Anyway, here is another email exchange with a potential victim, to show you what they look like.
First Email (just signs it "Map." funny...):
From: Robin Map [robinmap1@gmail.com]Second Email:
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 11:17 AM
Subject: [name of item inserted here]
Hello,
I go through your art work and i really like your creative, due to
this i really have the interest in buying this your work, so kindly
email me the price of it and the info about the work because i
really like it and also my wife also have an interest in it as well
because we saw it together from your web and we want to buy it.
Hope to read from you,
Map.
From: Robin Map [robinmap1@gmail.com]Third Email (where he miraculously becomes "Thomas" by the end of the email):
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: [name of item inserted here]
Hi Joe,
No problem you can build and make another one for me just exactly like the former one, email me the price it will cost and how long will it take you to finish it.
Robin.
From: Robin Map [robinmap1@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 4:45 PM
Subject: Transaction begin.......
Hi Joe,
I really appreciate your response regarding the info about the piece and the price Thank you a lot for that.
Regarding to where i live, am from Netherlands which is the place that am staying and living including me and my family, Due to this the payment will be through Cheque or Money Oder base on the one that you want.
Once again i will arrange the acqurate shipping company that will come for the pickup of the piece where ever is locate due to damagies and lost of goods that normally happen now adays, that is the reason why i decide to arrange the pick up by my self so that the piece will not lost or damage before it arrive to my destination here.
For the sake of me arranging the shipping company that will come for the pick up i will definately provide the shipment fees for the pick up on the same cheque or Money oder that i will mail to you.
Email me the info below in other for the cheque or the money oder to be send out to you once i receve the below info.
Name that will be written on cheque;
Your Address where the cheque or money order will be mail too;
Including your Phone Number along;
Immediately i receive the above info i will email you and notify you on when you should be expecting the payment and immediately the payment has been send put i will notify you as well in other for you to be expecting it and watching out for is arriver.
I hope you understand my mail if there is any question that you may have regarding my arrangement you are welcome to ask any questions, also if you don't mind here is my skype user id thomasbill11 we can use skype to communicate with each other by calling our self and by chatting and discussing without self, in a case you don't have a skype user id yet kindly go to www.skype.com and download it and after downloading register with skype and email me your user id so i can add you to my skype id.
I will be waiting for your response,
Thomas.
Hey, I know why this guy suddenly became Thomas...I got these EXACT same e-mail from a "Thomas Bill" (e-mail: thomasbill11@ymail.com). The first response was the same, and then the lengthy one about shipping and money orders...word for word.
ReplyDeleteI wasted a couple of exchanges with him. He wanted a painting I had sold, then when I said it was sold, he wanted to proceed forward with the transaction...aka "Transaction Begin" lol.
I found your post after thinking this MUST be a scam, sure enough! Thanks for posting!
Yup, here one from "Thomas Bill" right from the get-go. It's really silly how they can't keep track of things. But good for us.
ReplyDeleteThomas Bill wrote:
Hello,
I go through your art work and i really like your creative, due to this i really have the interest in buying this your work, so kindly email me the price of it and the info about the work because i really like it and also my wife also have an interest in it as well because we saw it together from your web and we want to buy it.
Hope to read from you,
Best Regards.
Thomas.
I've received the exact same one from a "Peter Map":
ReplyDeleteHello,
I go through your art work and i really like your creative, due to
this i really have the interest in buying this your work, so kindly
email me the price of it and the info about the work because i
really like it and also my wife also have an interest in it as well
because we saw it together from your web and we want to buy it.
Hope to read from you,
Best Regards,
Peter.
I just got an email from a Thomas Map. Anyone know how they make money off of this?
ReplyDeleteIt pretty formulaic, though the scammers change up the "story" they wrap around it.
ReplyDeleteThey pretend they want to buy something, they typically pretend they have a shipper handling things, they want to send you a check (which they claim will include the amount plus the amount the shipper needs), they claim they need you to wire the shipper part of the payment directly to the shipper, via wire service (for whatever they say is the reason their shipper won't take other payments or why the buyer can't handle this themselves).
Once the victim deposits the check and wires the money to the shipper, here is what happens: there is no shipper. It's made up. The money is getting wired directly to the scammer and once money has been wired and picked up its as good as cash and it is gone and untraceable. In the meantime, your bank has discovered the check is fraudulent and withdraws the ENTIRE amount from your account. So you are out the difference.
And they repeat this formula over and over and over again. Unfortunately, because it works.
We'll keep spreading the word and hopefully keep reducing their effectiveness at stealing people's money.