WILL THIS WORK?! - RECEIVING CASH THRU WESTERN UNION (WU)

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Mar 2011 Posts: 5

Hi,

I am selling an item. Smile

After I dissed paypal, the buyer in Nigeria suggested that he will pay me through WU.

Now, will this work:

a) I give the Nigerian my name and WU branch of choice

b) I receive the MCTN code and go to the said branch and get the physical cash (cold hard cash!!)

c) Now that I have the cash, I ship the item to the Nigerian.

I can't see any danger in proceeding with this.

What do you guys think?

Is there a chance some guy will face-ID me or follow me from the WU branch, then rob me, etc?

Cheerio!

Fixed nasty red font - RC

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:18 am

No. You'll not be followed from the WU and robbed because there is no cold, hard cash.
The scammer wants YOUR money and he's not going to part with his.

insults and more · Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:21 am

There is no cash waiting for you. And he has your real life details.

Stop all contact with him. Run a header from one of his emails through iptrackeronline.com, make a note of it, and make sure you don't reply to any email coming from that IP.

Also, post up everything the scammer sent on ScamWarners.com so future victims (and, like you, near-victims) can be warned.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:43 am

Hello iPad2.

The chances are that you will receive a spoof e-mail from (presumably) Western Union asking you to send them a Dispatch Tracking Number as proof that you have sent the item before releasing any money.

Once the scammer tracks the item and finds that it has left your country you will soon find out that this is a scam; in fact you may receive further e-mails asking you to pay taxes on the item delivery.

Western Union and MoneyGram transactions are intended only for transactions between yourself and people you know and trust.

A variation on this scam: Exactly the same but with PayPal

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Mar 2011 Posts: 5

Hi, Wow this is some prompt replying!

a) The only thing I would have given him would be my name (for collection generating the MCTN for collection at WU). Is that dangerous?

b) Happy to post my experience - I use a macbook and use the Mail app. How do I check his IP from his email?

Tks!

Btw... I think I found this link on this forum - http://www.xxxxxxx.info/wugen/index.html

I'm not sure what this link is for but is this what the scammers use to generate fake MCTNs?!

Link redacted for obvious reasons-MM

@iPad2- you have PM

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Mar 2011 Posts: 5

Spot,

Thank you for ur further info!

I thought WU is not involved in the dispatch or even the selling bit - ie. they are just a intermediary to transfer cash upon instruction from the 'payer'.

So, if I really get an MCTN number, then proceed to the WU of choice to collect the (non existent!) cash, the worst is that I'll get told by WU that the MCTN number doesn't exist or it's fake, right?

SORRY FOR THE QUESTIONS, ALL! LEARNING AS I GO ALONG TO SPREAD THE INFO ABOUT THESE SCAMS!

Duplicate post fixed - RC

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:57 am

As much as I hate to insinuate that this buyer is not all they seem, I'd proceed with caution.

You can bet there will be some problem or other with any westy transfer. Could be anything from sudden illness to getting robbed on his/her way to the office to send the money.

It wouldn't surprise me if they turn this into a cheque scam.
That is, they'll send you a cheque for a lot more than the item you are selling is worth, then ask you to cash it take what you are owed and send the difference back to them. Followed by the goods if you ever hear from them again.

Best thing might be to just drop them and look for another buyer. Wink

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Mar 2011 Posts: 5

Hi Windypops - thanks!

If someone sends me a cheque for more than the price of the item, that wouldn't be smart cuz I could simply cash the cheque and don't send him back the difference, right? Unless there is more to it than I know the process of.

insults and more · Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:12 am

^^^ The check would be fake. The money is flash money, basically a bookkeeping illusion while the check is processed. Once the bank discovers you cashed a forged check, you become a criminal. You get arrested, go into debt, and prison-raped. The lad gets away scot-free and his next victim buys his next weekend out on the town.

Additionally: if a lad does give you an MTCN which you can check online, and verify, it means he sent $1 to himself. We don't do the same in baits, because lads will recycle every single thing you send them if it will help them convince future victims.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:28 am

Can you post his email?
Signs of a scam are
He refers to whatever you are selling simply as "your item" to avoid having to customise emails.
He offers to pay extra for your "trouble"
He asks no questions about the item.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 03 Mar 2011 Posts: 5

Hi Tambourine Man,

email is [email protected]
And it's a YES to all ur questions.
The scammer offered to pay me about 2.5 times the market price of the item currently, to also cover 'shipping'.
The only question he asked was his first email - is the item in excellent condition.

I'm sure it's a scam. What will you do with his email? Will this be compiled together into a list for people to check? Is there a way to check the IP address with just this email?

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:21 pm

Hello, I believe tambourine man was requesting the first message you have recieved from this man.

I would suggest you, to delete all possible personal details that might be content of the email.

Even though it's no true that all scammers are from nigeria or west africa in general, it may look suspicious and there are damn good reasons why it looks like so. Smile

I would like to see that message as well, after that we can make some more solid conclusions Smile

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:23 pm

iPad2 wrote:

Is there a way to check the IP address with just this email?

Yes, as its a Yahoo account, the emails headers will show his IP. Please look at the FAQ's in the Hints & Tips forum to see how to do this, post them here and we'll work out where he's from. The other upside is that anyone with enough sense to Google his IP in the future might end up here.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

Have we covered all the major angles on this?

Cautionary notes:
1) Sending bodily waste samples - TOTALLY ILLEGAL!
2) American? - Simply handling a fake cheque / money order is a Federal offense.

My suggestion ...
tell him some other scammer (Err nice gent in Port Harcourt) has sent you a cheque for far more money which you've cashed and are now dispatching the goods via his agent along with the cash to pay the shipping. That should annoy & frustrate the gent nicely.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:00 pm

Unless you want to bait this guy, which I suggest you don't as you have given him some details. Just send him a polite email saying the item has been sold and you are no longer selling it. Also contact scamwarners and craigslist or wherever you put the item. Suggest you try e-bay, there you can tell the good from the ad by the feedback (usually) also paypal protects you.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:20 pm

wowwow wrote:

Suggest you try e-bay, there you can tell the good from the bad by the feedback also paypal protects you

Not necessarily, I bid for a BMW M3 that was stupidly cheap, and suspiciously abroad. It turned out it was being sold as a scam by a lad who had phished the account of an eBay user with 100% feedback. Sad

He got round Paypal by sending me emails from 'eBay Europe Escrow Service' (who shared his IP address) - they wanted me to pay them direct, cutting out Paypal and the original eBay account holder.

When I advertised a car on there I started to get pm's via email from people who wanted to overpay me for the car, unseen. Nigerian IPs, funnily enough.

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