Subject: e-mail scam
I wanted to let you know that just recently I received an e-mail
from someone who said they were interested in some of my art work
that they saw on one of my sites that I have. (He sent this
directly to my e-mail and not through that site.)
At first it seemed to be okay, he said his name was Joel Baum and
that he was wanting to open a Gallery in Champaign IL. He asked me
my asking price then how could he pay ect.....
After I told him the price and that I would ship them COD. He said
the check would be in the mail that week. We did not hear from him
for two weeks, suddenly he sent one (e-mail) saying he was sending
a check but it was for more (a lot more) than we told him. We did
receive the check and it had a company name on it (T A Operating
Corporation in OH) there is a company by that name on the
internet.
Then we received and e-mail from a company that he said he uses to
ship his items. His name is Berry Dun, Logistic Unlimited Shipping
Inc. and he was requesting a MoneyGram to pay for the shipping and
Insurance for the items. Because of all these red flags we let our
bank know right away and we just talked with our local police about
it. They agree that it is probably a scam and not to send anything.
We let them know we had no plans on doing so. We want to let you
know so that you can maybe help someone who may not be as skeptical
about the honesty of people. If you have any further questions
please feel free to contact me
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2 Posted by Orinda Spence on 08 Jul, 2009 11:15 PM
We had this same scam only they were buying our RV. They sent a large check to cover the cost of the inspection and shipping agents who would handle the sale for him. We were supposed to transfer the extra funds to the agents. Reputable folks pay the shipping and inspection agents themselves; they don't ask the seller to do that for them..
A check takes 45 days to completely clear the banking system and your responsibility for having cashed that check is gone only at that time.
I called the local FBI in Durango CO and they gave me a website on which to report it. I also called our local police. Tthat officer told me there is at least one of these scams each day and usually the persons have been notified by their bank that a bunch of money is owed to the bank because of the "no account" or bad check that they cashed and wired that money to an agent.
So the good news is you still have your money, the bad news is your didn't sell your art. We didn't sell our RV either, but we kept our $9000.
Lesson learned. Since then, I've had two other inquiries and deleted the emails on both. I read the emails carefully. Usually, the English is poor and sometimes not even understandable. Sometimes, the email is a very general one. Asking about items, when we had only one item. That is a good reason for me to hit that delete button.