Laura Woodruff ([email protected]) Car scam

Hi there

I would like to report my experience of a scam.

Essentially I genuinely wanted to sell my car, posted on Craigslist.

Someone replied, as attached below:

From: "Hines" <[email protected]>
Subject: toyota yaris 2011 - $12000 (University park)
Date: July 20, 2012 8:37:58 PM EDT
To: [email protected]
Reply-To: "Hines" <[email protected]>

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

Greetings!

I have an interest in purchase of this posted ad. could you tell me
more about the date of first registration and what's your bottom
asking price?

Regards.
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So i thought this was real, and i replied with my car details.

Laura Woodruff ([email protected]) replied the following:

Thanks for the mail,i am buying this for my dad i am a petroleum engineer
currently on a rig offshore and due to the nature of my work,phone
calls making and visiting of website are restricted but i squeezed out
time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. I really
want this Vehicle to be a surprise gift for my dad so i wont let him know
anything about the item until it gets delivered to him,i am sure he
will be more than happy with the car.I insisted on paypal or bank
transfer because i do have access to my Escrow online bank account as
i really sure its
secure and but i can also pay from my PayPal account,as i have my
Escrow bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your PayPal
email address so i can make the payment as soon as possible for the
item and pls if you don't have PayPal account yet,it is very easy to
set up, go on
http://www.paypal.com and get it set up ,after you have set it up i will only
need the e-mail address you used for registration with PayPal so as to
put the money through.I have a pick up agent that will come for the
pick up immediately you have receive the payment in full

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at this point, i was still quite believing, even believing that she is genuine and wow such a filial nice daughter to buy a surprise gift for the dad. and i was like, hey, if ure gonna wire money into my paypal, why not?? im not transferring money out to anyone anywaysss....

so i provided my paypal email address for her to transfer the money into
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then the next email came rather quickly, within 5minutes


Hi [my name deidentified], I was about to made
the payment when i got e-mail concerning my mover that i told you that
i will be writing to, i will need you to do me a very big favor, i have
just got an e-mail from them that before they can come for the pick up
for me, it will need to be registered in their company's headquarter,
so i will need to pay the total commission of $1,950 to their Shipping
Company's Headquarter Via Money Gram, so that the pick up can be registered.
So all i need from you is to include the said amount to the
payment that i will be transferring into your PayPal account and you
will help me to Send it to them Via a Money Gram Outlet for the
Registration as soon as you get it, PayPal insurance policy will be
informed about the process as well.Sorry to put this on you, cos
without the pick up, the purchase can't
hold. Please do get back to me as soon as possible if i should make
the payment.

Thanks and i will be waiting to read from you concerning the help.


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im like, what the heck are u talking about. the english was bad, and i didnt really understand what money gram was. i thought she will transfer me the extra money, so im thinking why not? as long as i got the money, although my suspicions were higher than ever before.

so then im like, ok sure ill help u out, as long as u transfer me all the money needed first, i.e. car sale price + agent fee, then ill help u tf the money.
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she then asked me for my mobile, which i stupidly gave away

subsequently i got some calls from an indian dude who claimed to be from Paypal

telling me someone by the name of laura woodruff transferred some money in

but would require confirmation etc etc.

to be honest, the reception from that indian dude was pretty poor, the voice breakin intermittently, so i was kinda angry, told him why dont u email me or call me back bye!

then, laura woodruff also EMAILED me the below:
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Hello [my name deidentified], i just made the payment via a paypal now,please check
the spam and inbox for deposit alert, so i added
extra $250.00 for the money gram charges that may requested from
you at the money gram point to send the $1,950,00 to my shipping
company Agent in Ca for the shipping fee, therefore the Total amount
which i transfer into your paypal account equals to...$14,200 so here
is the name and address of my shipping company which you are to send
the money to in Ca,,
you can send a money gram here is the name as
presented in the paypal
payment.....



Name: Venance Jean Mel.
City: Hawthorne.
State: California.
Zipcode: 90305.
Country: USA.

Nice doing business with you and i am back to work now,incase if you
want to contact my agent please email:[email protected]

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laura woodruff [email protected]
Jul 21 (5 days ago)

to me
I understand your concerns [my name deidentified]...But you,ve just got to figure out
a way to send the $1,950 to them for shipping, and send them the
receipt cause paypal confirmed it to me that they cannot
retract back my payment to me to ensure your security as a seller as
well as they are not gonna release the payment from Hold till you
complete your side of the Transaction to guarantee the security of us
both since they are the intermediary between us.
Once you send them the scan receipt of the Transaction then paypal is
gonna release the payment to you from Hold and you can return it back
to wherever you get it from

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


then i replied :

I'm sorry I don't understand how the payment to the Shipping Company is related to Paypal at all

As long as I have no money in my paypal or bank account that I have received from you, then I will not pay any money to anyone.

Please figure out a way from your end regarding paypal

otherwise this might sound like scam, Laura Woodruff


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laura woodruff [email protected]
Jul 21 (5 days ago)

to me
Please understand that i have sent the full payment into your account
and it has being deducted from my account,and PayPal is putting the
payment on hold and invisible to ensure the security of the both
parties and they are gonna release the payment to you as soon as you
complete your side of the Transaction,I do not ask them to Hold the
payment,PayPal said its there new law and policy to ensure the
security of the both parties.
The downside is PayPal is not gonna retract back my payment to me to
ensure your security as a seller as well as they are not gonna release
the payment to you to ensure our security both.
The completion of this Transaction lays with you now,so i sincerely
urge you to Act according to PayPal instruction so that we can
finalize this deal asap.
Get back to me as soon as you can.

Stay Blessed.

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then laura woodruff got angry that i accused her that she is a scammer. LOL!!!
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laura woodruff [email protected]
Jul 21 (5 days ago)

to me
Excuse me Mr [my name deidentified]
i hate when people doubting me in a business, i have been using PayPal
for online transaction for over 10yrs and i am a good customer, i dont
cheat on people besides i cant cheat on u for a token of 1950,besides
i have my own good job and am well paid, but the down side of it was
that i dont have where to locate walmart store to send out the agent
fee via money gram, i am working in a remote area at present that is
why i added the amount into your fund via PayPal, i told u sincerely
that i have transferred total amount of 14,200 via PayPal to your wife
PayPal email u presented and i also copy your email a receipt of it,
besides i contact PayPal they said that they have called u several
time, and you should check your wife PayPal email to see the payment
notification, beside if u dont send the pick up agent fee to them they
wont come to you for a pick up , and we may not have any opportunity
by them again till 10th of next month, because they have alot of
picking up customer at hand, and according to them they will be all
busy through, [my name deidentified] you need to exercise some trust in this
transaction, your fund has already been deducted from my account and
its remain invisible and hold by paypal till u send them the scan
payment receipt of the agent fee, they need to protect us both from
been scam, besides this involve huge of amount, so please kindly let
me know as soon as you figure it out to complete the transaction

Thanks for your understanding


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At the same time, "Paypal" also emailed me, but i didnt really get it till i checked my SPAM folder

i cant find these emails now, but they essentially did not have end with a @paypal.com ,

also they addressed me by email address, not by my real name as i registered to paypal


i called paypal and confirmed with them this was a scam email. they also encouraged me to forward the email to [email protected], and the people there also confirmed with an email that what i received was scam

laura woodruff persisted with another email

so i replied this:

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i have called paypal to verify and the email YOUR SHIPPING COMPANY sent is a scam email, pretending to be PayPal.

wow you are really trying quite hard to scam people of their money off Craigslist huh?

get a life

and stop bullshitting people over the Internet

if you really transferred the money to me, i'll be able to receive it via paypal

i dont see any connection between your retarded shipping company's bogus verification process and paypal

get a better story to scam people next time

piss off, before i call the federal authorities to track your IP address and hunt you down


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after my email, she never replied ever. i didnt receive any further calls on my mobile as well.

i decided to post this here, so that others could have this reference

(when i suspected this was a scam early on, i googled the emails provided, such as
<[email protected]>
"Hines" <[email protected]>
email:[email protected]

and finally the "shipping agent"
Name: Venance Jean Mel.
City: Hawthorne.
State: California.
Zipcode: 90305.
Country: USA.


and i didnt find anything reporting that they are scams!
so i thought this will help put it out there on Google and other search engines!

LAURA WOODRUFF IS A SCAM!!!

Would you please post up the email addresses the scammer is using. Often people search by email address to see if they are dealing with a scammer.

Thank you for posting this information and your experience.

sure i have changed the topic name to include her email [email protected]
these are also the other emails that they have used:
"Hines" -- [email protected]
[email protected]

these are all SCAMS!

Just got one from [email protected] <[email protected]>;
If you reply to the above address you get [email protected] <[email protected]>; in the to line.

Thanks for posting. Saved me the headache of trying to figure this one out on my own.

[email protected]

Hello and welcome to Scamwarners Bubbaszone,

Thanks so much for posting the additional email address ( [email protected] ) used by this scammer. You will alert many others prior to be scammed.

The paypal payment would have been fake from a fake paypal email address. No money would have been transferred into your Paypal account. The fake Paypal email is believable with phony screenshots. The best way to verify funds in you paypal account is to log in directly without any links.

This scammer hopes you will not verify his lies. He would later send email from the fake paypal address telling you the funds are on hold until you ship the item and send him a tracking number.

Paypal hold is a lie. And he is setting you up for future western union payments to him / shipping agent. He want your item and / or money.

Please note: You may receive more scam inquiries. The scammer will have the same basic tactic. Instead he wants to send you a fake check or Money Order.

In most cases the scammer want your money. However, if the item is small electronics, jewelry etc then that is his target.

Thanks
Bryon