Yesterday I listed my SLR camera on Craigslist. Since I have a dSLR now and the fact that I haven’t shot much film since 2004 anyway, Steve insists I try to sell it (even though I don’t want to). Anyway, within hours, I had an email from someone who was asking if it was still for sale, that it would make a great Christmas gift. Nothing about the email was suspicious, or the emails following where we discussed payment and shipping, etc.

Some might say the whole idea of shipping things with Craigslist is strange, but I actually live an hour away from the area I “subscribe” to with Craigslist, so I don’t have a problem shipping things. I always mention that I can meet the people in such-and-such areas or ship but since I often get responses from people who are on the North end of the area and I on the South end, if the item’s shippable, I assume that’s what’s gonna happen.

So the guy ends up telling me that it will be a gift for his son who’s away in college that I ship it there. I really don’t think anything of it because, again, it’s Christmastime and there was nothing red-flaggy about the emails.

But when I got the payment email this morning, I knew right away it was a scam. How?

– He “paid” me for $200 when I was asking $125 for the camera and a max of $12 for shipping.

Anytime someone sends you more money than what you are asking for, it’s a scam. I’ve never heard of this NOT being a scam.
A friend of mine who I do her website and she breeds dogs recently had this happen. Actually, I just called to verify and they’ve had it happen in excess of nine times now. Of course, it was only the first guy that got the farthest, the others were nipped in the bud right away. But basically, someone sent them a check for more than twice the cost of the dog and shipping and they were supposed to cash the check (which turned out to be a legitimate check, stolen from an airline) and give the difference to the courier who was supposedly coming to pick up the dog. Of course, if it all went to the scammer’s plan, they would have lost the dog and been out all the money when the check came back bad.

If someone sends you a check/cashier’s check/money order for than what you’re asking for and what has been agreed upon, report it right away. If the check looks legitimate, call the company or person on the check and verify. That’s how my friends found out the check was stolen, and the airline was very happy to hear where it ended up. If it comes from PayPal and it’s really in your account, report it to PayPal immediately.

– The email didn’t address me by name, it said dear [email address]

PayPal will ALWAYS address you by name. Never “dear member” or “dear anything else” – ALWAYS by your name that you have on the account. The ONLY time I have received mail from PayPal that didn’t have my name on it was when I forwarded this spoof email to spoof@paypal.com and got a response that it was fraud and thanks for forwarding it. Then they responded with Dear name that appeared on my outgoing email, aka my company name.

So any time you get an email from “PayPal” that doesn’t address you by name, just delete it, it’s fake!

– The subject line of the email was non-PayPal-typical, every word was capitalized and it had misspellings and said it was a payment for an “auction.”

Proper PayPal emails actually spell things right and usually follow the same format that is to say, basically, “Notification of Payment Received from [name] [(email address)].”

– The email header image was not the one that PayPal uses for payment notifications.

This good:

(followed by solid blue line)

This bad:

– Email said it was from Service@paypal.com

Also a dead giveaway. The email claims to be from service@paypal.com but it’s actually from some address at mail2pal.com which is apparently a free email service much like Yahoo or Hotmail.

– Shipping address was:
Name: Kevin Innocent F.
Address: #26 Peter Okoye Street Uwani,
City: ENUGU,
State: ENUGU STATE,
Zip Code: 400001
Country: NIGERIA

Need I really say more?
Now I don’t know that that’s a real address or not (Engu is a real city, the capital) but, well, I feel sorry for those legitimate Nigerians ’cause those scammers really have ruined it for them. I am very wary of anything that claims to be from Nigeria. That’s just the way it is.

But let’s say I’ve fallen for the scam? And I do ship to Nigeria? Then not only have I lost any income, but I’ve lost the camera, AND I’ve spent a buttload of money in shipping. I have a friend who was a missionary to Nigeria and now is in Niger, trust me, it’s not cheap!

– Besides all that, the bottom of the email said:

This PayPal. payment has been deducted from the buyer’s account and has been “APPROVED”but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for shipment verification and this is done to secure both the buyer and the seller against any fraudulent activities. Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited. Send tracking number to us or email us through this Mail paypal_service@mail2pal.com our customer service care will attend to you. As soon as you send us the shipment’s tracking number the money will be credited to your account and this is done for security purposes and the safety of the buyer and the seller.

This payment is Approved but it will stand as payment pending until we receive the shipment reference/tracking number from you.

First off, not only can you note that that paragraph has bad grammar, spacing, punctuation, etc. Second, note the bad email address to you. And third, it’s their last ditch effort to get you to fall for it. Let’s say you’ve been iffy so far. You read this paragraph and go, oh, that’s why there’s no money in my PayPal account yet.

No, it will never be in your account! Real PayPal payment notifications say this on the bottom: “Have you lifted your withdrawal and receiving limits? Just log in to your PayPal account and click View Limits on the Account Overview page. Sincerely, PayPal” At least mine do. But even beyond that, the rest of the email is just clearly not legitimate. Here is the email I got alongside an actual one I received yesterday:

You’ll have to click to get the full images.
I’m sure if you really picked at it you’ll find more reasons the email is not legitimate. Also, sorry for the pixelation, but gotta have privacy. :)

So, anyway, just another reminder, be careful out there! They wouldn’t try to pull this crap if it wasn’t productive to them on some level. And always remember, don’t just click on links in emails claiming to be from PayPal, mouse over them and see what the link really is. But more importantly, just open a new browser window/tab and type in paypal.com.

And in conclusion for me, I’m not out anything. I wasn’t going to mail anything until the money was in my account completely from PayPal anyway.

I finally sent an email on December 30th to the address SG claimed was her mother’s. I’d completely forgotten about it until she responded on January 20th.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Several things, probably. Why bother? How do you know it really is her mom? Etc. The answer to that is, why not? And, no, I am not positive it’s her mom, but again, why not? And, finally, I’m writing to her from my old email address, SG already knows it, so even if this is another lie, she doesn’t have my new address.

So here’s the correspondence we’ve had so far…

From me to her, December 30.

Look, I don’t know if this is a real email address or not. I don’t know if I’m getting the right person or just wasting my time. But I will assume that I am.

Your daughter, Chien Yee, really needs to leave me alone. She has been bothering me online for nearly a year now and I am very tired of it. She started out by creating many, many different online personalities to ask me for free things. In the beginning, as herself, she gave me a hard luck story about her father not letting her use a credit card. I felt sorry for her and bought her a domain name and hosted her for free. She was, however, not content with this and began to create the different personalities. I realized what was going on with the second personality, there were just too many coincidences. I confronted her right out with this but she denied it and made up many lies. It was after that that I decided I no longer wanted to fratenize with someone who lied and was trying to use me. I began blocking her from my websites and instant messengers and tried ignoring her.

She, however, could not deal with this and really began to harrass me. Now, the harrassment has gone on to higher levels, mostly through email, though she even called me on the telephone in September. I hung up on her when I realized it was her. I have told her numerous times to get lost but she just continues to contact me and “follow me around.”

She even went so far as to steal one of my website designs and post it for free download. At the time I found out about it, there were 345 downloads of the design. I did not authorize that, it was stolen, and at what I would charge for that design, a minimal $45, your daughter now owes me $15,525 USD.

She has admitted submitting my email address to online forms therefore giving me spam at an address that did not used to get any. She even went as far as to impersonate me on a website – trying to become me.

She lies constantly. I have emails where she’s said that her IP address always changes and other emails that say her IP address is the same as the whole country of Brunei. She’s lied and tried to turn the tables on me, saying I am the one who is bothering her, and I am the one posting nasty messages on her website (using words I do not even use ever), saying that I was the one submitting her email address to things, and saying that I’m spamming you when in reality we both know that this is only the second email I’ve ever sent to you. The first was just to make sure the address wasn’t going to bounce before I took the time to sit down and write out an email about all of this. I don’t believe a word she says anymore. And as far as to say that I am the one bothering her, that is just not the case. I’ve done everything I can to get rid of her. I just want her to go away, to stop emailing me and visiting my websites, to stop contacting my family members and friends, and to stop giving me ultimatums from the back of her immature mind. I just want her to go away. I only answer emails to her when it is absolutely necessary and try to ignore her. She even has me in the process of changing my personal email address and the address I use for instant messengers, etc. I’ve had to password protect a website because of her and some of my clients have had to make changes to their websites (registered users only) as well.

Do you see what the big point is? I want you to make her leave me alone. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. You really should also get her some psychological help as well. I also want to make clear that she has asked for permission to “continue” my scripts. The answer is a big NO, absolutely not, under any circumstances. Besides, I never said I was done with them anyway.

Also note that I have a close cousin who is a policewoman. She has her friends in the Internet Crime division looking into this for me. While I’m not a priority, of course, they ARE looking into it and they WILL get full information and I WILL prosecute if necessary. Just please, I beg of you, do something about this. Be the parent and step in. Take away her computer, whatever, just make her leave me the heck alone.

From her to me, January 20.

Sorry for not responding to this email earlier as I have been swamped with a lot of work.

I have a question to ask you. How am I sure that you’re not lying to me? Who are you anyways? My daughter has NO website, neither has she ever asked any of us for one.

If she owes you any money, don’t expect me to help her to pay it. Ask her to do something that is worth that much. I can’t get the bottom message properly. Please rephrase yourself.

Sir/Madam, please, if you can, show me proof of this. I don’t think she would do something like that let alone ask for something that she haven’t asked me. Don’t ruin her now. She’s just 14! Can you please reconsider this matter? Don’t destroy her even before her career begins.

I’ve tried asking her but in front of my husband, I dare not. You see, he has high hopes of her and so do I. Please think what a mother would feel if her child did something like this.

I am an aged woman. I’m already in my 50′s. I am also an ill woman. I had a minor heart attack last year and I need the money for my medical expenses.

What are your websites? Show me proof of what you said.

Thank You

Do you see the reasoning problems already?

From me to her January 31st. This one’s a bit longer because I quoted her piece by piece (in italics).

I have a question to ask you. How am I sure that you’re not lying to me? Who are you anyways? My daughter has NO website, neither has she ever asked any of us for one.

Well, in truth, I cannot be sure that anything you say is the truth either. You may not even be the person I hope you are. This may be another fake email and personality for one who calls herself Chien Yee.

Your daughter’s website is lemonale.com. I have screenshots where she has made reference to me from there.
She also has geocities.com/chienyee2002, icy.hollowsite.com, shadow.mezza-9.net, freewebs.com/chienyee, chienyee.soul-petal.net, chienyee.mindintentionshosting.com, chienyee.1800-webhosting.com – though some of those do not work anymore and she has denied some though they are obviously hers. Also, chienyee.net which no longer works. That was the site I bought her when I was being nice before I was treated like this.

If she owes you any money, don’t expect me to help her to pay it. Ask her to do something that is worth that much. I can’t get the bottom message properly. Please rephrase yourself.

Well, technically, as her mother you are indeed liable for any damages your child makes. Secondly, I will not ask her to DO something for me as nothing is worth that much for me and even if it were, she would not be capable. She is responsible for money only.
As for the message you did not get properly, I do not know what you are talking about, please quote it back to me.

Sir/Madam, please, if you can, show me proof of this. I don’t think she would do something like that let alone ask for something that she haven’t asked me. Don’t ruin her now. She’s just 14! Can you please reconsider this matter? Don’t destroy her even before her career begins.

This has nothing to do with any career of hers. I do not desire for her to be “ruined” or anyone else for that matter. I just want to be left to my own. I also have no desire to send you all the proof I have. It would take hours to explain it all properly and lots of time and space to attach it to an email.

I’ve tried asking her but in front of my husband, I dare not. You see, he has high hopes of her and so do I. Please think what a mother would feel if her child did something like this.

Really, this has nothing to do with anything. High hopes has nothing to do with it. I, too, have high hopes for my child. And that certainly does not stop me from disciplining him when he needs it.

I am an aged woman. I’m already in my 50′s. I am also an ill woman. I had a minor heart attack last year and I need the money for my medical expenses.

Look, I’m sorry, but this sounds like a cop-out and makes me believe again, that you are not who I hope you are. My parents and in-laws are also in their 50′s, that is nothing.

What are your websites? Show me proof of what you said.

Okay, I was not going to but I have decided to list the address here. These posts contain almost everything though there is yet to be a recent update and I have not attached hardly any of the screenshots. Though they do contain my replies to her. You will see how much I have told her to go away after trying to get away quietly.

This list starts with the least recent post and ends with the most recent:

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/05/12/964/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/05/30/992/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/06/02/1004/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/06/07/1011/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/06/10/1016/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/06/22/1022/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/06/25/1050/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/07/29/1097/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/08/23/1141/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/08/25/1142/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/09/12/1179/ – only this post is not entirely about her, it contains only a few lines

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/11/17/1286/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/11/18/1289/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/11/19/1291/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/11/21/1295/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/12/28/1351/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2005/12/31/1354/

http://spoken-for.org/archives/2006/01/14/1379/

You will notice the postings start at last May. She has been bothering me since March of last year. Only there were occurrances where she contacted me beforehand and I did not realize it was her. So you could say she’s been bothering me for much longer than a year! This is unacceptable!!!

Just please be a good parent and do what you should: monitor her online activities. Teach her what is right.

From her to me, February 6th.

I have already discussed this matter with her. I’ve changed the dialup password to one which she doesn’t know. Is there any software that blocks a computer’s access to a website? I want to find out to implement this on her to stop visiting your sites. I can see that both of us are parents. Madam, I hope we can settle this – without the law involved. I know what she did was wrong, she confessed to me as well. I’ve had a mother-daughter talk with her and she agreed to your terms stated. I also told her father who was really diasppointed. By the way, how did you get my email? This email is strictly private and also not for anyone else but close friends and relatives. Although you say that your parents are in their 50′s, not all have extremely good health. My husband and I installed a deskcam that records her online activities. So far, she hasn’t been there as she had been grounded for two weeks. I was too busy to reply recently so I do apologise for this late email.

Why do you post in your website about her? I am not an expert in IT or anything of the sort but I do hope you can remove those. Why did you even post that without telling me, since you’ve had my email? If you talked to me earlier, this won’t be serious at all.

How do you like that paragraph? Got me wondering again… From me to her January 7, again with the quotes.

I have already discussed this matter with her. I’ve changed the dialup password to one which she doesn’t know. Is there any software that blocks a computer’s access to a website? I want to find out to implement this on her to stop visiting your sites.

I don’t know of one, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one out there, of course. And besides, dialup? She told me she had broadband access in an internet cafe owned by her dad. Possibly you can add sites to restricted sites in internet options of browsers.

I can see that both of us are parents. Madam, I hope we can settle this – without the law involved. I know what she did was wrong, she confessed to me as well. I’ve had a mother-daughter talk with her and she agreed to your terms stated. I also told her father who was really diasppointed.

Truth be told, I just want to be left alone. There are no real “terms” necessarily, I just want to be left completely alone. I’m sorry that you and your husband are disappointed, but what else can I do? The law is already involved, there is no turning back on that one.

By the way, how did you get my email? This email is strictly private and also not for anyone else but close friends and relatives.

It was given to me by your daughter.

Although you say that your parents are in their 50′s, not all have extremely good health. My husband and I installed a deskcam that records her online activities. So far, she hasn’t been there as she had been grounded for two weeks. I was too busy to reply recently so I do apologise for this late email.

Why do you post in your website about her? I am not an expert in IT or anything of the sort but I do hope you can remove those. Why did you even post that without telling me, since you’ve had my email? If you talked to me earlier, this won’t be serious at all.

I post in my website about her for several reasons: because it’s my website, it’s where I discuss my life; to warn others; as an attempt to get her to leave me alone. I can remove them, but as I already told her, I will not. It is my website, my history, my life, I do not delete posts, especially posts in which others have participated/commented. I posted “without telling you” because I was posting long before I was ever given your email address. There was no talking to you earlier as I had no address for many months.

Am I the only one who feels like she’s trying to lay a guilt trip at my feet for everything that’s happened?

But the really good news through all of this? Remember my last SG post? Since then SG has not contacted me at al. Unless, of course, it really is her emailing me as her mommy and not her mommy, I’m open to that. And guess what else? She blocked my IP from her site. :-D