scam

Donny Lutz

Donny Lutz

Ferrule Cat
Silver Member
In January I got an email from a guy wanting $500 in lessons for his son. I was suspicious all along, but without going into detail, I received a check for $2,500 by Express Mail from Georgia on Wednesday. He emailed me this morning and said the check was sent to me by mistake. The check was a fake "from" a legitimate company in Nebraska. The plan was of course, to hope I could deposit the check in my account, and send him a check for $2,000 before the bank caught on.

But I went to the bank this morning and they are on the case.

The guys name was Ben Face...watch out for him.
 
I've told this story before, but it might prevent someone from falling into this type of Cashiers Check scam.

I was selling a dining room table on Craigslist, asking $1000. A guy emails me a full page, rambling message, with confusing grammar. His proposal was he would send me a cashiers check for $1500. He would send a "shipper" to collect the table from me. I would keep $1000, give the shipper $200 to take away the table, and I could keep the $300 extra for my inconvenience of having to go to the bank to cash the cashiers check.

This seemed convoluted, so I wrote back asking to discuss it on the phone. He then said he was currently out of the country and did not have access to a phone. Red flag alert.

So I searched the Craigslist FAQ's and found this is a known scam. Apparently you can go to a bank and get a cashiers check and not have the money in the bank to cover it. The guy probably wanted to avoid the phone so I would not recognize his voice. He himself would be the "shipper" that showed up. He would take my table and go sell it somewhere, I would give him $200 cash on top of that. Then the cashiers check would bounce...
 
Donny Lutz said:
In January I got an email from a guy wanting $500 in lessons for his son. I was suspicious all along, but without going into detail, I received a check for $2,500 by Express Mail from Georgia on Wednesday. He emailed me this morning and said the check was sent to me by mistake. The check was a fake "from" a legitimate company in Nebraska. The plan was of course, to hope I could deposit the check in my account, and send him a check for $2,000 before the bank caught on.

But I went to the bank this morning and they are on the case.

The guys name was Ben Face...watch out for him.
Click to expand...

Hope they nail the bastard. He must have thought you were a real Rube.:)
 
Donny Lutz said:
In January I got an email from a guy wanting $500 in lessons for his son. I was suspicious all along, but without going into detail, I received a check for $2,500 by Express Mail from Georgia on Wednesday. He emailed me this morning and said the check was sent to me by mistake. The check was a fake "from" a legitimate company in Nebraska. The plan was of course, to hope I could deposit the check in my account, and send him a check for $2,000 before the bank caught on.

But I went to the bank this morning and they are on the case.

The guys name was Ben Face...watch out for him.
Click to expand...

Can I still get the lessons?
 
LOL Donny! "Ben Face", from Africa contacted me too...but I charged him $2400, and got a check for $5000. Naturally he wanted me to send hm the "overage" of $2600...for his wife and son's plane tickets! LMAO

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Donny Lutz said:
In January I got an email from a guy wanting $500 in lessons for his son. I was suspicious all along, but without going into detail, I received a check for $2,500 by Express Mail from Georgia on Wednesday. He emailed me this morning and said the check was sent to me by mistake. The check was a fake "from" a legitimate company in Nebraska. The plan was of course, to hope I could deposit the check in my account, and send him a check for $2,000 before the bank caught on.

But I went to the bank this morning and they are on the case.

The guys name was Ben Face...watch out for him.
Click to expand...
 
I got one too. It looked like a scam to me so I ignored it.

It was from benface@outlook.com and it was addressed to xsell4ever@aol.com
(no idea who that is)

Here's the email:




Hello,
My name is Ben Face.
I wish to register my son for a Billiard Lesson with you.

He is traveling with my wife to USA,2nd week of March 2015,therefore,i will like to use this opportunity to schedule and block out some sessions prior to their arrival.

Do let me know if there will be space or you will be available for the lesson and get back with the details as stated below:

Prices/hr ?
Time and days you are open for lesson ?
I await your reply.

Regards

Ben

=
 
jeffj2h said:
I've told this story before, but it might prevent someone from falling into this type of Cashiers Check scam.

I was selling a dining room table on Craigslist, asking $1000. A guy emails me a full page, rambling message, with confusing grammar. His proposal was he would send me a cashiers check for $1500. He would send a "shipper" to collect the table from me. I would keep $1000, give the shipper $200 to take away the table, and I could keep the $300 extra for my inconvenience of having to go to the bank to cash the cashiers check.

This seemed convoluted, so I wrote back asking to discuss it on the phone. He then said he was currently out of the country and did not have access to a phone. Red flag alert.

So I searched the Craigslist FAQ's and found this is a known scam. Apparently you can go to a bank and get a cashiers check and not have the money in the bank to cover it. The guy probably wanted to avoid the phone so I would not recognize his voice. He himself would be the "shipper" that showed up. He would take my table and go sell it somewhere, I would give him $200 cash on top of that. Then the cashiers check would bounce...
Click to expand...

I was selling a car around Xmas and received a text message along these line. The guy wanted to ship a $1400.00 car 2000 miles to California sight unseen, he would be sending a cashiers check. I told him no problem but he will need to wait a few weeks after I get the cashiers check so I know it clears. Obviously I never heard from him
again.
 
That would be pretty awesome if there was someone out there with the last name "face". Would open itself up to all kinds of fun names. "Hi, my name is Richard Face but my friends and enemies call me Dick."
 
FranCrimi said:
I got one too. It looked like a scam to me so I ignored it.

It was from benface@outlook.com and it was addressed to xsell4ever@aol.com
(no idea who that is)

Here's the email:




Hello,
My name is Ben Face.
I wish to register my son for a Billiard Lesson with you.

He is traveling with my wife to USA,2nd week of March 2015,therefore,i will like to use this opportunity to schedule and block out some sessions prior to their arrival.

Do let me know if there will be space or you will be available for the lesson and get back with the details as stated below:

Prices/hr ?
Time and days you are open for lesson ?
I await your reply.

Regards

Ben

=
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, what part of that made you think it was a scam?
 
I have received the same from a few different companies.

I would never do anything on the instant. On occasion, twice actually, I have signed and deposited them.

Only to get a letter back within a month stating that the check had non sufficient funds.

The last one was for front money for being a Mystery Shopper. I was to keep so much for my expenses and time and I was to refund so much to them.

I didn't remember applying to become a Mystery Shopper any where.
 
Nostroke said:
Hope they nail the bastard. He must have thought you were a real Rube.:)
Click to expand...


Ben obviously was unaware that he was messing with a member of AZ Billiards,
where we eat scammers for breakfast.
Simple little check scams like this one are nothing in the complex world of selling
pools cues...and cases.
In fact, if Ben Face registers on AZ under his real name "Ben Face", I'm going to
red rep him>>:smile:
 
I've seen multiple scams like this. I get a similar offer about every two months. I'm surprised that anyone is surprised by these, and imagine that the "rebate from the bogus check" scam has been around longer than the internet.

My co-worker's son almost got pulled into one of these, possibly going as far as depositing the check. He was going to tutor the scammer's son in creative writing or something, at a very nice per hour rate.
 
Baron said:
That would be pretty awesome if there was someone out there with the last name "face". Would open itself up to all kinds of fun names. "Hi, my name is Richard Face but my friends and enemies call me Dick."
Click to expand...

I knew a guy in Jersey named Richard Liqueur.
Of course we called him Dick Licker

:killingme::killingme::killingme::killingme:
 
Got the same thing.

FranCrimi said:
I got one too. It looked like a scam to me so I ignored it.

It was from benface@outlook.com and it was addressed to xsell4ever@aol.com
(no idea who that is)

Here's the email:




Hello,
My name is Ben Face.
I wish to register my son for a Billiard Lesson with you.

He is traveling with my wife to USA,2nd week of March 2015,therefore,i will like to use this opportunity to schedule and block out some sessions prior to their arrival.

Do let me know if there will be space or you will be available for the lesson and get back with the details as stated below:

Prices/hr ?
Time and days you are open for lesson ?
I await your reply.

Regards

Ben

=
Click to expand...
 
The scam I'm sure we have all seen at one time or another is the "I am a wealthy politician/general in the military that needs to escape from Nigeria. Please send your bank details so I can wire $20 million into your account and you will get to keep $5 million" or some such similar nonsense. This scam, in one form or another, has been going on for decades. My first introduction to it was at my place of business in the '70's off a typewriter with all kinds of grammatical errors. The thing is that some idiots must be falling for it as it continues to go around. P. T. Barnum said it best!! :grin:
 
Ah, the old switcharoo.

The basic version of this is to go into a bar, sit a medium distance from the bartender, and hold up and wave a $20 bill, to order a drink. You quickly switch it to a $10 when he comes over with the drink, and hope he doesn't notice and gives you change for the $20, which would amount to a free drink, plus a bit.

PT Barnum said it, there is a sucker born every minute. Glad you weren't one of these.

I'll amend PT's statement. I think it's thousands every minute. Be careful out there.
 
Donny Lutz said:
In January I got an email from a guy wanting $500 in lessons for his son. I was suspicious all along, but without going into detail, I received a check for $2,500 by Express Mail from Georgia on Wednesday. He emailed me this morning and said the check was sent to me by mistake. The check was a fake "from" a legitimate company in Nebraska. The plan was of course, to hope I could deposit the check in my account, and send him a check for $2,000 before the bank caught on.

But I went to the bank this morning and they are on the case.

The guys name was Ben Face...watch out for him.
Click to expand...

More like Ben Farce
 
cleary said:
Out of curiosity, what part of that made you think it was a scam?
Click to expand...

There are tells in this email, but I would rather not say because I don't want to assist future scammers. All I can say is, if you're not sure, then don't trust it.
 
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