Warning - Scammer using the Photo-net classifieds as buyer

Beware, there is a scammer using the name Dane Williams (e-mail:

d_williamsz@yahoo.com) who is claiming to buy camera gear that has

been advertised on Photo.net. He claims that he will pay you with

BidPay, but in fact, he has set up a bogus phishing e-mail, meant to

look like a BidPay payment confirmation e-mail. The catch is, the

e-mail claims that BidPay has changed it's policy and now will not

actually make the payment until you provide confirmation that the item

has actually been shipped.

 

This scam probably shouldn't fool anyone, because the scammer is so

stupid that he never provided me with a shipping address where I

should send my camera. So I actually couldn't have sent my camera to

him without being paid even had I been dumb enough to actually do so.

Douglas - have you forwarded the above to abuse@photo.net? If not, you should.

I did

Did you send a copy to Bidpay?

yep

I really don't think that most of us are going to ship an expensive camera to anyone if we have not been paid first. Then again, somebody probably will--if he ever provides a shipping address.

 

I can only imagine the number of variations of phishing expeditions that we are likely to see in the months and years to come.

 

--Lannie

Actually, I usually DO ship camera gear that I've sold as soon as I get the Payment confirmation e-mail from BidPay - which basically says "the check is in the mail". But, I'm familiar enough with BidPay to know their procedures pretty cold, and this Phishing e-mail was definitely NOT an excellent facsimile of the genuine article. Also, before shipping, I get the BidPay status direct from the Bidpay website, NOT just from an e-mail. And in this case, their site had no information about this payment, which, had I been otherwise fooled, would have proven to me that this e-mail was in fact bogus.

I mailed the guy yesterday with the following text:

 

"Your bid on the item "Canon 20D Digital SLR Camera" was the highest and

you have won the auction!

 

Please inform the buyer edward@edward.dyndns.org of your shipping address."

 

The reply just came in...

 

"Hello Edward,

i have a fedex account so i prefer to arrange the pick up , kindly mail me with your contact info

Thanks."

 

Interesting that he doesn't even care that he wasn't involved in any auction to start off with...

Right now, the guy's scam is laughably bad, but I'm sure that if he's not stopped, he'll improve it to the point that someone falls for it.

 

The first thing that tipped me off is that he offerred me $100 OVER my asking price on the camera - which I know damn well I was selling for every bit of it's full market value. That happens every day from legitimate buyers - NOT!

Dane Williams isn't a photo.net member. How do you propose that photo.net would prevent someone from contacting people advertising in the classifieds?

I didn't propose that Photo.net stop him. But BidPay and FedEx ought to have a vested interest in stopping him, not to mention Law Enforcement.

If the guy actually does have a FedEx account, and will arrange a pickup (shipping paid on his tab), send him a nice box of rocks. :-)

"I really don't think that most of us are going to ship an expensive camera to anyone if we have not been paid first."

 

The profesional scammers are actually much more smarter than that. They could easily send us a real check. Of course, because we are not stupid, we would naturally wait for the check to clear before we ship them anything. The check may be issued from a real bank account, but it from a stolen bank account. When the bank send out the statement at the end of the month, the real owner of the account will mostly notice the stolen check. Then the bank and the cop will go after us. We will most like be arrested for cashing a stolen check. I saw how this whole scam played out on Dateline NBC (or may be it was on 20/20, I don't remember exactly which one).