[Help] Is this a scam? (email)

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Apr 2009 Posts: 4

There is a guy emailing me saying: "We know what you have been doing"
Only this phrase... it's a "@dhs.gov" email

Just to you guys know, i'm not from USA, i'm from Iceland.

And now he sent me another e-mail, asking "Who are you" "What company do you work" and etc...
He also provided his name, some other names (companies, IDK lol) and a number at the end.

This what happened:

I have a website selling cd key for one game.
Then, a guy bought one by paypal.
We did a fine trade. But he claimed his money back, and he got it. Then, I emailed him that I would contact paypal for my money back because he already had the product. Then he answered me for the first time (when he claimed his money, I've already sent some emails, but no answer) saying these things (probably to scare me, and let it go...), but I'm not sure.

What you guys think? I'm scared, even though I know I did nothing.

Edit: He just sent me another e-mail:
"Selling illegal cd-keys to various software products is a federal offense. Logging into someone elses PayPal account to purchase illegal cd-keys is also a federal offense."
But... it's a game cd key of my own... they are not illegal lol.
And if it was, I think the game company should take care of it, lol

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:56 pm

Claim your money back from paypal. send them the email/s he has sent you.

Sounds like it's a gamer con/scam perpetrated by a wannabe hacker. Not something we deal with here. Nothing to worry about if as you say you have done nothing wrong and the sale of the product was legitimate.

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:07 pm

Sounds like he's probably spoofing the email to make it look like it's coming from the dept homeland security. If you are selling 1 game online, I really doubt they'd care enough to email you, especially someone outside of their jurisdiction. Like Spudz said it's not really a 419, so it does sound like Paypal is your best route.

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:20 pm

It's a spoofed email address. Homeland security don't deal with this sort of thing, you're in a different country anyway and it's your cd key to sell, so don't panic. Contact the game company and tell them your cd key has been stolen, they will then null it making it useless for online play etc.

419Eater is my life Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 299

It is definitely a spoofed email. It is not at all hard to do that (as in make an email look like it came from somewhere else) - I could do it in about 5 minutes.

It is however, fully traceable, so he was very stupid to do it. Tell PayPal about this email you got from the .gov address. It will say in the email header the IP address of the server that mailed it. PayPal should be able to get the owner of the server to reveal who did it. He has, effectively, left his fingerprints at the crime scene.

You certainly have enough evidence to get your money back. It all depends how big a deal you want to make of it.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Apr 2009 Posts: 4

Well, I decided just to ignore it...
And let him have the money, its just 8$...

Thanks for asnwers guys

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 12:01 am

Kick him in the nuts. He'll only try it again and again. Might only be $8 this time, but getting away with it will only give him the confidence to try for bigger things.

419Eater is my life Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 299

Spudz wrote:

Kick him in the nuts. He'll only try it again and again. Might only be $8 this time, but getting away with it will only give him the confidence to try for bigger things.

^ Agreed. ^

I would recommend filing an abuse report with PayPal at the very least. Might be able to get him a warning, plus your $8 back.

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:01 am

Quote:

...He'll only try it again and again..

Yes, and I'd say that's exactly what his modus operandi is. He's probably gotten away with it dozens of times knowing it's such a small amount, most people won't bother pursuing it. I hope you will though. You might post it on scamwarners.com for others too.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 05 Apr 2009 Posts: 4

Ok, I'll say what he's doing to paypal, and post it on scamwarners.

Thanks

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Actually, ScamWarners is for advance fee fraud. You'd be better off finding a site dedicated to this type of scam or a gamer's forum and posting it there.

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 6:58 am

You say it's only $8.00 sure it is, but if 500 people get caught by the same person

I would suggest you send everything you have to Paypal,
get all your e-mails from this person together with anything else you have, together with the e-mail you have sent him, and make up a post, which you can cut and paste onto the paypal site. Claims are timed so if you do it the other way, it will time out and you will need to start again.

Then go into your account page and under the top bar Merchant Services, you will see Resolution Centre, click on that then click Dispute a transaction, and cut and paste your info into the correct box.

They will look into it. and take whatever action they think fit, You might even find your $8.00 back in your account.

But it will cost you nothing and you might just save someone else from going the same way for a lot more then $8.

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:04 pm

While DHS does have components that deal with IPR (intellectual property rights) violations, they would not send threatening emails. If they thought your sales were big enought o go after some nice LEOs from your government would probably just arrive at your door with some interpol inquirys. Maybe...

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:38 pm

Plus, if paypal investigate then there's every chance they'll freeze his account which means any money in it will also be frosen. This could make his life miserable.

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