What time is it? Spam Baiting

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419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

Along with all the usual 419 rubbish I get spam in my catching account. This one looked slightly different

Quote:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to ask if you are interested in buying watches from China.

We are ISO 9001:2000 Certified Chinese manufacturer of watches. Products include:

Military series - our own brand Sunboro boasts a wide variety of watches designed for those in military service; its manly and mighty look also draws eyeballs of city boys

Professional series - launched with a uniq identity of designated professional domain, e.g. police series, tax officer series, etc.

Memorials - inspired by and melted with particular historical moment, which reflects the eternal and everchanging nature of time itself

Gift Watch - designed and manufactured to go with varieties of sales promotions

We make and sell our own designs, and provide customized manufacturing as well. Currently we are supplying different watches to North American and European clients. We genuinely believe that we can help you increase your margins by supplying you at unbeatable prices.

If this would be of interest to you, please do not hesitate to contact us. We can give you a quote or organize for samples to be sent to you within 3 days, and would like to invite you to send us your requirements. For more information about the company and products, please check out our website at www.xblwatch.com .

Thank you for your time! We look forward to hearing from you.

With kindest personal regards,

Barry Yu
Overseas Sales

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

I thought I'd see if a chineese spammer is more intellegent than a west african scammer.

Quote:

Hello

Yes, I am very keen to buy some of your watches. Please send me more information. I own a market stall on the Old Kent Road in London and am always looking for things to sell.

Please give me a full inventory of the watches you are willing to sell to me.

Hugo Pulz

Quote:

Hi Hugo,

Thanks very much for your quick reply. For more information, please take a while and browse through our website at www.xblwatch.com . Most of our watches are listed there and we normally keep inventory for most of them. You may find more contents in Chinese pages than in English pages, since we are still in the process of developing English pages and will make them equal to Chinese pages. May I suggest that you check through all the products and get back to me with specific ones in which you are interested, and I would provide detailed information accordingly.

You can also find retail prices in RMB on those pages. Current exchange rate is 1USD +AD0- 8.26 RMB. Since Chinese government applies a currency policy which pegs the rate of RMB to USD, the 8.26 rate is very firm and steady. We provide a discount up to 15+ACU- for orders with +-50pcs, and if quantities are even bigger, more discount might be possible. International costumers should add an extra freight cost of USD10 for orders with -10pcs, and USD20 if +-10pcs - 50pcs. We'll ship them
directly to you+ACE- For huge orders, we usually ask the freight to be collected or to be negotiated upon the case.

I have prepared a catalog in word attachment (10M) for our military series. If you are interested to have a look and are sure that your email box has 10M-plus capacity, please let me know.

Again thanks very much for your interest+ACE- I look forward to hearing your reply soon.

Best regards,

Barry

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

That business about the rate of exchange sounds like a scam to me. Anyway the catalog might be interesting.

Quote:

Hi Barry,

I had a look on your web site but didn't understand anything because it was all written in chineze. I have no problems with you sending me the catalog of yourwatches to this email address.

Your rates for shipping seem quite reasonable.

I look forward to doing business with you.

Hugo

Quote:

Hi Hugo,

Thank you very much for your enthusiasm about doing business with us. I am looking forward to a winning cooperation with you, too-

Sorry you were not able to see the English pages. Please try again this link:

http://www.xblwatch.com/en/index.asp

And I'll send the catalog in another mail shortly, though I understand that Yahoo usually provides a 2M mail box, while the catalog will be around 10M. Please advise once you receive it.

Regards,
Barry

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

I get the catalog and it is 10Mb!! Lots of pretty pictures of watches. Now to see if I can get the silly picture.

Quote:

Hello Barry

I got the catalog. Yahoo recently increased the account allocation so there were no problems.

The watches all look really nice. What I propose is that I order an initial consignment of 20 or 30
watches. Then if it all works out, I think it will be possible that I will be ordering about 100 per month. Will you be able to supply the watches in this quantity?

If you are willing to continue there is one other thing that I must ask from you. A few months ago I
ordered some mobile phones from someone in Romania. After months of delays and excuses the phones never arrived and I lost a lot of money ($5000). I later found out that this is a well known scam and the phones never existed at all.

Please do not be offended, I am in no way accusing you of being a scammer or a thief like these despicable Romanians, but I need to have some real assurance that the watches are real and that you are able to cope with the quantity I am asking for. Therefore, what I need from you is a photograph of yourself holding some of the watches that are available from your catalog. I am fully aware that such a photograph could easily be forged, so I also require you to be holding a sign with the words "Hugo's Watches" on it. I know this may sound like a strange request to make, but it is the very nature of the strangeness that makes it impossible for the photograph to be faked.

Once you have supplied me with the photograph that I ask for I will immediately place an order for about 30 watches. Without this photograph I am afraid that We will not be able to do business.

Best wishes and I hope we can do business
Hugo

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

Will I get the picture?

Quote:

Hi Hugo,

Thank you for your kind words on the watches. I trust some of them will become popular considering tastes of your customers. And thank you for your proposals. It'll be all nice if it all works out. We have no problem supplying the proposed quantity. - In fact we produce thousands of watches every month, and sometimes even more.

Sorry to know the sad story. It's certainly one of the most awful experiences one would never wish to have. I 100+ACU- agree with you there as on minimizing business risks. However, the proposed method seems a bit far off the way. We have other means which would help to limit the risks to a lowest level, such as:

1. Learn more about business partner. You are most welcomed to pay a visit to our company at any time, to look around and see how we work things out. As ISO 9001 certified manufacturer and Permanent Chartered Member of China Clocks +ACY- Watches Association, I trust we would have something to show and say.

2. Confine rights and obligations by legal documentation. We can sign agreement and/or contract on every deal, and keep originals in file. If there's something going wrong, legal actions would be taken against the other who breach the agreement.

3. Order in small quantities as a trial towards business. We could try several small run at first, say some 3-5 watches, until you have found enough confidence in our abilities and integrities, then enter into larger orders.

Sorry I am afraid I can not do things like what you suggested, though I 100+ACU- understand your concern on your own safety. That would be a shame to my company, and would be an unhappy experience to myself as you can imagine. Please understand this. I wish that you could consider my proposals above and we would somehow enter into business.

Thanks and best regards,
Barry

I don't think I'll get the silly picture, but I'll give it one more go.

Quote:

Yes I got your proposal. I am very dissapointed. I thought you were serious in wanting to sell me some watches but now I see that you are not. Is this how you treat all of your customers? If so then you don't have many customers.

I am willing to buy a great number of watches from you over a considerable length of time and yet you will not do one small thing for me.

If you will not provide me with the photograph as I asked for then there will be no deal. I will source the watches from somewhere else. No picture, no deal. Are you willing to just drop a deal like this?

Hugo

On going.....

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:40 pm

This company does not look like a scam to me...

In fact, I own this watch http://www.xblwatch.com/en/list.asp?id=299 with "50th Anniversary of P.R. China Officer Watch" on the dial. (I do not know if this is correct, but it came in a nice wooden box and looks just good on the shelf. I wondered why the chinese army would mark their officer's watches in english...)

Edit: Found the site where I ordered it: http://www.eurotops.de/artikel.php?page=01

To see the full page with all frames: http://www.eurotops.de/

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

It probably isn't a scam but it was spam which is just as bad. Looks like I'm not getting a silly photo.

Quote:

Dear Hugo,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry you are not happy with my proposal. I
understand different people have different ways to do business and
sometimes we have to adjust ourselves to suit customers' demands. Please allow
me more time to learn and get adjusted. Meanwhile you would be most
welcomed to get back to me with your inquiries.

Thanks and best regards,
Barry

At least I wasted some of this spammers time.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:39 pm

Where does the IP address originate?
Could it be a mugu claiming to be a watch dealer?
Just because it's a legit website doesn't mean the emailer is employed by the company. I could just as easily sell you 1000 Rolexes at inflated exchange rates!

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 443

The IP was from China.

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