- Feb 22, 2005
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So I've got a car up for sale on CL, and as always I get a few stupid scam emails. I usually write out a quick response, then copy-paste it for the rest, just for kicks. Most of the time I never get a response, and thanks to email aliases I never worry about spam back. This time I got a response though, which obviously was an act of extreme stupidity on the scammers part, because from my email back to them it was obvious I was screwing around.
Original Scam Email:
My response:
The guy/girl actually emailed back (the email address/name is a woman's, yet his name is Mr. Michael?), here's their response:
Not too quick, this one. I figured what the hell, I don't want this idiot running around scamming Americans out of hard earned bucks, and possibly cheap 1991 Toyota Camrys, so I decided to try and trick him into giving himself into the authorities with my latest reply:
With any luck, Dubya will personally fly over to Nigeria, and place an awful beatdown on this guy for me.
UPDATE:
Apparantly he's smarter than I thought, he won't mail anything to the Whitehouse
I'm kind of disappointed, although the email had nothing attatched to it and my virus scanner didn't see anything, so I'm wondering where my special online check is to print out and cash.
UPDATE 4/23:
I got an email that my spam blocker caught, so I didn't see it for a few hours, but it appears to be an e-check from a company called qchex.com?
Screenshot of my "e-check"
Now, it had that link in it to click, which brought up their site with an "Invalid Code" message. I went to login, punched in my email (it's an alias, not a real one), with the code that I copied from the email, and it allowed me to login to their system.
Screenshot of QChex.com
It seems that Qchex.com is a legit site, as legit as it can be considering it only requires an email address to register, and then lets people put their checking account info (or someone else's) into the site and write checks from it. In theory you could put someone else's checking info in, and it would draw funds right from their account without a problem. Once the checks are cashed and money is in hand, the person with the originating account is screwed I suppose.
The question here is if I've "received" an emailed check through a legit site, but from an obvious scammer, where is the money coming from? I'm assuming that it's from some random person's account that this scammer got the info to, but what point would there be in spending this money? I'm not going to put my real bank info into this site, but I'm tempted to open a new checking account with like $5 in it to see what happens. Not tempted enough to actually do it, but I am pretty curious.
Well, no profit for me, the guy actually made the "check" out to Jesus H. Christ. So I figure I'm makin' money for the Lord now, I might just get into Heaven yet. The thing that gets me is that there's like 5 different names used so far, but on the check is the same name that's in the QChex.com system, and it has an address associated with it, plus you'll notice the Bank of America name (and address I blurred out) underneath it. Think this could be a real person/address, perhaps whoever is the owner of the account being used? Or could this be the real scammer?
Update 4/24:
Not much has changed, I emailed that I got their "check" but that the state of VT has certain fees pertaining to the export of our cars/trucks, and I'd need $5k more. They responded with an email about how the check I got was from the "client" and that it was a mistake, and to follow the client's directions in returning that money so that a check could be sent to me for the proper amount. Now, I never got anything from any client, just the same email address that I'd been talking to all along. I told them that, and they asked why I was delaying the transation, to which I replied:
All that got was another email about coming onto YIM to discuss it with them. I responded by asking if they had cars in Nigeria, or if they simply had to walk everywhere. No response to that question, just another request to get on YIM.
So, who'd like to go onto YIM and harass this person for me? I'm betting they're on right now, since the last email I got was barely 12 minutes ago. I considered doing it myself, but at this point I'm just wasting their time, and I'm getting kind of bored with the whole thing. I mean, I've made it as obvious as I can that I'm screwing with them, and they keep persisting with it. If someone wants to mess with them PM me or post in the thread and I'll give you their Yahoo email (also YIM I'm assuming).
Update 4/30:
Got this email a few days ago:
Now, keep in mind he never actually sends me any info to send it to. Just keeps asking me to send it back, even though I didn't get it, and couldn't send it back if I wanted to. I responded with this:
I was hoping it'd get some sort of fun response, but nothing. So I sent this:
Days have gone by, nothing. Apparantly they figured out (finally) that they're not getting any money out of me, and have moved on. I'll probably sign them up for some spam or something, but that's about the end of it.
Cliffs:
1. Have car on CL
2. Receive scam emails, respond for kicks
3. Guy keeps responding to my obviously fake emails
4. I try to trick him into sending a fake check to the Whitehouse
5. Scammer refuses to do so, instead wants to email me a check.
6. Received an email check from QChex.com
7. They want to talk dirtay to me on YIM.
8. I tell them I know they're a scammer, no response.
9. ?????
10. No Profit?
Original Scam Email:
My response:
The guy/girl actually emailed back (the email address/name is a woman's, yet his name is Mr. Michael?), here's their response:
Not too quick, this one. I figured what the hell, I don't want this idiot running around scamming Americans out of hard earned bucks, and possibly cheap 1991 Toyota Camrys, so I decided to try and trick him into giving himself into the authorities with my latest reply:
With any luck, Dubya will personally fly over to Nigeria, and place an awful beatdown on this guy for me.
UPDATE:
Apparantly he's smarter than I thought, he won't mail anything to the Whitehouse
I'm kind of disappointed, although the email had nothing attatched to it and my virus scanner didn't see anything, so I'm wondering where my special online check is to print out and cash.
UPDATE 4/23:
I got an email that my spam blocker caught, so I didn't see it for a few hours, but it appears to be an e-check from a company called qchex.com?
Screenshot of my "e-check"
Now, it had that link in it to click, which brought up their site with an "Invalid Code" message. I went to login, punched in my email (it's an alias, not a real one), with the code that I copied from the email, and it allowed me to login to their system.
Screenshot of QChex.com
It seems that Qchex.com is a legit site, as legit as it can be considering it only requires an email address to register, and then lets people put their checking account info (or someone else's) into the site and write checks from it. In theory you could put someone else's checking info in, and it would draw funds right from their account without a problem. Once the checks are cashed and money is in hand, the person with the originating account is screwed I suppose.
The question here is if I've "received" an emailed check through a legit site, but from an obvious scammer, where is the money coming from? I'm assuming that it's from some random person's account that this scammer got the info to, but what point would there be in spending this money? I'm not going to put my real bank info into this site, but I'm tempted to open a new checking account with like $5 in it to see what happens. Not tempted enough to actually do it, but I am pretty curious.
Well, no profit for me, the guy actually made the "check" out to Jesus H. Christ. So I figure I'm makin' money for the Lord now, I might just get into Heaven yet. The thing that gets me is that there's like 5 different names used so far, but on the check is the same name that's in the QChex.com system, and it has an address associated with it, plus you'll notice the Bank of America name (and address I blurred out) underneath it. Think this could be a real person/address, perhaps whoever is the owner of the account being used? Or could this be the real scammer?
Update 4/24:
Not much has changed, I emailed that I got their "check" but that the state of VT has certain fees pertaining to the export of our cars/trucks, and I'd need $5k more. They responded with an email about how the check I got was from the "client" and that it was a mistake, and to follow the client's directions in returning that money so that a check could be sent to me for the proper amount. Now, I never got anything from any client, just the same email address that I'd been talking to all along. I told them that, and they asked why I was delaying the transation, to which I replied:
All that got was another email about coming onto YIM to discuss it with them. I responded by asking if they had cars in Nigeria, or if they simply had to walk everywhere. No response to that question, just another request to get on YIM.
So, who'd like to go onto YIM and harass this person for me? I'm betting they're on right now, since the last email I got was barely 12 minutes ago. I considered doing it myself, but at this point I'm just wasting their time, and I'm getting kind of bored with the whole thing. I mean, I've made it as obvious as I can that I'm screwing with them, and they keep persisting with it. If someone wants to mess with them PM me or post in the thread and I'll give you their Yahoo email (also YIM I'm assuming).
Update 4/30:
Got this email a few days ago:
Now, keep in mind he never actually sends me any info to send it to. Just keeps asking me to send it back, even though I didn't get it, and couldn't send it back if I wanted to. I responded with this:
I was hoping it'd get some sort of fun response, but nothing. So I sent this:
I'm sorry I hurt your feelings
Days have gone by, nothing. Apparantly they figured out (finally) that they're not getting any money out of me, and have moved on. I'll probably sign them up for some spam or something, but that's about the end of it.
Cliffs:
1. Have car on CL
2. Receive scam emails, respond for kicks
3. Guy keeps responding to my obviously fake emails
4. I try to trick him into sending a fake check to the Whitehouse
5. Scammer refuses to do so, instead wants to email me a check.
6. Received an email check from QChex.com
7. They want to talk dirtay to me on YIM.
8. I tell them I know they're a scammer, no response.
9. ?????
10. No Profit?
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