received an odd check from overseas buyer

[Shotkaller]

With all the talk off fraudulent checks and buyers I would like to seek all of your advice as to whether I am being fooled or not. I have been emailing a guy overseas for 3 months now and we have agreed on a price. He was supposed to send me a cashiers check immediately but always had excuses for not doing it. Finally 2 days ago I received a registered letter from France with a cashiers check from Bank One in Illinois for the full amount plus an additional $10,000 for shipping. I emailed the buyer and told him the bank said it would take nine days for the check to clear. Not to my surprise, I received an email from him today asking for $5,000 immediately for medical purposes. Here is the email, tell me if I am being frauded, I will certainly not give him any money until the check clears, and I will only give him the remainder of the shipping costs, also he is asking me to do something I have no idea what he is talking about concerning buying another car for him and shipping it to him, I just dont understand what this guy is thinking. Here is the email.

Goodday

How is business and family ? l am very grateful that you have received you payment,my client called me to comfirm if you have received your payment of which l told him and explain the situation of things.My wife got an accident yesternight ,a client of my was owning me money,l ask my wife to go and collect the money,so l can export some of my goods, so on her way going she had an accident and was seriouly injured and she was admitted at the hospital and l have used the money with me for a business and am not boyant for now, So please l want you to send me $5,000USD from your account to enable me pay her hospital bills. when the money clear from the bank you will deduct out of the money you will send for the shipping arrangment,hence l want you to select me a clean cool car and l have another client who need a Camry 2002 of which the payment will be ready immediately you get it and send the pictures of the car and the last asking price ?.

Please send the money via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANFER
N*1
Name: Mr. Olusola Ajao David
Street Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Country :- REPUBLIC OF BENIN, WEST AFRICA.
Amount : $5,000USD
COUNTRY ZIP code :- ( BJCT) REPUBLIC OF BENIN WEST AFRICA .
Send me the WESTERN UNION CONTROL AND TEST QUESTION AND ANSWER and the name you used to send the money.l hope to hear from you soonest and have a wonderful day !!!

Thanks and God Bless !


I X'ed out the adress, seems kind of strange, let me know what you think

Todd

 

[Zishan]

Sounds like fraud! In fact, I'd bet on it! DO NOT send money!

ps- I work at a bank, and no one should ever send funds via Western Union or Wire Transfer unless you are 300% sure of the person recieving the funds. There is NO recorse using these 2 methods.
Also, sorry to say, but it sounds like that check is going to bounce and a fee charged to you. If your a good client, you should be able to have the fee waived!
Good Luck
Z

 

[SilverOne]

DEFINITELY fraud!!!

 

[RPM217]

Fraud

I work for a large national broker/dealer of securities, we get constant warnings of situations just like this. Many of them seem to originate from this area. Do not send 5 cents until after the check clears, and you get written confirmation from your bank that the funds are good, and that you can't be debitted back by the bank. Until you get such written confirmation on bank letterhead, you just tell the guy that's why you're selling your car, no funds, and until his funds clear, there's no $$$ to send to him. Don't put yourself at risk!!!

 

[POWERED by HONDA]

FRAUD!

Time to give him excuses back. Tell him you don't have the money to send back to him. Apologize, and say we'll have to wait until it clears before I can send any money...

... of course, if it clears, go ahead... if not (which it won't!!!) then don't!

 

[KGP]

Tell him you will do even better than sending a check. Tell him that you are going to send a wire transfer as soon as he provides his bank, routing number, account number and the phone number of the bank's wire transfer department. If he provides anything (not) just let his bank know of his request, and also send the info to your local FBI field office.

On another note, if the check is a BankOne check, I can find out in about 5 seconds if the account is active, and whether it has money in it or not. Not that the account belongs to him though!

 

[Brian2by2]

FBI don't do shit...remember Ojas's situation where his car was being fraudulently sold...well, I got his info, gave it to Dave and the FBI could care less...and that was more than $5000 (actually it was a 5,000 downpayment so I guess it wasn't).


Still not sure what the hell this guy is talking about but I guess I need to know what you're selling.


I would say Fraud though.

 

[KGP]

FBI don't do shit...remember Ojas's situation

I know, belive me. But, it is still the "right" thing to do.

 

[nsxlover]

This is a scam. I have heard about this before. I hate when people try to rip off other people. Get your lazy F***in ass up and go out and work like the rest of us. I hope someone rips off his mother if he has not already. These people really piss me off.

Rob

 

[Rubber Chicken]

Send him a check that'll bounce for $5k and say 'sorry man this is all I can send you at this time'

My check is as good as yours.

 

[ChopsJazz]

It is my experience that there is no investigation that will take place for this fraud. And be certain that this is a fraud. From what I understand a bank will clear this check in a few days, but even after it clears (it could be weeks later) it will wind up being a forgery and you will be liable for the funds.

I'm sorry to say, you have been wasting your time with this criminal. I'm sure you've already read this

 

[Shotkaller]

You guys have just reassured what I have assumed all along. I made sure that I would not get my hopes up about this buyer because it seemed fishy even from the begining. I will certainly not send this guy anything, especially not my 1994 NSX or any money. But I will take some of your suggestions and tell this guy that I would rather wire transfer, and then ask him for all his bank info. Also KGP, if you are able to track down a BankOne check let me know, but I did not photocopy the check before I cashed it, so I would have to somehow get a copy of it from the bank. Whats funny is he is asking for $5,000, which is exactly how much the bank has made available to me. My banks policy is to make $5,000 availble in one day, and the remainder in 9 days. I will certainly ask for written confirmation if (very unlikely) this check does clear and to make sure I will not be responsible if the check is found to be fraudulent later on. I'll update everyone as to what happens.

Todd

 

[Vytas]

It's certainly not your fault that his wife got into an accident. That's his problem. Even though you deposited the check, it can take weeks to come back as a forgery. I'd be in touch with your bank and be assured that the check is genuine. It has a serial number. The bank that issued it may be able to verify it is indeed a legit check.

My number one rule is to not deal with anyone out of the country when you deal with expensive items and large sums of money. Requests to transfer via Western Union are guaranteed loss with no recourse.

Your bank will be able to produce you a copy of that check. Everything gets microfilmed and copies can be made from them.

 

[PHOEN$X]

This screams SCAM. Once you get the info from the cashier's check, perhaps you could call Bank One to verify the legitimacy of the check? They should be able to tell from their records whether it was really issued or not.

At any rate, tell him to put a stop payment on the check if he really needs the mony that bad.

P.S., the following statement makes absolutely no sense. How does someone in France get a check issued from Illinois? Why not just have bank send the money to you directly?

Finally 2 days ago I received a registered letter from France with a cashiers check from Bank One in Illinois for the full amount plus an additional $10,000 for shipping.

 

[RSO 34]

It's certainly not your fault that his wife got into an accident.

I certainly hope you are not taking this bogus claim seriously. This is a classic scam that does not involve any real person in an accident. There is no "wife" nor any "accident." And how many people do you know from "West Africa" who have bought an NSX from someone in Las Vegas?

A little common sense will go a long way to prevent fraud.

 

[NSXG35]

I will bet you 100.00 this is a total fraud. I own a business and I get 1-2 emails a week about large purchases from wast africa and the ivory coast. This is a B.S. line, dont fall for it.

 

[Doug]

There is also an ebay fraud where they email you and ask for updates to your acct. info such as credit card, SS# etc... If you answer, you will be a victim of identity fraud! I received it 3 times in a month and figured that I can give the updates next time I go to bid or list an item. I have since heard of individuals whose credit cards were run up to the max that fell for the scam.

 

[I Grok NSX]

There is also an ebay fraud where they email you and ask for updates to your acct. info such as credit card, SS# etc... If you answer, you will be a victim of identity fraud! I received it 3 times in a month and figured that I can give the updates next time I go to bid or list an item. I have since heard of individuals whose credit cards were run up to the max that fell for the scam.

Hey, I just got one of those emails asking me to verify my ebay account! I forwarded it to ebay and they did respond that it was in fact, someone trying to get my password. I did respond to the original email but I used the password "eats@!tanddie". I hope the hacker was able to read the password and got the message.

 

[NemesisX]

Look,
Be shrewd and do things that make sense...

Would you give something to someone for free???
If someone gives you a check (even a cashiers check nowadays) wait till it clears and the money is in the account before doing ANYTHING. Unless that person gives me cash...they have to deal my way or the highway!!! TOUGH SH*T if the persons wife got in an accident or fell on bad luck....dont go buying an NSX if you cant afford one!!! Hate to sound so much like an ass but his problems arent your problem! (Thats if its the truth) I learned that if anyone solicites me in anyway, i just say NO...If I want something..I WILL GET IT...I dont like people telling me what i should or shouldnt have.....

I have yet to recieve any solicitation of anyone selling NSX's by phone....its always the newspaper!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Never consider a check cleared unless you've spoken to your bank and they've told you how long it really takes them to fully clear a check beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Oh, and whoever said to tell him to put a stop payment on the check, I don't think you can do that with a cashier's check. Not the same thing.

 

[ChopsJazz]

Shotkaller, I just received an email last night from another overseas buyer for my C43. He wants ot know the price. I replied, "For you, $35,000." My ad only asks for $28K. I got an email from him this morning saying, in his usual cheerful style. "Thanks for the reply, and for the pictures (I sent none, but it must be his standard form letter). $35, 000 is fine. I'm sending you a check for $40,000"!

And the scams go on...

 

[KGP]

Also KGP, if you are able to track down a BankOne check let me know...

I would need the ABA and account number.

 

[Joel]

I say make a xerox copy of you giving him the middle finger with a big "SCREW YOU BUDDY!" sign at the bottom.

I hate stuff like this!

 

[tararan]

definitely a fraud..

if he got the check to sent to you im sure he can always take the cash out and have that check that he sent to you bounce.

he could at least come with a better scenario.

there's a gang of them out there doing this dirty works.

i say we all go to whereever he's from and beat the crap out of him..

"Woooosaaaaaaa"

 

[docjohn]

The scheme is that you wire real funds which the scammer receives while you get nothing when the bank says thier check didn'nt clear.The scammer has that 9 day window where you assume you'll get your money(from a well known,US bank).I hope that the banking industry is trying to fix this weakness in the system.