Bit of fun with a scammer...

[Leon]

Had a guy contact us recently, a Richard Moriss, wanting to buy a load of stuff, 6 of each Dark Ages 1000pt armies to be precise.  This came to £680 I think.  He wanted me to charge his card, plus take an extra fee, which I then had to pass onto his shipping agent (who would be coming to collect the goods...)  This money was to be sent by Western Union as soon as we'd charged his card.

Anyhoo, a quick Google of his info revealed this: http://stopartscams.blogspot.com/2010/07/scam-email-andreas-michae.html#comment-form  So I thought I'd keep him going, and see how much info I could get out of him.  He eventually sent me all his card details, and address of his shipper, etc.  

When I got to work today though, he actually rang the Pendraken number, and asked me if I'd put his card through yet!  I told him no, and to call back in a couple of hours.  With a bit of Wiki'ing, I found out which bank owned the card, and called USAA bank in the US, told them the info, and they blocked the card.  Then when he called back, I broke the bad news to him.  Unfortunately, he hung up on me before I could explain fully, so I opted to send him an email instead.

Hi Richard (or whatever your real name is!),

It's a bit rude to hang up on someone like that!  Unfortunately, it was very obvious from the beginning that you were a scam, a fact proven by this: http://stopartscams.blogspot.com/2010/07/scam-email-andreas-michae.html#comment-form

I have contacted the USAA bank, and they have put a block on the card you are trying to use.  No doubt you have more cards ready to try instead, but at least one person won't be having to deal with your nonsense.  Maybe you should try getting a real job, as you're obviously not very good at scamming.

Thanks.

Normally, it's just cold callers, who I ask to hang on a minute, then leave the phone unattended until they hang up themselves, but this one deserved a bit of extra attention.  

[nikharwood]

Nice 

[Blaker]

Good show Leon.  Hey USAA is just down the street from me or at least the corporate headquarters 

[Annatar]

Hi Leon,

how often do you have to deal with such bold fraud attempts? 

[Techno]

Bloody well done Leon.


Cheers - Phil

[Arsenus]

Well done, Leon!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one sir!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Also report to your local police - there is no crime but they like the intell.

IanS

[Fenton]

I had one of these a few years back when a South African chap tried to buy some of my stuff off ebay, he wanted to send me a cheque for £1300 for items that were sold for £22, he wanted me to cash this cheque then send the remainder to a friend of his in England who was buying wargaming stuff for him . He did send me the cheque which turned out to be from a cheque book that had been stolen from a solictors in Chippenham

I never did sell the stuff 

[FierceKitty]

Never trust a South African!

[sixsideddice]

I hate that type.... rare for me to say I hate anybody but boy do I hate scammers or thieves of any kind - especially those who run off with your gear at trade shows and demonstrations.

Half an hour with in an enclosed room... perhaps Nik or me to hold him while we take turns teaching the guy some.. um.. manners     


Six   

[Leon]

how often do you have to deal with such bold fraud attempts? 

This is the first one which has taken it this far.  We get around 6-10 emails a day from various other types of scam though, from the good old Nigerian Oil Minister, to the 'Your PayPal account has been locked, please follow this link...'.

Also report to your local police - there is no crime but they like the intell.

I wondered about that, but didn't think they'd care.  When you Google 'How to report credit card fraud', you don't get as many useful results as you'd think!  I ended up on the FBI website, where you can report cyber fraud, but they wanted so much information from me I felt like they were scamming me as well!

[nikharwood]

Half an hour with in an enclosed room... perhaps Nik or me to hold him while we take turns teaching the guy some.. um.. manners

Six   

I'm in - shall I bring the German Shepherd too? 

[Last Hussar]

Being a bit thick here - have I understood this right.

He uses a stolen card to buy stuff he doesn't want so you will give the shipping agent cash?  Its a scam to get just that P&P cash?

[sixsideddice]

I'm in - shall I bring the German Shepherd too?

Sweet.... I`ll bring the pliers