Return the excess money scam
The Spam Diaries is reporting on a new form of 419 scam. The scammer arranges to buy a service from you. And it’s targeted DIRECTLY to something you’re selling or providing.
They then send a cheque for more than you’re asking, and then ask you to return the excess money. Problem is, the cheque is fraudulent…
The Spam Diaries: New kind of phishing scam
In fact, this scam isn’t brand new. I saw the first mention of it a while ago, when someone in Africa arranged to buy a car in Norway and have it shipped to Africa. They sent more money than the car was going for, and asked the seller to send them back the excess. I don’t remember if the seller was taken in by the con or not, but the story ended up in the papers as an example of the new type of con.
I found one story about this (but not the one I originally read), from November 2004: Nigeria svindlere. Ah, here’s one example of the type of story I was thinking about, from December 2004. Nettsvindler slo til etter en halvtime, and here’s another: Ny massesvindel via nettannonser
Here’s an actual example of such a car buying scamster from February this year:
no.it.sikkerhet
Just ignore the Norwegian stuff and scroll down to the sample letters.
Hmm, looks like this is the story I originally saw: Stefan snakket med Nigeria-svindlere
And here are some stories I found in English:
Joe Wein, Nigerian Scam Involving Counterfeit Cashiers Checks for the Fraudulent Purchase of Used Cars and Online Auction Items using Bogus Bank Draft Cheques., Car Buying tips, Nigeria Check Fraud Scams
March 12th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
When I post things for sale in Craiglist, I get such 419 spam in my box offering to send me more than what I posted what I sell stuff for.
June 24th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
I have had 4 different people try and scam me like this. I have a vehicle for sale in the yahoo classifieds and they want me to cash the cashiers check and send the excess back with the transport company for their costs. When the checks got here it was so obvious they were fake you would have to be a idiot to fall for that. Seller bewere.