I think I have he best story. person claiming to be from Canada offered to buy my car for $46K. This is what he emailed me:
"Thanks for accepting my $46,000 offer and i hope the engine is serviced and oil changed too.However,i want to confirm from my client how the payment will be,because the amount in the check that is suppose to be given to you is more than what should be paid to you.Because the company that is owning my client wants to make out the check with whole amount,both the shippment charges and agent fees,so please get back to me the moment you recieve this mail for more clearifications.I will contact my client soonest.
Thanks,
Jack..
0112348037142768"
He then sent me a cashiers check for $55K and asked me to wire him the $9K difference. This is what he wrote me:
"charley,
As i informed you in my last mail,my client have instructed that the check should be made out to your name provided that you will send the balance back to him through western union and deduct the western union charges from the balance so that he can be able to pay the shipping company and agents that will come for the pick up.That means that payment will get to you in cashier check of $55,000. So you are required to deduct cost of your car $46,000 when payment gets to you and refund balance $9,000 less western charges to my customer via western union
After payment has reached you and balance sent back to him,our agent will come for the pick up and drive to a prepaid shipper to be shipped to my customer,while title papers and other necessary documets will be handed over to my agent at the time of pick up.
Please Confirm this and the check will be sent to you on the address you give to me on thursay next week.
Thanks,
Marc."
I called the bank issuinag the check, and I was not surprised to find that it was fraudulent. Just to f*ck with the guy, I told him I wired him the money and gave him false Western Union information. He then wrote me this:
"charley,
The agent just called me saying that he went to the western union to pick the funds but the western union opprator told him that there was no transaction that was made with the information you provided.After checking the money transfer number you provided it was 14 digits instead of 10 digits number so please you have to check well and scan the copy of the receipt you used in doing the transfer and send the scan receipt to the agent.
I will be expecting your maill asap...
Thanks...."
He then had the nerve to call me and demand the money that he claimed I owed him. So I wrote him the following email:
"Haha. Me playing games? no! I knew that this transaction was a fraud when you told me that you were going to send me $55,000. I have read about these silly schemes. In fact, my car was sold a long time ago to a local buyer.
You must be really stupid if you think that someone would wire you money before your check even clears. Do you know how easy it is to find out if a check is genuine? A person can easily find the phone number of the bank on the internet and call. In fact, your silly little check didn't even have a watermark on it. I'm surprised you even sent me this fake check. I immediately called the bank and was not surprised to find out that it was forged. I wonder if anyone has even fallen for this stupid scheme. Have you ever made any money with this idiotic scheme?
I was very glad when you kept calling me the other night. I wanted you to experience the excitement of thinking that your stupid scheme actually worked, and I wanted you to be bitterly disappointed when you found out that I didn't send any money. Did you have a nice trip to Western Union? Then, when you kept calling, I was actually surprised to find out how stupid you really are.
Well, I did go through the trouble of reporting this to First Citizens Bank and Trust. I also contacted the FBI and they are in the process of continuing their investigation against you. The FBI tells me that you have done this before and that you are located in Nigeria.
I hope that in the future you can come up with a better scheme than this, but I'm pretty sure you're too stupid for that.
See ya Sucker!"
I have not heard from him since. The FBI told me they won't do anything because these schemes occur daily and seem to originate from Nigeria.
