Scam Email: Bernard Merrac

Here is an email I received this morning:

Dear Kathleen,

I am so please to have found your page.

Yes, I am, at the moment a victim of a similar scam.  I was sent a cheque Friday (through through Royal mail 1st class post), I ran to the bank and deposited it before closing. As, soon as I did this I knew things were not right and have been on the phone to the bank manager who know it was dodgy straight away and will investigate tomorrow.  I am being emailed by the frauds asking me when the shipping can be arranged. I sent an email back with a link to an artscam site and yesterday night got another email asking me for shipping again. I sent another email saying the bank  will not clear it as it is a counterfeit. Not heard anything else yet. And have been told by Action fraud team not to email again. I am so concerned as they have my address. I keep thinking they will come to my home.

The email address is:  "Bernard Merrac" bernardmerrac@yahoo.com

Thank you,
 Thea

Good advice from the bank. No one is under ANY obligation to write back to these scammers. You can be sure once they realize their scam is not going to complete, they will quickly ignore you and move on to the next potential victim. The good news is this person didn't lose any money or items. They simply deposited a fraudulent check. They didn't forward the "shipping" money (which is the crux of the scam) or any items. So this person caught that it was a scam in a nick of time.

By the way, it is HIGHLY unlikely they will come to your house. These guys do not want to be traced or caught or come out of the shadows. They like to operate in a way that the authorities can't find them. It's more likely they will just stop asking for the shipping and move on to their next victim.