Craigslist scams

Within an hour of posting a personal mobile smartphone for sale on craigslist a T-Mobile SDA we got a request from a potential non-local buyer wanting to buy the phone.  The first email we received asked for payment method we accepted and some general questions just to make the email sound realistic. 

Since the item was advertised on a local craigslist we did not expect any long distance requests so I was suspicious, but never the less replied that we will accept all basic payment methods including credit cards, etc. 

On Sunday we received a reply asking if we still have the item and would accept a Cashier's Check from his bank?  He said he wanted to pay this way so that I would ship it the next day to him FedEx and I did not have to wait for it to clear.  Our reply was that we hold all checks 10-days due to fraud and fake checks.  Needless to say we have not heard back from this buyer.

Scam two with Craigslist, as we are liquidating our inventory and downsizing and moving our store from Second Street to Two Rivers mall, we are selling a ton of item, including a full liquidation from our old store the Relook Nook, so we have larger items including racks and fixtures for sale.  One of the items is a large 3-sided mirror for a retail clothing store, we listed it under furniture.

The next day we receive an email from the buyer

Am Jackson Lapachia, How are you doing today?i saw your advert on the craigslist .I have  interest in buying  any funitures avaliable.  please list out the available  funitures and price,   i just got an apartment and i have to funished it to my tastes that is  why i have to  mail you, i work  in a fabrics company. I will be making a full payment  my exboss is owning me. can you please hold the funitures  for me till i come over .

I am single aged 28 .i am an easy going person, regard  the payment my ex.boss will be issuing  you a  cheque  for the payment is owning me  ($4000 plus ).pls when you get it,you will have to deduct your payment, And you will have to send the balance to my travel agent here in state ... For him to get my  my return ticket prepare for my coming over for the picked up of the funitures . For the payment to be send  i will be needing your Full name, address state,city.zipcode,phone no. so that the check will be issue on you thanks

Please note I did not change any of the spelling to make it seem worse, this is what we got.  Notice he does not say where it is, what he wants, nothing specific about the item for sale, nor does our ad really have furniture, just a mirror and clothing racks.  The item is only $150 but yet he is willing to send us a check for $4k and expect us to send the balance back.  I guess the next answer would be that the balance needs to be wired back to his agent.  The funniest part yet is that my original email back to him includes my signature that has the KGAL logo and talks about the Scambusters Radio show. 

Our concern is how may thousand of these generic emails go out, and worse yet how many reply.  What a quick, fast and amazing way for people to earn a living overseas.

Listener emailed us at noscams@kgal.com with a quandary.  They are selling a vehicle online and received an offer from an overseas buyer to purchase their vehicle.  The buyer wants to send a check for the car, but wanted to send extra so that the seller can cash the check and wire the balance to the company who will be shipping the car to the buyer overseas.

Classic overpayment scam, with the check turning out to be a fake 7-10 days done the road.  The seller would lose the wired difference and have to repay it back to the bank.  The amount would most likely be around $2500 or $3000, but that is a large chuck of change for any of us to lose. 

Based on the emails and documentation we were shown by the listener there were other clues, but the scam is a common one and luckily a prevented one.

13 People Indicted in $3M Credit Card Fraud.

What happens when waiters in 40 restaurants over 5 states steal your credit card information?  Answer is 3-Million Dollars in fraud and ID theft.  The ringleaders of this fraud paid waiters and waitresses $35 to $50 for complete credit card information from their guests.  Suspects then created high-quality counterfeit credit cards

The credit card account information was stolen from customers who visited restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown and other parts of the New York metropolitan area, as well eateries in Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Some members of the group stole customers' information; some made the counterfeit cards; others shopped for merchandise; and finally someone bought the goods for cash, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

Morgenthau said 12 of the 13 people indicted are in custody and are expected to be arraigned Monday. All the defendants are being charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, punishable by up to four years in prison. Seven are also being charged with second-degree grand larceny, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years.

The district attorney said conspiracy leaders recruited and managed people who worked as waiters and provided them with small, hand-held "skimmers" that read and recorded information on the magnetic strips of patrons' credit cards.  This fraud has been ongoing since 2005.

198 Million In Fraud Reported in 2006

Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 44.9 percent of referred complaints. The "average" complainant was a man between 30 and 40 living in California, Texas, Florida, or New York. Of those individuals who reported a dollar loss, the highest median losses were found among Nìgerïan letter fraud ($5,100), check fraud ($3,744), and other investment fraud ($2,694).

Nearly 74 percent of the complaints said they were contacted through e-mail, and 36 percent complained of fraud through Web sites, highlighting the anonymous nature of the Web.

Three-quarters of the perpetrators were men. Nearly 61 percent lived in the U.S., with half in one of seven states. Other top countries included the U.K., Nigeria, Canada, Romania, and Italy. It is increasingly an international epidemic; one account of a recent arrest of eight Nigerians in Ghana also shares emails from those duped. In Bulgaria, with the help of the US Secret Service, a ring was uncovered which scammed over $100,000 from US citizens over the internet and was also engaged in money laundering.

Police probe report of N.L. internet fraud scam

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is investigating a report that an internet fraud and identity theft scam was being run out of Newfoundland and Labrador.

As part of the probe, Economic Crime Unit and West District Patrol officers searched a residence in Conception Bay South on April 2. Computers and related equipment were seized, police said, but no charges have been laid.

The investigation began in January, after police in Toledo, Wash., contacted the RNC about local teacher Jay Reimer, who said he had $1,700 siphoned from his credit card after responding to an e-mail in the fall of 2006.

The e-mail included a link to what he thought was the PayPal website, a service for making purchases on the internet, and told him to "update" what he thought was his PayPal account, he said.

The link "took me to a website which took my name, my driver's license number, my credit card number, my social security number," Reimer said.

But days after Reimer visited the site and entered his personal information, his credit card company called to ask him about unusual cash advances to the tune of $1,700.

The Toledo police believe Reimer was a victim of a scam known as "phishing," where websites are set up to look like credible sites but in fact steal personal information. They also believe the scam was based in Newfoundland.

"I constantly get reminders from my IT specialists at work: 'Don't answer these e-mails, there's a thing called phishing,' " Reimer said.  "I have received them repeatedly and yet I did exactly what the phishers anticipated and I swallowed the bait."

Reimer said he was lucky - his credit card company absorbed the $1,700 loss.

One tenth of UK consumers become victim of Internet fraud

UK consumers that think that banks and financial bodies are looking after their financial data and security online need to think again. Figures from Get Safe Online Campaign reveal that one in ten people in the UK have been the victims of online fraud, and each victim has lost an average of around £875 as a result of this fraud.

Internet spending in the UK has rocketed to thirty billion pounds a year, reflecting just how much confidence UK consumers have when it comes to making online transactions, despite the various warnings about possible fraudulent activity.

However, the survey also revealed that many of the people that spend online assume that banks and financial bodies are able to look after their financial security and safely online, which is not actually the case. It is up to the consumer to be more vigilant about security when making online transactions, and in some cases, such as with credit card fraud, some consumers may find that they are unable to recoup the costs of the fraudulent activity.

The Get Safe Online director, Tony Neate, stated: "The internet now is the real world. "We don't blame the police when we get burgled and we must take responsibility for what we do online in the same way we do for securing our houses and cars."

Nearly fifty percent of the people that were surveyed said that they did not have any basic security facilities such as spyware software. Many have also admitted to neglecting to use basic security procedures and checks, all of which can increase the chances of becoming a victim of online fraud.

Woman Sentenced to 55 Months in eBay Scam

Rachel Reyes, a 29 y/o woman from Williamsburg Virginia as sentenced to 55 months and prison, 3-years of supervised release and was ordered to pay over $400K in restitution.  Ms. Reyes, was part of a crime ring selling and distributing fraudulent celebrity memorabilia items on eBay.  The US District Attorney, Chuck Rosenberg, for the Eastern District of Virginia; and, Cassandra M. Chandler, Special Agent in Charge, Norfolk Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, made the announcement after Reyes' sentencing today before United States District Judge Walter D. Kelley, Jr.

According to court documents, Rachel Reyes, her husband Jeffrey Reyes, and her mother, Nancy Selisker, operated their own eBay accounts for the sale of the counterfeit memorabilia, which included record albums and photographs of celebrities with forged signatures. To conduct the fraud scheme, the three defendants purchased unsigned memorabilia from various locations in Virginia, and then forged celebrity signatures on those items. The items subsequently posted the items for auction on eBay's Internet website. The listings falsely described these items as authentic and offered fraudulent certificates of authenticity.

From July 5, 2002 through March 11, 2005, Rachel Reyes personally completed 5,265 sales of memorabilia with forged signatures to 3,359 victims, with losses totaling approximately $314,773.97. From July 21, 2003 through March 11, 2005.  Cohort in crime Selisker personally completed 1,620 sales of memorabilia with forged signatures to 1,104 victims, with losses totaling approximately $118,114.07. From August 10, 2002 through March 11, 2005 and third person Jeffrey Reyes completed 1,317 sales of memorabilia with forged signatures to 1,124 victims, totaling approximately $130,520.72. Victims were located throughout all 50 states of the United States as well as 33 other countries.

On March 26, 2007, Jeffrey Reyes, age 30, of Williamsburg, Virginia, was sentenced to 33 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $98, 948.94 in restitution for his role in the scheme. Selisker is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, 2007.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. eBay also provided assistance during the investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Gill and Brian Samuels prosecuted the case for the United States.

Feds: ID theft ring run from prison

A man in prison for identity theft is accused of running a similar operation from behind bars, with an Emmy award-winning television producer and animator among the victims.

In a federal complaint filed Tuesday, investigators said Morocco Curry and three co-conspirators outside prison used stolen account information to request replacements for "lost" credit cards and to open new accounts.

Curry, 34, is accused of using a prison phone to make collect calls to his associates. Authorities say the group bilked tens of thousands of dollars from companies, including American Express, beginning in December.

Gabor Csupo, 54, who helped create the children's animated program "Rugrats" and has worked on "The Simpsons," was among those targeted, authorities said. Csupo won Emmys for his work on both cartoons.

Curry; Vanieca D. Samuels, 39; Brenda K. Butler, 47; and Tracy Chambers, 34, each face charges of felony identity theft. The crime carries a penalty of two years in prison.

Curry will be transferred to federal custody this summer, Mrozek said. He is serving a three-year sentence for identity theft at Centinela prison in Imperial County.

Member of Transnational Crime Ring Arrested In eBay Fraud

Bulgarian woman faces 30 years in prison for allegedly conspiring in an "elaborate scheme" to defraud eBay users of $350,000.

A woman described by the FBI as a Bulgarian member of a transnational criminal ring has been arrested in connection with what the government is calling an "elaborate scheme" to defraud eBay users of more than $350,000.

Mariyana Feliksova Lozanova is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The woman, who also goes by the names Gentiane La France and Naomi Elizabeth DeBont, allegedly tricked prospective buyers on eBay to wire her money for major purchases, like motor vehicles and boats, that were never delivered, according to a release from the FBI, which investigated the case.

If convicted, the woman faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud conspiracy and 10 years in prison for the money laundering conspiracy. In addition, she also could be required to pay fines totaling more than $500,000, as well as forfeitures and restitution to the victims of the scheme.

A grand jury in the District of Columbia returned the indictment March 1, but it remained sealed until Lozanova was arrested in Budapest on March 22. She has waived extradition to stand trial in the United States.

According to the FBI, Lozanova and others in the "crime group" allegedly participated in a scheme to advertise the expensive merchandise for sale on eBay. When potential buyers from the United States showed an interest, they were contacted directly by e-mail from the purported seller. The victims were then instructed to wire transfer payments through eBay Secure Traders, which has no actual affiliation with eBay. The FBI contends it was a ruse to persuade the victims that they were sending money into a secure escrow account pending delivery and inspection of their purchases. Instead, the victims' funds were allegedly wired directly into one of several bank accounts, controlled by Lozanova and her co-conspirators, in Hungary or Slovakia.

The cars and boats the victims intended to purchase were never delivered and the victims' money was never returned. Lozanova allegedly withdrew the proceeds shortly after the funds had been wired into her account and distributed them to other members of the criminal group in Budapest, according to the FBI statement.

Lozanova allegedly opened the accounts using a fraudulent Canadian passport and a U.K. passport, which falsely identified her as Gentiane LaFrance and Elizabeth Naomi DeBont, respectively, the FBI reported.

"This arrest is an excellent example of the strong cooperation between the FBI and Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation to stem Eurasian organized crime," FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus said in a written statement. "Since April 2000, the FBI-HNBI Organized Crime Task Force has worked closely to investigate transnational enterprises headquartered in this historic Central European center of commerce and finance."

The Budapest Task Force was established by the FBI in April 2000 in an effort to deal with the increasing threat of Eurasian organized crime groups to the United States.

WINNING NOTIFICATION (Your email have won £250,000.00)

This is a really sad attempt, even in the title they don't know enough to put my email in place.   Other obvious things are the use of French words in a British Lottery.  The other is the horrendous formatting and use of words, language and grammar. 

The main trick is they try to make you believe it is real by sending you to the real UK Lottery website, but of course wants you to email them at a free Yahoo email address.

We are pleased to inform you of the final announcement of the UK National Lottery Online thunderball Programme with draw numbers(#644)02,05,07,20,31,10 held on tuesday 17 April,2007.

Do endeavour to contact:Rev. John smith provide details for filing of claims.

Email:mail_thunderball@yahoo.co.uk

Email:contact_thunderball@yahoo.co.uk

Bank of America - Quality PHISH

We received a really nice, high quality Bank of America Forged / Phish this week.  This is one of the nicer fakes we seen, the page is different than the real BofA site, but still very good.  It said my account was hacked and I needed to log in and reactivate the account. We played the site for a minute with a user id of "asdfaerewre" and a password of "asfawerewaef" (garble) and of course it let us in as real.  We then filled out the next batch of info..  City of birth, seems I was born in the city of "asdfasl" and my first pet is "asldfkfd" and I graduated from "aslkfaskf asdlflod" high school.  I really wanted to get to the next page where the real trouble happens. 

The amount of information they are asking is staggering and if you were really logged into your real BofA site then the Bank would know this info.  Here is what they are asking.

• ·         Bank of America ATM or Check Card Number

• ·         Bank of America ATM or Check Card PIN

• ·         Re-enter ATM or Check Card Pin:

• ·         Exp date:

• ·         Card Verification Number:

• ·         Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number

• ·         Mothers Maiden Name:

• ·         Date of birth:

• ·         Zip Code:

The site also reminds you that you are on a "Secure" site, when of course you are not on a secure site, so double trouble.  The only typo so far is "mothers" and not "mother's" for maiden name.  Overall a good website.

The redirect for the fake site takes you to a registered domain of ebankingonlineauthentication. 

Fake site is in China, just registered last month.

• ·         Domain Name: EBANKINGONLINEAUTHENTICATION.COM

• ·         Registrar: BEIJING INNOVATIVE LINKAGE TECHNOLOGY LTD. DBA DNS.COM.CN

• ·         Whois Server: whois.dns.com.cn

• ·         Updated Date: 21-mar-2007

• ·         Creation Date: 21-mar-2007

• ·         Expiration Date: 21-mar-2008

Run far, run fast and watch out for phishing.  Remember, always go to the site direct and never follow the links in the emails.