Gallen Foster

I saw on this forum that Gallen Foster was mentioned. What does anyone know of this person? He emailed us with an offer to buy our bedroom set from one of the classifieds I posted. When googling him, I found him on here. I'd like to know what he's about. He gave the email address as [email protected]. Has anyone else had involvement with him and if so, what happened? Thanks!

Yes, he's a known scammer pulling check scams on people who advertise on Craig's list and elsewhere. This post will give you more details about how his scam works.

Hello Samantha: Thanks for info. I thought it was pretty weird that he wanted to buy the item ASAP when it's huge Victorian bedroom set for $10,000. I emailed Kim@GOIN Classifieds and told them about him. I also pulled a turnaround on him. I replied to him that it had been brought to our attention that he is an internet auction scammer and that our rcomputer is monitored by a federal law enforcement agency, but if he's not then our apologies. I made use of the word "our" as well. Basically, he has no idea that we might be federally connected and hopefully he'll get spooked and we won't hear from him again. I also told him that his check had to clear completely before I'd ship anything. I asked him where he was located so he might want to pick up this item and which bank will he using. I called our bank first to ask about bank certified checks and the lady told me that to be careful that people have been known to steal them. I'm very glad we found your site. The only email he has of ours is the one we use for junk. We have an email for personal, family, friends, etc. Does anyone have any info on this guy?

Results of re-investigation into scammer Gallen Foster.

Delete and do not reply or send any information to this scammer.

His job offer is fake and will only involve cashing fake and counterfeit cheques.

Mail addresses used [email protected] [email protected]

http://www.flixster.com/user/gallenfoster

gallenfoster

Name Gallen Foster
Gender Male
I'm From Portland,Oregon

Message/mail;

Hello, I am Gallen Foster. PRO of T.G.T.C ( Trans Global Trading Company) i.e: importing and exporting of timber, rubber and other major raw materials world wide in conjunction with recruit Express, seeks to recruit payment personnels in the oceania region, particularly in USA. We are looking for a representative in the United States. Who will be working for us as a PAYMENT PERSONNEL from home. This Job is a part- time Job and has been designed in such a way that it does not affect your regular daily work. If you are interested please i'm online you can chat with me or email me at ([email protected]) for more information.

I got an email today from "Mrs. Foster". Completely ignoring the email I sent telling them I know their scammers and that our computer is monitored by federal law enforcement. The language of the email was weird too. Exactly what I've been seeing on here. I'm glad I decided to look him up and when I couldn't find him, I googled him, which led me here. We have not given him any info. He is using the gmail address this time. Since he's so stupid as to keep this up even after people are onto him, maybe he ought to find another line of work. I'm not replying to this email he just sent and I'm going to delete everything I have. I also sent a copy of it to GOIN Classifieds, which is where my item was posted, to let them now about him as well. Glad you guys are here!!

He's on a script, and he isn't actually reading your replies. Some scammers do read your responses, but many of them don't--they just move on and send the next in the pre-written series when you send any reply to them--they could get a vacation autoresponder and they would keep going

Is a "vacation autoresponder" for real? Is there nothing that these people will not stoop to? I knew something was up from the first email as I cannot stand bad grammar and the sentences didn't make sense. Is Gallen Foster even his real name? Is he even in the US? I know that most of the people doing internet scamming are not actually in the US and as they change IP addresses so often and move around so much nobody can catch them. I know more about viruses, trojan horses, etc. and how they work. This is our first encounter with a scammer like this. We're naturally suspicious people anyway, and I was basically just looking to see if I could find out where he was so he could pick up our item rather than shipping it (it's a 5 piece Victorian bedroom set with marble). When I didn't find him on Zabasearch, I Googled him, which led me here and boy, are we glad! I don't think anyone has money to throw away and this is the lowest form of predator next to pedophiles. Mostly, I've seen people prey on the elderly because they're vulnerable and lonely. Then before you know it, somebody has wiped out their life savings of which they didn't have much of in the first place. Do you know how many people Gallen Foster has scammed? How long has he been doing this? Does he use other names? I want to hammer this guy for all this crap he's putting people through. It says Portland, OR on the profile I saw. I expect that's fake.

I forgot to mention something> he said in his last email that he wanted our address so he could send an American Bank check and that it would also have the shipping fees included and for us to send the shipper the amount. He also said something weird as well, that the shipper would come to our "appointment" and we could pay him then. Like I'm going to let some stranger come to our house like that. After reading all the scam language I knew it was a scam. Not to mention they can't put words together in a proper sentence.

Hi Mandevilla,

Kudos to you for recognizing all the red flags.

This is a classic Craigs List/overpayment scam. He would send you a check that is fraudulent, but won't bounce for up to several weeks, so your bank will cash it and you'll be under the mistaken impression that it's good. He then would ask you to send the amount over and above the cost of the item via Western Union to his "shipper". There is no "shipper" - the money would go to him. No shipper would show up at your home to pick anything up. He doesn't want your item - he doesn't even care what it is. He just wants the money you would wire to him.

The awkward language that you noticed is one of the first red flags from scammers. He is likely NOT in the US - he's likely in some West African country. Gallen Foster is certainly not his real name. And he might not even be the only scammer using it. They often use odd combinations of names that just seem "off" - using last names for first names, as in Mr. Smith Peter, stuff like that.

Anyway, good catch. And remember, the key to avoiding scams on Craigs List is to only sell local, never ship anything, and only deal in cash.

Thanks! The next funny thing was the use of "Mrs. Gallen". Like you don't know your own name? Needless to say, we haven't heard from him again. Then we got an email from somebody responding to our ad on Cragslist wanting to know if we had "money problems" and wanting to help us "save" our marriage. I think these people need to get a life-oh wait- I forgot this IS their life. Pretty pathetic. I just turned them into Craigslist.