New guy with lots of scambaiting experience

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Jun 2014 Posts: 5

Hi all,

I currently have one on the hook right now after he sent me a check for an unknown item. Ideally I would like to catch this guy and make him pay because he is the same person that sent out a "buy" to several of my colleagues. It is now going on a week and I keep stalling. Is there a way to submit my email threads at once so that I can share in the stupidity? I made him send a picture of his wife-to-be before I sent him a money gram.

Open to any suggestions.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

Bait safe.

If the scammer has any details that lead to you drop him.

Read the stickies.

Start here:

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=176248

Good luck..............

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 8:32 pm

Is this a Craigslist scammer? If he responded to your ad, answer him from your baiting account as if your baiting character had posted an ad for a nonexistent item. Unless you are a premium member, you will be using a nonexistent address, so you'll have to guess when the check arrives.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Jun 2014 Posts: 5

No informtation about me has been given. I did have him send it to an abandoned house that keeps getting junk mail. The scammer thinks I am Alex Trebec (Jeopardy game show host). I have even asked him to send a picture of his soon to be wife. He plans to marry her in Alabama. The funny thing about this was that my original item was for $100 but when I started to send emails to him, I asked him for $4700 and he agreed. I have not seen the check yet but his USPS tracking number shows it being delivered.

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:00 pm

Philo is right - Let us know you are baiting using untraceable, non-existent contact information. If not then drop him immediately.
There isn't really a way of posting through email threads straight as neat forum posts. My advice would be keep it short and sweet, cut the irrelevancies and message headers, and keep it readable. put body text in quotes, comment in between the quote boxes.

Welcome to Eater Smile

Edit: Why did you ask him for money?

Quote:

Baiting for cash:- PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Due to the possible legal implications involved, but more importantly because the possible dangers posed to baiters, please note that the Administrators and Moderators of 419eater.com no longer permit any discussion relating to cash baits or methods of extracting money from scammers on this board. If you feel the need to discuss such matters then please do so either by this board's Private Messaging system or by email - but be advised, we do not sanction or encourage such discussions and will play no part in furtherance of cash-baiting.

Any public posts relating to cash baits, other methods relating to the extraction of money from scammers will be immediately locked or deleted.

This comes down to what you did with the cheque. Do feel free to explain what happened next.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Jun 2014 Posts: 5

Oh no... I did not ask him for money. That was not the intention. He asked me what the item costs and I just threw a number out there. I have no intention of going to the bank with it.

I would like for this scumbag to spend money on a cheque sent to the address I gave him, string him along with stupid questions I have as well as questions and comments for him that have no importance to the item I have.

Am I on the right track?

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

Yup

Ask Nailgunner to be your mentor!

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:55 pm

Hi SirLoin

Unfortunately most craigslist lads don't expend a lot of money, their usual modality is to use "work from home" scams to get itp's (innocent third parties) to print out a cheque, or forward on a pre printed cheque.

What they are after is the "shipping agents" fee, which they instruct you to forward via WU

You'll be asked to deposit the cheque as soon as possible, then forward the shippers fee.

By the time the paper cheque clears the system, up to 6 months later, and is found to be fake, it will be your account that the bank will recover their money from. If that is, you haven't been charged with presenting a fake.

Make life too hard for a craigslist lad, and they walk away very quickly, all they are after is a quick turnaround and profit.

Good luck though.

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:58 pm

In reality the scammer is not spending any of his money.

He is using hacked UPS, USPS and Fed Ex accounts to send the checks. So, it is costing these victims money until they find out their account has been hacked.

The check writer is most likely a scam victim who thinks they have an online job. In most cases the scammer will tell the victim to buy software and materials to print the checks. He will tell them that they will be reimbursed and paid in 30 days. This is when the victim realizes they have been scammed because the scammer will not pay them. If by chance the victim does get paid it will from a new victim.

In the future if you get tracking numbers pass them onto a Mod.

ETA: Ninja

by irishemigrant

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:20 pm

Don't use an abandoned house. Use a nonexistent address. The owner of the abandoned house is an ITP.

Drop this bait NOW. Get yourself a nonexistent address for your character and start over with a new lad.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Jun 2014 Posts: 5

I will drop this lad and start over. Thanks for the info.

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:21 am

Ok. It's not unusual just to collect fake cheques but the only way to do it safely is to use a Dropbox. As well as the ITP angle, getting into abandoned houses is almost certainly an act of trespass. More worryingly still, if you can get in then so can an angry lad who's thousands down as a result of your baits. We're just looking out for you Wink

I think it's best to bring this one to a controlled stop and set up something just as effective but with lower risk. Have you gone for bank accounts before? This is a great way to beat them up, for many reasons.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 20 Jun 2014 Posts: 5

Hi Nailgunner,

Thanks for the advice. When you say go for the bank accounts are you referring to making them send more checques to me or is there something on the 419eater website that explains this angle?

Also, I never knew how much satisfaction it was to make these scammers think we are stupid. For example, I asked one lad if can fax him the money and we had an email thread where he was so ticked that he stopped!

Once again, thanks for the help.

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 12:05 pm

^ Basically, what you do is to get the lad to send you "his" bank account information, then pass the info on to a mod. Our mods have some good contacts to the bank world (let's just leave it at that), and there is a good chance that the bank account can be shut down. Don't forget to include enough of the correspondance in your report to prove it is indeed a scam. It's also a good idea to include mail headers. Smile

EDIT: More infor can be found here: http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=237680

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:58 pm

^ exactly

To elaborate, the reason we are so happy to close bank accounts is that they do not belong to the lad, but to a "money mule" who has been duped into accepting and forwarding payments for a lad. Usually it's bank transfers in, western union out. Money mules are usually entirely unaware of their true role and think they have scored an easy, undemanding payment processing job that they can do from home. As such we treat them as victims of fraud and make sure they are warned so that they can extract themselves from the scam and not fall into a similar one.

For the lad this is a major setback since it takes time and effort to convince someone to launder money, and this expense is wasted when an account is reported for for fraud (along with any money in it). If the account belonged to a friend or relative, they will be deeply unhappy with him when it goes up in flames. If the account belongs to a mule he borrowed from another scammer, He will end up in trouble and posibly get a beating. Any way you play it, he gets a good stuffing with every reported account, making the world a little happier Smile

Just refuse to use cash transfers like moneygram or western union, request his bank account details to make a transfer instead. You can't get to the bank, you are housebound, western union is for students, they look at you funny, etc. etc.

good luck Smile

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 2:43 am

Welcome to Eater SirLoin! Very Happy

I think you'll find this thread from EaterU helpful in regard to closing bank accounts, although the procedures for reporting the accounts have changed as now you report the info to a mod.
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=145589

You should also take a look at the info in this sticky if you haven't yet: http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=237673

Lastly, have you considered signing up for a mentor? They can be a great resource to help answer your questions as you settle in!

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