friend got scammed in an email
 

long story short he bought a car from ebay or so he thought. he won the bid at 3k or something i don't know the exact amount. anyways, he gets an email from some guy it looked something like this after he won the bid.

Date: tue, 13 sep 2005
From: eBay Safety Centre <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected] <hidden somehow?>
Subject: eBay Transaction #3202948093 Confirmed!

blah blah blah instructions blah blah all the info on the car and all that good stuff.

then it asks for him to transfer his funds to a western union account. so thinking it was legit he did it. turns out the dude was a scammer and got all his info somehow to make it look legit.

what i was wondering is if there is any way to trace this dude through his email to get his ip or whatever. i know people use proxies and shit and its probably an endless cause but my friend is out some cash so i thought id ask some of you computer geniuses for some friendly help.

only thing i could find on this guy from my friends papers he brought to work was a couple emails.. hes already contacted the authorities and still has to do a bunch of other shit.. anyways, here they are. anything he can do or just bite the bullet and hopefully learn his lesson?

[email protected]
[email protected]

pretty slick

been scammed by WU before
you wont ever get the money back

Didn't even have the use the fake escrow site, fell for the western union right off. What was the name and location he sent the western union to? For that much money, learn where the money was picked up and see if they have survelliance cameras.

try searching for the person who recieved the western union transaction :2 cents:

Yeah me too, and WU isn't helpful at all. You have to go through legal channels to get them to tell you any helpful info.

yeah he showed me the email it has the sellers address and all that good shit. somehow he got all this info not exactly sure. but he did a pretty good scam if i must say so myself. my friend has quite a bit of money to his name so i mean its not going to kill him to lose 3-4k.. but it still wont make your day to find out you just got scammed. anyways, if anyone has any advice as to how to approach this situation please let it be known.

I fell sorry for him

That would be tough to do since the Western U. limit is 1k for a transfer and up to 2k over 30 days

yeah im sure someone who scams knows ways around that. but its all being looked into. this is all recent news that has just been discovered this morning so hes still in the process of checking out all possibilities.

Perhaps the original seller is the scammer or at the least in on it. He would have your buyers details and all he has to do is play dumb.

he told me at lunch he went to the police department and has already gone through the FBI for this fraudulent shit. they have contacted western union and are in the process of checking survelliance cameras where the money was withdrawn. so hopefully they will get some information on this asshole.

Since when? I've sent way more than that.

same here...there is no limit I know about

$10,000 per transaction is the limit

I'm aware of this type of car scam, sadly happens all the time.

The long and the short of it, as I'm sure you know: as soon as anyone EVER mentions sending / getting money by western union, or something similar, it's more than likely a scam.

I feel so bad for that guy.

never understood how people get scammed like this with cars. why not bring the money when you get the car?

Sounds like a pro unforunately.

I never use Western Union to send cash to strangers. I know a lot of people who have been scammed in the past.

Hmm that's a very good point. :winkwink:

when will people learn, NEVER use western union for large sums of money ... sheesh.