>From a VW Van chat line "Message: 2 Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 15:47:46 -0500 From: "msrw" <msrw@att.net> Subject: Ebay & fraud
"I bought an aircraft engine from a fellow in the London area of the UK. He advertised the engine on e-bay, the auction was ended early by e-bay. I received a confusing message from e-bay about why the engine was ended early. He then made a deal off e-bay to sell me and ship me the engine. He has the money western union, the engine has not arrived nor been shipped according to UPS. I am trying to get real name and address from e-bay or yahoo.com where his internet address is, western union won't cough up the address or other identifying material of the guy who picked up the bank drafts.
Reg Lukasik" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` Dear Reg,
I hate to tell you this, but the transaction you describe is a virtual carbon copy of the most common and most prolific scams that happen on Ebay, and on other on-line sales sites.
The key features:
1. When you're the purchaser, the seller, who generally claims to be in Europe, but is often in Nigeria, asks for you to wire funds via Western Union. You do, and you never hear from him again. Western Union doesn't require real contact info from people who pick up wires. Neither do Yahoo, Hotmail, or other public domain type ISP's.
2. When you're the seller, the purchaser says that he'll arrange shipping himself, but asks if it would be ok if the cashier's check he forwards you includes the shipping funds. (I recently received a counterfeit check to ship a custom tandem bicycle to Holland--the bike cost $2,200, and the "purchaser" set me a check for $9,000, asking me to remit almost $7,000 to his alleged shipper.) You are then asked to wire the excess funds via Western Union. The vast majority of people, at least in the States, think that receipt of a cashier's check is as good as cash in hand. It isn't if it's counterfeit, which is this particular scam. The other issue: you deposit the casher's check, you wait carefully until your bank credits the funds to your account. You then assume that the check cleared, you send the Western Union wire, and two weeks later the bank debits your account when the check is found to be counterfeit. The morale: banks often credit funds BEFORE those funds clear from the originating bank.
3. These deals always use Western Union, always use counterfeit bank cashier's checks, and always operate through public domain type ISP's like Yahoo, Hotmail, and a plethora of developing world ISP's.
There are thousands of these scams going down daily, there is no clear authority for who should attempt to police thefts of this type--in the U.S. the Secret Service has responsibility for any transactions involving counterfeit currency or checks. But the Secret Service is not making much effort at all to track down and prosecute the scammers.
If you do succeed in getting Ebay or Western Union to provide contact info, it's almost certain that that info will be false.
The bottom line: in this era, it is pure folly to do international sales or purchase transactions without a range of additional safeguards, which include:
1. Never wiring funds via Western Union, which isn't traceable--always insist upon sending funds to a BANK account (i.e., something traceable) rather than to a Western Union office.
2. Never do a deal where you don't have a telephone number and physical address--both of which that you've checked out and have determined to be authentic.
3. Be extremely suspicious of deals that originate through public domain type ISP's.
4. When you receive a cashier's check with additional funds to be remitted to a shipper, never wire those funds until at least 30 days after you've deposited the cashier's check. Scammers will have a million reasons for why the wire needs to go out immediately. That also is a red flag.
As to the money you've wired for the airplane engine, I wish you Godspeed in somehow getting it back; but the vast majority of these deals are never solved, the person is never caught, and the money is never recovered." Just passing along for your edification Charles Nighbor Walnut creek, Ca