Take over scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2017 Posts: 2

Hi!

I am new to this place - though I found it when I was googling how to make a fake western union receipt to send to the scammers. Let me tell you the story. It is an interesting one and it is still going.

So I run a couple clothing businesses. I work with factories around the world, and every Halloween season I work with this particular factory in China. This is our third year of transactions.

It started with our typical emails back and forth like we do every year. How many, colors, etc. We got to the point of that "Lisa" (she is the legitimite girl I speak to everyyear) was going to send me the invoice.

Now each year I have paid paypal.

So she sends me the invoice and tells me they have a problem with their paypal with tax and I must pay them Western Union. Now I trust this girl, I have used their business for years and never had an issue.

I noticed something very small during one of these emails - her signature disappeared. I am very observant. So I noticed. Anyway then she tells me they are using an agent now for their Western union to avoid tax and he is located between China and Africa (ding ding) and he transfers it into their bank account once a week.

Didn't sound right obviously and I noticed the emails tone had changed.

Anyway after going back and forth for a while, I managed to find Lisas real whatsapp number and contacted her and of course she had no idea and logged into her email to see that the scammers had taken over about 10 different email convos to her customers and already two of them had paid the western union.

I tell you what the sneaky thing was - the scammers went through our past 3 years of emails between me and lisa and reused phrases we used, they got my phone number and called me about a few times using a CHINESE accent to say oh its all fine just confirming blah blah. They even changed the old signature details in the chain of emails to a fake phone number. It was very very planned that they took over right as the invoice was happening. Because before that it was real between Lisa and I

Anyway I am dragging it on. First I told them to email in via another email address because I wanted to get them off her email - and she is in the middle of sorting it out - I don't want her getting the notifications (lisa)

so we merged over to some dodgy email of theirs. For the past week I have dragged on that I am paying them/ and now have payed them

When they called they spoke to me, then my "assistant" and then another time my "accountant" who keep giving them stories like yes its paid, she is in a meeting let me check with her.

I am up to the part of sending them a fake MTCN number but I haven't sent them a receipt yet. I am dragging that on as long as possible. I love that they call because they really think I am falling for it. I even call them Lisa just to mess with them even more.

I feel really really bad for Lisa though. She has lost over 10k worth of orders from this. Her clients from other countries might not have picked up the language change and therefor fell for it. I told her to get all the numbers of her customers that she is dealing with (she has them saved) and whatsapp them all and warn them asap. Not to do it via email. She is not very savvy with these scams.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:19 pm

It's good that you discovered it was hackers in her email box before you sent any money. Having said that, these criminals have your real life details, Lisa's real life details and three years of messages. For both your sake and Lisa's you should stop communication immediately. These folks are obviously sophisticated and calculating and criminals have been known to take revenge against those who waste their time. If you want to learn more about 419 scamming, which is different than what you are describing here (which is hacking a business account and diverting funds), please stick around, but definitely do not communicate with any criminal who knows your real life info.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2017 Posts: 2

Its true. Probably not worth anything more for the risk of them trying to get revenge.

I was so angry at them to what they did to Lisa. And they are probably still doing it - I have no idea how she is dealing with it. I hope they don't get more money out of her

I will play dumb and tell them Western union called me and stopped my payment because it is a scam. And just end it there.

Thanks for the reminder. If they didn't have her personal info would be worth it but better to be safe.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 6:19 pm

Trontronpizza wrote:

I will play dumb and tell them Western union called me and stopped my payment because it is a scam. And just end it there.

It's far better to just disappear without accusing them. Just block them and don't respond any further.

If you accuse them of being scammers then at the very least they will deny it and try to carry on with the scam or may decide that you were messing with them all along.