Overseas purchase scam?

[squiffynimrod]

Ahhh - the best ever was the P-P-P-Powerbook

Agreed. Reads like a secret agent novel. Enjoy.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

[Poskashflo]

Thanks everyone:

Just an update on this scam.

After another inquiry as to the status of the bike on Friday, a discussion with " the company" via a "live chat" function off their website, the story got better.

They said that there was a problem and they had been trying to reach my BinLaw. Apparently the seller had been arrested and the bank was holding the "bike" as colateral. They were holding the bike in San Francisco until the debt was repaid. Oh by the way, if another 2000 euro was paid (via Western Union), the bank would release the bike. "You do want your package don't you..?"

I was in error when I mentioned eBay, the bike had been listed in Cycle Trader.

I am curious as to everyone's opinion of the shipping company's website. www.global-tst.com.

Oh, some final depressing news- he had sent all of the money plus the customs request for a total of over $9000. Noooooooooo!

Thanks!

Stuart

[Zygmund]

Too Bad....

[piperjim]

If there's something similar to Darwin Awards (except, not awarded posthumously), I think your b-in-law would be a strong contender!! I bet he feels real bad! Sorry, there are some scummy people out there trying to get money from us honest folks.

piperjim

[marchyman]

I am curious as to everyone's opinion of the shipping company's website. www.global-tst.com.

Don't know about the web site, but the domain name was created last May using a registrar in Melbourne, Aust. It's registered owner is hidden with a Sunnyvale, Ca PO box, a SF East Bay phone number, and an email contact that points back to the Melbourne registrar. In other words, they don't want to be found.

[TED]

Global-Tst.com was registered anonymously and is being hosted on Yahoo in California - you should contact your local FBI field office, they will assist in having the site brought down. Your Brother in Law is probably not the only one being taken by this, be nice to save someone else the grief.

Point them to this site as well, another scam site built by the same scammers:
http://dasfreight.com/
Same *exact* site build, just different domain name (not so curiously, the URL and hosting are also exactly the same as Global-Tst.com as well.) In addition, they might find this tidbit of info also particularly interesting:
http://www.targetgulf.com/MESearch%5...IGH_4158.shtml

If you ever needed affirmation that you have been scammed, Google "dasfreight.com".

Sorry to say but your Brother in Law learned a $9k lesson the hard way.

Go to the FBI as soon as possible.

By the way, did he contact Western Union Fraud? Where was the money picked up? I'd also be very interested in looking at one of the e-mails they sent you.

EDIT - these guys are really busy! Clip a sentence of their goofy language from the site and Google it, you'll see pages of fake sites these guys have set up.

[Motodan]

According to Barnum there's one born every minute. This is so stupid it could be made up?

[58058D]

[pffog]

Not to be rude, but WTF was he thinking???? With all the scams out there, this one not only had enough red flags to fill the UN flag poles, it also had red laser dots all over his forehead, and chest!!!

[henzilla]

Just a little comment on the Barnum comment...

It is a sad truth that every day folks grandparents, parents and even their young adult children are fooled by some A$$hat on the internet or on the phone. And occasionally by snail mail disguised as official. The stories are endless, the ends the folks go thru to scam others is bolder everyday...y'all remember Bernie Madoff right? Even "smart" folks get burned.

Yes, people make poor decisions...could be someone in your family, so buyer beware!

back to the story...

[mchaven]

Just a little comment on the Barnum comment...

It is a sad truth that every day folks grandparents, parents and even their young adult children are fooled by some A$$hat on the internet or on the phone. And occasionally by snail mail disguised as official. The stories are endless, the ends the folks go thru to scam others is bolder everyday...y'all remember Bernie Madoff right? Even "smart" folks get burned.

Yes, people make poor decisions...could be someone in your family, so buyer beware!

back to the story...

2 days after she got her computer in 2001 (and still using the same computer. I'd go mad!) my grandmother got her first scam email. It was one of the fake ebay sites, attempting to get your username/password. She had no idea what it was and called me (since I get to be tech support for the whole family)
"Mick, do I ebay?"
"Did you sign up for ebay?"
"I don't think so. Is that in the start menu?"
"No grandma. Have you ever been to ebay.com?"
"No."
"Then don't listen to that email. Its a scam"
"What kind of terrible people would try and scam little old ladies on the internet?"
"Typically africans, grandma"
*racist remark from Grandma here*

Least that conversation made her wary of the emails from the Nigerian Bank President and what not.

[UncleMark]

Seems I had to say something about this back in May of '09...

http://expressoriders.org/UMBlog/2009/05/

If we are smart enough to not get burned by these idiots, why are we not telling others about it and helping them keep "what's theirs" safe and secure?

[TED]

Unfortunately the Nigerians really turned it into an industry. I would say even today after many years following these I find a significant portion of the scams I come across still come from Nigeria, though more and more are coming from Italy, the UK and Russia (and former Soviet States).

If you want to see where these things come from just look at the header info of the email for something like this "X-SENDER IP:" or "RECEIVED: FROM" followed by an IP Address, aka four blocks of one to three numbers each. For example, the eBay phish I referred to above has this statement in the headers:

Received: from User ([195.81.7.217])

Hopping over to SamSpade.org and punching in "195.81.7.217" I found that it was originally sent from an ISP in Italy through an unprotected mail server of a law firm in New Milford, Connecticut (yes I called them and told them.

[marchyman]

If you want to see where these things come from just look at the header info of the email for something like this "X-SENDER IP:" or "RECEIVED: FROM" followed by an IP Address, aka four blocks of one to three numbers each. For example, the eBay phish I referred to above has this statement in the headers:

Good advise with a big caveat... Received headers can be forged.

Proper received headers are added by each machine that processes the message. This will typically be the senders host, his ISP's mail server, your ISP mail server, etc. However, because headers can be forged the ONLY received header you can believe is the one that your mail server added. That will be the first one found (hosts add headers to the beginning of the message).

If you get a mail that claims to be from paypal.com, for example, but the top receive header says that it came from cable-user-35.someisp.example.com you can be 100% sure it isn't a valid message from paypal even if later received headers make it look like the message transited paypal hosts.