I Will Pay Full Price…Sight Unseen
Those words should be the red flag waving annoyingly in your face. Let me finish the above sentence:
- “I have family coming in from out of the country and they will require lodging.”
- “We will need to procure a decorator. I will send you money for this.”
- “I would like to put down some extra earnest money to cover any unforseen costs.”
These are just a few of the catch phrases that are part of the 419 Scam or as it known now, the ‘Advance Fee Fraud’ scheme. The basics of this scam are that the scammer will offer to purchase a home or rent/lease a home (check Craigs List for multiple accounts on this). Often, they wil ask about a setting up a decorating budget or setting up lodging for their family. They will almost always offer to front some sort of money, most often in the form of a check. Then they ask you to procure some services for them which they ask you to draw out of the money “they advanced to you”. Then they ask you to return whatever is left over to them. Guess what? That check they wrote to you? It’s phoney. They have very authentic looking checks that can fool many banks. By the time, the phoney check is discovered, whoever cashed it is on the line.
I know what you’re thinking…this would never happen to me! So……let me tell you a story based on first hand experience. Here in Atlanta, Ga, we had this happen to some friends of ours.
They had a party contact them through their “real estate agent” of all people. The agent brought forth the offer, a contract was signed, and that’s where the shenanigans started. Our friends ultimately lost months of valuable marketing for their home along with whatever money they came out of pocket to refund the additional earnest money “the Buyer” put down on the home. I fault both the homeowners and the Realtor for this. The Realtor should have done more research on this “prospect”. While our friends were very anxious to sell their home, I think they should have maintained cooler minds. These people that pull this scam are experts. They get lots and lots of practice.
Red flags to watch for:
- Anyone that offers to buy or rent a unit sight unseen.
- Offering to pay full price sight unseen (ie, “I’m a Big Spender”, “High Roller”, etc.)
- Emails in poorly written English. I would like to mention that there are more and more of these folks that seem to be home based here in the US, so be aware! Their English may be just fine.
- Requests to set up decorating budgets or lodging funds for their family.
- Claims that they are moving their family over from another country to avoid political strife.
- Insistence on using “cheques”.
- If you keep stats on your web site, lots of traffic from out of country ISPs.
- Offers on advertised distress sales. This one is pretty important in my opinion, and it’s a factor that these folks seem totally keyed in on. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, these folks are particularly adept at detecting desperation.
You can read more about these scams and others at http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp as well as http://www.419eater.com/. Please note that the language on 419-eater may be offensive. Let me close by reminding you what of what our local consumer advocate, Clarke Howard, says: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!”
December 21st, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Maybe I should have made a separate post, but here is my latest email from a Mrs. Helen Dickson (my NEW FRIEND!!!!). Poor Helen seems to be suffering from cancer and requires my help in distributing 5 million Euros to a variety of charities. I guess Helen doesnt realize she’d be better off distributing the money by Euros and not converting them to American currency…ahh well. Here is her letter:
YOUR NEW FRIEND: HELEN
Dear Blessed One,
Greetings to you blessed one!. As you read through my message, I do not want you to feel pity or sorry for me, for I believe someday,somehow,we will all surely die, this is about mine, and a last wish.
My name is Mrs helen Dickson a Citizen of the united kingdom, I am a 53years old woman, I am diagnosed of Cancer of the Larynx and it is terminal, medical science can not do anything for me at this stage. I believe in miracles because I believe in GOD, however I prefer to pass on at this stage since I am bed ridden and in constant pain.
Before this happened my business and concern for making money was all I lived for, I never really cared about other values in life. But since my present situation, I have found a new desire to assist helpless families. I have been helping orphans in orphanage/motherless homes. I have once donated some money to orphans in war ravaged Eritrea,Somalia,Sudan and some East European Countries.
Having known my condition I decided to entrust my last funds I have deposited in Europe 5,000,000.00EUROS ( FIVE MILLION EUROS ONLY) to either a philanthropic or devoted individual that will use his judgment to distribute the money to charity organizations and feel free to reimburse yourself when you have the money with a total of 35% for your assistance also for any cost you incur during the process of collecting and distributing the money to charity organizations. I have left the hospital and presently at home, I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only few months to live.
It is my last wish to see this money distributed to charity organizations,because I don’t have any child and my relatives and friends has plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of en trusting this huge responsibility to any of them. Please, I beg you in the name of God to help me collect the deposit and distribute it amongst charity organizations. Since my health is retrogressing by the minute, you will have to send your POSTAL ADDRESS, CONTACT PHONE NUMBER AND FAX and a little details about yourself TO MY PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS –
hdickson1954@gmail.com because I got your email address from Chamber of Commerce of your country after a thorough search.
With the information, I will make arrangement to prepare the authorization through an Attorney for you to get possession of the Deposit. I will give you the name and contact of the FINANCIAL TRUSTEE AND SECURITIES HOUSE where the money was deposited,so you can claim the funds, Until I hear from you, I pray that this letter bring you and your family good tidings.
Looking forward to hearing from you soonest.
Regards,
Helen Dickson
hdickson1954@gmail.com
December 28th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
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