Is this one of those "Nigerian Scams"

[Crunchy]

My dealer has sent me an e-mail to translate from a buyer in the UK for his Beneli. I read it and thought it sounds like one of those scams going round. Read it and tell me what you think:

It's from (and get this) a Chief Badmus Larry

Thanks for the information, my client will send a banker's draft of 18,000 euros which will cover the cost of the bike, plus shipping, insurance and govt tax.You will deduct you 12,950euro plus any other additional cost that may be charged by your bank when the draft is redeem and transfer the remaining to the shipping company that will handle the relevant documentation with my share and, the fetching of the bike and onward shippment to me. Pls forward your full details so that the banker's draft can be send to you within 7working days.
Note; you will deposit the banker's draft in your account and within 5 working days you will have the cash on your account and deduct your funds then pay to the shippers that will come for the pick up in your location.

I hope you will not betrayed the trust i reposed in you .in GOD we trust?

Forward your details;

Name;

Address;

Telephone

Country;

N;B;i am from U K +447031916582..i am busy write now becuase of my work so i can,t come over to look at the bike for now but when the shipper come over they will see it well

Now, I know that the first give away is the name of the sender and that it's not in the best'est England I used to could, But, just in case there are a few honest Nigerians out there, is there anyone I can report this too? If only to get them arrested :flame:

[antonye]

Sounds like the classic overpayment scam - you get paid too much and asked to refund the difference. The cheque goes into your account, and appears to have cleared, so you pay out the extra and release the goods. The cheque then bounces (international cheques can take upto 30 days to clear!) or was stolen, and so not only have you paid out some money but you lose the goods as well.

This is just common bank fraud wrapped up in a nice letter.

Pass the details onto the police - hopefully they will be able to trace this guy through the mobile number provided.

http://www.nhtcu.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=12321&tt=nhtcu&#Q_12402

[Crunchy]

Originally posted by Dseered
Its looking very scam like, I wouldn't touch it mate !

Do you know who can I contact to report them:puzzled:

[HW]

This was a common type of scam going around earlier in the year. They send you money for item plus enough to pay for shipping, and you put it in your bank. You then send the item off and the bank (eventually) discovers it's not genuine and grabs the money back from your account.

The other variation is they tell you they are owed a larger sum of money and it will be sent to you. They ask you to take what you need for the item and the shipping, then pay THEM the balance. You then find you've not only shipped the item off, and paid for shipping, but have also paid out your cah too. The bank will of course take the money back when they find it is a con - but that is not for a while.

[Edited on 2-11-2005 by HW]

[HW]

As for reporting them, I'd start with the police or the Trading Standards. I doubt either will be the right people, but they might point you in the right direction.

[HW]

Just found this on Google ... might be a good place to start asking

Metropolitan Police - Economic & Specialist Crime (http://www.met.police.uk/so/so6.htm)

[yeti]

Amazed you are even asking, I get quite litteraly dozens of similar scams every month. Wish I could get hold of the f*****s and cut thier nuts off.

[antonye]

I posted the link up there ^^^ you need to contact the National High-Tec Computer Crimes unit, NHTCU.

[Crunchy]

Originally posted by yeti
Amazed you are even asking, I get quite litteraly dozens of similar scams every month. Wish I could get hold of the f*****s and cut thier nuts off.

I'm asking because some of us don't see this every day and wasn't sure where to send it for investigation. I also thought it was quite funny :lol: Do they really think we are that stupid.

The other unfortunate thing is that they are targeting foreigners who can't recognise the bad English. It's giving the UK a bad name.

I've sent a copy of the e-mail too fraud.alert@met.police.uk and hopefully they will catch the b*!stards. I trust Yeti that you always forward your scam emails to them when you get one. If not then you should. It's the only way of catching them :smug:

[clockwork orange]

Unfortunately there are enough folks out there who fall for this kind of thing to make it worth the crook's while to keep trying. Sad times.

[Derek]

When I was selling my 900ss at the start of the year I had about dozen similar emails as a result of advertising on the web. I suggested that they send the cheque to their "agent" who could then pay me in cash on uplifting the bike. needless to say I never heard from them again.

[MARTIN H]

Just for the hell of it I phoned the number given to make a crank call and sure enough its permenantly barred. Thats a surprise!

[Paul James]

Had dozens of these when I advertised one of my 4x4's on an internet site. Hardly worth reporting as the volume of this kind of scam is phenominal. If you've got time and nothing better to do you can have a laugh messing them about, the true "nigerian" scam is the best for this and there are quite a few sites with ideas of how to get back at the scammers.

I'm with yeti on the best way of dealing with them !!!!