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 A couple of weeks ago I posted some tools for sale on Craigslist including a pneumatic flooring nail gun. After lots of market-style price haggling and numerous no-shows, I was thrilled when someone offered to pay full price and requested that I ship the nail gun. The following is my personal account of someone’s attempt to con me out of $1,200 in a scheme commonly known as the “Nigerian Check Scam.”
The nail gun in question is one that I bought new several years ago to lay 1,000 square feet of oak flooring. I posted it, priced at $400, and promptly received an inquiry in my email.
(Sent at 3:51 AM Jan. 12, 2010) “Good day, i will like to know if this item is still available for sale and if the condition is as described well,so i can make further arrangement for the purchase and the last price.....Ok ”
I replied explaining that the nail gun had been lightly used, only in my own home. The next communication came the following day.
(Sent at 2:29 AM Jan. 13, 2010) “Hello, Thanks for your prompt reply.Well, i must say you've got a nice item and as a matter of fact, In a transaction like this, i will appreciate it if we can put trust first so that the transaction can go smoothly. I would have love to come by with cash and pick it up but at the moment am a kind of too busy to come over,so i think i can send you a cashier check via Fed ex Or UPS overnight and my shipping company could come pick it up once payment is cleared.The Check will be excess and all you what will need to do is to just send the remaining balance to my Shipper for pick up after deducting your money,if you are ok with this pls do get back to me with your full name,address and phone number so i can proceed with the payment and pls do keep this item for me and inform other interested party that its beensold..ok
Regards,”
In spite of poor grammar, I took the next step with the transaction. I have sold on eBay for nearly a decade, so I was fine with minor shipping irregularities. I guess that my willingness to accept weirdness made me vulnerable. It’s a little embarrassing, but that mindset is probably important for these scams to work. I replied with my name and address and waited for the check. The buyer sent another email the next day.
(Sent at 2:13 AM Jan. 14th, 2010 ) “Hello, Thanks for getting back to me,I will instruct my client to make out the check to you as soon as possible , So all you need to do now is to watch out for it and just get back to me as soon as you receive the check so i can send you my shipper information for you to send him the remaining balance as i said the check will be excess and he will be taking the remaining balance for pick up. Kindly please delete the ad on Craigslist because am about sending the payment and you should receive it and i don't want you to sell the item to someone else. I will draft a letter to you concerning the pick up and my picker will bring that same letter i draft for you,So you will know he is my shipper and he will also show you his drivers license,Hope to hear from you and thanks for your Co-operation. Regards,"
I found elements of the buyer’s message disturbing. This was the first mention of a client and clients don’t make out cashiers checks. Cashiers and bank tellers do. Even so, it could still be legitimate. No harm, no foul. I was concerned that by giving out my full name and address I may have exposed my family to someone with ill intentions, but in-person Craigslist transactions usually involve an exchange of full names, a home address, and driving directions.
Saturday January 16, 2010 I received a UPS Next Day Air Envelope. The outside of the envelope showed the shipper as “Debra McW------” at an Atlanta, GA address. (I have removed some identifying information because if the named shipper is a real person, she is likely also a victim in this scheme.) The shipper and destination were hand written. I opened the envelope and found a check from WHG Funds of Kansas City, MO. The check, numbered 8565 was dated January 14th for $1650.
A Google search led me to WHG Funds’ website (http://www.whgfunds.com) where I found that their address matched the one on the check. I also found on the side of the check a copywriters statement from “© 2005 Intuit Inc. #785.” Big corporations seldom use cheap checks self-printed with out-of-date software. A ‘Rudy W----,’ or someone forging the signature with that name, had signed the check. There was not any note or documentation related to this check. Just a check for four times the price of my nail gun.
After a little research I was 99.99% sure this was a classic Nigerian Check Scam, not necessarily from Nigeria but named after that country for its prevalence in these scams.
According to the National Consumer League’s Internet Fraud Watch pages (http://fraud.org/tips/internet/fakecheck.htm), fraudulent checks may look real enough to fool bank tellers.
“Some are phony cashiers checks, others look like they’re from legitimate business accounts. The companies whose names appear may be real, but someone has dummied up the checks without their knowledge.”
I contacted the Festus police department and they told me that since I was not a victim (yet) that there was really nothing they could do. They suggested that if I wanted to pursue this I should speak to the post office and federal agencies.
Against my better judgment but in the interest of researching this story to its conclusion I sent an email to the buyer saying that I had received the check. I hoped to get the promised letter of instruction and see the “Picker” show up for the item with a driver’s license. However, I never deposited the check. I wanted to document this as far as I could without getting in trouble with the banks or authorities.
The buyer responded:
“Hello William,
How are you doing ?what you will need to do is deduct your money for the item and send the remaining balance via Money Gram to my shipper so that she can come and pickup the item in your place...
Here is my shipper info
Name: Aquinas S--------
Address: 894 D------- Street
City: Atlanta,
Zipcode: 30314
State: GA
Do get back to me with the Money Gram sending details as soon as you get the remaining balance send to her so i can forward the details to her....And she will arrange for the pick-up as soon as she get the money,Pls try get everything done soonest because she said she will been travel out of town soon and i want her to pickup the item before she leaves, thanks for your co-operation.
Do get back to me with the Money Gram Transfer details,which are
Reference #
Sender names
Amount you sent
Charges fee
Regards,
Andrew”
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) website (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre40.shtm), federal law requires banks to make deposited funds available to their customers between one and five days after the deposit depending on the type of check and whether or not it’s written on an out-of-state account, but having the funds available doesn’t mean that the check is good.
“Forgeries can take weeks to be discovered and untangled,” the FTC article says. “The bottom line is that until the bank confirms that the funds from the check have been deposited into your account, you are responsible for any funds you withdraw against that check.”
On Monday January 18th the buyer sent another message.
“Hello,Please get back to me today as soon as you have the remaining balance send to my shipper so that i can forward the details to her in time because she said she will been travel out of town latest Wednesday okay......”
I replied via email (Mon, Jan 18, 2010 6:22 pm) the same day, “Not okay. Still waiting on bank to put funds in my account. You did not send a cashiers check as you promised. So the personal check you sent will take however many days the bank wants. Not me.
I will let you know when the funds are available.”
His reply came minutes later but with a time stamp six hours earlier, (Jan 18, 2010 12:29 PM ) “Make sure you keep checking on your account online,so you can be able to know as soon as the check clears,so you can be able to proceed with the transfer,thanks for your understanding.”
I did not reply to this message. The next email arrived Wednesday:
(Jan 20th, 2010 11:11am ) “Hello, How are you doing,any update about the payment?”
Another message came shortly afterwards, (Jan 20th, 2010 11:43am ) “What else can do for me to shipping the item for you...”
When fraudulent buyers perpetrate the Nigerian Check Scam they often attempt to get the seller to send money before the bank discovers the forgery.
Following the recommendations of the Festus police department, my next call was to the FBI’s St. Louis office. Again, since I had not been a victim they recommended that I take it up with Craigslist. When I pointed out that the fraudulent buyer planned to send a courier with ID to pick up the item, the agent put me on hold for a very long time. Eventually I hung up, disappointed in their lack of interest.
There were other messages urging me to check my account such as this one:
(Monday, January 25, 2010 2:11 PM) “Check your account on line maybe it has cleared...”
Although I never deposited the check, I asked if it had cleared on his end. He responded simply, “Yes,cleared in my bank..”
Eventually, once I tired of the game, I lied right back to the bogus buyer, “Today I received information from my Bank. I suspect you already know that your check was not honored.” This effectively put an end to his urgent attempts to swindle a refund of the fake funds.
Seller beware. When selling or buying watch out for anything too good to be true. Old advice still holds true.
A quick list of Red Flags on this transaction :
• Buyer too busy to pick up item.
• Item too heavy for mailing but still wanted.
• Paying in excess of amount requested.
• UPS from Atlanta Check from Kansas City for item in St. Louis.
• No Personal information in Email from Buyer
• Poor English in Buyer Emails
• AOL account easily set up online
• 2005 © on Check from Intuit, Big Companies don’t use cheap checks
• Check came from a company, Payment suppose to go to an individual
• Desperation in repeat emails
You can review additional advice on how to safely sell items online and specifically on Craigslist by visiting http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
Now for the happy ending to this story, after I ended the charade with the bogus buyer, I received another response to my floor nailer ad. A gentleman made an appointment, showed up on time, and I sold my floor nailer for $350, just $50 less than my asking price. The buyer paid cash, as it should be when selling through classified ads, and he went home with a fantastic tool.
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