Has anyone who advertises their boat or motorcycle online received an email like this?
Hello Paul,
I'm interested in buying your Watercraft ($1,850) for one of my clients located in Africa and I have an agent that use to ship the car that I buy from US, so don't bother yourself about the shipping and the titles, my agent will take care of that. I want this craft delivered to my client as soon as possible, so I'll call my client in US to send a certified cashier's check to you because I know it takes about three days for it to be cleared in US bank. I want you to send your best price of the craft along with your full name and address where you can receive the check. I'll want you to do the servicing and polishing of the craft before it will be ready for pick up. More so,if there's any fault, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Waiting for your immediate response.
Best regards,
Bruce.
Naturally, I was skeptical of this guy, so I did some searching, and I foud that this scam has been going on for quite a while. Usually they will say that they have a pre-drawn certified cashier's check for way over the amount you're asking, telling you that they can't break it, and they'll trust you to wire them the difference. Some people will actually go cash the check, send their motorcycle, and the difference in money, and a week later the bank calls them to tell them the cashier's check was a counterfeit. Unfortunately, the US can't prosecute people in Africa, and the African cops aren't interested in doing anything to stop it. http://sailingtexas.com/chumor4.html has more info on the scams and different setups. I also learned that there are other mony scams, and wouldn't you know that today I receive this email:
From: "josephbamba" <josephbamba@libero.it>
Date: 2003/08/26 Tue PM 02:17:52 EDT
To: "josephbamba" <josephbamba@libero.it>
Subject: Confidential from Joeseph
My Dear,
I got your address in my search for an honest and trustworthy business man who
is business wise.. I have aproposal for you - this however is not mandatory nor
will I in any
manner compel you to honour against your will.
I am 32, and had worked with a bank (one of the African leading banks in the
West Coast). Here in this bankexisted a dormant account for the past 8 years
which belong to a Syria national who is now late. When we discovered that there
had been no deposits nor withdrawals from this account for this long period, I
and my two other colleagues decided to carry out a system investigation and
discovered that non of the family member nor relations of the late Syrian is
aware of this account.
This is the story in a nutshell.
Now we want an account overseas where we can transfer this funds. Thereafter,
we had planned to destroy all related documents for this account. It is a
careful network and for the past eleven months we have worked out everything to
ensure a hitch-free operation. The amount is not so much at the moment and plus
all the accumulated interest the balance in this account
stands at-US$9,000.000.00 million US dollars.
Now our questions are:-
1. Can you handle this project?
2. Can we give you this trust?
3. What will be your commission?
Consider this and get back at us as soon as possible. Finally, it is our humble
prayer that the information as contained herein be accorded the necessary
attention, urgency as well as the secrecy it deserves.
We Expect your urgent response if you can handle this
project. send a mail for confirmation.
You can still mail me back at
Respectfully yours
JOSEPH BAMBA
I just wanted to get the word out there....a lot of people have been burned by these assholes. Please tell everyone you know who advertises on the net.
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