TLDR is it takes just a few seconds to fuck over internet scammers by having them overnight a check to the Post Office Inspector General. Important point is to not let ego get the better of you by pointing out their mistake and making it a learning experience for them, just drop the conversation.
Number of years ago a friend pointed out that Craigslist was good for more than hitting on fat women with inflated standards, there was money to be made. Unlike that first obese 2 that broke my young heart and pelvis, it was love at first sight. Good deals, extra cash, then the scammers came along. Maybe it's my area but they've been getting worse and worse. Dead giveaway is that they will quote the exact title of your ad, followed by or led by a canned line. No actual buyers do this, every scammer does.
I used to ignore but had some time lately and was curious if they'd mail a check to any address I gave them, and just to see what the spiel was generally. The name and address circled in green is the USPS Inspector General, that's the office that handles mail fraud cases. They send huge messages which don't necessarily come through in the order they were intended but here's the exchange -
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While this was going on I made a few phone calls - to Attorney Generals of both states involved, the police in the town the WU was in, and WU itself. The scammer himself also called briefly while I was busy and ignoring him - definitely a Nigerian or similar accent. It is incredible how incompetent the system is. The Atty Gen rep didn't have a clue what to do and told me I'd have to submit something in writing and likely wait until after I was actually ripped off. The cops were concerned about where the check would actually be picked up because some areas of the county were outside their jurisdiction so "you'd really need to find out from the scammer where he'd be picking it up". WU said they could suspend the transfer as long as it hadn't been picked up yet but couldn't call any authority to make an arrest, they need to wait until after a scam goes through and transfer it to their fraud department who then gives the case files to police to follow up. I did consider buying the wire and immediately suspending it which would generate a bogus number to give to the scammer and further waste his time driving to the WU office to pick it up only to be turned down (would make sure to get the cancellation audio recorded to cover my ass) but WU website is total shit, it was like 1995 loading times all over again every line of information I entered so that didn't last long.
My thought, and something I said more or less to all of them was "This stuff costs billions a year in actual losses, fraud departments, police caseloads, attorney general caseloads. I'm trying to give you guys the name which will be used to pick up a fraudulent transaction and the town it will be picked up in. You don't have a system in place to respond to this before it happens, take this guy off the streets and probably save everyone involved a few million dollars?" Nope, they don't, they'd rather chase after an imaginary name on some fake ID after grandma gave her rent check for the month to the Nigerian mafia. Crazy.
Even a completely random address is better than nothing, if everyone these assholes texted cost them $10 to overnight their bogus checks to nowhere they'd go bust in a hurry.
Number of years ago a friend pointed out that Craigslist was good for more than hitting on fat women with inflated standards, there was money to be made. Unlike that first obese 2 that broke my young heart and pelvis, it was love at first sight. Good deals, extra cash, then the scammers came along. Maybe it's my area but they've been getting worse and worse. Dead giveaway is that they will quote the exact title of your ad, followed by or led by a canned line. No actual buyers do this, every scammer does.
I used to ignore but had some time lately and was curious if they'd mail a check to any address I gave them, and just to see what the spiel was generally. The name and address circled in green is the USPS Inspector General, that's the office that handles mail fraud cases. They send huge messages which don't necessarily come through in the order they were intended but here's the exchange -
___________________________________________________________
While this was going on I made a few phone calls - to Attorney Generals of both states involved, the police in the town the WU was in, and WU itself. The scammer himself also called briefly while I was busy and ignoring him - definitely a Nigerian or similar accent. It is incredible how incompetent the system is. The Atty Gen rep didn't have a clue what to do and told me I'd have to submit something in writing and likely wait until after I was actually ripped off. The cops were concerned about where the check would actually be picked up because some areas of the county were outside their jurisdiction so "you'd really need to find out from the scammer where he'd be picking it up". WU said they could suspend the transfer as long as it hadn't been picked up yet but couldn't call any authority to make an arrest, they need to wait until after a scam goes through and transfer it to their fraud department who then gives the case files to police to follow up. I did consider buying the wire and immediately suspending it which would generate a bogus number to give to the scammer and further waste his time driving to the WU office to pick it up only to be turned down (would make sure to get the cancellation audio recorded to cover my ass) but WU website is total shit, it was like 1995 loading times all over again every line of information I entered so that didn't last long.
My thought, and something I said more or less to all of them was "This stuff costs billions a year in actual losses, fraud departments, police caseloads, attorney general caseloads. I'm trying to give you guys the name which will be used to pick up a fraudulent transaction and the town it will be picked up in. You don't have a system in place to respond to this before it happens, take this guy off the streets and probably save everyone involved a few million dollars?" Nope, they don't, they'd rather chase after an imaginary name on some fake ID after grandma gave her rent check for the month to the Nigerian mafia. Crazy.
Even a completely random address is better than nothing, if everyone these assholes texted cost them $10 to overnight their bogus checks to nowhere they'd go bust in a hurry.
![[Image: nigerian-prince.gif]](http://www.biotech-now.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/nigerian-prince.gif)
