When you post an ad on Petfinder, this is the kind of spam you get:
Good Day Sir/MaAm Mr Brakole Hutton I Hail from {Utah} from Salt Lake City USA .This is to let you know that am interested in adopting /buying your pet that you you advertised on the internet but i want to know if the pets is in good condition becasuse i want to adoptlbuying the pet for my dougher cos her pet just died and she;s not happy at home m she felt lonely all the times and she ask me to get another pet for her so that she can be happy again and to know tha final asking price , including the pictures if available ,and i want to tell you that you are less concern about about the shipping because i there’s a shipping company from Salt lake that always do pick up for me ,i hope this transaction will be fast because is within the state . So i want you to reply soon
Best Regards
Brakole Hutton
I got this yesterday, and had two more like it in my inbox this morning.
On the bright side, I also received some non-spam emails, and someone is coming to buy the birds and cage this Saturday (barring another flake-out, of course).
READ ME: Disclaimer
5 Responses to "Wow"
So… ummmm… I don’t get it. What was the point of that spam? I mean, it reads like a Nigerian thing, but I can’t make head nor tail out of what the actual scam is.
Yay PetFinder!!! Booo spam!!
Is that person able to breathe and walk at the same time? Jebus.
It’s the same as the roommate scam, the same as the car-buying scam, etc etc.
They tell you they want the pet, and they know a great shipping company that deals especially with pets; they’ll come pick up the pets, etc.
So, you’re selling a pet for $400. So they send you a cashier’s check ($900) for the asking price of the animal PLUS the shipping, and ask you to send the money for the shipping (let’s say $500) on to the “shipping company” after the check clears your bank. You deposit the check, the money appears in your account in a few days, and everything seems legit, so you wire the $500 to the “shipping company”. Nobody ever picks up the birds. A few days later, you get a call from your bank. The check was fake, and you owe them $900.
Not many people realize that even after the bank puts the full amount of the check in your account, the check still could be worthless once your bank tries to collect the money from the bank on which the check was drawn. So now, you owe your bank the full $900, and you’re not any closer to selling your pet, and you just sent $500 to the scammer.
It’s the same with cars. I have helped 3 people sell their cars on eBay Motors, and there’s always a flurry of scammers asking to have the car shipped to “my homme in Toleado, {Ohio}.!.2.”
The thing that gets people excited about these is that the scammer appears to be willing to pay top dollar, and the check appears to clear your bank just fine.
Also, they pull this scam on ads for roommates. “I’m want to rent you apartment for mye daughter who is model in MAETRO ATLantEA Area. I’m send you six (6.0) month’s worth of rent, plus some spending money for my daughter. Please to wire it to her at xxyy.”
And on and on.
There’s a good rant about it here. And a news story here.
And here’s Snopes’s take on it.
From the Snopes link:
That’s a good explanation. A former coworker fell victim to the scam because he just didn’t understand why the bank would have given him, in full, the cash from a fake check…