It began with a nice sounding first contact through my website... guy said he wanted to buy 800 glass rings in transparent medium red.... wanted to know the cost of shipping them to Othello, WA (a small town in eastern Washington). "Waiting to hear from you. Best regards, Mark Hudson."
Since I was about to restock glass rings for sale through my website and since he sounded so legitimate, I went ahead and ordered 1200 of the rings. I also wrote to tell him I'd give him a wholesale price on the rings of $6.75 per 100. Nice!
Mark wrote back, that he now wants 3200 rings and he's sending a check (which he spelled cheque) saying "once payment is received and cleared you ship." I'm beginning to get suspicious... something about his tone, grammer and lack of comment about the price I offered began to make me twitch a bit.
So I wrote back to him and said I'd order the remaining 2400 rings after I received his payment. From his reply, the scam was finally made clear: "...there is a payment error on the amount on the cheque sent to you ,cos she was meant to issue $216 to you but rather issued and sent $2,016 As soon as you received the cheque, feed me back so that I will instruct you on how to get the remaining funds to my personal assistant."
Well, that's that. But now I'm stuck with all those beautiful, red glass rings... so lovely in fringes, woven treasure bracelets, loopy surface fringe, earrings, even strung on a chain. So here's what I'll do... If any of you readers are interested, you can send me $8 (includes shipping to anywhere in the USA) per package of 100... and get them at the wholesale price. My address is 837 Miller Road, Friday Harbor WA 98250.
Thanks, everyone!
The red glass rings are all taken now!
(9-26-08)
I've been approached by scammers previously, but they were much more obvioius right from the start. I was always polite, but cautious. Now it seems they're getting more sophisticated and clever. Lesson learned... I hope.
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Robin - I am so sorry that this has happened to you!
ReplyDeleteI have purchased from you before, a wee while ago in fact for a Treasure bracelet to do for an exchange I was in on Lampwork Etc.
I will do so again - because I just love the glass rings that I got & to be honest started kicking myself the minute they arrived that I hadn't got a whole heap more.
I'm just going to have to wait a week or so to do it (& I'll get some other goodies at the same time) - so I'll juyst have to hope that you have some left at this wonderful price then.
In the meantime - I'm going to pop over to the excahnge thread on LE & point some people in the direction of your blog if that's OK - it may just help in taking some of those off of your hands.
BTW - we spell it 'cheque' here in New Zealand too, as does Australia & the UK.
I know you have a whole lot of extra rings Robin, but are you not up $2000 as well??
ReplyDeleteI am assuming they are trying to get someone elses money through you, but the money would still have to go into your account wouldn't it?
I'd love to know the size of these glass rings. I'm sure I can't really live without them! LOL
ReplyDeleteSending the check or cheque through the mail - kind of makes it mail fraud and I would get in touch with someone about it. Start with the postmaster and see what he suggests. Maybe your imput could help stop one jerk! Don't throw anything away yet.
:-D eirdre
Oh My - how discouraging. I hope the next victim realizes who/what they are dealing with before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteI had a VFW fundraising phone call the other day. After asking how much the veterans actually receive from my contribution, the caller gave me the most fascinating double-talk run around. When I continued to press her for the 'true' answer, it turns out the veterans would receive a mere 15% of my donation. Unbelievable.
My check is on its way.....those rings will be lovely hanging from the fringe on a Christmas whimsy pillow I have running around my brain!
--Lynn
That's not cool... I had a similar experience about a year or so ago. Someone contacted me saying they wanted to know the prices on my bead paintings. When I replied, they said they wanted to purchase 2 of them, and that they'd send check. Everything looked and sounded okay... but I was leary of it...
ReplyDeleteSo, when I got the check (which looked legitimate), I called the Texas bank that is was supposedly drawn on, and they had no record of the account at all or the person's name on the check. So, I put the person on my blocked email list. I didn't report it to anyone... but I probably should have...
Gotta watch out for scammers and spammers!
To Deb ~ If you'd like to email me and tell me how many you want, I'll save them for you. Thanks for your support!
ReplyDeleteTo Jo in NZ ~ Nope, the check never arrived. After his last message, I wrote to tell him "sorry, I won't be able to supply the beads." The way the scam works (as Lone Beader says in her comment) is this... it's a totally bogus check, but it takes a while for your bank to figure that out and in the meantime, they've got your money safe in a foreign bank somewhere.
To Diedre ~ The rings are 9mm in diameter. I know the local director of customs.. He said if the check does arrive, he'd give me a contact to the proper agency where I could submit the emails and check, but that tracking these guys is very difficult and not often successful. Often these scams are "run" from foreign countries.
To Lynn ~ Yes, that's so discouraging. Good for you to press the caller for that information!
To Lone Beader ~ If Mark's check arrives, I will report it. But I think this slippery fish has already gotten away. Thanks for your comment.
Robin,
ReplyDeletePlease save me 300 of the red rings. I want to order some other things as well, but won't be able to get to it until the first of the week. Our annual Bead Society Bead Show is this Sunday and I'll be busy until after that.
Thanks,
Arline
Hi Robin,
ReplyDeleteOh dear, how awful! There are a lot of dishonest nasty people in this world.
I would love to buy some of those beautiful red glass rings. I'll pop a check in the mail to you shortly.
Be well,
Karen
Hi Robin,
ReplyDeleteI'll gladly take 300 from you too (please add postage for Europe).
However I can't pay you until end of next week, having been victim of a scam from the USA on my credit card, which I had to destroy yesterday ! Strange world !
Hugs
Hélène
Hello I just wanted all of you to know that if anyone is ordering something from you and wants to pay you 3,100.00-3,400.00 banks should know that it is a fraudlant check. Right now 3,400 is the magic number that says fraud.
ReplyDeleteWhat they are doing is having you cash the check which then has your bank account number routing number and your signature on it, so that then they can order checks from any buy checks online place where they never ask for proof of id.
I hope that things work out and that others know how the scam works. I am so happy to hear that you decided to pull out.
Hey Robin,
ReplyDeleteI am soooo sad this happened but glad you figured it out before it was too late! And it looks like you will be selling all the rings you have. If you haven't sold them all, I'd love some, and will pick them up from you in person! LOL!
Wow, he was pretty polished (like you said -- you can usually spot the scammers up front). Grrr! Such a shame that people do stuff like this :(
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, at least you caught on before placing the bigger order.
Uggh! I just posted about an order that I think is a scam. From the first e-mail it seemb=ed a bit fishy. I told the man if he wants 200 hand quilted tape measures then he can pay 50% up front on batches of 30 at a time before I even start making them and that I only accept payment through Paypal. No cheques in the mail(the Canadian way of spelling checks) or credit cards over the phone. Anyway, Bobbi of Beadbabe told me about your misfortune. I hope you get to sell all those beads. I would totally help but I don't use beads much... Hugs!
ReplyDeleteRobin, that's a real shame. I remember reading once about (in the "old" days) a craft store owner who said she never worried about checks not being good from her customers as craftspeople don't want their store to go away or not be able to shop in it again. Well, those days are evidently gone!
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you still have some unclaimed (it sounds like they've been taken) and I'll buy some. I don't need any right now but that has never stopped my from buying beads before and with Christmas coming up red is a good color to go for.