hey guys....could sumbody help me please?

babybrat · Post by **babybrat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:05 am

how would i track sumbody who is trying to get me to cash a bogus cheque...they're saying that they're from one country but the stamp and everything else says he's from another country is there a way of verifying as to where this person is really from? a way of pinging him when i'm online??? the only contact i have with him is through e-mail.

i have been informed that there's a scam on the internet where they send a cheque but they made an oopsie and sent too much and say that cash it and just send so much back through western union or wutever and i can't really afford to pay this money back if it's bogus.

my dad claims u guys r the "white knights on blazing saddles" and if anybody can help me he says u guys can.

country bumpkin really needs ur help ty and hope u have a good day

if u guys have any ideas on how to sort this out it might save alot of ppl with the same hassle

plope0726 · Post by **plope0726** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:50 am

do you mean like a real stamp on a real envelope? If so then you can almost be sure it was mailed from that country. Ill be honest with you, It would be best to tear the check up and forget about everything, unless of course you've already deposited it. If this is the case then do not withdraw any money and wait for the check to clear (or be rejected which is the likely outcome) If you cash that check you will not only be out a lot of money but you can potentially be charge with check fraud but given the situation, I doubt it would mean jail time but it would likely mean a large headache for you and your wallet.

This is indeed a scam and it is often referred to as the Nigerian scam. Check out this link:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/nigeria.asp

Aside form that, can you post the email address they've been contacting you from? If you do you can likely determine the ISP. More then likely the email address will end with hotmail.com, yahoo.com, or some other free email service provider. If this is the case you can be certain it is a scam.

Once again though, DO NOT cash/deposit that check unless you can afford to lose some funds, and from the sound of things, it doesn't look like you can.

Zaffron · Post by **Zaffron** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:14 am

looks like the first legit member needing help

LarsH · Post by **LarsH** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:14 pm

"white knights on blazing saddles"

This is a typical overpayment cheque scam.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/overpayment-scam.html

To your question, tracking someone can be either easy or,
depending on how well the other part hides their tracks.
If you have email contact, try to see if the email meta-data
contains any info.

It all seems fishy to me, you'd better find another buyer.

babybrat · Post by **babybrat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:59 pm

yes it is a real envelope and stamp....i think lol seeing an english stamp is kinda new to me. but how this happened is i was looking at babysitting ad's on kijiji.com and this guy posted on there that he needed a babysitter for when his wife came on vacation here...i'll paste his first e-mail:
I’m happy to hear from you.

I am in Ireland and I need a nanny or babysitter to take care our twins (both 8yrs) when my wife is visiting Edmonton on a 6-8weeks holiday. I need a well behaved, loyal and competent nanny.

My wife will be in town for 6-8weeks on vacation, she will be going out three or four times a week and she will be spending at least 3 hours for shopping or sightseeing.

Her arrival date should be February 28th, I am offering you $450 weekly and you will make yourself available for 3 or 4 times a week to her schedule for 3 or 4 hours each day making a minimum of 12 hours weekly.

I’d also like to secure your service and be sure that you will be available for the duration of time in which your service is needed.

My client in the US will send you a payment covering the First 2 weeks as a form of deposit, and when my wife arrives, she will start paying you in cash after the first 2weeks.

Kindly get back to me with the following details of yours if you will be willing to occupy this position;

Full Name
Address
City/State,
Zip Code
Phone number,

A pay cheque will be forwarded to you as soon as possible; I will appreciate a quick response from you..

Note that, this position is temporary and it will last for a maximum of 8weeks.

then a few days later he said "After speaking to my client, I was made to understand that the secretary in charge made out a check of $2,900 instead of $900, claiming that was what instructed" the writing on the envelope looks like a males writing, chicken scratch, but there's the full situation. i also sent him an e-mail yesterday saying that i cashed it and that the bank put a 14 day hold on it cuz of all the scams n shit going on and asked him to send me verifiable contact information so the process can go faster i haven't gotten a reply...if i don't should i take the cheque and all the e-mails to the police???
srry i just don't no wut i should do...guess that comes from being young -_-

and thx again guys

plope0726 · Post by **plope0726** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:25 pm

Here are some flaws I've noticed here:

1. You say the stamp was English? Yet he says that his "...client in the US will send you a payment covering the First 2 weeks..."
If his "client in the US" is sent the check it would have a US stamp and US postage, which from that you would be able to determine at least which city it was sent from.

2. His "client in the US"?? A client is like a customer, in other words someone he works for, so why would someone he works FOR send you a check on his behalf? Usually it is an Accountant that handles things like this.

3. I'm assuming you copy and pasted this email, and if so, his grammar is terrible. Someone like this guy is claiming to be, (ie: he has someone in the US who handles his money),
He would likely be well educated and professional and I doubt he would make as many mistakes as this guy has.

4. I'm assuming you are in the US since he is requesting you City, State, Zip. Yet from what I understand Edmonton is in Canada...Where are these twins at if his wife is gonna be in Canada and he is in Ireland?

5. He says you would watch the kids around her schedule of shopping and sightseeing, etc so that is when you would be watching them?
"My wife will be in town for 6-8weeks on vacation, she will be going out three or four times a week and she will be spending at least 3 hours for shopping or sightseeing.

Her arrival date should be February 28th, I am offering you $450 weekly and you will make yourself available for 3 or 4 times a week to her schedule for 3 or 4 hours each day making a minimum of 12 hours weekly."

This being the case you can assume that the kids will be on "vacation" with her. Why take the kids with you if they aren't going to be with you right? also if you are in the US, as I'm assuming, how will you watch her kids in Edmonton?

6. Now sure a mistake in the amount to pay is feasible, but from $900 to $2,900... that's outrageous. If that happened it would only be logical to spend the $25 or so to stop payment and fix the issue. Why would he trust someone he doesn't know to cash a $2,900 check which was meant to be for $900, and send back the $2000.

Now it's clear to me that this is a scam. None of it make logical sense or even business sense, (since he clearly is trying to portray himself as a business person. I assure you that the check is going to bounce. you said that you told him you deposited it and it would be held for 14 days...If you did actually deposit it, DO NOT withdraw any money from that account that wasn't there before you deposited the check.
You could, and I would, take the information you have to the police, along with the envelope you received the check from and EVERYTHING that is related to this person. Of course don;t be surprised if the police can;t do much of anything, because it is likely an international situation and they wouldn't have any jurisdiction but they can probably help you in determining what to do about the situation. I doubt you will get a reply from him at all, and if you do it wont have any legit contact info.
If you still have that email can you post the email address he sent it from? This will give us an idea of the ISP he's using and if it a fake email, (like I said if it's an @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com ,etc. It is probably fake.) But post the this guys email address and we can help you further. If he was dumb enough to send it from his actually email with his ISP then you can have him blacklisted with that ISP and you can get more information to give to police form the ISP. (ie: name address, etc)

babybrat · Post by **babybrat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:42 pm

yes that's all the things that i don't understand....if he's not scamming he must be one rich mother fucker lol

i do live in canada i don't no y but alot of ppl don't no that we have provinces and not states so i've kinda learnt to block that out

i did not cash the cheque my aunt and my parents told me to say that to see if he'd reply back....i sent it yesterday and there's not a reply yet but the past few weeks i've been talking to him it takes about 2-3 days for him to reply but i highly doubt he will

i did copy and paste the e-mail....i have all of them saved in my e-mail and also have them all printed out and put in a folder

his e-mail is mark.billy@rocketmail.com
i dunno if the rocketmail is a uk thing or not but i've never seen it b4

srry about my spelling....unless i'm writing out an offical document or anything like that i don't type properly

plope0726 · Post by **plope0726** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:22 pm

Rocketmail is run by Yahoo... Yahoo bought them out '97. Its pretty old school. This is yet another indicator that this guy is full of shit. You could report the email address to yahoo, but all they can do is ban the account and he could just make another one. I'm pretty sure yahoo keeps track of IP address when accounts are opened so they may be able to do more as far a criminal investigation but it's not likely. You say it takes him 2-3 days to respond...is this by email? If its so important to him he should be responding quickly considering his"wife" is supposedly arriving on the 28th of Feb (in less than 2 days??). I can tell you that it is definitely a scam... aside from the fact that his email implies that he has two first names, the fact that hes using a free web based email, shows that he doesn't want to be tracked. The only way to really track him is with the envelope he sent. but even that is hit or miss. That's where you might be able to take it to the police and have them see what they can do. Outside of that there not much you can do. at least you didn't go and cash it and send him that money, because then you would be out $2,900. Even if someone were to crack his rocketmail/yahoo account the information he provided when setting up the account is likely false and therefore useless. The best thing to do other than bringing what you have to the police is to NOT deposit or cash that check. The police might be able to use the account information on the check you received to try to find the guy, but it's likely that the check is counterfeit and the account on it doesn't even exist. But like I said try the police and see what they can do. If they can get even one more of these ass holes off the streets its a good thing.

babybrat · Post by **babybrat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:28 pm

cool i didn't no that lol and it's possible for a banker's draft or wutever u call it to be counterfeit? that's messed up

tyvm for ur guys' help....muchly appretiated

hugs to all

plope0726 · Post by **plope0726** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:09 pm

Yeah its possible.

babybrat · Post by **babybrat** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:44 pm

wow that's really messed up

just an update for u....i went to the police and they said that they can't do anything about it and to take it to the bank that it was issued at or the bank name on the cheque however u wanna put it and make it clear that i did not want to cash it and that i just wanted to notify them of wut was going on and give it to them for their fraud thingy in the bank so they can watch for more of them if it happens again but that's all i can do

thank you very much for ur help plope and larsh

very much appretiated....u guys r my knights on blazing saddles

:D

hugs from the brat

plope0726 · Post by **plope0726** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:43 am

Yep thats what I figured, atleast by taking it to the bank they will be able to black list that account # so if it ever pops up again they will know about it.

babybrat · Post by **babybrat** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:01 am

one more question for u....wut's binary (if that's how u spell it) and how/wut is it used for and is sumbody able to help me learn it?

plope0726 · Post by **plope0726** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:57 am

binary code is basically machine language. it consists of 1's and 0's. each 1 or 0 is a bit of data a character on your keyboard is 8 bits (1 byte) or eight 1's and 0's. Bascially, anything can be expressed in 1's and 0's. You could learn it, but you might come out with a huge migraine. For more a more detailed explanation on what binary code is check out this wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_code and then click on "Binary code in computing" , also try a google search for "binary code", you find lots of links. Every file you save on your computer is written to the hard drive in binary ( 1's and 0's) then when you open a file the processor reads the binary on the hard drive and then that information is displayed in a form that you can understand. Of course theres more too it then this but that the basic gist of it.

PaRaDoX · Post by **PaRaDoX** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:14 am

base 4 is fun!

in base 4, 2+2=10!

seriously though, 10 represents 4 in base four

*feels smart*