HALODIN wrote:I agree it sounds dodgy, but what would be the scam? Paypal chargeback? Even if that is the case... it's not as if a firearm is untraceable unless someone has a fake FAC...
Reading the scammers email it would appear they have no knowledge of UK law, they were sending somebody to collect it from the seller, no mention of RFD or FAC.
The other alternative is that it's an attempt to hack the sellers PP account because they were asking for the sellers PP ID. All you need to pay somebody is a valid email address.
At the last minute the buyers PayPal account would stop working and they would ask you to pay by western union money transfer or another untraceable transfer system. Or perhaps they will pay you by cheque for far more than the asking price, they will ask you to transfer them the difference again by Western Union. The cheque will appear to clear but a few months later your bank will ring you to say that its was a stolen or fake cheque and they will take their money back so you loose out twice!
I had a similar scam reply to an advertisement for a motorcycle on Gumtree within minutes of posting. They seem to be automatically generated by software scanning all ads. The key indicators seem to be that they make no specific mention of the item for sale i.e motorcycle and the "buyer" has a hectic job and is uncontactable. In my case it was an oil rig worker.
They are not that sophisticated. It will be a guy somewhere with a pay as you go internet dongle or a set amount of time in an internet cafe. He'll have a memory stick loaded with email address or web sites to check and he will manually go though everything and fire off standard emails. When he gets replies he will then follow the script he has been given. Once he gets to a certain point in the scam he will pass it on to someone else in the chain who will then take over and work on the next part of the scam and so on.
If you have a spare hour have a look on forum.419eater.com especially the photos and videos section!
There was a TV doc a couple of years ago about scammers and they managed to get some of these "lads" to come over to the UK and meet in a little chapel on a remote hill top in Cornwall.
They weren't very happy!
The secret is to get them off the script without them realising you are just playing games. But you need to be safe as you are dealing with real criminal gangs who may be dangerous.
There is another scam that I am seeing a lot lately and that is where you get "invoices" from companies that you don't recognise. Because of where I work they must think that I process a lot of orders, which I don't... so I know exactly what I have or have not ordered.
Thankfully my anti virus is alerting me to them.
HH1 wrote:There is another scam that I am seeing a lot lately and that is where you get "invoices" from companies that you don't recognise. Because of where I work they must think that I process a lot of orders, which I don't... so I know exactly what I have or have not ordered.
Thankfully my anti virus is alerting me to them.
I get things like that as well, something like an invoice from Microsoft thanking me for my purchase.
HH1 wrote:There is another scam that I am seeing a lot lately and that is where you get "invoices" from companies that you don't recognise. Because of where I work they must think that I process a lot of orders, which I don't... so I know exactly what I have or have not ordered.
Thankfully my anti virus is alerting me to them.
I get things like that as well, something like an invoice from Microsoft thanking me for my purchase.
My biggest source of spam and mail-borne malware is the result of rifle club secretaries who irresponsibly send out mail-shots with dozens of addresses in the to: or cc: addresses. It's almost as if they *want* to subject their membership to attack.
As a result I've configured my mail systems so I can give each club (or any website or store) a unique email address that identifies the sender, so if the address is compromised I can block it and change it (and know who is responsible for leaking or sharing it).
