Don't Become A Victim of Online Fraud
Don’t Become A Victim of Online Fraud
When it comes to online fraud, I take it personal because I was almost a victim. Looking back, I was very susceptible because I did not have the knowledge that I do now. It is not necessarily “knowledge”, but more along the lines of “cautionary measures”; however, if I never took these, I would have been scammed again. It is not that I fall for anything, it is that scams are getting better and much harder to identify. This article is intended to prevent you from becoming scammed.
The story is very similar to many others who have gotten scammed. I had a car to sell, so posted on many classified ad sites (mostly all free) and put the asking price, with some room to negotiate. Within the next two days or so, I received an email from a guy named Prince Muhammad in United Arab Emirates who wanted to buy my car for his son. After sending a few pictures of the car, he emailed back with intense interest. He wanted to get it for his son’s birthday and was willing to pay $500 more than my asking price of $5,000. During those couple days of corresponding with Prince Muhammad, I received another four or five emails from others in outside countries very “interested” in buying the car. Each person had a different story, mostly “auto dealers” or “agents” who had clients interested in the car and Наборы посуды willing to pay the asking price, sometimes a little more. In the end I decided to sell to Prince Muhammad Nokia 8910i because he was the first to contact me and it would be nice to help him get his son a birthday gift like this.
Prince Muhammad was currently working on an oil field and was unable to travel to the US to get the car, so he proposed something else. He had a client in the US who owed him $11,615, so just have that client send me a cashier’s check with the full amount and I would send the remainder via Western Union, after deducting the price of the car. Prince Muhammad even called me two times to set this Гороскопы up, although I could not really him very well over the phone.
After three days, I received a BankOne check sent from somewhere in New York for the amount of $11,615 endorsed to me. The check looked very real. Wow, I thought, this is really going to happen. So I deposited the check and waited for it to clear before I would send the money via Western Union. My bank usually clears a check in three days max. A day after depositing the check, Prince Muhammad wanted me to send the remaining money. I told him not until the check clears, which he reinforced to send the money as soon as it does.
After four days, I called my bank to see why the check had not cleared yet and they informed me that it was possibly fraudulent. So I contacted Muhammad to let him know about the check but he was nowhere to be found.
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