Teaching Fake Check Scammers a Lesson

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Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:35 am

This Bait started when I received an email asking if I want to make $300 with my car/truck.

I applied on their website and it started.

"Hiring Manager":

Hello ,

Thank you for your interest in the Sparks Energy Drink advert campaign,
before we proceed we have to find out if you truly own or drive a
vehicle.

So kindly send us the following details:

Your Full Name:
Your Vehicle Make:
Age:
Location:

Send us the above details and pictures of your vehicle as soon as you
can. Then we can proceed!

Best Regards,

Hiring Manager,
Sparks Energy Drink®

Me:

Hello Sir!
I am happy that you guys accepted my application! Here are the details that you requested. I also have another question, I also have a second car so can I also apply so that car can also get stickers on it?

Your Full Name: Madar Chod
Your Vehicle Make: 2019 Porsche 911 GT3
Age: 36 Years Old
Location: Citrus Heights,Sacramento California

Let me know

"Hiring Manager"

Hello

Wrap advertising is the marketing practice of completely or partially
covering (wrapping) a vehicle in an advertisement or livery, thus
turning it into a mobile billboard. This can be achieved by simply
painting the vehicle surface, but it is becoming common today to use
large vinyl sheets as decals. These can be removed with relative ease,
making it much less expensive to change from one advertisement to
another.

How it works?
Here’s the basic premise of the “paid to drive” concept: Sparks Energy
Drink® seeks residents in the United States who are professional drivers
to go about their normal routine as they usually do, only with a big
advert for “Sparks Energy Drink®” plastered on your car. The ads are
typically vinyl decals, also known as “auto wraps,”that almost seem to
be painted on the vehicle, and which will cover any portion of your
car’s exterior surface.

Don’t Have a Car?
If you don’t have a car, you can also participate if you have a bike.
Since you have a car, that is much better.

What does the company get out of this type of ad strategy?
Lots of exposure and awareness. The auto wraps tend to be colorful,
eye-catching and attracts lots of attention. It’s also a form of
advertising with a captive audience, meaning people who are stuck in
traffic can’t avoid seeing the wrapped car alongside them. This program
will last for 3 months and the minimum you can participate is a month.

What is the Contract Duration?
Once the wrap has been installed, the minimum duration to carry the
advert on your car is 4 weeks and maximum is 12 weeks.

Would the wrap/decal damage the paint of my car?
The decal doesn’t damage the paint of the car and it will be removed by
our representative once the contract expires. We will be responsible for
installation and removal of the wrap.

You will be compensated with $300.00 per week which is essentially a
“rental”payment for letting our company use the space and no fee is
required from you. Sparks Energy Drink® shall provide experts that would
handle the advert placing on your car. You will receive an upfront
payment of $300.00 in form of a check via courier service for accepting
to carry this advert on your car.

It is very easy and simple no application fee is required. Get back with
the following details if you are still interested in this offer.

Applicant information:

Full Name :
Full Street Address (not PO BOX) :
Cell Phone Number:

We shall be contacting you as soon as we receive this information.

Best Regards,

Hiring Manager,
Sparks Energy Drink®

After giving him some details,this email came in.

"Hiring Manager"

Hello,

I want to congratulate you as you have been fully admitted into the
Sparks Energy Drink® family.

Kindly be informed that you will be receiving a package on behalf of
Sparks Energy Drink® in a couple of days at the address we have on file
for you.

You will be contacted via phone and email as soon as the package has
been dispatched.

Best Regards,

Hiring Manager,
Sparks Energy Drink®

And just like that these fools had shipped out a fake check,because the next email was

Hello,

The package has been sent out to you via USPS with tracking number
(redacted) and it will be delivered to you today.

The package consists of a check payment which will cover your upfront
payment and also the decal specialist fee.

Upon receipt, you are to have the check deposited at your bank. The
funds will be available for withdrawal in 24hrs after it has been
deposited.

I am checking the availability of the decal specialist which will be
assigned to handle your project, I will get back to you with more
information on that. Let me know as soon as you have made the deposit so
we can proceed.

Best Regards,

Hiring Manager,
Sparks Energy Drink®

I did not respond yet because the package was still far from California.

Oddly a few days letter he sent me this email

Hello,

There was no package sent to you earlier on. The package sent to you
today via FedEx. Kindly confirm your address. FedEx tracking number
(redacted)

The first package was sent by a parcel mule in Boca Raton in Florida and this time the package was coming from Seattle.

I do not know what was wrong with these scammers because they wanted me too reconfirm the name on the check,which I did and then they gave me a new tracking number,this time it was sent using USPS.

After 2 days the website showed that the check had been delivered in the mailbox, so I told the scammer that.

The scammer urged me too deposit the check as soon as possible. I told him that I would do that. The next day I send him a fake deposit slip and he was happy to hear that i deposited the check.

Now comes the part they have been waiting for, they want me too deposit $300 via Paypal, Cashapp or Bank Deposit.

Well not so fast Mr Hiring Manager. I ghosted this guy for 2 days and he started chasing me.

He gave me a Wells Fargo account where I should deposit the money but sadly Wells Fargo was not interested to help me.

I ended the bait by saying that something is wrong with the check and I would get back to him.

In the meantime he replied to my other scambait email asking for my address where he should send the check. I gave everything to him and I received an email saying that the check was send with the tracking number.

After a few days it showed that it had been delivered and I emailed Mr Hiring Manager but sadly his email adress was gone.
It was a custom domain email so someone probably reported his website.

I had calculated every shipping costs and it had cost the scammers around $250 in total.

I changed some of the colors. Green is for mod comments - Bertje

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 9:55 am

Since the parcel was apparently actually delivered: what real address did you use for it to be sent to?

As for the bank account, please report it to any mod (with names in green) using PM (click on "messages" on the top of the page). We can take appropriate steps. Please include some of the scammers details.

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:43 am

removed unnecessary full-quote from message above. Just think of these threads as ongoing conversations! - Bertje

DM with the bank details have been sent.

By the way, I gave the address of a guy that Scams woman online and is also a spam caller.

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:13 am

With regards to providing that guys address, please note the following from our rules (which you can and should read through the link in my signature)

Quote:

We do not involve innocent third parties (ITPs) in our baits. This means any real person or entity, regardless of your opinion of them, who has not consented to be involved in your bait. You may use contact information of confirmed advance fee fraud scammers such as we bait here, but do not use contact information for any other third party, including, but not limited to: police departments or other law enforcement agenies, hotline phone numbers, telemarketing companies, shady mortgage brokers, etc.

If you are in doubt if someone is an ITP, then the answer is "yes". You say that the person who's address you used is a Romance scammer. I am assuming that you made absolutely sure this was the case.

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:41 am

^^^ is it really wise to have a lad send stolen checks to another scammer? The checks generally belong to a victim somewhere out there. Having one criminal send stolen goods to another criminal doesn't help anyone. I'd use a fake address or maybe even a police station or another bank that you could contact and warn (not sure if that's allowed but others will probably chime in). I just finished reading the "Very annoyed cheque lad" bait in the Greatest Hits forum and most of the baiters used fake addresses but asked the lad to provide a copy of a check and contact info of the victim/account holder so the victim could be warned. If the lad used a carrier tracking number like from UPS the baiter sometimes alerted the carrier to intercept the package. Anyway, there are multiple ways you can go about it but having lads send contraband to other lads shouldn't be one of them IMO.

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:45 am

^^ good point

Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:26 pm

LeeScambait wrote:

cost the scammers around $250 in total.

Actually, it almost certainly hasn't cost the scammers a single cent. The fake checks will most likely have been printed by victims of an employment scam who think that they have a legitimate job printing checks for a company and the shipping will either have been paid for by those same victims or using a compromised courier account.

bikeatl77 wrote:

even a police station or another bank that you could contact and warn

This has been discussed in the past - the police/bank would be regarded as an ITP as they would really have no way of doing anything with the fake check and it would most likely just waste their time. Far better, as you said, to use a totally fake address.

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