SCAMPATROL

vballguy31 · ***NEW*** Forum Member Joined: 03 Oct 2007, 14:02 Posts: 1

I found an ad on Kijiji.ca (here in canada) where a laptop Dell XPS M1710 for $810. I negotiated a bargain price of $700. He then informed me that he was in the UK and that I should send money through Western Union to a 3rd Party. He said he brought the laptop the TNT (shipping company) and once the payment was received it would be shipped out. I sent a payment and I received an email from express_TNT@representative.com saying the payment was received and that the laptop was on its way.
I then received an email from both TNT and the seller that TNT sent two laptops by mistake and that I could purchase the second laptop for $300. I again sent the payment and now have not received the laptop.
I'm not sure how I can contact the Western Union rep to find out who the payment was picked up by.....but I wonder if there is a way to trace the emails to an IP address?
ANyhow....keep an eye out for this kind of scam. I'm out $1000.

firehouse5 · Posted: Thu 04 Oct 2007 14:29 Post subject:

Sorry to hear about your loss.

If you have the email headers you can probably see where the message was sent from (IP addresses appear in the headers of most email messages). But I'm sorry to say you will most likely meet a dead end at that point. Even if you find a real location it's likely to be in a country where this kind of crime is not seriously prosecuted.

Payments through Western Union are notorious in this regard, they can be picked up by just about anyone as long as they have the sending details (e.g. Q&A). If a payment has been picked up, it's gone. WU will be able to tell you "Yes, it has been picked up" but no more.

The "TNT" shipping company is also completely fraudulent -- the emails were sent to convince you that the laptop(s) really existed, and to try and get you to pay more.

jez · Posted: Thu 04 Oct 2007 18:44 Post subject:

And "express_TNT@representative.com" is a free email account from mail.com. Free email accounts are never used by real businesses but scammers use them because they can be registered with fake details.

alax · ***NEW*** Forum Member Joined: 10 Dec 2004, 15:14 Posts: 4

Never use WU to send money to purchase something.

You should use Paypal or paymate etc for online business

Georg · ***NEW*** Forum Member Joined: 14 Jul 2006, 11:36 Posts: 1