The Laptop Scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

Hey all. Long time reader of this site/forum, but I got an email last week that inspired me to finally join up.

I run a computer business, and my work email is readily available on Craigslist and other sites. So, it does tend to catch the occasional oddball request or two.

Recently I've gotten a few emails asking me for a quote to refurbish some old laptops. The first one was pretty bad...grammer and all. I sent him an astronomical quote, and he couldn't even understand what it was I was sending him, so I didn't bother to reply. This new one seems more literate, and even though New Yorkers speak bad, they don't speak THIS bad.

Quote:

Hello,

How you doing?

My name is N4t4sh4 Willi4ms. Originally, from Bronx, New York. I work in Germany presently.

I read your description and am interested in your services,I will be importing some computers into the states soon.The PC are laptops Pentium 3 dell & hp Computers...i want you to Install softwares, clean inner & outer computer components and update softwares to current status. They are about 10;10 computers. I have a shipping company that will ship them to and from you . So no worries about that .

I will be providing the softwares to be installed . Installation of softwares; anti virus,Microsoft excel,powerpoint,adobe pagemaker,microsoft office,coral draw and dvd player. These are the softwares I will provide and will provide each drivers/license keys for this softwares .

Get back to me with a price for 20 computers . I will like you to know this wont be an end to our transaction as I will be able to introduce you to more of my friends in this field depending on charges as we recently lost our engineer for as regards. I might have more work for you in the near future. Let me know.

Let me know if you'll accept money order or check as mode of payment.

I await your urgent response so that i can put arrangements in order.

Thanks
N4t4sh4.

[email protected]

So, I send back my usual "over the coals" quote to see how she reacts.

Quote:

Thank You for considering our company.

Prices are as follows:

Per computer - $220 USD
$120 USD - Install Operating System
$50 USD - Install / Setup Extra Software
$50 - Internal / External Cleaning

If you send me 10 laptops, this would equal $2,200 USD.

I can also provide you with a CD/DVD that will have an image of the completed system, which will allow you to restore the computer to its initial state without having to pay someone to reload all your software. The fee can be discussed if you are interested.

I will not install any software that does not have an appropriate license, And I will not cover your return shipping expenses, so please include return shipping labels with your package, or be prepared to send a second money order to cover the expense.

Thank You again for considering my company.

Nobody is going to take that rate. You can BUY a damn P3 Laptop for less than the cost of this "refurbishing". Much to my surprise, I get a somewhat lucid response:

Quote:

Hi . Thanks so much for responding back to my introductory email .
Everything sounds great to me . I am comfortable with the requested
amount to do this work. it's great as your service fee sounds quite
reasonable and affordable at this time($2,200.00/10 laptops= 4,400.00
USD for all 20
Laptops).Sounds good. I will provide all
documents relating/stating that i owe all the PC just so for security
reasons.

I must confess, I am so glad to read from you, I really appreciate
your response. And I really do hope we can continue to do business in
the future since I just lost the guy that does all this stuffs for us
.

However, I will provide all the softwares to be installed and
will provide all necessary drivers/license keys along with the
computers . There are about 30 computers right now. We can start with
20 right for now . Let's see .

I have a shipping company that will ship them to and from you . I
will need your shipping address for this as well as informations for
your payment .

Half of your payment will be made out to you in advance, prior to
the computers been shipped to you and upon finishing work on them I
can arrange for the shipping company to pick them up .I will need to
know your informations for the payment ; your full names as you want
it to appear on the payment, your mailing address where to mail it out
to and a phone number so as to prepare the payment immediately

Get back to me and let me know this information as soon as
possible . I might have more work for you in the future . Let's see .
It all depends on this first transaction . I hope to read from you
soonest.......

Respectfully,

N4T4SH4 WILLI4MS.

Morbidly curious how this was going to play out, I sent her my company information, which is publicly available already. Her reply:

Quote:

Sounds good . I'll let you know anything has been sent out and with
further instructions. I hope you really want to do this and hope we
can continue to do business in the future .

However, I will like to know how long it would take you to complete
job on all Laptops . I will like to know since I have limited time
available to get them to you and then return to my customer in
Baltimore, MD . Let me know as soon as possible .

Thanks and God bless you for your kind business.

Respectfully,

N4t4sha Willi4ms.

I'd already demanded a money order and legitimate licenses, so I was somewhat surprised this was still going on. I sent an email back detailing how long it would take me to do the work and what factors would affect that time.

The next email I didn't respond to.

Quote:

Alright. all arrangements should be this week . Just waiting on my customer . as soon as I hear anything, I will get back to you and provide you with reasonable information and instructions as to complete this soon . I hope this is clear to you . Please keep in touch .

Thanks and God bless you for your kind business.

N4t4sh4 Willi4ms.

And then comes the kicker!

Quote:

Hi, Good morning . How are you doing today?

However, I just received an email from my client. The payment has
been made out to you but we encountered a problem . A total of
$4,500.00 was sent out to you instead the original half of your
payment. It's funny as This will just have to be your services fee +
shipping fee . So I will want you to disburse funds from the check to
the shipper. as soon as you get the check, I will want you to to
separate your own funds from the check and get the rest funds sent out
to the shipper immediately .

The remaining difference of the money should go to the shipper via any
western union outlet as to open a file for the computers and get the
laptops to you .You will need to send the funds to him to get this
going immediately you get the check . Is that Ok ?

i hope this is something you can do to get this going . am truly sorry
for any inconvenience you may have to go thru handling this .

Get back to me with any question . I hope to read from you soonest.

Sincerely,

N4t4sh4 Willi4ms.

So that's where I sit as of this morning. I've not done any real scambaiting before, but this lad is active enough that he/she is probably worth a few fun and games. Any ideas?

Thanks!

-T

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

It looks like an overpayment scam to me.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/12/checkoverpayment.shtm

As the scammer has real life info on you it is best to drop them, they are criminals and do have associates around the world. If you want to mess with them, open a gmail account using 100% fakey details, then read all you can here, ask for a mentor etc and then grab a lad from surplus.

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:34 pm

Drop them and then rebait from a new email address that cannot be traced. If they have anything that can be traced back to you, it's not worth it.

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:48 pm

When the check arrives, email him to say that your bank immediately spotted that it was a fake. It's the easiest way of ending this.
As others have said, he knows too much about you for you to risk baiting him.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 2

Thanks for the tips. Just sent this one to them.

Quote:

Somehow, I don't think that's ok.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/12/checkoverpayment.shtm

Have a nice day!

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:26 pm

you will get a reply, I believe. trying to convince you that it's not a scam...