Stolen Credit Card Fraud - My Story

I'm here telling my story, feel free to comment, especially if you have any information. My name is xxxxx and I own and manage a computer repair business in Utah. This criminal goes after computer repair businesses and I don't want other people to fall into the same trap this criminal sets, so hopefully a lot of people will see this. I have done a lot of extensive research and have made tremendous progress! I've really pissed off this criminal once he found I posted all this information online.

Suspicious customer calls in and requests to order 5 computers, he asked for my email so that he could send me the specs. After reading his email with the specs, I got this gut feeling that this would be fraud, but I wanted to play along. In his next email he asked if I could ship the laptops to an address in Bronx, New York; he claimed that he has some clients of his consulting business there. He requested I send him an invoice for him to look over. He looked it over, called back, and gave me a credit card # to place the order. I told him he would expect to receive them in 7-10 days. After getting off the phone with him, I called Visa, and asked them if they could verify that the order request is legit, they told me I needed to call Capital One. Called Capital One, got to their fraud department, explained everything, and asked if they could confirm with the card holder if this was a valid order request. They called back and said no it's fraud and they closed the card and issued the card holder a new credit card #.

At this point, I called this guy back and lied to him, told him that the card declined. So he gave me a different card. Again, I called the card issuer and had them check if this was a valid order request. They contacted their card holder, and it was, again, confirmed fraudulent. The card holder was extremely grateful that I had called Capital One to verify this suspicious order. Pretty much a slam dunk for law enforcement.

So far I have discovered 10 other computer repair businesses, and 1 misc. company, that have been contacted by this very same criminal. This includes one in New Jersey who is out $4,451.71 after he fell for the scam (and days later the card holder reported fraud), a sign company in New Jersey who is out $5,789.71, a computer business owner in South Dakota who is out roughly $1,500, and a computer business in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, they're out $3,848.36. Totaling loss of over $15,589.78; and over 16 stolen credit card numbers.

I'm currently working with a detective and an agent from my local branch of the FBI to capture this ring of criminals. This is organized crime. As of 11/13/2013, he has changed his number again. If anyone has any information, emails, etc from this person, please contact me. He has seen THIS information posted on another forum, so any information is very much needed.



The three drop points I know of, that the guy has been asking these laptops be shipped to are:

618 Mead St, Apt #1, Bronx, NY 10460

1475 Sheridan Ave, Apt 4C, Bronx, NY 10457

215 E 164th St, Apt 4J, Bronx, NY 10456

210 Miller Ave, Englewood, NJ 07631

This guy has used the following alias names to conduct transactions:
Mike Barr (MikBarr Inc) / Michael Barr / Michael Baarr — Appears that he doesn't know how to spell his own fake name.
Larry Moore (and sometimes includes the fake company name Larrmore Inc)
Jack Drew
Penny G.

Phone numbers used:
He is now using a new number, with likely new name. Please contact me if you have information.
973-551-77** - Used from approx. Oct. 28 2013 to Nov. 13 2013.
239-400-1383 - Recycled MagicJack number. Seems to be outgoing only.
947-517-86** - Used from approx. January 2013 (possibly even before) through Oct. 25 2013.

Emails Used
e-mail:mikbarr@m***.com
e-mail:larrmore@m***.com
e-mail:jdrwinc@m***.com
e-mail:jackdrewinc@m***.com

Email Patterns
"We would like to make a purchase order for new or refurbished notebook computers equipment and supplies, for a very good client of our Consultancy Agency. Let me know the price quote for the following specs of products in demand:"

"Let me know your price quote excluding freight charges and do alert me about the brand and your payment method? Keep me posted asap."

"Thanks for the reply and we will like to place an order for 5 units of the Notebook Computer (Lenovo with a 12.5” screen, i7-2640m, 8gb ddr3, 320gb hdd),what will be the total order amount plus shipping to Bronx, NY 10460. What type of credit cards do you accept for further order procedure."

"Thanks for the reply and I will be looking forward to your price quote."

http://pastebin.com/tdJM8Vd1
http://pastebin.com/UtLkxyru
http://pastebin.com/GPAScYYQ
http://pastebin.com/nstaJwUn



Other information
He may agree to "scan" and email a copy of his passport, which is very poorly Photoshopped.
Passport Number: 565432897
He may tell you he has a charity organization abroad with the address of: Mr Kwame Dade, 22 Oxford Street, Accra Ghana, West Africa.

Follow the discussion on Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/112617999853513039739/posts/3YY7ZJko7LE


Poster's name removed -Jillian

Welcome overmind,

I am glad that your instincts led you to recognize this scam. Unfortunately, it is a very common one, and new victims lose money to it every day. There are a few variants to the scam (in some cases the scammer will overnight a fraudulent check or money order; in others it will be fake paypal emails; and in a 3rd variation the scammer will go for cash instead, by paying more than your invoice and instructing you to send the excess to a "shipper") but in the end they all end up with the business losing money and/or merchandise. There are also several scammers running this scam, and they frequently copy each other's scripts, so sometimes it is difficult to know if you are dealing with the same scammer or a new one.

The writing tells me that the person behind the emails you quoted is from Western Africa. If Ghana was mentioned, that is probably the scammer's true location. The US addresses would belong to mules--people who receive the items and then forward them to the scammer. (The scammer can't have you send the items to him directly as you and/or the credit card company would see the overseas address and smell a rat. The mules may be accomplices in the crime, or they may be victims who think that they have a legitimate job as a reshipper.

Unfortunately, the scammer behind this is far out of reach of local law enforcement, and investigation will be limited, unless in a basic level investigation the authorities are able to connect a much larger amount of money to a single scammer/group. It's nobody's fault, just that international investigations are extremely costly, so the amount lost is a major consideration when deciding whether to pursue an international investigation. The mules, however, are obviously located in the US, and authorities will have the ability to do more about the mules.

While I understand not wanting to give the scammer too much information, in this case I would recomment actually including the whole email addresses so that other potential victims find them in a google search.

You also might want to check out our sister site, 419eater.com, where we bait scammers, posing as victims in order to get more information and make their lives a bit (sometimes a lot) more difficult.