got contacted by this fellow.

5 apr 2012 kl. 01:58 skrev Marvin Gidlund <[email protected]>:


Hello Friend,
Thanks so much for your email,am quite okay with it and i would like to know the best price,I would also like to know it last time of service, Please how neat is the body condition.

Thanks and Best Regards

Från: Marvin Gidlund <[email protected]>
Datum: 5 april 2012 09:15:45 CEST
Ämne: RE: Yes


Thanks for the response,i will take it for 95000 since i am interested in the immediate purchase.I just moved to the United Kingdom,where this is needed and i will be making use of a shipping company to have this picked up from you and have it delivered to me.Further arrangements will be made with you in regards to the pick up once i have paid you.I would appreciate if you email me with more pictures (if available) too since i won't be be able to see this in person, what's the PayPal email to send funds to in order for me to pay you as soon as possible.

5 apr 2012 kl. 12:18 skrev Marvin Gidlund <[email protected]>:


i will like you to send me your PayPal account email address and account name As soon as possible for the instant payment.
Regards.

Från: Marvin Gidlund <[email protected]>
Datum: 6 april 2012 09:08:27 CEST
Ämne: RE: Yes


I have been waiting to read from you regarding the MTCN number that will be given to you at the western union money transfer after you might have send the 14,000.00 SEK to my shipping agent and its very surprising that you are yet to send me an email regarding it..I am getting worried over this..

Please let me know if you have send the money via western union and if you've not done it make sure it is done today.I will be waiting to read from you regarding the information that will be given to you at the western union and also your address for the pick up and i will be very glad for this.

Please make sure you get back to me ASAP.
Nice doing business with you.

6 apr 2012 kl. 13:03 skrev Marvin Gidlund <[email protected]>:


As per the e-mail PayPal sent to me which is also similar to yours,you will have to pay an upfront payment of 14,000.00 SEK out of your pocket via western union office at your post office or any western union office to the address given to you, and you will be given the information requested which you will e-mail to PayPal by replying to the confirmation mail sent from them regarding the details you have from western union...and you will receive the whole money in your account without any
delay.

The money will reflect in your account until you reply back to the confirmation email you received from PayPal by sending the western union information after sending the 14,000.00 SEK that is to be send to my pick up agent so that they can come for the pick up..if you have gone through the email you received from PayPal very well regarding the payment i made...you must have been notify about all this.

Here is the Address where you have to send the shipping agent payment to.


Name : Jamie Caulker

Address : 235 Regent Street

City : London

Postal Code : W1B 2EL

Country : United Kingdom.


You can go to any post office close to you or any western union office and send the money to the shipping agent information and Get back to PayPal as soon as you have send the shipping agent fees.

I can't wait to read from you soonest.
Thanks and Best Regards

Från: Marvin Gidlund <[email protected]>
Datum: 6 april 2012 13:30:39 CEST
Ämne: RE: Yes


I want you to understand the money have been transferred to your account in excess,the excess fund is for the shipping company that is coming to pickup the merchandise at your door step..So the money have been deducted from my account and you will get a notification that a fund is about to be remitted to your account and the money is in excess .so the excess is for the shipper and the money has been pend and the reason PayPal hold the money is that some people will have the money and they will not pay the money to the shipper .so that is why they hold the money and once they get the (MTCN) with the scan receipt which means the confirmation number of the excess money then they will immediately release the money into your PayPal account and then you will tell them when you want the shipper to come for the pick up...So i want you to know that you are not sending anything to me because PayPal will be the one to handle the payment,So go ahead and deposit the excess money in western union and then get back to PayPal and not me with the (MTCN) and the senders name and address, then your money will be remitted immediately into your account..so i will like to know when you have get back to PayPal with the detail ..

just keep me update...

thanks

God Bless You....Amen!!!

So here it goes, the emails he sent "the scam from paypal" was very blurrish and not well understanded, me and my sister among other reading it which are good at english language was like huh?! something didn't sound right it was all strange a bad feeling towards it.

Also after extra checking today i noticed the copyright dates were way of, some were dated copyright 2009-2011 and even 2010, and today the year is 2012?! also noted the PPID PP307 / PPID PP1525 which they have been created as numbers.

The whole talk with him from my brother's part was about selling the car, and since he dont understand english so well ge asked me to read and check up on this and something just didn't sound right to me.

From start he wanted a price of 95,000 SEK and this guy stated from first email that he was gonna stand for every cost shippings, papers and agent. but after the "fake confirmation" mail was sent from paypal all of the sudden he stated that the shipping fee was something my brother was gonna deal with, we said no.

We actually sent an email back stated, we looked you up we know you are a scammer and will make a police report upon this with you info "still no reply"

I hope this share some lights in you out there and be on the alert and the golden rule is always be VERY suspicious!

Thanks for me, best regards and spits to these people and their maners.