The powers of human intuition

SO! basically what happened to me was that i was just trying to sell my Samsung Gravity to get money for a my touch. a very innocent exchange......Or so i thought. So i got this reply from someone named Alfe Tucker. I didn't save the first message he sent me from a different email.



Hi,
Thanks for the mail...i was introduced to this site by a friend at work and i will like immediate purchase of this item for my Niece 'Bella' who is away of the state and been requesting for this item...i will offer you $200 including the shipping charges to her.. there because she is in need of it as a matter of urgency and due to my work i don't have time to handle the shipping..i will want you to help me handle the shipping very well to her..Get back to me with your confirmed PayPal email address so that i can send the payment..
Get back to me asa


So as u can see this alfe tucker ( what kind of name is that BTW.) wanted to purcahse my item for 200$ instead of the 100$ asking price. i was excited to get a extra 60 bucks or so. I was in. but then things got a little iffy as i started feeling weird about the situation. so i told him to send me the info and i would send it through ups. he replied;

Kiara,

I will like to let you know that i have issue out the payment into your paypal account and am very sure you will be notify very soon, i will also like to let you know that it should be mail out through the USPS Express Mail Service, United State Postal Service only simply because they are cheap.. so get the item mailed out as soon as possible... Let me trust you by shipping it out . below are the address though it will be giving to you by PayPal but i just wish to give it to you again in order to avoid any mistake that may occur through the shipping process

Segun Otunba
89,sapon road
Abeokuta,
Ogun state
23437
110001
Nigeria
+2348067379493

i will be waiting for the tracking numbers as soon as possible......
Cheers.




notice the "issue out payment" and " let me trust you by shipping it out" who says that? then i was like what the hell nigera??? why do i need to send it to her? and what does that number at the bottom mean? but me not wanting to ruin a good thing, didn't ask questions and started the process. when i told him i would ship the item before i sent it he said:

Dear Kiara,
All you need to do is to get the item ship and get back with the tracking number so that your fund will be credited,the fund is already send to your account but you have to send the item before the fund can show in your account


so at this point I'm like the shipping is in the cost, so why would i ship it out without any money? mind u express deliver to Nigeria would cost me 40 bucks. so i decided to do some research. Then i told him this;


i don't know i just talked to my mom and this doesn't seem legit..So u can just pay 100 and put in the account so i can see it so i can use t to ship and fell more safe about it. if not then i'm sorry for wasting your time.

then he said;

what do you mean after i have send the payment and i got a notification here that the payment had been done and they have deducted the amount from my paypal account...waiting for you to get the item ship out and get back to paypal with the tracking number for your account to be credicted instantly..get back soon..

i was like where the hell is the proof. i just found it and here its a FAKE ASS PAYPAL CONFIRMATION EMAIL!! LOL

PayPal


Dove White ([email protected]), Payment Notification® (ALFE)

Providian Visa Flagcard
Dear

*
Valuable Customer ,



You ought to have shipped the item to the destination by now, You can now forward the shipment proof (reference/tracking number and attached scanned receipt), so that we can credit your account.








We are very sorry for the inconveniences this may cause.
Please bear with us, this new measure is taken to secure our client's interest against lost of item. E..mail us the shipment details at this link [email protected] and our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment's tracking number to us for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller,the money will be credited to your account.

Note: Please reply this mail immediately you receive it .Failure to respond to this mail may leads to Limitation of your PayPal Account .



Dr Adebayo Olayinka
89 Fajuyi Road
Ile-ife
Osun-state
Nigeria
+2348067379493

Address Status: Confirmed

Thank you for using PayPal ® We look forward to serving your online auction payment better in the future.


The PayPal Team.
PayPal Email




IF I WOULD'VE SEEN THIS I PROBABLY WOULD'VE FALLEN FOR IT EXCEPT THAT I KEPT CHECKING MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT AND IT WAS STILL AT ZERO?! SO I WAS LIKE HE IS SCAMMING ME!!! SO I CALLED HIM OUT AND HE SAID.

I have told you, you are save and be rest assure.you wouldn't have any problem or regret OK.


I AM SAVE??? BE REST ASSURE?? I'M NOT THE BEST WITH GRAMMER BUT I KNEW HE WAS WIERD CUZ HE COULDN'T MAKE A SIMPLE SENTANCE FLOW.THEN I FOUND A PAYPAL COUPON. A REAL ONE AND POSTED IT TO HIM SAYING WHERE IS THIS??? HE RESPONDED;

AFTER HE SENT ME THE SAME MESSAGE I KNEW I WAS GETTING TO HIM LOL. HE THEN SENT

am going to take it up with you,this is how i lost my $410 last week

REALLY? LOL I SENT THIS LAST MESSAGE AND HE JUST DISAPPERED AND NEVER RESPONDED TO ME I GUESS HE BLOCKED ME LOL

well since ur saying u want me to send it to a place far away and i have no proof so far how am i to trust u i'm not losing money over this and i ahvce been alerted that this is a scam so don't bs and have a good day. get ur money back from pay pal and just let me be. and u know its a scam so why even waste my time. even though theres no way to sue u i am going to retract everything.
also if u would've should me the email saying that they took the money out maybe i would've belived u. sorry u got scammed and not me.

SO i didn't quite get payback as much as i wanted too but man at least i realized he was a fake before i sent him my phone that he would've gotten for free. its said that this happens to new sellers like me everyday. but let this be an example. thank u guys for these sites they really help. craiglist and ebay need to add sites like this to their help forums!!!!

Hi Twistin

Welcome to Scamwarners

I am sorry you didn't find us under better circumstances.

I have spent a lot of time investigating one scammer in particular who was running this scam and created an education piece on it, a read through may be on some help to you Click Here

Please make no further contact with teh scammer, pointing out his mistakes and shortcomings will make him a better scammer and may result in you being threatened by him which is no fun when they know where you live.

Thank you for your post, it will help and save others

If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask

Hi twistenthemup08 and welcome!! Thank you for taking the time to post your experience and excellent job for following your instinct when things didn't seem right! Bravo to you for saving yourself from being scammed.
Please do read the topic Ralph linked to as it explains this scam and as he advised, don't continue any contact with the scammer.
The number in the bottom of the scammer's email is his phone number, 234 is the country code for Nigeria.

yeah i just wnat to thank you guys fir having sites like this to warn people. if i hadn't felt weird and done research and/or seen the fake paypal message in my spam folder i would've fallen for it and lost my phone today he sent me another message threatening me with the FBI;

Hey,
Why the silence. I have already made your payment for my item via paypal and i am sure they must have contact you about the payment which has been deducted from my account and you have not responded neither has paypal inform me that the transaction is still on so i want you to know that paypal are working in conjunction with the FBI so if you think of jerking me of my money you will have them to contend with so pls reply to my mail as soon as possible because once the money is approved by paypal it will not be refuned into my account so i dont want to lose my money pls i rather add more to it for you than to loose the whole money so i am expecting your reply. Here is paypal e-mail ([email protected]) and
here is my Niece shipping address below.

Dr Adebayo Olayinka
89 Fajuyi Road
Ile-ife
Osun-state
Nigeria
+2348067379493

i replied basically saying that i though he was bullshitting me and the pay pal address was fake he said " don't worry"then i should him how the addresses have changed now and he sent me this;

Is a mistake,the correct address is the address given you by paypal, this second address is the her formal address but she has packed out there,the correct address is the below:
Dr Adebayo Olayinka
89 Fajuyi Road
Ile-ife
Osun-state
Nigeria
+2348067379493

Make sure you go out now and send the item and get back to me with the shipment details so that i can forward it to the paypal for your fund to be release.the fund is already in your paypal account.am going to contact paypal now so that they can explain more for you.

Thanks

so i am gonna wait for one of his "associates to start contacting me with dumb stuff. stay tuned.

Welcome here Twistinthemup.

I understand that you want to get back at these criminals but i strongly advice you to stop all communication with them. As i said they are criminals and you don't want to get involved with them. They have some real information about you and getting them angry is a bit reckless. Maybe this scammer is in Nigeria but he could allso be living in your country, maybe he's living in your street. You don't know that so it's better to be save then sorry. If you do want to fight these scammers you can take on "scambaiting" as we call it. You can find all info about scambaiting on this site http://www.419eater.com/

yeah I'm not trying to start anything I'm just gonna ignore him because I'm just trying get my phone so I'm just gonna move on. Cause we can't sue them or anything.

Whoever this is is still at it. I'm trying to sell my iPod Touch and I got this message from someone who wanted it for a bday pressie for their nephew. They even used (almost) the same address!!! (89 sapon street) so... I googled it, this post came up, and I told them;

'Hi there

I have just googled your address '89 sapon street' and have read of someone else who nearly got spammed by an 'Alfe Tucker' who had almost the same address (89 sapon road), so kindly fuck off.

K thanks bye.

Mofo.'

I know this is particularly childish but I do not take kindly to people trying to take my belongings off me. So yeah. I called them a 'mofo'.

They were whipped

Welcome to ScmaWarners sapphonica. Sadly you telling the off will not stop them from continuing to scam people. It is good that you looked the information up. We expose them so others can find that they are scammers by posting their scripts and the email addresses they use. Thank you for posting the new physical address this one is using.

@sapphonica
the guy by the same name Joe Harick ([email protected]) wanted to buy my iPod touch also for the full price I was asking which was $150 so like twistinthemup08 I got excited and went along with it.

This was his first email:
Am okay with the price and i will just like to know the conditions,I am
really interested in buying this item and am ready to pay for it.. I am in
the position to get this for my pastors daughter living abroad as a birthday
gift.. I am set-up with PayPal now due to the nature of my work,so kindly
get back to me with your PayPal email address in order for me to pay for the
item.. I will be responsible for the shipping fee ($35) and $5 extra in
order to keep the sale to yourself.. I prefer shipment via USPS.. I will be
hopping to read from you soon..

My Reply:
Okay that's fine. Well the iPod is in great condition. There is only one very minor scratch to the screen which can only be seen when the screen is black. The back as no scratches, everything is in functioning condition. Sound is great and both buttons work. I had it for a year and it still looks and works like it is brand new.
My paypal email is [email protected]

NOTE** I was using a different email to message him about my iPod**


This was his reply
Hello..


I will be glad to inform you that the payment has just been made and
paypal as already deducted the money from my account so please make sure you
ship out the package First thing in the morning once you get my
payment notification/confirmation email from paypal and get back to
paypal with the
tracking number so they can verify it for me...thanks and i do hope to have
a smooth and harmless deal been my first time doing such transaction LOL...

So here is the shipping address once again just as to avoid any shipping
error..


Name:Babatunde Felix
Address:29 Sapon street
City:Abeokuta
State:Ogun
Country:Nigeria
Zip Code:23439.

Please you are to ship via the usps (Registered first class mail
international 3-5 days parcel)Hope to read back from you as soon as
you get back from the post office..


Regards..

This is when I recieved not 1 but 3 emails from "PayPal" saying he had sent money. But this is where he made his mistake...He sent it to my hotmail account that I was emailing him from...My PayPal stuff doesn't go this email, it goes to my AOL account. But I went along and told him you have to wait till I get paid before I can ship this because I have no money to be shipping internationally this is way I am selling my iPod. He hasn't responded yet since I barely just sent it but I am waiting to see what he says.

THAT'S when I will tell his ass I busted him for scamming me, cause there is no way PayPal could have gotten my hotmail email address

Too bad it probably cost a lot to just send a letter, otherwise I would send him a letter saying SUCKER!! with tracking making him think he was really getting the iPod lol

He just got denied lol

Lol I just got the "PayPal" email *the same 3* just went to my aol email just a few seconds ago...he just realized he messed it up



This is how he ends the messages now

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team
[email protected]
______________________________________________________________________

With PayPal, you always shop without sharing your financial information.


Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and
you will not receive a response.
PayPal Email ID PP1245



PayPal and Craigslist company

Copyright© 2011 PayPal Inc.



This also has all the pictures that show it "Paypal"
And since when does Craigslist work with PayPal???
the "PayPal and Craigslist company" is a link that takes me to Ebay

Hello,

I've been trying to sell my couch via Craigslist for a few months now and I get a ton of 'these' all claiming something slightly different but the same premise e.g. I'm not in town now because ___, but send me your PayPal info... I report them to Craigslist straight away.

What I'm trying to understand is how the scam works... if they claim to send you the money via PayPal, wouldn't the money be in there? Clearly you wouldn't think to 'ship' anything without the funds in hand. So I'm confused about how it works... is it a matter of the monies not clearing (so then you have a void in your Paypal account, thus losing the money) ...

I see where the MO is detailed through out this blog, but nothing about how the scam works...

I'd also like Gmail to go after them, but I can see where that may be insurmountable.

Thanks.