What kind of scamming is this?

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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:22 pm

http://www.tv2underholdning.no/hjelperdeg/dette-er-et-mysterium-3014567.html

The page is for a norwegian tv-show called "TV2 helps you".

In this story they are telling about nigerian scammers who is contacting people who are selling their weddingdress (?), and telling them that they have money ready if they ship the dress first. Some of these women have sent there weddingdresses, but none of them have recieved money for it.

They are also telling that when the dresses arrives Nigeria, no one picks them up - they are just laying at the airport/postoffice, and no one is picking them up. They don´t make any money out of this - so what kind of scam is this?

Sorry for my bad english! Hope you understand Smile

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:21 pm

Weird stuff if they even gone go to collect the dress....

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:28 pm

I may be wrong but isn´t this usually a so-called overpayment scam?

They pay by checks. You receive the check, you send the dress away to Nigeria but - the check was for sum too high. You are friendly and agree to send the difference to the scammer by Western Union, and think you have done a quick and nice deal.

Until - you get mail from your bank and/ or a visit from the police : That check has bounced, and you are charged with check fraud and have a bid debt at your bank! Sad

So it´s a Nigerian fake check and/ or overpayment scam. Our friends from Muguland are great in both Sad

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:48 pm

^^
From reading that article it doesn't seem so to me. Granted I'm basing my understanding on how much Swedish resembles or doesn't resemble Norwegian and it doesn't help that my Swedish is little rusty, but there was this part:

Quote:

Svindelen foregår på den måten at den norske selgeren mottar en falsk e-post fra en oppdiktet bank at pengene for kjolen er innbetalt. Når selgeren kan vise at varen er sendt til Nigeria, skal pengene overføres.

If I understood that correctly, the vics will get a message from a fake bank saying that the money is ready and the vic will get it once the dress is sent (and they can prove it). And then nothing. Of course "nothing" as in "no money", but no checks either. Just...nothing?

I even thought it could be a fake bank site, they could flash and then somehow get the vic into more traditional "get this money from this account but pay muchlotsofmoneybywesternonion first"-scheme that way, however obscure that sounds, but the article doesn't support it either.

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:00 pm

-C- wrote:

^^

If I understood that correctly, the vics will get a message from a fake bank saying that the money is ready and the vic will get it once the dress is sent (and they can prove it). And then nothing. Of course "nothing" as in "no money", but no checks either. Just...nothing?

Correct!

Anyone heard of this kind of scam?

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:14 pm

The question that pops up first in my mind is how does anyone know, really know, that the dresses are in fact "gathering dust", as the article says, in Nigeria?

Since the vic doesn't send any money, doesn't receive any check(s), and is out nothing but a used wedding dress, I think it's about something completely different. Maybe it's all about the dresses. Some wedding dress shop owner struck a deal with the dead letter office? It'd be interesting to know if this is, or has been, a trend on other auction/classifieds sites.

The quote from the Norwegian economic crimes division (ØKOKRIM) is a little weird too;
"There are big storage facilities in Nigeria with weddingdresses and other things that doesn't get picked up. We don't know why."

Seems a lot of stuff goes uncollected in Nigeria, since they need multiple big warehouses to store it all...

Trophy Videos · Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:18 pm

No, I haven't. But, maybe the scammer is reselling them. Have you seen the prices on wedding dresses??
It could also be the first part of a "recovery scam." And the victim will get an email from someone who can recover their dress, or they will recieve "compensation" for sending upfront fees paid to the recovery scammer.
Scammers will very often return to their victims and try running another scam on them, knowing they are susceptible to them, or they will sell their victims info to another scammer to do the same.

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:38 pm

Good point, SlapHappy.
Seems to me it's taking too long, though. Since the Norwegian police have taken the trouble (seemingly) to try and trace the dresses, confirming that they're still in the custody (again, seemingly) of the Nigerian postal system, a recovery scam might trigger unwanted attention for the scammers.

Then again...if ØKOKRIM really knows that the dresses are there, why not demand they be sent back? Hmm. And now I don't have any friendlies in ØKOKRIM to ask anymore, either.

If none of the vics have been hit with the recovery format yet, then I still think it's about the dresses themselves, in some way or other.

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:15 pm

SlapHappy wrote:

Scammers will very often return to their victims and try running another scam on them, knowing they are susceptible to them, or they will sell their victims info to another scammer to do the same. Rolling Eyes

This shows clearly the scammer's mentality. Crying or Very sad

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