| dance again |
| Internet Scams |
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| Please be aware of emails you may receive from people who are not genuine dress buyers. Because you have your email address on the internet, you may be contacted by scammers posing as dress buyers. These people are not interested in your dress, they are trying to trick you into parting with your money. If you receive a suspicious email similar to the ones shown below, please do not reply to it, just delete it. If you are unsure about an email received, please forward it to me at Lisa@dance-again.com and I will let you know if I have seen it before or heard of the person sending it. Latest scammer, July 17th 2008: Please delete any emails received from "S Morgan". This is the same scam as described below. The following are emails received by Dance Again sellers... Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 02:12:34 -0700 (PDT) From: James <jennifer_smith101@yahoo.com> Subject: Purchase.... To: jennifer_smith101@yahoo.com Hi , What is your asking price for your dresses for sale? James ............................................................................ Date: Sat, 10 May 2008 02:14:35 -0700 From: jennifer_smith101@yahoo.com Subject: Purchase.... To: jennifer_smith101@yahoo.com Hi , I will like to purchase your dress for sale. Get back to me with the availables and asking prices. James This seems innocent enough but if you receive an email from this person, please delete it. The warning signs are: the "from" and "to" fields of the email are the same email address, the "to" field should contain your email address. The subject line of "Purchase" is normal enough but most sellers would use the email link in the dress ad on Dance Again which will automatically insert "Dance Again dress 123" into the subject line. They ask for the price when this is clearly listed in the dress ad. Sellers who have responded to this person have received a reply from yet another email address ( they use several addresses so that they are harder to track down ). The reply will not ask any questions about the dress, they will just say that they wish to buy it and will have a shipping agency pick it up. They will send a check for a very large amount, sometimes double or triple ( or more ) the price of your dress, sellers have been offered checks for $2,400 for a $400 dress. They ask that you cash the check and deduct the dress and shipping cost and then have a new check issued in their name for the remaining balance. Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 08:23:40 -0700 From: c_james123@yahoo.com Subject: dress #XXX/Payment.... Hi I would like my mover to pick the dress up at your location. I'm offering $250. I'll pay you $2000(US certified check). After deducting your cost, I'll like you to send the excess funds via western union transfer to my mover for pick up of the dresses at your location. Get back to me with your contact details in the order below, for immediate payment: Your full name: Contact address: Phone number: Best Regards, James How does the scam work? You have a check from them right? Wrong! You have a fake check from them. The check they send will be a very clever fake. So clever that your bank will accept it and on good faith, they will deposit the full amount into your bank account. You then deduct the amount owing and have a real check issued by your bank ( or Western Union) for the change. You then send your dress and the real check to the "buyer" and think "Thank goodness my dress is sold!". The way it works with international bank checks is that your bank will accept it, and in good faith release the funds to you. Your bank then processes the check and eventually mails it to the issuing bank. This processing can take a week, mailing to a foreign country can take another week. The foreign bank receives the check and submits it for processing, another week, discovers that it is a fake and then mails a letter to your bank to let them know it can not release the funds to them, another week. So all up, a month has gone by and you are still thinking all is well. Your bank will then contact you to let you know the check is a fake and they will automatically debit your account for the full amount that they originally cleared. So you have now lost your dress and you owe the bank a very large sum of money because during that month, the scammer has received your real check, cashed it and disappeared. Another email received... "julia riddick" <julia_riddick@yahoo.co.uk> Hello am interested in buying your dress i saw your advert on irishdanceweb.com pls am a very busy woman i work all day am in turkey i like your dress i have already view it and just pls give me your final price including shipping fee to turkey am ready to buy and pay within 3 days i will pay you in cash pls send me your full name and address with your final price thats i need so i can make payment all am paying in cash thanks i will be waiting your urgent response impatiently thanks. Julia This email was sent to a seller who does not have a dress on the site mentioned in the email. The urgent tone of the email is trying to catch you out, everyone wants a quick sale, they are preying on that. Responding to this email will get you the same response as above. And another... Initial email received... From: lisa Daniel <lisa.daniel77@yahoo.com> To: hillruth3@comcast.net Sent: Thu, 22 May 2008 9:07 am Subject: Solo Costume Hello, I'm interested in buying your ( Solo Costume ) please do get back to me with the last price and the condition of it and the picture of it. reply soonets. Lisa Daniel. This slightly more educated scammer looks authentic using the words "Solo dress" and asking for more photos. But note that the email address in the "To" field is not the dress sellers email address, the seller has never seen or used this address before, yet it came to her inbox. The seller replied to this email as follows... Subject: Re: Solo Costume To: lisa.daniel007@yahoo.com Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008, 4:54 PM Hi which costume? I have 2 for sale...one is $450 novice level and the other is $1100 Black/ orange / green Dancing in Celtic"....made be Ann Ash. Let me know...thanks! and received the following reply... From: Lisa Daniel <lisa.daniel007@yahoo.com> Sent: Fri, 23 May 2008 8:32 am Subject: payment details needed Thanks for your rersponse.i am intrested in the $1100 Black/ orange / green costume.sincerely i am okay with the price of the products and it suits my requirements perfectly. The payment will be made with a bank draft/cheque which i will allow to get clear before the pickup/shipment of the goods. I will also include fees for the shipment of the goods in the payment,this my shipping agency will use forthe pick-up. After the cheque clears and you deduct the payment of the goods from the cash the excess funds will go towards covering costs for shipping,insurance,tax and any other expenses that might be incurred getting it down to me, i also have some other goods that i want the shipping agency help me pick up so I will want you to get in touch with the following details if my terms are okay: FULLNAME ............................ ADDRESS ........................ TELEPHONE NUMBERS ...................(Mobile and Land) ZIP CODE ............. As soon as i have your details,the payments will be made immediately. please reply soonest. lisa daniel. N.B:i want to to consider the goods sold to me so i will want you to remove the advert from where you placed it and i will add an additional 50 dollars for that. Note once again that the scammer is using two different email addresses. The seller questioned the scammer on their location, and they replied that they were in New Jersey, however the spelling of the word "cheque" tells me that they are probably not located in the USA. James is at it again with a different email address... From: James C. Mishel [mailto:james_mishel@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 5:13 AM The seller who was contacted by James from this address has two dresses for sale. James kindly offers to buy both! Same old story though... I'm offering $1950. I'll pay you $3800(US certified check). After deducting your cost, I'll like you to send the excess funds via moneygram transfer to my mover. Basically, if you receive an email that just doesn't look right or they don't ask questions as you would expect a genuine buyer to do, respond at your own risk. If you aren't sure, ask them what school they go to, what age group their daughter dances in, their TCRG's name, the kind of things that a genuine dance parent would know and be happy to reply to. Usually if you ask these questions you will not hear back from them. If in doubt...delete! |