The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: side_show on July 30, 2007, 05:54:14 pm
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Oh, come on now. Really? Is this the way of the world now?
Did it really happen that both my SO and I dealt with fraudsters on Saturday?
Here's how it went down:
The SO found a Nintendo DS for sale on Facebook for a decent price and was going to go pick it up. It sounded like a solid deal, since the lady said she had the Wal-Mart receipt, but that they wouldn't take it back due to the package being opened. Then the SO mentioned the girl would be wearing a hat and sunglasses "because she's just had surgery" and my fraud antennae went up. "Or to conceal her identity" I replied. Since it sounded a little shady, I offered to go with him to meet her, because it's just easier to say "no" when you've got someone to back you up. We went to meet her and sure enough she had on a huge hat and sunglasses. She had what looked like a scanned copy of a receipt for a Nintendo DS with a hole punched in it, but no legit receipt. My SO told her he only wanted it if she had a real receipt, she said that Wal-Mart took her receipt and gave her a copy, so I piped in "really? Because I used to work at Wal-Mart and we never kept receipts. In fact, I don't even think Nintendo will honour the warranty without the original receipt." After we left, my SO mentioned that the photocopy/scan she had didn't even say Wal-Mart on it, and it was dated a month later than when her ad was posted on Facebook.
So we come home, and we're playing the sit and wait game because I'm trying to sell my car and was supposed to be showing it to people that afternoon. One person was a guy who was certain he was going to buy it, another "Juliet" who'd only contacted me via email. No one who said they were coming out showed up, then I got this second email from "Juliet":
"juliet williams" <jullietwills17@hotmail.com>
Thanks for getting back to me.Anyway am okay with the price.However,i will issue you a check with an excess fund which you will send the remaining balance to shipper that will be coming for the pick up.Please kindly get back to me with your information so that the payment can be made on time such as your FULL NAME,CONTACT ADDRESS,CELL PHONE NUMBER.I will be looking forward to read from you soonest.
Jim
You gotta be kidding me.
Is the world just full of assholes? Twice in one day? Really? Really?
I just want to sell my fuckin' car, and he just wants to buy a DS for a decent price. Gah.
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We are complicated people. And the world is a fuck*ng complicated place. I'm surprised I don't get a nosebleed just thinking about it.
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Sounds like this Juliet might be Nigerian.
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What is it with the pinhead fraudsters being unable to work up their own scams these days? Its like there's a Mad Libs book out there IN ALL CAPS AND WITH BLESSINGS that they just cut and paste from. I had the same experience when I sold my classic Mustang on Ebay. For every legitimate wiggle there were about 10 ham-handed responses from people signing names that didn't even imaginatively have any bearing (or even gender agreement) with the throwaway email addresses they used to contact me. Another thing was they were always trying to get me to cancel the auction and work with them on the side for A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN ASKING PRICE. Never mind that its expressly forbidden in Ebay's TOS to do that.
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You should feel good for foiling two scam attempts in one day.
Many many people are just fuck*ng turds that need to be flushed.
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Yeah, the guy at the internet fraud dept. of the police was really excited. He was like "Wow! You didn't fall for it! Good for you!" He seemed really impressed... since I worked for a bank, I know all about over payment fraud and the like. The girl in the hat and sunglasses was just hilarious though. I can't help but wonder just how shady she was, since she felt the need to conceal her identity and such. I'm pretty sure the "receipt" she had was some sort of scan she printed off the internet. I'm sure there's a whole database of fake receipts out there on the web. I don't want to look and confirm this, because it's sort of depressing to think about how hard people are willing to work to rip other people off. I mean... if you worked half as hard to do good in the world... Sigh.
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Shit, Smells, I bet you made the internet fraud dude's WEEK! High Five!
I'm glad that you and the SO didn't get scammed. Sadly, it's easy to do sometimes. But you're iron-clad, 'specially with your mad fiduciary skillz and such. A friend's mom got badly scammed out of thousands of dollars (she's a small business owner) with the whole "gross overpayment" thing. Sadly, even after being scammed, she didn't seem interested in educating herself on all the myriad scams out there. Sheesh. So I'm glad you sent both scammers walkin'.
The sunglasses & hat, nice touch. Jeez.
I like the bumper sticker "evil geniuses for a better tomorrow" or something. If only everybody would use their (albeit meager) powers for GOOD rather than evil, eh? Sigh.
Yeah, the guy at the internet fraud dept. of the police was really excited. He was like "Wow! You didn't fall for it! Good for you!" He seemed really impressed... it's sort of depressing to think about how hard people are willing to work to rip other people off. I mean... if you worked half as hard to do good in the world... Sigh.
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I like the bumper sticker "evil geniuses for a better tomorrow" or something. If only everybody would use their (albeit meager) powers for GOOD rather than evil, eh? Sigh.
I'd even settle for more evil geniuses if we could get rid of the evil morons in return. I mean, at least worthy adversaries would be nice, you know?
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I'd even settle for more evil geniuses if we could get rid of the evil morons in return. I mean, at least worthy adversaries would be nice, you know?
CAN'D for truth, my good Womby!
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I'd even settle for more evil geniuses if we could get rid of the evil morons in return. I mean, at least worthy adversaries would be nice, you know?
Wombles, that's the last thing I want. Give me stupid adversaries every time. What I lose in quality I more than make up for in quantity.
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Pedro lost his credit card recently, and when we realized it had been mislaid we went online and checked the statement. We saw that someone had run up about $150 worth of charges, and at first I was angry, but then I saw that they were all for Burger King gift certificates, and then I was just sad for the thief.
No big deal for us, we'll get it back and all, but somebody out there is desperate and hungry.
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Wombles, that's the last thing I want. Give me stupid adversaries every time. What I lose in quality I more than make up for in quantity.
Yeah, I want all the other ninjas to stand-back as their fellows attack me one at a time. If they realize I'm fucked if they all attack at once, I'm totally screwed!
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Yeah, I want all the other ninjas to stand-back as their fellows attack me one at a time. If they realize I'm fucked if they all attack at once, I'm totally screwed!
That's what the Law of Conservation of Ninjitsu is for. Lots of ninja are inherently less deadly than one lone ninja.
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Pedro lost his credit card recently, and when we realized it had been mislaid we went online and checked the statement. We saw that someone had run up about $150 worth of charges, and at first I was angry, but then I saw that they were all for Burger King gift certificates, and then I was just sad for the thief.
That really is the saddest of all possible credit-card theft situations.
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My ladyfriend always locks the car doors when she's driving. Some times she forgets when she first gets in the car. The first time I noticed her do this was when an old white lady with a walker was walking next to the car. I accused her of giving in to cultural and racial stereotypes.
Now whenever she locks the doors either her or I will say "Oh god, white people!"
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One of my cars does this automatically after you've driven a few feet. Occasionally this coincides with a passerby, which can make me feel awkward - "Sorry, its the car! I didn't find your tattoo'd, bandanna wearing, saggy #####'d self threatening!"
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Pedro lost his credit card recently, and when we realized it had been mislaid we went online and checked the statement. We saw that someone had run up about $150 worth of charges, and at first I was angry, but then I saw that they were all for Burger King gift certificates, and then I was just sad for the thief.
No big deal for us, we'll get it back and all, but somebody out there is desperate and hungry.
Only $150? What a wuss. My mom's credit card thief did it up right, all literally buying diamonds and liquor until it hit the credit limit.
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Yeah, you always gotta lock the car doors when you're driving. Even if it doesn't have power locks and you have to lean all the way over and lock them. Why make it easy for someone to carjack you? Fuck, if they're gonna take me out they're gonna have to bust a window to do it.
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Actually, the common behavior of credit card fraud for those "in the know" is to start with a process called "testing" to see if the card has been blocked. This is done by making small purchases that will not set off the automatic, computerized block that a purchase outside of one's normal behavior would. If testing is successful, the fraudster will move on to attempt larger purchases. A pro would never go and make a large purchase as their first charge on a stolen card, as places where you can throw down major cheddar are also places where the employee actually knows what to do if the card has already been reported stolen.
Common places to perform a test purchase include cab fair, fast food joints and gas station purchases. It's a fairly recognizable pattern: fast food joint, major purchase, gas station, major purchase... all within a short time frame. If the cardholder doesn't usually also spend in this manner, many systems will place a temporary block on a card when a pattern like this appears. I worked for such a card. I'd get the occasional annoyed cardholder calling who'd gone for lunch before buying a TV or something, but after I verified their identity and explained that we had "noticed" spending behavior outside the way they usually used the card they were mostly appreciative.
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Yeah, the guy who got our Visa card got a cheeseburger or something, then had five transactions for $20 each the same day. Pedro is pretty sure he actually lost the card in a Burger King. And he didn't realize he'd lost it for about a week. And the card was nowhere near maxed out, even after the guy stopped using it. Pretty much, he got something to eat, provided for a few week's worth of meals, and then ditched the card.
When Pedro's debit card number was stolen, it was like smells described. Usually the bank calls us if they see "unusual" spending patterns, and we always felt safe with that. But in that case, Pedro still had the physical card, and the thief had apparently applied the information to a different card with someone else's name on it. They were using it to buy big-ticket stuff in California -- five or six hundred at a go -- and also spent considerable amounts at gas stations and restaurants. The worst part is that we were on vacation at the time, so the bank couldn't get in touch with us, and we had to sort out the California transactions from all the ones we'd made on the two-day drive to Toledo, Ohio. (Lots of gas stations and restaurants, in other words.) But they had us cleaned out in about 24 hours, and then some.
That was traumatic. We got it all back, but I felt as violated as if someone had broken into my car. (We've had that happen, too -- three times.)