Comments on: A Nigerian Dictator Scam on Craigslist?

By: Lindsay Rehfield

Lindsay Rehfield — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:29:08 +0000

OMG!! This is happening to me right now! I posted an ad on craigslist trying to sell my king sized bed. Within 24 hours I got 4 responses. They were all pretty much the same… ” I have viewed the pictures and am very interested. I would love to come to your place for a viewing but I am very busy with work, so that isn’t possible. I will be mailing you a check for the asking price as well as the money for the movers. Please pass the money along when they arrive to pick up the furniture.” I finally got smart and googled it. And now Im glad that I did. Three of the responses were from people using Gmail and the fourth was from someone using AOL.

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:01:13 +0000

I have been doing the same exact thing. Except not photography.

By: Marty

Marty — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:45:40 +0000

I almost fell for this-word for word on Craig list trying to sell a VCR. I didn’t understand what he meant by the “my mover” comments so I went to the search engines and typed in Western Union and my mover thinking this might be a feature of Western Union. That’s when I ran into all of these stories. I hate to admit, but if I had not seen your articles I may very well have cashed the check and been responsible for about $1300. Thank you very much!

By: Niner

Niner — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:00:36 +0000

Yup! My wife was also trying to sell a piece of furniture on Craigslist and, minus a few small details, received almost exactly the same response as above. We were given a way-too-good-to-be-true offer for a couch we were only asking a hundred or so dollars for. All we had to do was cash a large check, and then deduct 200 dollars from it for “moving expenses”. Once we had sent that cash along, the movers would come for our couch. Total scam. I just wish I had caught it before the wife gave these scammers our home address and phone number.

By: Mike Bolger

Mike Bolger — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:13:31 +0000

BUMP!

Just got another one this morning and noticed that they changed the verbiage slightly. Here’s what the July scam template looks like –

***

Dear Applicant,
We received your application for our job posted on Craigslist. We are sincerely sorry to inform you that the position has been occupied. Our personnel manager went through your resume and you have been picked for an alternative Job Position which is the Payment Personnel. We need is a Payment Personal manager for the company on financial issues.

About US:

(Do Art) is a United Kingdom Based Company and with established leaders in innovative Art Works Technology, providing art materials in Europe,Canada and Mexico. We have just been given the license to do the trading within the United states and we’re doing our best to make sure we serve the entire United States and a growing export market.

Your primary task for now, as a representative of the company is to co-ordinate payments from customers in the United States and help us with the payment process. You are not involved in any sales. Once payment are received and sorted we make delivery to the customer. After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products but in most cases we make our clients prepay for orders or items they ordered for. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Certified Checks or Money Orders drawn from the United State based on the amount involved why Only few decides on Bank Transfers which is not also suitable. In the last AGM we have decided to open this new contract to hire job position for solving this problem by employing Payment Personnel.

Your First Primary task (Collection of Payments). WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR US….

1. Receive payment from our Customers or Clients.
2. Cash Payment at your Bank or Deposit payment and let us know how long its going to take
before it clear the Bank.
3. Deduct 10 % which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed.
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be
instructed to send payment to, You’ll have a lot of free time doing another job,
because this is a part time job, you’ll get good income.

But this job is very challenging and you should understand it. We are considering your application because you satisfy our requirements and we are sure you will be an earnest assistant till we start running our branch office in your state.
For example: if you receive 4000.00 USD and your 10% should be 400.00 USD Plus your basis monthly salary is 1000.00 USD here are the information you are to provide then we will get back to you after we must have gone through it all.

Get back to us with information below information, so that we can add your mailing address to our Regional database and forward it to our customers for them to send payments. please send the following information to
Eddiedennis.inc136@gmail.com

Please Apply by filling the Requirements Below:

* Full Names______________
* Address_________________
* City____________________
* State___________________
* Zip Code________________
* Home Phone______________
* Cell Phone______________
* DOB_____________________
* Email___________________
* Present Occupation_______
* Sex_____________________

NOTE: Please make sure you send this as soon as
possible.

Thanks and best regards,
Eddie Dennis.

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:06:32 +0000

I googled this and found your entry because I was suspicious about a response to a couch that I put on Craigslist. Check it out:

“I appreciate your response to my inquiry. Am interested in buying
it from you. I would love to come and check it myself but I just got
married and am presently on an honeymoon trip to Hawaii with my wife.
Pls do withdraw ,with immediate effect, the advert from Web as i
dont mind adding $50 for you to do that, so i can be rest assured that
the item is held for me. I should believe it is in good condition as
stated. I will be making the payment via a Certified Check, which my
secretary will mail across to you. I’ll be picking the item from you
with the aid of my mover. My Mover will be coming to pick it from you
once the Certified Check has been cashed.
Pls I will need both your full name and physical address to issue
out the payment. waiting to hear from you soon.”

What the heck! Totally the same thing, huh? I knew it.

By: michael

michael — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:31:21 +0000

I just sold my drumset to a guy through craigslist and got a check from Betti Industries. I havent cashed it yet however. The guy is still awaiting my Western Union money transfer, I have a few addresses and emails from the guy, is there anyway I can nail him for fraud?
please send me any information @ mrhammer@uncg.edu
Thanks

By: plug1

plug1 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:55:29 +0000

yet another reason Todd Lapin is my personal hero.

great sleuthing by the Telstar Intelligence Wing.

By: telstarlogistics

telstarlogistics — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:44:00 +0000

SCAMMER UPDATE:

My loveseat scammer sent me his check for $2950. Here’s a photo of it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/3451286166/in/photostream/

By: Alli

Alli — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:26:50 +0000

Hahaha. Sending movers to pick up a Sidekick? That’s rich.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:15:06 +0000

I agree with Adam Fields. I thought one of the reasons banks take so long to verify cheques is because they’re checking for fraud.

By: Alex Schoenfeldt

Alex Schoenfeldt — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:14:51 +0000

As a wedding photographer (based in San Francisco, I do weddings all over the world), I get a version of this ALL THE TIME. They want to book me, they want to send me a check for far beyond my fees, they want me to sent some money to a printer, or a florist, or a baker.

Proud to say I never fell for it once. Sometimes I pretend I fall for it. Oh, sure no problem… Just to waste their time. I figure the more time they are wasting on me, the fewer other people they are scamming.

By: Matthew Melnick

Matthew Melnick — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:22:35 +0000

Check this out – you might find it amusing. I get these scams all the time when i rent rooms in my loft. Many people google this scam and find my livejournal detailing the scam.
http://spliffrd.livejournal.com/1403973.html

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:42:26 +0000

My favorite Craigslist scam was hen I had a 4 bedroom, 4 bath apartment for rent. I received an email from and “Italian Modeling Agency Coordinator”. She needed the apartment so her and three models would have a place to stay. She included details such as height (they were all 5’8″ or taller), hair color, weight, etc, and oh by the way, she hoped I could show he the local nightlife, since she would be new in town. He company had already issued her an expense check which was about $5000 more than a years rent, so could I please cash the check, keep an extra $1000 for my trouble, and send her the balance. One very imaginative Nigerian!

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:00:29 +0000

My parents just had a similar thing happen to them, trying to sell something for a few hundred dollars on Craigslist. In their case, they were sent a money order for $1500 more than their item. “Whoops! I sent you the one that was meant for the piano I’m buying too! Please just cash this and send me the difference.” The scam you’re seeing here is really common, and what they found after researching it later, is that you are potentially in trouble if you go and try to cash that money order. The police told them that if you go with a forged money order and try to cash it, you may also be suspected of trying to scam the bank. Telling them, “this was from the Internet, honest!” may not be enough. So I’d think twice before cashing any money order you get without really understanding it.

By: Adam Fields

Adam Fields — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:55:52 +0000

Er, turns out to be no good (please fix previous comment).

By: Adam Fields

Adam Fields — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:55:03 +0000

It seems like the fault here is with your bank, for clearing a check that later turns out to be good. Your bank ought to be able to give you some unambiguous determination that “yes, we received this money on your behalf and we’re not going to ask for it back later when the transaction gets undone”. It seems to me that clearing a check without that assurance is possibly tantamount to fraud on the part of your bank.

By: raichlea

raichlea — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:42:50 +0000

I got a similar one when I tried to sell a T-Mobile Sidekick a few weeks ago. I didn’t jump but it started like this:

“Hello i really appreciate your response to my earlier mail.like i said
i will like to buy this item so pls do withdraw the advert from
Craigslist. I will also like you to know that i will be paying via
check.I will need you to provide me with the following information to
facilitate the mailing of the check.

1.Your full name to be on the check
2.Home or work address
3.Your phone number.

**I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for moving
i will have my mover come over for the pick up as soon as you have
cashed the check**

Have a nice day.

N.B UPS does not deliver to a p.o.box address.”

When I said I wouldn’t accept a check or give out my personal info I didn’t hear anything back.

By: Kimberly Hackett

Kimberly Hackett — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:00:41 +0000

Seriously, do people really NOT know how a Nigerian scheme works?

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:59:27 +0000

Nice sofa!

I started getting Nigerian scam mail in the early 90s. By snail mail! I miss the nice stamps.

By: james

james — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:42:03 +0000

I had the same scam come my way on CL, but for a pair of boots. This was several years ago so it took me a while to figure out what the game was, though it was clear that fishiness was afoot.

Tangentially, this makes me think back to the halcyon days of mid-2000, when I bought a film processing machine from a gentleman in Holland (I’m in California). I forget I it was from ebay or usenet. Anyway, he was kind enough to sign up for paypal and accept my international payment. Not only that, but the shipping of the unit, which was the size of a steamer trunk, only cost $60.

These days, each of us would assume the other was a scammer, so the transaction would never get started. If it did happen to go through, international (!) shipping would be an order of magnitude more than $60.

By: wrybread

wrybread — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:55:26 +0000

Here’s a scary story: my roommate of a few years ago sold a sampler on Craigslist for $1200. The buyer paid with a certified check, which my roommate deposited and waited for it to clear before giving up the sampler. The check cleared, he withdrew cash off it, the whole bit. Good check, right?

Unfortunately, wrong. Two weeks later the bank told him the check was a forgery. They asked for their $1200 back, my friend didn’t have it, they closed his account and put him on some list that makes it impossible to open a bank account. I forgot the name of this list but somehow its not subject to regular credit report rules, meaning the info doesn’t expire in 7 years.

I think if you repay the money you owe the bank you get off this list, or marked as “cleared”, but still.

So beware checks, even checks that clear.

By: Tristan Waddington

Tristan Waddington — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:08:37 +0000

I encountered this exact same scam about a year ago when I was trying to sell my futon couch on craigslist. I became suspicious as soon as the prospective buyer mentioned “movers.” I then told him that I would only deal with local buyers. Never heard back from him :)

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:56:04 +0000

What kind of scam is it when they offer you more than you asked for right from the get-go? The same thing, just less clever? I ask because a few years ago I was selling a camera tripod on Craigslist and someone offered to pay me double what I was asking, and they wanted it shipped. I knew it was not that valuable, and the wanting it shipped part sounded fishy, so I never answered.

By: Jason Milner

Jason Milner — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:40:33 +0000

DC’s craig’s list is also rife with stuff like this. While apartment hunting I found an ad for something that seemed -almost- too good to be true, so I contacted the landlord asking to set up a time to see the property. This was the reply, verbatim:

Hello,
Thanks for contacting The house is very much available for lease asap,sorry for the late reply,i was away from my computer. The home is only going to be in the hands of the one that will take proper care of it.
I’m a building contractor agent in united state but presently working with the dock workers of (BERGER NIG PLC) here in nigeria somewhere in west region of Africa,we are to build a pedestrian bridge in between the confluence state where two river meet and my duty down here will last for a period of (3year) the House is Presently locked up and i have all keys and necessary document to the house with me down here i would only be interested in given the premises to someone whom will take absolutely good care of the House, Where are you currently located? How soon are you hoping to take up this home? If you are willing to have this premises,then you will be required to make a down deposit of the first month rent which is $900 and a damage security deposit of $300 total amount requested is ($1200) for you to secure this and move in do note that utilities are already included in the monthly fee, This is my first time of doing this but i believe and hope we can work out the details in our best interest and find an honest tenant to rent from me, please i only need a very honest and serious contacts Hope to hear from again,do fill out the application form correctly APPLICATIONFORM
Name:……………………. ……………………

Present Address:………………….. ………..

Phone #:……………..

Cell & Home ……..

How Long?:…………………….
Anticipated Move in date ……… ………….

Previous Address:________

How Long?________

Married?:__________

Spouse’s Name: ________

Children?:_________

How Many?:________

children Ages?:__________________

Pets?:_________

What kind?:__________________

How Many pets?_______

YOUR EMPLOYMENT Employer:………………… …………..

Employer’s Address:……………………. ………………….

Supervisor:__________

Bus. Phone:________

How Long On Present Job?_______

SPOUSE’S EMPLOYMENT

Employer:………………….. ………………………….. ..

Employer’s Address:………………….. ……………..
Supervisor:____________

Bus. Phone:_______________

How Long On Present Job?_____________

REFERENCES

Personal Reference:_________ Phone:___________
You are free to go and have a look at the surrounding and feel the environment, but do not tress-pass as the keys and Documents are with me here and will be sent to you through DHL on receipt of your first rent Deposit no matter the number of Months you paid for will fill the form so that we can proceed about the rent and sending you the document and keys to the house. Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.. Regards hope to read your mail again stay bless and God bless you..

Sincerely…
(name withheld)

********************

So, I can look at the outside of the house, but don’t get to see inside until I pay up & wait for keys? Riiiiight.