Scam Alert

[Jester]

Maybe I was the last to have heard of this, but there is a Nigerian type scam which tries to take advantage to small repair shops.

You will be contacted by someone looking to refurbish 10 laptops. He will say something about being a consultant who is out of the country and cannot do this himself for his client.

A few emails will go back and forth. Then, they will insist on paying ahead of time. They will then mail you Moneygrams totaling more than the agreed upon price and ask you to keep what you agreed upon and send a check for the rest to someone else.

That is as far as I got. He got belligerent. I sent him an LOL. I never heard from him again.

Here are some highlights from "Professor Conway:"

I will arrange how the laptops will be drop off at your place and after they have been fixed, pickup will be scheduled to convey the laptops back to the client. Are you interested to handle the project as I intend to subcontract them for you to enable me attend the Vodacom Workshop seminar in UK. What is your agreed charges for 10 units as I need your confirmation because I already stated what needs to be done in my previous email as I will provide all the software and licenses.

Kindly deduct your money and send the remaining balance via western union with the information below to the shipping company head office account manager in person of Mrs Cecilia Boyette in North Carolina.

Me: It just seems to be a strange way to do business. What is your address and I will send the money orders back to you.

You see Thomas please don't cause problems for me, I am in UK and there is no way I can have the payment sent to me here since I am not the one handling the project that was why I engage your service.

There is nothing new or strange especially when 2 professionals are involved and I won't like you return the payment at this stage, let me know what the problem is

Me: The problem is that you are a scammer. I have alerted the authorities.

I like this part:

Be ready to talk to my lawyer soon ok ? Don't try take advantage of the situation

I am still waiting for his lawyer to call.

www.rescuemygadget.com

[Andrey R]

Great topic Jester! Of course their check will bounce and they walk away with the difference (for those not familiar).


If you advertise on Craigslist, you'll get these type of scams a lot. Here's a few that I've received.

They:

[rollypete03@gmail.com]

Good Morning ,
How was the night there? Guess cool..Please, i need to know if you
could work for us at John Holts associate here in New Jersey.Can you
do some repair work for us on some laptops we sent to our customer but
few are send back to us cause they are faulty so i need to know if you
can do the repair for us..Please get back as soon as you can..i look
forward in reading from you soonest..

Regards,

Rolly Peterson.



Me:

Hi Rollish,

We're located only in Washington State... Sorry!


Thank you,

Andrey Rozmaity



They:

Good to read back from you, i want you to understand that Distance does not matters but just let me know if you will work for us so we can proceed in the transaction together..have a great weekend there and i wait to read back from you ../

Regards,


Rolly Peterson.

Here's another one...

[petermart123@yahoo.com]

Hello,
How you doing?
My name is peter,I live in Salem and right now i work Brookfield,MA. I read your description and am interested in your services,I just brought some computers from Brookfield,MA and they are are laptops pentium 8 dell computer ..i want you to Install software such as Microsoft Office and Antivirus, clean inner &outercomputer components, update software to current status,Get back to me with you total cost for the services of eight computer excluding the shipping cost cus i have a shipper that will come with the computers and the necessary Softwares to you.I await your urgent response so that i can put the arrangement in order.
Thanks
peter

NOTE: Reply back to petermart123@yahoo.com

And the very first one that I received and excited me... (before I did some Googling)

They:

[terrysmith97@gmail.com]

hello are you capable of re pairing computer volume?



Me:

Hello Terry,

By volume you mean that something is broken with your computer audio?
If the problem isn’t physical damage on the “sound card” (which can be replaced if there is), then yes.
In most cases the problem is related to software and not hardware.


Thank you,

- Andrey



They:

I got Pentium IV dell laptops . 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, cdrom, floppy, etc. Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 7 units. I will pay you with a certified check .
I await your urgent response so that i can make Moving arrangements and payment as soon as possible



Me:

Hello Terry,


I have a few questions for you:

Do you want the service to be done on-site or for us to pickup and then deliver once completed?
Are all 7 laptops exactly the same model?
What city are you located in?
What is the deadline for the 7 laptops?
Are you providing the Microsoft Office, XP, & driver discs?



Thank you,

- Andrey

"Terry" probably emailed me some more, but this is all I found.


As in everything, if it's too good to be true... it's NOT true!

[Paul L]

Thats funny, I received the same email scam.

[templater1]

How exciting!

[WilliamsWebSolutions]

Here are a couple of tips to tell if it is a scam.
- Bad grammar or misspellings.
- Too good to be true. I have gotten these e-mails from all over the world (even in the US). Best way to test, is to ask very specific questions and price bid very specific. You won't get any replies because you picked up on them wishing for you to carry the burden of the shipping, work, parts, etc. Most clients I precharge for any parts (with a markup). That way at least my parts are covered.

[Andrey R]

The phishing scams are really good. Besides the url and a few typos/grammar errors, many of those sites look identical. I've been receiving a lot of PayPal phishing emails. :/