hello
I am Timmy,can you take good care of my pet?.If you can contact me
on
My response knowing it's a scam: "Where do you live and what kind of pets do you have?" (otherwise I'm much more polite and professional in my responses lol)
Hi
I am Timmy I really appreciate your response and interest,
i will like take care of my pet for one week she is presently with my Mum
at New york.She is kell,a six month old Miniature American Eskimo dog,
She is very friendly,intelligent and smart You start taking care of her
from Oct 20,you'll take care of her MON-FRI and she'll be with you during these period .I want the best care for Kell.I will be offering you $450 for the week and the payment will be on bank cheque.If that is okay by you get back at me with this info..your name,full address,zip code and phone number.
Timmy
Me: "I only take cash payments."
Didn't even bother mentioning I don't in home board lol Broken English with the name Timmy, spelling of "cheque" even if he is English/Canadian/Australian (who often use this spelling right?) his bad English gives it away. Asking for my full address is another flag.
When I first started sitting and before i got on the forum, I was scammed for a substantial amount of money. I don't think I've ever mentioned it because I'm so embarrassed about it I was sent a check (for more than the fee for the job) and took it to my dad to check out, the most fiscally responsible person I know. He said deposit it and if it clears great. He also said "Don't let your greed bite you in the ass." When i went to the bank I asked the teller to make sure the check was good and the funds were in the account. It was and there were funds to cover. I deposited it and a week later it was sent back because the account had been closed due to checks being stolen. My biggest mistake, in addition to others, was not waiting 10 days to make sure the funds transferred before spending it (in part by wiring part of it back to him which is the scam). Another mistake, I almost called the number to the bank on the check but trusted the teller. I went back to that bank branch and told them I asked for the check to be verified and it was so I deposited it. Bank of America couldn't care less, I owed the money and had to pay. Changed banks immediately for that and other reasons. I was so mad at them even though i was the one who screwed up. Furthermore, I brought a cashiers check to pay them and they LOST it! Luckily a BoA bank officer was very helpful and wrote a letter to my new bank explaining what happened so they would reissue the check right then, otherwise it takes up to 90 days to cancel a cashiers check. It was done, lesson learned. I did front the scammer about it so he apologized and sent me a check for $8K, way more than the original lol. Of course I wasn't expecting the check to be good and sure enough it came on regular printer paper lol. (I may have posted this part before.) I took it to the issuing bank, Chase, to turn it in. The bank officer was baffled! He ran it through the check scanner machine (that u-shaped thing) and the account number wasn't even in magnetic ink. He looked up the account and it was real, travel reimbursement account for a big corporation. It had a balance of $500K! (I peaked at his screen when he wasn't looking lol)
The fact is, even though these guys are horrible abut composing believable emails, they are adept at hacking bank accounts, stealing checks and all that stuff. They send so many emails out the get plenty of bites. In America, I believe the amount lost by scams is in the billion dollar range. It works so they continually send them.
There, I wrote it out loud to you guys. Whew but I'm still embarrassed almost 5 years later