May 2, 2005

Hi

I want to let you know about another fraud scheme that I have been dealing with this week so that you are aware for your own safety. I am posting this notice on ynotbid so that everyone is informed of this fraudulent activity and knows how to protect themselves.

Here is what happened:
I got an email from a "buyer" for something I am selling. The "buyer" wanted to send payment via moneyorder (Western Union), or even paypal. They requested everything be done quickly because they really wanted whatever it is I am selling.

Don't fall into their trap. How it plays out is explained in this message below which I copied off of an internet abuse newsgroup on google. While the author says the abuser wants to buy a bike, you can substitute the word "bike" with anything because the scammers are becoming more brazen. My notice continues after the copied text.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you're selling a moderately expensive bike, beware of people
like Mike Adams <computechmagic@yahoo.co.uk> sending you a forged
or stolen cheque, especially if it arrives in an envelope with
Nigerian stamps.

The other part of the scam is the "shipping cost" will be
significantly larger than the value of the bike. The scammer will
ask that the "shipping cost" is transferred via (someone like)
Western Union to an address (probably) in the U. S. of A.

There will appear to be a great hurry to transfer the funds, because
the cheque will _appear_ to cash Ok. One/two weeks later the cheque
will be returned as stolen/fraudulent and the money you _thought_
you had in your account will evaporate instantly.

[I've not lost any money or bike, as the fraud guy at Western Union
alerted me. Thank you J!]

The 15 email messages I received in relation to this scam, all came
from just four Wi-Fi modem/routers. The IP addresses are: 81.199.6.63 ,
81.199.83.148 , 212.199.109.82 , 81.18,33.124

One of the things that smelt bad about this whole thing, was that some
email messages from Mike Adams also, came from the same IP address as
"the shipping company"[1].

[1] This is just a "front" to receive your money, in my case Mike Adams
invented or colluded with "Tony Lloyd"
<leadwayshippers_agent@fastermail.com>

Naturally, I've informed both my bank and the local police about all this.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The author talks about the ip address. An ip address, if you don't know, is a unique computer number that identifies which computer sent the email (eg. 81.199.6.63). Every email you receive has the sender's ip address. To see it, change your email program to "show all" or "view source" or "show headers" ... something like that.

Once you know the sender's ip address, you can easily find out where in the world that computer is. To do that, go to http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm and copy and paste the ip address into the box that says "ip address to locate".

Now since you know where the sender lives, you can compare it to the address where they want you to send the item. If they don't match up, chances are the person is a fraud.

If you believe someone is attempting to defraud you, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) http://ic3.gov/. The IC3 is a partnership program between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

I hope this information is useful to you.

Cheers,
Blaine
byoung@ynotbid.com