Scam Scam?

[olebean]

I mentioned in a previous thread, I had an offer for a domain held at uk2. after negociations, the domain sold for a £2500-00. Prior to payment arriving, I get a phone call from Nigeria! Nobody spoke, the line went dead.

Payment arrived for £7500-00, no contact yet from the buyer, not even contact details.


Before I tell you what Ive done, what would you guys do!

 

[FC Domains]

How did the payment arrive?

 

[aqls]

If it is a cheque, even though it clears, it may still be found to be fraudulent and you lose all your money.

Same probably goes for any other sorts of payment with e.g. banks or credit cards as intermediaries.

Play it straight down the line I would.

[edit: don't repay the balance yet - see bb99 post below] and don't transfer until you are 360% sure you own the money.

Don't reveal your bank details if you can possibly help it - if they know the values and dates of recent transactions they are pretty close to getting in. Most of the rest of the info they probably already know about you or will find it out.

Remember you're not paranoid if they really are after you!!

-aqls-

 

[bb99]

I mentioned in a previous thread, I had an offer for a domain held at uk2. after negociations, the domain sold for a £2500-00. Prior to payment arriving, I get a phone call from Nigeria! Nobody spoke, the line went dead.

Payment arrived for £7500-00, no contact yet from the buyer, not even contact details.


Before I tell you what Ive done, what would you guys do!

This is a classic scam - it's been done on everything from electrical goods to music memorabilia.

You agree a price of £2,500 and they send you a cheque for considerably more - along with some interesting excuse as to why. You are then asked to send the goods (or in this case release the name) and to send them back the difference (in this case £5,000).

Let me guess they paid by some form of cheque? Cheques can be returned long into the future if they're found to be forged/fraudulent. So while the £7,500 may initially clear, the funds will eventually be taken back by the bank - leaving the victim with no goods (or domain name) and £5,000 down.

However yours may be genuine....

 

[olebean]

The 7500-00 was a cheque

I took it to my bank and alerted the, (putting decision on them), it passsed all their checks... The suggested I take to to the issuing bank, I did, they to agreed it did not look fraudulent, they rang the issuer but didnt conduct any security checks on him doh! they eventually telephone teir fraud team who suggested on face value it would be difficult to tell if it was fraud and the requested that i get my bank send the chque via "inter bank suspect cheque fraud". I overheard a convo that suggested there was not enough funds in the account for the payment to clear anyway.

I took the chque bank to my bank, they refused it (they didnt know what inter bank etc was) and told me to go to the Police.

I went to the Police, they said no crime they were aware of had been comitted, however, please turn up Saturday and speak to interpol!

In th meantime do I insult a potential client and say the cheques possibly fraudulent?

 

[aqls]

f**k the client

don't deal.

-aqls-

 

[accelerator]

As bb99 rightly points out, this is a classic scam. Once the bank has worked out that the payment was fradulent, you are going to have that money taken back out of your account by them.

The whole reason the scam works is that the foreign clearing systems involved can take a very long time to validate payments of this size (such payments are extremely small fry as far as the banks are concerned).

I am thinking you might be able to capitalise on this situation by temporarily moving the money to a high interest account, but I am not sure about this. Either way, be prepared to have the money taken back.

Rgds

Accelerator

 

[bb99]

In th meantime do I insult a potential client and say the cheques possibly fraudulent?

Tell them that the bank has queried the cheque and are checking it out - there will be a delay but you'll get back to them as soon as it's sorted.

Alternatively tell them to wire the money direct into your bank account - if they're genuine they will do. If they're not then they may use your bank details for something else.

It's a tricky one.

 

[FC Domains]

You contact the buyer, if you can and say that your bank will not accept the cheque. Say that it will take several weeks to get it cleared. Anyway it's for the wrong amount, do they want it returned of destroyed.
Be polite (you never know), but make it clear you're no fool.

My guess is that you won't hear from them again.

Realistically was the domain worth anything like that much?

I'm sure that some of the domains that you see in the 'sold' list, that went for silly prices, are involved in scams like this.

 

[accelerator]

In the meantime do I insult a potential client and say the cheques possibly fraudulent?

I would be careful here because you are likely to be dealing with a criminal gang. My advice to you is that when you are making a sale in future, ask for a lot more information from your buyer, like a physical address, contact phone number, preferably a "proper" e-mail address, i.e. one under their own domain name so you can check the WHOIS, not a webmail account.

If I was in your situation I would probably be sitting tight. You are likely to start getting some threatening e-mail from the buyer asking for their refund. My thoughts would be to tell them that the bank is currently querying the payment and you will get back to them as soon as you can. (Please seek other professional advice though if in doubt.)

Rgds

Accelerator

 

[charlie]

I've seen this on TV or something - they do the same with ebay i think, they over pay - tell you to cash the cheque and then you have to pay them back but something about getting your bank details at this point

In the States, the latest scam is to ask you to send the item immediately upon receipt of payment from paypal and they will let you use their account to FEDEX the item to them in Africa. The money gets rescinded by PayPal and you will owe FEDEX the shipping as the accounts and PayPal were opened with a fraudulent credit card. Oh, and you are out the item and you still owe your fees.

Don't forget, they will also pay you too much money and will either 1)ask you to put the extra cash in the package as a surprise gift, or 2) tell you to keep the extra money for shipping so quickly. It doesn't make a difference... It's all leprachaun gold... disappears before the end of the day... unless you wise up and stop believing all this BS that sounds too good...

similar anyways - could be a misspell 2 and 7 are close

 

[meinthecorner]

Ask them to send the cash via something like western union. Once you have the ticket get the real cash in notes and complete the transaction.

 

[aqls]

no. don't go there.

don't deal.

-aqls-

 

[rob]

western union

Anyone else read those two words and think

 

[meinthecorner]

Anyone else read those two words and think

Made me smile typing it! Normaly you see Western Union in any online transaction you think STOP. However in this instance you would be putting the ball back in the buyers court.

 

[retired_member11]

Give it a couple of days and then tell them that you have lost the cheque. Ask them to put a stop on it and then to send another cheque for the correct amount, 2,500. See how they react. Then you will have a clearer idea of what they're about.

 

[olebean]

I am going to see interpol in Saturday (if only to cover my own back)

In the meantime I have already emailed the client asking why the cheque is for a larger sum and explaining at this point without their authorisation I feel it is unreasonable to take the cheque to the bank.

I have also pointed out (3rd time) that they have not provided any contact details as such I am unable to complete the paperwork to transfer the domain into their name.

I understand from my bank that they had one cheque returned six weeks after they thought it had cleared, has anyone any clueas to the outer limit on returning cheques once cleared.

 

[Admin]

Anything that uses a cheque these days would worry me, I haven't written a cheque for years. The only time I've seen them used anymore is the person in front of me in the "10 items or less" queue in Tescos grrrr

This one sounds dodgy, but as a matter of point, if someone offered me a cheque I would rather pay the direct bank transfer fees on their behalf than risk accepting one.

 

[olebean]

Admin

I understand what you say.

Equally if this is a scam, at least its being flushed out.

 

[aiofe]

Its a scam!

It is a classic Nigerian/African scam.
Part of what is known as '419 Fraud'

Heres the jist of it: http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

And in particular, the overpayment scam: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/overpayment-scam.html

Use escrow, and not escrow of their choosing.

Good Luck!

~aiofe~