Several months ago in this column, I warned about this scam and included an alert from the Texas Attorney General. The modern internet version of this fraud plays on the gullibility of sellers of high-ticket merchandise and cars. Federal investigators have stated that these scams are generally being promoted by organized crime groups in Russia and Nigeria, and are a modification of the infamous Nigerian 419 Money Laundering Scam.

Recently, one of the readers of this column sent me an email where she was contacted by a buyer for some merchandise she had for sale on a popular local website. Her email (edited) is as follows: I have furniture listed on (a local website). A guy, (fictitious name), claiming to live in Switzerland, wants to buy my furniture. He says he has a shipping company here to pick the items up.

Here is the email she received, complete with spelling and grammatical errors, which should make one very suspicious:

Hello. I am ok with the price since you said the condition isok, I will pay {500} I have quickly contacted my client and he has agreed to send payment to you.my client is owing me the sum of ($4500) and he has agreed to forward a check ( cashier's check ) to you for the payment.Like I have told you before,i had already arrange for the shipment and i want you to help me wire the excess funds of ($4,000) to my shipper VIA WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER for the shipping charges in order for them to come to your location for the pick up . I want you to give me the full name that will be on the check and address including phone number so that the check for the payment can get to you. I want you to mail me back as possible because the check has already been issued out on your na me.hope to HEAR from you in this regard. Thanks.

I replied to her that this is a well documented fraud that has already fleeced thousands of people out of millions of dollars. The reply she received from the buyer was absolutely typical of this fraud. Yes, she would have received an authentic looking cashiers check for $4500 which she could have deposited. The catch is that when she wires the $4000 balance back to the sender, the funds would be instantly deducted from her account, which is days before she would inevitably find out that the check was a worthless forgery. Recently, in a similar Houston case, the lady who deposited the forged check was criminally charged, and held until it was determined that she was a victim, and not a crook.

A reasonable person might think that when my reader would not accept this deal that the crook would stop soliciting her, but that is not what happened. A few days later, she received another email:

Hello. I was informd by by client that you must have gotted the check by today. I want youm to let me know maybe you have received it, And if you have not received it let me know. Thanks and get back to me.

Fortunately, my reader did not and will not respond further to this crook. I forwarded her emails to federal authorities who investigate this type of crime, but they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of complaints and inquiries received.

By coincidence, the same day I received the following email from someone else; note the similarities in spelling and grammar.

RE: buyer for your car Hi, thanks for your email and sorry we didnt get back to you on time.I would have loved to contact you directly on phone to discuss this transaction because it would have been a lot better that way but unfortunately that wont be possible because my office just moved to a new building and construction/renovation work is still going on so our lines are not yet in order and as a matter of company policy all transactions are coordinated officially through the office so am afraid we are gonna have to work online for a possible transaction. Anyway,your mail content was forwarded to my client and am glad to inform you that he has instructed to carry on with the transaction at your least stated price However,he said that i should inform you that payment will get to you in a cashiers check of ($27,745 )which is a refund payment of an initial cancelled orde! r earlier made by my client. Due to company policy this check has to be made out in this amount to you,because company policy only allows a refund payment only on one cashiers cheque,so you are required to deduct cost of your(car )$ 21,999 when payment gets to you and refund balance $5,746 to my customer in London via western union money transfer or money gram transfer for him to be able to offset shipping charges. Thanks and God bless

It is obvious that this $5746 would be gone, too. Do not fall for these scams which are now rampant!

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