Another scam via Craigslist: offering more than asking price

1 George Street
Edinburgh EH2 2LL,
UK
Dear Sir,
I am Mr. Martin Adams, Executive Director, Distribution and Client Service of Standard Life Investments in the United Kingdom.
I was Previously Head of European & Middle East Institutional Business at Deutsche and Global Head of Institutional Business at Insight and at Rothschild.I have the overall responsibility for coordinating all of Standard Life Investments' sales, marketing and business development activity.Nevertheless, with my position in Standard Life InvestmentsUK,
I handle all our investors Direct Capital Funds and made 6.8 million Pound Sterling from the investor's profits over the years and
here by looking for some one to trust who can stand as an investor to receive the funds as annual Investment Proceeds from Standard Life Investments. If you accept my offer I shall engage an attorney who shall process all legal papers in your name to enable the legal transfer of rights to your name for onward transfer of fund to your to be nominated bank account.
Meanwhile, I have worked out the strategies and technicalities on how the funds can be claimed in any part of the world without any hitch. You shall be providing an account where the fund shall be deposited and
shall receive 30% of the fund for your assistance.
If you are interested, please email me your direct telephone number for further discussion of this transaction.
Email:mr.martinadams_m@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Mr.Martin Adams

here are some more names to watch out for:

solomonmorris, solomon2008, michaelmorris, waltermartin and justin royale.
Uses the address for David Smith in Phoenix arizona, and sends a check drawn on a Canadian Bank - then asks you to forward the shipper the excess funds. The check will take 6-8 weeks to clear, but he wants his shipper paid immediately. I'm sure the check is no good. We took pictures of the check, ripped it up and mailed it back.
All the e-mails are written using poor english - that's the thing that made me think of the "Nigerian" scams.

I just got the same stuff from a guy claiming to be smith brown offereing me 250 for an item i was selling for 200 he had poor grammer and offered to pay by check. I almost fell for it but it was just too wierd. I hope the fact that he now has my email, address and phone number doesnt bite me. what a bastard. i wish i could bust him.

I was selling an item and the buyer wanted to offer me more than the asking price to include shipping the item to their nephew. I replied asking for the address first so I could calculate shipping.

Shortly after I get another email from a totally different person, but still a gmail account saying that they don't want to play games and it offer me 200 dollars more for shipping on behalf of their nephew. Strange, first it's for your cousin, then it's for your nephew. They started the email with a salutation of Hey Mate, and often times they use reverse psychology expressing concern about themselves getting ripped off when they were the ones that wrote you in interest of what you were selling in the first place. Beware of terms like, 'I am happy with the condition' of the item- how can anyone be happy with the condition of an item they only saw a picture of? It was pretty obvious to me they were not a serious buyer. I seem to see that word condition being used alot in these scams. Nobody talks like that.

I asked, what are you a pirate or something because they begin the email by saying 'Hey Mate' ? Nobody talks like that either unless you are a pirate. They didn't ask for any paypal numbers or anything, but I sent them a payment request via paypal, perfectly safe.. let's see how serious of a buyer this person is after all. Hey you want to pay me 670 dollars for a 470 dollar item, go ahead but I am not giving you any information you don't need.

Hi there, i put an ad on craigslist for a ring selling for $1200 and this is a reply i got..not too sure what to make of it...

Hello Seller,
>
> For what price would u really want to give the item out? i mean your
actual
> selling price... I´m willing and ready to accept any reasonable price and
> pay with paypal, If its left to me to place a price I'll start with
> $1,340.00 USD excluding shipping.I have a reliable shipper that takes good
> care of my shipments,so I will make arrangement for the local pick up, if
u
> accept that price, please reply or if you don´t, email me back with the
> price you wish togive it out. And get back to me with your paypal email
> address or send me an invoice, so as to make the payment asap.
>
> N.B. I could as well pay via bank transfer if you are not having a paypal
> account.
>
> Thanks.
>
It's not quite like the scam emails i've read on this blog but am still leary as she's offered so much more that we posted it for...your thoughts?

I am really glad you guys posted the info out there, it saved me from being taken. I don't know that I would have even started looking except that I had two identical requests (almost word for word) that I take listing off Craigslist for an additional $50.00 and then I could send the extra money they were sending on to their movers. It's funny because I e-mailed the lady I was in contact with that the item was no longer available and she still would like me to cash the check she supposedly already sent for my trouble and still send the extra amount to the shippers. Here are the two addresses of the scammers that offer more than the asking price. Christina Sue Bennett"

Here's one I got today from email address: johncanon.canon11

Hello,
How are you and how is the family? I am very sorry for getting back to you late. What have you been up to and how is the family, I was hoping you were going to call me back but email is okay too because I'm unable to make it to where the phone is most times. Firstly I will like to tell you that I am not interested in scam and fraud of any kind on here because I'm a disabled man and I manage what I have with me to get what I want. Anyway I am ready to buy it like I said and will like to add about $100 to the listed price s0 will appreciate it If you can close the advert for me today or first thing tomorrow morning when I will be getting set to send you payment, moreover detailed pictures will be appreciated as well when replying to my message.
I will be sending your payment by either wire transfer or bank certified check, out of which the bank certified check will be a better option for me, the check will cover all the shipping, pick-up and delivery expenses that will be paid to the shipper picking up from you as soon as the check has cleared your bank.please send me your full name and address to send the payment to(no po box please)
I am restricted to moving around due to the operation I just went through, so the computer is the only way to buy, shop and place order on whatever is needed by me daily. I am buying this for a friend as compensation when he comes back from his tour, he is the one who takes me around on wheel chair before the operation whenever I need to go out and help me with more other things that might prove difficult for me to do, I hope you have imagined and understood the kind of situation I am in. Willing to round up this transaction before weekend
thanks and delete posting from craigslist

P.S. I am having some difficulties with my paypal account presently and need that to be resolved very well, money was transfered off it without my notice, so I had to file a complaint to the Resolution Centre, I'm waiting for response though, but since I can send out the payment in full as soon as tomorrow I dont think we will have problems with that.

Watch out for a person trying to scam on rental properties. This person is taking photos from actual listed properties and then putting them Craigslist as rentals. If you email this person then they will reply with the following email:

Thank you for showing interest in our house.

I Mr. Peter and my wife Mrs. Faith Swenson own the 3 bedroom's /House.It was due to our transfer that made me and my wife to leave the house and we decided to give it out for rent. We are looking for a responsible person that can take good care of our house as we are not after the money for the rent but want our house kept clean at all times and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.

So for now, We are here in West Africa in our new house and also with the keys of the house in Pittsburgh. We tried looking for an agent that we would over the documents before we left but could not see which is why we took it along with us.

I and my wife came over to West Africa for missionary work, so i hope you will promise to take good care of our house. kindly get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home. Hope you are okay with the price of US $800 which includes all utilities.

RENT APPLICATION FORM

Your Full Name :

Your Full Address & Phone Number :

Age:

Marital status:

How many people will be living in the house:

Do you have a pet:

Do you have a car:

Occupation:

Religion (if necessary):

References:

Looking forward to hearing from you with all this details so that I can have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.

Awaiting your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you. We may not see, yet we are only putting everything into Gods hand, kindly do not let us down in your taking care of our property and God bless you more as you do this Amen.

You can reach me on this number in case you have any questions 011 then 234-803-372-2592 or +234-803-372-2592.

The house is available now and you can move in whenever you are ready, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards
Mr. Peter and wife Mrs. Faith Swenson

When you email the person back asking for the property address, the response is the following:

It's just that i disclose the address of the house to some intended tenants and they tried to break into my house as you can see my house is very beautiful and its worth thousands of dollars i hope you understand where I'm coming and we have been very upset since the incident occurred which is the reason while we are not disclosing the house of the house for the main time I hope you understand where I'm coming from.But the address along with everything you need will be sent to you once we are through with the necessary arrangements.

Please do not send this person any money. It is a total scam!