"You can buy anything on the internet except common sense."

1. Overpayment, prepayment or advanced fee scam.

Many internet service providers believe they are relatively safe from internet fraud because they do not send out goods and hence although they might lose time they will not actually be out of pocket for hard cash when targetted by scammers. The following scam is usually targeted at sellers of fairly pricey goods, such as cars, motorcycles, jewellery, cameras, mobile phones or computer components, but applies equally to service providers and to the tourist accommodation sector where deposits are required. (See the specific examples below relevant to the tourist accommodation sector.)

Typically, an overpayment scam works like this:

• The seller places an internet advertisement for a car or other item with a highish price tag.

• The seller receives a generous offer for the item, usually via an email.

• The scammer then sends a cheque or, more often, a money order for the item. However, the payment sent is for more than the specified amount.

• The scammer provides some reason for this overpayment and asks that the balance be electronically transferred to a specified bank account or transmitted via Western Union to a third party. For example, he might claim that the extra funds are to pay the fees of an agent who will pick up the goods or to cover shipping costs.

• The seller transfers the amount out of his own funds.

• Later, the seller finds that his bank has dishonoured the cheque or money order sent by the scammer. In some cases, the bank may actually have cleared the funds, but discovers later that it is a forgery or was stolen. Large numbers of forged money orders are in circulation.

The supposed buyers usually originate from west Africa, notably Nigeria, but might be based in Holland, the UK or America. To protect yourself against this sort of scam, never agree to allow a payer to transmit an amount for more than the agreed price where you are expected to reimburse the balance. The scammers give a variety of reasons for the overpayment, but any such request should be treated with the utmost suspicion.

IMPORTANT: it is almost universally believed that once a cheque has CLEARED and the funds are in the recipient's bank account, then the funds are completely secured. This is not true. Clearing a cheque takes only a few days, but for the bank to receive its money from the issuing bank can take weeks. If the bank subsequently finds that the cheque was fraudulent, it will take the money back. The responsibility for loss devolves to the bank only after the transaction is CLOSED. It's up to you to determine when that is. 

Here's an example of a fake cheque sent by a Nigerian scammer calling himself Charles Hans Burns in association with G Gibbs of Northern Ireland.

So, what do we see here?

1) The Midland Bank was defunct at the time this cheque was sent, having been bought by HSBC. HOWEVER, cheques issued by absorbed banks are generally good for a couple of years, so that's a clue but not a definitive one.

2) There is no "Braxton Enquiry Agency Ltd" in Tyne and Wear, although there is a business with a very similar name. It is not run by "Tommy Braxton" who would in any case not sign his cheques "Tommy".

3) The scammer purports to be someone with an English name living in the UK but puts a cross bar on the number '7' in the European manner - not definitive, but to be noted.

4) The paper texture indicates a washed cheque. This is an extreme case - usually these crooks work with stolen blank cheques, but in this case they have washed all the black print off and REPRINTED the cheque. However, when you do this kind of thing it's always a smart idea to spell the purported bank's address correctly. It's "South Shields", not "South Shileds", you morons.

Simple Advanced Fee Scam - Rental accommodation scam

A true advanced fee scam simply attempts to induce the victim to pay money for a service that will never be rendered. These scams have become prolific in the on-line accommodation sector. The scammers can write mainly English or French but we have seen one email in Spanish, so on German-language accommodation web sites often more than 50% of the offers written in English are scams. The example given below is a typical email exchange - the apartment was advertised on ImmoScout24, a reputable Swiss service, typically listing for Basel, Zurich and Geneva. Similar adverts are used for accommodation in Spain and Russia, usually on expat forums such as www.expat.ru. Craigslist is packed with adverts from scammers offering accommodation that does not exist or that belongs to someone else. In addition, genuine listers of accommodation on Craigslist are besieged by scam offers to rent, usually overpayment scams.

• Dear Miss Iderrais,

I am very interested in renting your apartment for one year (probably more). I am male, 28 years old, a middle manager at UBS Bank, with Swiss permanent residence visa. I am quiet, clean and tidy. Would you please give me the contact details for the agent so that I can make an appointment to look at the apartment.

Regards,

Simon Francoforte

Subject: RE: ImmoScout24 - Modulo di contatto (N° di riferimento 1493670)
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:52:57 +0200

Good day, [This non-colloquial greeting is a dead giveaway, and an amazingly common one, on scam emails.]

My name is Anne Myriam Iderrais, I am a respected economist and I work for a large company in Liverpool, United Kingdom. [Gosh - someone really important!] I received your email of interest for the rental of my apartment in Mühlegasse 14, 8001 Zürich, listed at 1130 CHF. [This is the address of Cabaret-Nightclub Moulin Rouge.] I want to rent this apartment because I inherited it of my father in 2006 and I never lived there because my mother and my father were divorced and I was raised by my mother to Liverpool, United Kingdom. I tried to sell the apartment but I could not obtain a fair price for him (because of the financial crisis) so I decided together with my mother to rent it to some nice people. 
The apartment is exactly like you see it in the pictures, fully furnished, but I have the option of sending all my furniture into storage if you want to bring your own (no extra costs). [Apparently too lazy to find good photos of an empty apartment.]
At this moment I am in Liverpool, but I have made all the arrangements to rent the apartment from here after I decide to whom, an agency will take care of business for me.
I have received a lot of email for this apartment so I removed the announcement from Immoscout , but is is still available . [Immoscout deleted the advert when alerted to the scam.]

Thank you for your interest and I will wait your email !

Have a nice day,
Myriam Iderrais

• Hello again,

Thank you for your prompt response, like I informed you before, the price you shall pay for one month of rent will be 1130 CHF.

*** does that include heating costs? [No reply to this - details, details - scammers are busy, busy, busy.]

The money, I want to receive it monthly to my bank account,

*** no problem - send me your bank details [No reply to this.]

I hope it will be no problem for you. The apartment is ready for you, you will need only to receive the keys to check it, and see if you like it. In order of that, as I told you in my previous email, I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, in this way you will receive the Keys in less than 2 days, if you move fast as well.
The solution is provided by a company called " Ammo-This Century 21 Rentals " from United Kingdom, [What's that 'Ammo' there - has Myriam been looking at this page???] they handles rentals for people who are unable to reslove them alone (for people who have work contracts abroad, etc. ) I will pay for their services.
I have received a lot of e-mail so I would like to know more details about you... your age,

*** 28

what's your occupation, 

*** bank middle manager (UBS)

[All of this information was provided in the previous email but scammers are busy people and don't have time to read replies.]

also you can send me a picture with you,

*** attached - this is me playing soccer

this just to know us better, it is very important for me to know who will live in my apartment and how long...

*** only me for minimum one year

I think you can understand me... And finaly, I don't solicit deposit month, so I would like to know on how many months can you pay the rent in advance. [Probing to see how much can be extracted.]

*** one month at the start of the month.

Regards,

Simon


• Hello, [No name - these scammers characteristically have great difficulty with first and last names - indeed, with western names in general.]

Ok, I have to inform you the steps about how this service works and how we can make it happen:
1 - To start this transaction I will need to know your full shipping name and address to proceed with this deal.
2 - I will go to the Century 21 Rentals Office, I leave them the Keys and I make all the arrangements for the delivery.
3 - They will send you in your e-mail a delivery notification to let you know they have the Keys and the papers in their custody.
4 - At this point you will have to transfer the advance you say you can pay for the apartment(1 month of rent) to the Century 21 Agent assigned to handle our transaction, this is the policy of an abroad rental company, they must have a warranty from the potential tenant before starting the delivery.
5 - You have to send the informations about the money deposit to Century 21. They will verify the payment informations and if everything is ok, the Agent will come to show you the apartment.
6 - When the Agent arrives there, he will call you to meet him and to go and visit the apartment with him. ['Century 21' exists but plays absolutely no role in this scam.]
- If you accept to rent the apartment, you sign all the papers with him and the transaction is finished.
- If you don't accept to rent my apartment, the Agent will give your money back in the same day, you won't lose anything. [Heh heh!]

I look forward to hear from you soon !

Thank you,

Anne


• OK, good:

Shipping name and address are:

Simon Francaforte [Anne - or is it Myriam? - doesn't notice and wouldn't care that Simon's family name has changed from Francoforte to Francaforte.]
Rotbuchstrasse 28
CH-8006 Zürich
Switzerland

2. Shipped goods scam.

All merchants are aware that they should be sure of being paid before they ship goods. However, many brazen scamsters make use of the fact that an item sent via certain popular couriers such as UPS cannot be recalled once sent.

* The scammer pays by cheque.

* The cheque clears.

* The goods are shipped by UPS as requested and the shipping confirmation is transmitted to the buyer.

* The buyer then blocks the cheque.

These scammers are outright thieves whose aim is to take delivery of the goods for resale later. They often make no effort to disguise their identity and address details but work on the basis that the cost and chances of success of legal action across national borders will discourage the merchant from pursuing legal redress. One of our UK customers lost a £750 book to a woman in Seattle in exactly this way.

A related scam is where the goods are sent by post without calling for confirmation of receipt via the postal service. The recipient simply states that the goods were never received and blocks payment. Payments via PayPal are typically involved and buyers in France are frequently mentioned in this context. Indeed, it seems that many buyers regard lack of a confirmation request as an invitation to steal the goods. Refer also to our credit card payment page - even when receipt of goods is confirmed, according to credit card company rules, the spouse of the recipient, as card owner, is not responsible for the payment if the card does not belong to the spouse or other family member who signed to confirm receipt of the goods. Is that clear? Mr Smith's card is used for the purchase. Mrs Smith, his wife, signs to say the goods arrived (universally accepted by courier services and the post office). Mr Smith blocks payment - he wins, you lose.