An artist forwarded this to me (and she blogged about it - great! the more scammers are exposed, the better for everyone). The first email from the scammer was the usual: “she” claimed she was pregnant, her husband was in Johannesburg, South Africa, for months. She loves your art and wants to buy four pieces. Her shipping company will handle packaging and other logistics from your location. She was released from the hospital, where she took bed rest because of the stress of her husband being away for months, caring for a small child and being pregnant with another. Her grammar is poor (this *always* seems to be the case), but she says that’s because she not a native speaker of English. Since they are moving from Seattle to Johannesburg, she wants to get the art sale accomplished and the art shipped ASAP. Her husband will mail you a check ASAP.
Same old crap. The faked name being used is Kristen. Now look at email #2 below. Now only does this scammer has detail diarrhea, their name has changed (the artist who forwarded this funny experience is named Christine). Check it out:
From: Kristen Carson [krison.landslide@gmail.com]
Subject: Payment sent via UPS # J2283026797
Hi Christine,
I hope this email finds you well and I`ll want to first thank you for your patience and understanding all this while regarding this purchase,I`m very happy to inform you that the payment has been sent out yesterday by a creditor client of my husband`s who promised to send the payment since my husband had been indispensable to be home in the last couple of months,but there are one or two faults with the payment,though it`s not really a fault but I just think it`ll be a wise thing to inform you before it arrives so that you can be sure it`s actually the payment for my purchase.
One,he erroneously included The Shipper`s payment with your payment as he could not really understand what my arrangements were with you and two,while in Seattle,he misplaced your mailing address to mail the payment,and he was also unable to see me since I was in the hospital for bed rest as advised by the doctors because of my new baby.The payment was sent via UPS with tracking number:J2283026797 and according to him the payment should be delivered to you today.
Therefore,upon arrival I`ll want you to deposit the check and once processed by your bank remove your asking price and forward the rest of the money to the Freight company from which arrangement will be made for the shippings of our housewares from Seattle and to also pickup my shipments from you to be shipped to Jo-burg.
I`m very sorry for the inconvenience,I was in the hospital for bed rest as advised by the doctors as I`m carrying another baby that is almost due so it was never a deliberate thing.I hope you understand what I`m going through to with my husband away and still carrying another baby.I do hope we can finalise the transaction as soon as possible so I can join my husband in our new home.
I`ll look forward to hearing back from you so I can know that you got the email.
Have a pleasant day and best wishes,
Kristine
We know of at least 4 people in the Central PA area, including myself that have been emailed by this scammer in the past week. The emails sent to me were almost identical to the ones Christine received. We have both reported to our local police departments. I would just love to see these people caught and charged with felony crimes!!!
ReplyDeleteElaine,
ReplyDeleteWouldn't that be great? But of course they live in the shadows of how easy and cheap it is to send out these emails and how easy it is to set up a disposable untraceable email accounts. But it certainly would be great if more of these scammers were actually found and prosecuted.