Laptop repair scam

I'm glad you realized before you were scammed.

One small point, though...

however it could take as much as 7 to 10 days for your check to clear my bank.

This belief is what makes this scam so successful. It is common in the US for people to consider a check cleared when a bank hands out the cash. That's not the case.

By law, a bank has to make cash available a certain number of days after the deposit (depending on the type of check) if they have not found the check to be fraudulent. So when the bank gives you money--it doesn't mean the check has cleared; it merely means that they haven't proven it fake yet so they have to give you the cash. Ironically, this law that makes these scams possible is intended to protect the consumer, by keeping banks from holding on to your money for excessively long periods of time.

In reality--a check can take weeks or months to get through all of the necessary verifications, particularly if it is written on a phished or stolen account--because there will be a period of investigation while it is determined whether the check was really written by the account owner. Your bank does not have to tell you if an investigation is ongoing, so you won't know. If at the end of the investigation, the check is found to be fraudulent, the originating bank will take the money back from your bank, who will in turn take the money back from you--and they can turn around and charge you fees for depositing a bad check in the first place! This can happen weeks after you think the check has "cleared."

I'm an idiot! I was so desperate for money, i gave this guy my address and contact info! Should I be worry about this?! He sent me this email and I guess the check is on its way. Is there anything i should do? Should i rip the check? Take it to the police? FBI? Don't want criminals appearing at my home.



Good morning ,
I'll like you to know that a Payment Worth ($3,800) has been mailed to you and it will get delivered Today Via USPS.Here is the shipment tracking number for it via USPS (EO912427192US).The Payment were made out since friday,but it will get to you Today or Monday due to the weekend delay...i had to Get my friend to send out the check to you,because i was out of town due to a Family Death (My Father Died) so i had to Get my friend send out the check to you...You will have to get the check deposited at your bank once you receive it, the check will clear soonest, you can confirm that by checking your account online later in the day.

Deduct your money for the service you want to do on my Units(), and you will be sending the rest of the funds to my shipper through Western Union Money Transfer Or Money Gram to my shipping agent so that he can ship out the laptops to you Unfaillingly, and i will get back to you with the shipment tracking number as well for the units coming your way so you can know when it will arrives..Western Union charges should also be deducted from my money.The excess funds is meant for shipping and insurance fee of the units forth and back as you finish working on them. I will compensate you with $50 for running around Western union..reconfirm me the address once again where you want the laptops to be shipped to.

Here is the shipper information where you will be sending the rest funds to.


Receiver's Name: Monalisa Wilson
Receiver's State: Newyork
Receiver's City: Brooklyn
Receiver's Zip Code: 11233



(That is the shipper's information required to send the money via Western Union money transfer) Once the money's sent, you should send me the following infomation via email
A. Your full names and address exactly how you wrote it on the Western Union slip.
B. The receiver's name exactly how you penned it down on the Western Union slip.
C . The total amount sent after Western Union fees has been deducted from the Money.
D . 10 Digit number(MTCN #)
I will be waiting on your email,complete with the details,please get to it as soon as you can,the transaction has to be fully completed as soon as possible and hope reading back from you soonest.
Thanks for you normal understanding.
yours sincerely.

[AlanJones]

Hi ofuertes and welcome to ScamWarners.

You can either take the check to the police, shred it or write FAKE over it and keep it as a souvenier - just as long as you don't bank it. The criminals are probably based in somewhere like West Africa, so they won't be turning up on your doorstep.

The best thing to do now is to cut off communication with the scammers and don't answer any more of their emails. They will contact you for a while trying to get you to send the balance to the fake shipper, but will eventually give up when they realise they are not getting any money from you.

Received the same scam on Sunday. from: [email protected]

Initial message was sent to me BCC:

I saw your advert and i am looking to repair/fix my computers(10). Please get back to me if you would like to work on them.

Thanks.

Then the response after I'd nibbled the bait:

Hello ,

How are you doing today ? Thanks also for getting back to me.

The Laptops are Hp compaq NC6400 Intel Pentium M (I will be providing all the necessary software needed).Below are the things needed to be done one on each laptops:

1 Format Hard Drive
2 Install Win Xp with Service Pack 2
3 Install Microsoft Office Package
4 Install AVG Virus Software (Free Lifetime Updates)
5 Install Adobe Acrobat
6 Laptop Cleaning of the keyboard, screen and other case.

I am presently on a business workshop in hawaii and i want you to know that i will handle the shipment myself since i have a shipper here that will bring the laptops to your place,and will pick them up as soon as you are done with them and my shipper will be coming with the necessary Software (with their licenses and keys) for the installations of the Computers with both the Operating System,Microsoft Office and the Anti-virus for each computers .

Here is my hearing impaired cell phone number 646-397-1139

However,get back to me with your last asking price for the 10 laptops.

I await your urgent response so that i can put the arrangement in order.

Thanks and hope to read from you soon.

I reverse looked up the # and it's a landline (I didn't want to pay to find out who's line it was). So I went searching for scams and I found this site. I have no intention of emailing the person back at this point. Just gonna deadfile it.

My sympathies to fellow techs who took the bait. When you are scrounging for business it's REALLY hard not to give it a try anyway. I hope my experience helps serve as a warning. I'll be posting the link to this thread wherever I can.

Thank you!

lisa brown <[email protected]>


Heres another

Hello,
I have 10 Pentium M HP laptops,and i will like you to treat them . I have lists of work needed to be done on the laptops.
1 Format the Hard Drive
2 Install Win XP with Service Pack 2
3 Install Microsoft Office Package
4 Avast Virus Software
5 Latest Corel Draw Version
6 Install Winrar
7 Diagnose Hardware. Hard drive, video card, processor and Nework Adapter.
Get back to me with your total cost for the service
I await your urgent response.

Best regards.

from a user Named "Lisa Brown"

replied


Subject: Re: Computer tech if it still available




Okay,I'm speech impaired but I will definitely send you an email,Thanks for the reply,I have all the necessary softwares needed for the service installations...Let me know the final asking price of my jobs.. I will instruct my secretary to prepare the Payment for you on your name and address .Do send me details below
Full Name:
Physical Address:
City:
State:
Zipcode:
Cell phone #:

so as to prepare the payment and shipping of the laptops to your address.i have a reliable shipper that will pickup the laptops when you are done with it.I am looking forward to hear from you,so we can have payment and shipping asap.
Waiting to hear back from you.
Thanks

I did fall for it but Ive save all the email and printed them out.

I did get a check from a guy in Scott, LA and the check was from a Big company In DC.
Since i worked with Disabled People I figured this was Legit, got suspicious about the states. but I worked with all sorts of people from united state to israel, to iran. never had this issue ive always gotten paid, byt them, just this was out of the ordinary.
Ive already informed my bank about the check, they have put a note on the deposit.

But IM safe for now.

Got this E-mail from Craigslist!

Hello,
Sorry for the late response.I have some Hp PCs(Intel Pentium M) . since we currently have a major breakdown on most of our systems and I thought it was best to have a general upgrade and maintenance.(I will be providing the software needed).Below are the things needed to be done one on each laptops:

1 Format Hard Drive
2 Install Win Xp with Service Pack 2
3 Microsoft Office Package
4 AVG Virus Software (Free Lifetime Updates)
5 Adobe Acrobat
6 Laptop Cleaning of the keyboard, screen and other case.
7 Diagnostics of the entire system after to check hard,
cdsrom,floppy, etc.
Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 7 Laptops. I will pay you with a certified check/Cashier Check .I'll like us to handle this in good faith together.I await your urgent response so that i can make Moving arrangements and payment as soon as possible....Thanks

Best Regards!!!!

So I asked if he would send me his number so we can talk about it, since most scammers don't talk.
Here's what he said:

Thanks for writing back and am so sorry for been late before i get back to you. since the use of PCs , it has made life easier for me as i am hearing impaired and this is how i communicate. sometimes when i try to tell people somethings , it is a little difficult where i am hearing impaired...if you have any concerns please do not hesitate to get intouch with me on here....

I believe this is just an excuse, you tell me.

Just an update to this topic. Here is the new information they are using:

New name: william mayor
New Email: [email protected]

First email:

Hello, i want to know if you still repair computer because i have issues which i need you to resolve.

Second email:

Thanks for reply I've got some Pentium-D dell laptops that needs to be fix. Below are the things needed to be done one on each laptops.

1. Format Hard Drive
2. Install Win XP with Service Pack 3
3. Microsoft Office Package
4. AVG Virus Software (Free Lifetime Updates) 5. Adobe Acrobat 6. Diagnostics of the entire system ( i. e. check hard, cdrom, floppy, etc.)

The Laptops are ten 10 in number and will be shipped over to you from there I have a reliable shipper whose service I' ll employ to bring down the laptops. The shipper will bring down as well as pickup the laptops when you are done with fixing them.

Also the windows CD' s are licensed and i have all the other software's mentioned available. So the question is can you really carry out this task from your place presently? Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 10 units. Please note that i have all the software with the licenses available with me for the job.

Regards.

I replied that I could get the ball moving if they provided serial numbers from DELL so we could verify the machines. I don't expect to receive anymore email from them.

Great forum guys I really appreciate what you are doing here for everyone.

Thanks!!

Just got this email this morning.

I have 7 Dell Inspiron(4GigRAM WIN7 OS 64Bit) switch laptops. Below is a list of work needed to be done on each PC.

1 Format Hard Drive
2 Install Win 7
3 Install Microsoft Office Package
4 AVG Virus Software
5 Adobe Acrobat Reader

I have OS software for each Machine

Get back to me with your total cost for the service

I await your response.

Best regards,

David


email is: [email protected] My response was: go try somewhere else.

And just out of curiosity I rana Trace route on this person. Here is the output:

Tracing route to bda-178-239-83-98.bis7.eu.blackberry.com [178.239.83.98]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 39 ms 19 ms 29 ms 76.26.244.1
3 10 ms 8 ms 11 ms te-1-2-ur01.mtplymouth.fl.lakecnty.comcast.net [
69.139.188.41]
4 10 ms 26 ms 11 ms te-1-1-ur01.fruitlandpr.fl.lakecnty.comcast.net
[68.85.210.42]
5 11 ms 11 ms 12 ms te-4-4-ar01.sumter.fl.lakecnty.comcast.net [68.8
5.210.50]
6 30 ms 23 ms 23 ms te-0-3-0-6-ar03.bonitasprngs.fl.naples.comcast.n
et [68.85.238.93]
7 26 ms 26 ms 23 ms te-0-1-0-1-cr01.miami.fl.ibone.comcast.net [68.8
6.92.17]
8 25 ms 22 ms 23 ms pos-0-4-0-0-pe01.nota.fl.ibone.comcast.net [68.8
6.88.98]
9 21 ms 23 ms 24 ms ix-0-1-2-0.tcore1.MLN-Miami.as6453.net [66.110.9
.101]
10 140 ms 130 ms 136 ms 80.231.158.42
11 148 ms 129 ms 131 ms 80.231.158.10
12 128 ms 129 ms 129 ms if-2-2.tcore2.SV8-Highbridge.as6453.net [80.231.
139.1]
13 130 ms 130 ms 129 ms if-11-2.tcore1.L78-London.as6453.net [80.231.139
.42]
14 132 ms 131 ms 157 ms if-5-2.tcore1.PYE-Paris.as6453.net [80.231.130.2
]
15 133 ms 131 ms 131 ms 195.219.247.146
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 141 ms 141 ms 141 ms bda-178-239-83-98.bis7.eu.blackberry.com [178.23
9.83.98]
18 141 ms 141 ms 145 ms bda-178-239-83-98.bis7.eu.blackberry.com [178.23
9.83.98]

Please notice he is using a blackberry somewhere in the EU. And you can s
ee it is bouncing around in London, Paris etc. So definately not in the US.

Actually this is the 3rd time I have received a similar email. Usually different laptop types and of course difeerent names.

Be aware was posted on craigslist Daytona beach

Hi, I got the check in the mail yesterday. Actually I got two checks, in two seperate fedex express packages. One looks more official then the other, but both are drawn on the same account number. Two different check numbers however.

Obviously after reading this I am not going to deposit them, but should I turn them over to my local bank, so they can red flag the account owners account incase it has not been flagged yet?

Or should I just shread them?

hydrive

I recommend that you take the checks (and the packaging) to your own Bank and ask to speak to a Fraud Manager; explain the circumstances in which you received them. - stress that you believe them to be counterfeit. They will advise you further..

I Also got an email just today (one of many i deleted rest)
went like this

Hello,

I saw your advert on the internet and i am interested in repairing
my computers i will like to know how much it will cost you to fix my
laptop computers i have about 8 Acer Aspire. laptops. Below are the
things needed to be done one on each laptops.

1 Format Hard Drive
2 Install Windows 7 64 bit
3 Eset NOD 32 antivirus (Free Lifetime Updates)
4 MS Office 2007 (or MS Office 2010)
5 Memory upgrade from one gigabyte to two gigabytes
6 Diagnostics of the entire system after to check hard, cds Rom, floppy, etc.

Please NOTE I have all the license Software Get back to me with your
total cost for the services of 8 Laptops.

Thank You,

Zhang Fung.....

but what is the scam i know there is one somewhere though
but where?
i did not fall for it but almost did first time.
can anyone help?

He will want to pay you in advance.
He will send you a check for the repair costs plus a significant amount extra for "shipping" costs. You would be instructed to cash the check, and forward the extra money to the (fake) shipping agent by Western Union or Moneygram.

The check will be fraudulent--but it will seem legitimate at first. After a few days, as required by law, the bank will issue the cash if they haven't proven the check is bad. But days, weeks, or even months later, the bank WILL discover the fraud, and they will come back after you for the entire amount of the check (as the account owner, you are responsible,) plus fees for the bad deposit. If taking the money out of your account causes you to be overdrawn, you will also be subject to fees for bounced checks--and, to top it off, they can contact the police and have you arrested for fraud.

In the meantime, the scammer or a mule has picked up the cash and walked away. He will be nowhere to be found, and you will be the one paying the price for the fraud.

Just wanted to let everyone know that these guys are now using phone text messages to run this scam also. I have an ad on CraigsList for computer repair that includes my phone number. Last night, I received a text message asking for help repairing 7 laptops---same verbiage as listed here in other posts. I recognized the scam, but thought I would mess with this "Gina" person a bit. The number the message came from was 562-450-0418, and when I did a reverse look-up on it, it came back as a VoIP listing out of California. We went back and forth a few messages until Gina finally asked me for my contact info. This is what I sent her:

Here's my contact info:
Semore Hiney
7734 Dullard Rd. NW
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
APO AP 96599-1035
Hopefully your shipper gets down this way.


I never heard back from Gina again. LOL

Welcome to ScamWarners jinxofthesphynx. I understand what you are doing by sending this to the scammer. Hopefully that is not a real APO, because we strongly discourage involving innocent third parties in scams. Imagine the problem on the base shipping/receiving center trying to find the intended recipient.

The best thing to do is to just stop all communications with a scammer once you determine you are dealing with a scammer. If you just disappear, they have no idea what happened.

Thank you for being a Member here.

EDIT: DISREGARD the below ip address.. 10.112.89.98 is the ip address. look it up. in the middle of the sea of the coast of libia Egypt ect. when you look it up, zoom out. you will see


Hi,

Just recived eail today, and now im a smart guy, and I haven't gotten the email yet asking to send money back (red flag if I hadn't found this first THANK YOU!!!!!)

he is using the email address of [email protected].... traces back to califorinia as well as the phone number.. traced the email headers and ip as follows
***DELETED SEE ABOVE************

[On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 6:54 AM, George Cond
> <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> I've got some HP-DV6000 laptops that needs to be fix. Below are the
>> things
>> needed to be done on each laptops.
>>
>> 1. Format Hard Drive
>> 2. Install Win XP with Service Pack 3
>> 3. Microsoft Office Package
>> 4. AVG Virus Software (Free Lifetime Updates)
>> 5. Adobe flash player and Acrobat Reader 10.
>>
>> The Laptops are in Baltimore and will be shipped over to you from there.I
>> have a reliable shipper whose service I'll employ to bring down the
>> laptops, as well as pickup the laptops when you are done with fixing
>> them.
>> Also the windows CD's are licensed and i have all the other software
>> mentioned available. So the question is can you really carry out this
>> task
>> from your place presently?
>>
>> Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 6 units. Please
>> note that i have all the software with the licenses available with me for
>> the job.
>>
>> Regards.


>> --
>>
>> George. C.
>> Information Technologies LL c.


On 7/25/13, <Removed> HI,
>
> thank you for your email. For 6 laptops i estimate for each one 3 hours,
> but i can do them simultaneously. So, adding in the possibility of snags, i
> believe i can fully complete this task within 2 days. I usually do flat
> rate of 50 per pc, so is $300 fair for the entirety of the work?
>
> <Removed>
>
>
>
>
>>
George Cond
8:34 PM (1 hour ago)

to me
Hi am sorry for my late response to your message. Alright $300 is fair enough.

You see I got the contract for this project and am sub contracting you
to handle this for me because I also have other projects which am
handling and i need to hire the service of reliable people like you to
do.
I'll get a reliable shipper whose service I'll employ to bring down
the Laptops to you, and to get them back once you're done working on
them. Also I must say it is important i settle the payment once and
for all with you first. I hope this is good enough for you. Do send
me your full name and address so as to prepare the payment and
shipping of the laptops to your address. I will instruct the project
supervisor to prepare a check for you on your name and address.
I will get back to you on any other development.

Regards.
George.

Removed name of poster - CW