From: Thomas Bill [mailto:thomasbill11@ymail.com]
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 7:22 AM
Subject: leave the shame behind
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.
Scammers use the Internet to find new victims. I fight back using the Internet to educate and help artists NOT become victims.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Scam Email: Thomas Bill
We have reports on this under the comments section of Robin Map scam report as well. Time to give this one it's own page!
hi kathleen
ReplyDeletethank you very much for putting your art scam infos on the web!
i was very happy to find that precious information as i was contacted by
the (already famous) thomas bill...
thanks again and best greetings from vienna
I got an email requesting pricing on products on my website. The person inquiring was Tomas Bill from Hortenzia Kovacova. Horne 61 08121 Dolne,Slovak Republic. He said he wanted to order huge quantities and pay via Visa or Mastercard. This is a huge red flag for us as we have been burnt before. I told told him he needed to do an email transfer of funds for us to even start pulling the order. People really need to get a job and stop trying to scam honest people for money!
ReplyDeleteJust got this.... looked sketch, so I googled, and here ya go.
ReplyDeleteJeez, it makes me sick, and sad.
Oh well good thing we can do our home work, just sad that we have to.
Here is what we received.
Good day Sales.
I browse through your contact and I find some items which we have interest in purchasing to my store in Slovakia for urgent supply, I will like to know the prices per each items minus the shipping cost,I also want to know the kind of credit card you accept for payment e.g master card or visa card.
I await your quick response so I can proceed with my needed items and quantity
Thank you
Rowz Packwel
Company Name: R.K.P Inc
Company Address: Hortenzia Kovacova. Horne 61 08121 Dolne,Slovak Republic
Tel: +421 887 754 3060
Email: r.k.piinc@blumail.org
Seems that Thomas Bill has changed nothing but his name..... Rowz Packwel
ReplyDeleteRegards from Portugal
I just received the same email from Rowz Packwel, I am just giving to SPAM! Thanks for advice
ReplyDeleteI received the same email too. Just had one communication with the so called Rowz Packwel.
ReplyDeleteHis way of doing business is not normal by common sense. So be careful.
I just received this email. It looked suspicious to me right away. Thanks for confirming it isn't legitmate!
ReplyDeletereceived the same inquiry from Rowz back in September 2011 regarding the wholesale arts and crafts products my company sells. will deleted his file now thanks to this!
ReplyDeletegoogmean@gmail.com is Thomas Bill's newest email address
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for this blog as i have just received a email from this Thomas Bill wanting to buy my car using googmean@gmail.com. see below.
ReplyDeleteHello thanks for reply, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now.
I am buying this for my son as a surprise gift. However,does it have
any history I should be aware of? and why are you selling if you don't
mind my asking and I will really appreciate if you can email more info
and if possible more photos. I can only pay through paypal at the
moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i dont have
internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal
account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will
need is your paypal email address to make the payment, and if you dont
have a paypal account yet, you can set one it cant take you less than
3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l can pay
and your phone number. I have a pick up agent that will come for the
pick up after payment has been sorted, l will be waiting for your
reply asap.
Yes, in this variation of the scam, the scammer tries to put the intended victim at ease by insisting on paypal... but how the scam will work is they will attempt to send the victim a fake "payment confirmation" email that looks as if it came from Paypal. Victims who believe this email and do not check manually will realize too late, no money was ever sent to paypal.
ReplyDeleteThe regular part of the scam is also in this example - they mention an "agent" (who doesn't exist) to set up explaining why they are overpaying and asking you to send the difference on to the "agent" (who is just the scammer themselves). So protection #1 is never accept overpayment for any reason. Then the scammer will have some story of why you have to wire this overpayment... and this is the part of the scam they have been waiting for - once that money is wired, it is untraceable and gone. So protection #2 is NEVER wire money to anyone when doing business online, especially when you are the seller!!!
Glad you found this blog in time not to be scammed yourself.
How can I stop this ive just given my email address linked to my bank account??? Im now panicking
DeleteCall your bank first thing tomorrow morning and tell them.
ReplyDeleteI too just received a text from someone using this email asking fro more info on a car i was selling. I have no blocked the number. Thank you for the alert!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping this blog updated. I just got an email from googmea@gmail.com to buy my race car and the wordage just seemed off. What got my attention was that he said he "this is why is insisted on using PayPal", but we had not even mentioned PayPal before this. Thanks
ReplyDeleteTrying to sell a car and got an email from Mr. Thomas as well:
ReplyDeleteHello thanks for reply, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now. I am buying this for my son as a surprise gift. However,does it have any history I should be aware of? and why are you selling if you don't mind my asking and I will really appreciate if you can email more info and if possible more photos. I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payment, and if you dont have a paypal account yet, you can set one it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l can pay and your phone number. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted, l will be waiting for your reply asap.
Bill Thomas phone # 919-578-9142...He's into texting now too.
ReplyDeleteJust got a text message from googmean@gmail.com and his new number is 1-323-844-5971. found out his a scam artist.
ReplyDeleteJust received an email and texts from Bill Thomas for an engine I was selling. He sent an almost identical message, although this time it was a surprise present for his son-in-law. Number is 1-323-844-5971 and still using the email googmean@gmail.com. BE AWARE!
ReplyDeleteI also am selling a car and received this email from a "Thomas Bill:"
ReplyDeleteHello thanks for reply, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now. I am buying this for my son as a surprise gift. However,does it have any history I should be aware of? and why are you selling if you don't mind my asking and I will really appreciate if you can email more info and if possible more photos. I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payment, and if you dont have a paypal account yet, you can set one it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l can pay and your phone number. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted, l will be waiting for your reply asap.
Notice it is the exact same email as a previous person posted. This email was sent after receiving a text from the same # previously posted, 323-844-5971. Email from googmean@gmail.com. BEWARE IT IS A SCAM!
Thomas Bill is now using email googmean@gmail.com, phone 323-844-5971. This scammer is using the same message across the board which makes it relatively easy to identify. His message to me was as follow:
ReplyDeleteHello thanks for reply, i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now. I am buying this for my son as a surprise gift. However,does it have any history I should be aware of? and why are you selling if you don't mind my asking and I will really appreciate if you can email more info and if possible more photos. I can only pay through paypal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i dont have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on using paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payment, and if you dont have a paypal account yet, you can set one it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your paypal email so l can pay and your phone number. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted, l will be waiting for your reply asap.
Yes, and remember people, how the scammers use the paypal angle (they do this because artists tell themselves...'well, I only accept payments via paypal and that is safe'.
ReplyDeleteBut scammers will produce a fake payment confirmation email that looks EXACTLY like the real one. And they will fake the headers to make it look like the email address is some reasonable variation of a paypal email address. They are hoping their potential victim will never manually check their paypal account to see that, in fact, no transaction has happened.
The other thing I've seen scammers do with this paypal angle, is begin their scam with it, to reel their potential victim further into the scam and then at the last minute have this "desperate" fake story about how their paypal account isn't working and can they just mail you a check (and something extra for your "trouble"). This gets the scam back into its more traditional form of an overpayment with a counterfeit check.
I have just posted a for sale ad for my car on Gumtree and have just received a text message from 'Thomas' (no number comes up on my phone). He says to reply to his email googmean@gmail.com, so I have looked it up and found this post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information.
Thomas + googmean@gmail.com is still up and scamming just recieved a text from him about my car on gumtree!
ReplyDeleteYes i have just had a texted from googmean@gmail.com. but his name is THOMAS MITCHELL now
ReplyDeleteThe same thing but now called Thomas Mitchell he wanted to buy a Camper Van - could smell SPAM from the initial opening of the email.... buyer beware
ReplyDeleteyep tried same scam on our camper on ebay today
ReplyDeleteThomas Mitchell
Just had the same (a text) but referred to my 'vehicle' and not the specifics of the ad. Instantly raised as an issue as only wanted me to e-mail and not reply to the text. Hope some unpleasant happens to them!
ReplyDeleteI had the same name, Thomas Mitchell after buying my car, wants me to pay £300 to a shipping company for him via Western Union so he can release the funds. I have been leading him on now for 5 days, Just about to tell him he’s been wasting his time!!! It’s not much, but it does make me feel better.
ReplyDeleteJust got a text from him asking me to email him... glad I thought to google his email address.. thought it was a bit weird...
ReplyDeletethanks for the blog. He was texting about my car on gumtree (UK though, i guess he's an international scammer? lol)